November 21, 2006
For a Law Firm, Time is Money
Here are some tips I picked up from a panel discussion during the Wisconsin Technology Conference. The panel included Dustin Cole, Lori Kannenberg, and Dave Bilinsky.
Lost time: Studies show that work/billable hours are lost if not recorded contemporaneously. One lost billable hour per day at $200 per hour represents a $50,000 annual loss per attorney.
Measurement improves productivity: Establish billable time goals and measure performance.
Know your EHR: For each attorney, practice class, client, and matter, compute your Effective Hourly Rate (Fees received/hours worked related to those collected), i.e., who are your winners and losers?
Client satisfaction: Satisfaction drives all financial metrics. Understand their objectives, explain your processes, create realistic expectations, keep the client informed, stress client service, seek feedback, and implement changes.
Raise your hourly rates: Think revenues; think quality versus quantity; think differentiation.
Speed up billing and collections: Issue timely bills; make sure bills comply with required special formats; make bills look like invoices, and include a due date—even better, consider one or more of the following:
- Get an advance payment
- Get an agreement that the advance is evergreen
- Get credit card information
- Get an agreement that you can automatically charge the credit card
- Get an agreement that you may apply any past due balance to the credit card
Say “No” to deep discounts: Discounts as incentives to settle bills condition clients to wait for the discount.
Collection phone calls: Phone calls are more effective than collection letters and you can turn collection work into a relationship-building opportunity.
About the panelists: Dustin Cole is the founder and President of Attorneys Master Class, providing personal support for increasing attorney revenues and protecting quality of life. Lori Kannenberg is the administrator for Lawton & Cates, S.C., Madison and the past President of the Wisconsin Association of Legal Administrators (WALA). Dave Bilinsky is the Practice Management Advisor for the Law Society of British Columbia. Bilinsky’s articles on practice management appear in numerous publications, including ABA's Law Practice Magazine, the Canadian Bar Association's The National Magazine, and others.
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