How to Make a Career Out of Legal Operations
To state that becoming an attorney today is challenging for many people would be an understatement. Obviously, some attorneys are doing extraordinarily well and will most likely continue to prosper. Meanwhile, an increasing number of attorneys find it difficult to retain their earning capacity, a problem that will worsen in the future. And the picture for most freshly minted attorneys is becoming increasingly grim.
To make it as an attorney, you must change your mindset. Here are six ways to get started.
Stop Squandering Time On the Wrong Clients
You are already aware of who this customer is. This is the client that calls you 100 times every week and has a matter that requires more labor than a big Legal firm can give, yet they pay all of their bills late, if at all.
Stop doing it. Your concern about your clients’ lives makes you a good lawyer but a bad businessperson. Adopt more stringent billing habits and processes that need the replenishment of a retainer (unless you operate on a flat-fee or contingency basis).
Spend Efforts Acquiring Better Clients
How do you attract new clients? It all comes down to marketing. You’ve done an excellent job for previous clients. Request that customers review your firm on Facebook, Yelp, and Google—the majority of clients feel they are more inclined to choose a lawyer who has favorable evaluations.
Invest the funds to get a good website up and running. Pay Per Click is an excellent, though often costly, way to generate customer leads rapidly. And, because you’ll be too busy lawyering, consider hiring a trustworthy agency to handle everything for you.
The main takeaway is that marketing implies more calls from potential clients, which implies you can be picky about who you work with.
Enhance Your Customer Intake Procedure
Customer intake, the opening stage of your firm’s relationship with a client, may be a lengthy procedure. It is also not typically chargeable.
Streamline this procedure as much as possible to save your company time and money. To avoid repeated data entry, use online forms or special client intake tools integrated with practice management software.
Make pre-screening a part of your admission procedure as well. Lawyers like assisting others, but not every situation or individual is a good fit for your firm—and a terrible fit might cost you resources, time, and credibility in the end.
Accept Credit Card Payments
What is the most crucial aspect of earning money? Getting compensated! Unfortunately, attorneys wait an average of three months to get paid—in addition to the two months that several lawyers wait before delivering a bill to clients. Furthermore, according to a report, attorneys only collect roughly 86% of what they charge, leaving 14% of billed sums uncollected.
Accepting credit cards could assist with this issue. Law companies that take credit cards are paid faster than those that accept checks, which means you’ll spend less time hunting down customers for payment and more time focusing on billable work.
Streamline with Technology
You’re missing out if you’re still managing your firm only through spreadsheets. Billable hours may be lost as a result of missing paper records. Alternatively, attorneys may spend hours forensically recreating billable hours from an off-site day of proceedings and settlement talks in order to compile an invoice spreadsheet, each followed by a distinct letter to a customer.
However, current legal office administration tools are designed to be as simple to use as your smartphone’s fitness app. Use legal office management software to track hours, automatically produce bills, and create letters. Leave the management of your legal firm to the software, and you’ll save a few hours every month.
Hire Employees or Use Cost-Effective Solutions
Hiring workers may appear to be an added investment, but in some circumstances, not having help might mean losing money. Don’t waste time on administrative activities when you may be working on billable projects.
If you believe you cannot afford to hire workers, calculate how many paid hours you are losing due to administrative activities. If you truly can’t afford to hire staff, try using a service like legal operations software to help you run your practice more efficiently.