Pay It Forward: How to Incentivize Attorneys and Staff Beyond Salary

Many law firm owners are comfortable just paying out a salary.  And, that can work, for sure.  But, if you want to drive revenue within your law firm, it makes sense to look at bonusing attorneys and staff in ways that will incentivize your employees to generate or close more cases for the firm, which will lead to additional revenue.



Obviously, this is a bit easier for attorney staff, since lawyers can share fees with each other, which makes it easier to create a direct incentive plan.  But, for staff, you can bonus them without sharing fees, including for converting clients from leads, for example, by doing things like offering a $50 bonus for each lead closed, potentially in a certain time frame.  This is the same method that lead generation services use to get paid by law firms, without sharing fees. 

 

But, the place that law firm owners can really make money here is by using origination fees to bonus their attorney staff.  Law firms can provide a percentage share for attorneys who bring in new cases, over and above the salary offered.  From there, law firms can also provide additional fee share opportunities for attorneys who bypass a certain billable hour expectation, or who achieve certain settlement amounts, with additional bonuses for settlements achieved in a certain time frame.  Really progressive law firms may also bonus based on efficiency (potentially using a metric like utilization rate), or also on performing actions central to the mission of the law firm. 

 

So, there are lots of ways to incentivize attorneys and staff to bring in work, convert leads and bill more.  And, that can be separated out from the salary structure of the firm.  Plus, the fact that bonuses should be based on exceptional results means that law firms will only be bonusing based on additional revenue, that is above and beyond projections, which provides some measure of risk protection for the firm. 

 

But, the key here is to make the goals related to bonuses achievable and transparent, so no one is left guessing. 

 

. . . 

 

Want to talk about better incentivizing attorneys and staff, to generate more revenue?  Reach out! 

Through a unique partnership between the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar and Jared Correia’s Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, Maine attorneys have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discounted rate. 

To get started, visit Red Cave’s landing page for Maine attorneys, and start running your law practice like a business.

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