How to Manage a Small Law Firm - Video Replay Denver
April 2014
How to Manage a Small Law Firm
Co-sponsored by the Solo Small Firm Section of the Colorado Bar Association
Program Highlights:
- Understanding the Hidden Connections Between Small Law Firm Management, Ethics, Professionalism, and Profits
- Marketing: Setting the Stage for Ethical, Professional and Predictable Growth
- Sales: The Actual Cause of So Many Bar Grievances
- Factory: Organizing and Keeping Track of How the Work Gets Done
- People: Who, When & How to Hire, Train, Manage & Make a Profit with Legal Staff
Program Description:
An estimated 54% of bar grievances filed nationally have their root in a problem with the way the lawyer's firm is managed. Poorly-conceived marketing and sales lead to a poor match between firm and clients. Poorly developed business processes and procedures lead to unpredictable and inefficient work product. Poorly managed financial controls put undue pressure on lawyers to prioritize short-term financial needs, instead of being able to stand-strong for their clients.
A law firm with inadequate financial controls will, sooner or later, wind up with accounts receivables. Clients who owe their attorney money tend to avoid communicating about important developments in their case or matter. Lawyers who manage a case or matter with inadequate input from a distant client who is staying away due to an outstanding balance tend to get the most bar grievances filed against them when the case or matter blows up in their face. Inadequate attorney communication tends to be the "smoke" pointing to inadequate financial controls in a law firm. So inadequate financial controls and the absence of supporting law firm management policies and procedures to avoid accounts receivables in the first place tend to be some of many "hidden" law firm management problems that cause bar grievances, incidents of legal malpractice, and low attorney and staff morale.
Law firms that are well-managed make lawyers happier. Law firms that are well-managed help lawyers act in a manner more becoming a professional. Law firms that are well-managed also tend to be more profitable than those which are managed by the seat of one's pants, especially if those pants have never sat through even a single course about how to manage a small law firm.
Agenda:
8:30am
Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:55am
Introduction and Welcome
9:00am
SESSION 1
Understanding the Hidden Connections Between Small Law Firm Management, Ethics, Professionalism and Profits
The 4 Stages of Growth.
Every solo law firm goes through these four stages on the journey from start-up to more than $1 million. This segment emphasizes how and why small law firms run the greatest risk of getting a bar grievance at the edges of each stage. Participants will be forewarned of the dangers and therefore better able to prepare their firms against the most common causes of problems, especially as a solo law firm transitions from one stage of growth to the next.
The 7 Moving Parts of A Predictably Profitable Law Firm.
There are seven moving parts to every successful law firm. Discussion includes how inattention to each of these "parts" sets the stage for low attorney morale, low profits, and high risk of disappointing clients. Participants will be able to make sense of what's happening back in their own law firms and begin to make things better by focusing on the right causes, instead of being distracted or scared by the effects.
The Most Important Question.
Among all the important questions a law firm's business plan is supposed to answer, there is one question that stands out as being the most important one. Most lawyers have never put pen to paper to try and answer this question. Participants will discover case law dating back more than 100 years that supports the conclusion that every lawyer who runs his or her own law firm has an ethical and professional responsibility to make at least a good faith effort at writing a business plan that answers at least this one most important question. The rewards will be higher client retention, better client service, more repeat and referral business, a happier home life for the lawyer, less staff turnover, and, yes, higher profits too.
10:30am
Networking Break
10:50am
SESSION 2
Marketing: Setting The Stage for Ethical, Professional & Predictable Growth.
It is a mistake to think that marketing has nothing to do with ethics and professionalism. This segment reveals the connection between effective and appropriate marketing at each stage of a law firm's growth and a lawyer's risk of becoming the respondent in a bar grievance. Participants will learn why and how marketing that may be "good" for a law firm to do in one stage of growth could be quite the opposite when applied during a different stage of growth.
Sales: The Actual Cause of So Many Bar Grievances.
For too many years lawyers have thought of "sales" as a dirty word. It is not. Or rather it need not be when handled the right way. Instead, sales can be the most professional, most ethical, and dare we say even the most humane service a lawyer can ever render a client. Clients, lawyers, and our profession in general all benefit when a lawyer learns how to sell legal services ethically, professionally, and profitably for the benefit of the firm and client alike.
12:20pm
Break- Pick Up Box Lunch
12:30pm
Factory: Organizing & Keeping Track Of How The Work Gets Done.
The key to having a reliable and sustainable law firm is thinking through how, when, and why work flows through the system. Law firms with documented policies, procedures, and systems consistently outperform those whose owners have not invested in their systems. There are 12 internal policies, 12 external policies, and 24 key operational procedures found in the best-run law firms and missing in most of the law firms we have visited in connection with a disciplinary complaint. In law firms where these key policies and procedures are identified and documented, there is usually found better attorney work-life balance, staff morale, and client experience.
1:30pm
Networking Break
1:50pm
People: Who, When & How To Hire, Train, Manage & Make A Profit With Legal Staff.
Owners of big law firms employ professional legal administrators and HR professionals. There's no reason the owner of a solo law firm cannot enjoy the benefits of having a great legal staff, too. A well-managed legal staff should reasonably return between three to five times ROI. But most solo law firms do not enjoy anywhere close to this kind of return on the investments they make in staff. Having a reliable legal staff helps the firm deliver greater value to clients and the attorney focus on doing better legal work. No client wants their attorney attending to secretarial matters on their case.
Physical Plant: Who, When & How To Hire, Train, Manage & Make A Profit With Legal Staff.
3:20pm
Networking Break
3:30pm
Metrics: Who, When & How To Hire, Train, Manage & Make A Profit With Legal Staff.
You: Who, When & How To Hire, Train, Manage & Make A Profit With Legal Staff.
5:00pm
Adjourn
Location Information
CLECI Small Classroom
1900 Grant Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80203
Get directions
1900 Grant Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80203
Registration Fees
| Non Member | $249.00 |
| CBA Member | $179.00 |
| CBA Solo Small Firm Section Member | $149.00 |
| CBA-YLD Member | $149.00 |
| CLEACCESSPASS--ELITE Pass Holder | $0.00 |
- General Credits: 7.00
- Ethics Credits: 1.00
- EDI Credits:
To join the CBA or add a Section to your membership click