You may have seen the commercial:  The banker bumps into his client who tells him that he is taking his business to LendingTree.com.  The banker, surprised, says, "But we've been your bank for 20 years."  To which the client replies, "Oh, since your bank is in the network, you get a chance to compete too.  And, so you know, I am pulling for you."  With a condescending slap on the arm, he finishes: "Good luck, buddy."

The idea, of course, is that the competing banks will give the client the lowest price and thus the best deal.  Relationship means nothing.  Is that truly representative of the way business works?

I don't think so.  Any marketing professional will tell you that client development is nurturing and maintaining relationships.  Without relationships, you can't hold on to business.  However, there is no denying the rise in competition in gaining legal services based on price.  The key, I believe, is to prove that the value of your firm is better than the value of another firm.  How you do that will prove to be the difference between increasing your client base and losing opportunities.

Here are some ways that your firm can show value:

• Showcase your talent.  You have superior talent - make sure others know.  Have attorneys write articles, speak at seminars, write blogs - market their talents to the widest audience.
• Never Eat Alone.  Attorneys should be entertaining clients and prospects whenever they are not doing billable work.  Industry conventions, meetings, etc, should always have representatives of your firm in attendance.
• Highlight your commitment to quality service.  Take a page from value-billing firms:  highlight in your bills the fact that calls were returned promptly, how much you saved the client, and how much you appreciate their business.  Don't take their faith in you for granted.
• Don't wait for your client to fire you.  You don't want to be that banker.  Don't wait for your client to tell you they are shopping.  Conduct surveys and follow up - if a client has an issue, correct it and make sure the client knows you corrected it.
• Justify your high fee.  Don't devalue your services:  JUSTIFY IT.  Case studies, testimonials, high value cases, have them all available for clients to read.  Don't be afraid to talk about your rates.  Explain what goes into them.  Many clients lament fees because they don't know what the dollar figure represents.  Explain, with confidence, the investment you have in technology that gives your firm a competitive advantage to better represent them and helps contain costs so that you can be more efficient.  Show how the investments you make have a direct effect on the quality of services you provide.  Make sure they know what the fees represent:  the culmination of dedication to the highest quality legal services by someone who cares about them personally and professionally.

What other ways can attorneys build and maintain relationships with clients so that they don't shop around for the lowest price?

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In a February 29th article for Corporate Counsel titled Big-Firm Associates: Why They Go and How to Keep Them, Ben W. Heineman Jr. and David B. Wilkins discuss associate attrition at the top 250 law firms.   According to the story, firms are losing up to 50% of their associates after three or four years with half to two-thirds of them being the associate's decision to leave.  Heineman and Wilkins talked to students, associates, partners and inside counsel and came away from their discussions with the belief "that for a significant number, their first professional experience after at least seven years of higher education is too unprofessional and demoralizing."

Some of the problems listed:

• Early in their careers, far too many associates are given a steady diet of drudge work: reviewing documents; reading e-mails; organizing schedules for transactions; researching small, tangential issues.
• Associates work on large teams and are not given individual responsibility of any consequence.
• Partners may not take time to communicate the overall issues and strategy in a large matter, but just send younger associates off to till a small part of the North 40. Too often the junior associates have to work for senior associates whose goal in life is their own advancement, not the well-being of their younger colleagues.
• Partners, who have huge workloads and unceasing pressures to produce, do not spend much time worrying about the professional development of young lawyers nor provide adequate mentoring, education and training.
• Firms may not communicate candidly about their finances, their business strategy and the partnership prospects for young lawyers, who are not treated as young professionals but viewed as generators of "rates x hours" for annual revenue models.
• Corporate clients are unwilling to take risks on young associates and unwilling to pay their rates, so associates may not have interesting opportunities such as doing important work, meeting with businesspeople, or traveling to depositions, hearings or arguments.

Wow, this sounds a lot like many small and mid-size firms too.   So how can this benefit midlaw firms?  By correcting the above problems to the extent they persist in your firm, you can get the talent that biglaw firms can't keep.  For those firms who are having a hard time finding associates motivated to work, here's your opportunity.

Change in large corporations and large law firms is slow.  Mid and small law firms can make change occur much more rapidly (though historically no law firm is immune to procrastination when it comes to change).  To the extent that your firm is bitten by any the above problems, take action now to remedy them. Give more responsibility to associates.  Mentor associates and give them more ownership of matters.  Encourage associates to become better "firm citizens" by instituting an "upward review process" and providing opportunities for them to participate in strategic planning.  And, although you can't force a client to take associate work if the client is not comfortable with "taking a risk" with associates, you can help form client perception of the quality of your associates.  Allow associates to be more active in discussions to display the competence of your attorneys.  If you don't feel confident that your associates have the abilities to take on such added responsibilities, mentor them and if that doesn't work, they may not be a good fit with the firm.

According to the article, the attrition is made up of :

1. some just paying off school debt and intended to leave once the debt was satisfied;
2. some who follow spouses taking jobs in different locations;
3. some taking higher paying jobs in banking, etc;
4. some wanting a better quality of life; and
5. some who don't want to work themselves to death only to get denied partnership status. 

An amazing number that was listed in the article was that 25% of the 40,000 law school graduates were hired by the top 250 largest law firms.  10,000 graduates going to the top 250!  The number may be inflated a bit and the article did qualify the number, stating "by some estimates", but that is a pretty high number of recent graduates concentrated into a few firms. 

How many of those lawyers leaving biglaw firms will be willing to take a pay decrease?  With an attrition rate of 50%, just 20% of the 5,000 would provide 1,000 lawyers for mid and small law firms to hire at a better cost than you would when those same lawyers were more expensive and didn't have 3 to 4 years of experience.  Sounds like a deal to me.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and

services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.

 

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Tom Collins and I were discussing the relationship between legal professionals and non-lawyer employees of law firms. Following up our conversation he sent the comment to post:

I will never forget the time I spent on the site of a one law firm. The entire five-person accounting department shared one windowless office. Desks were pushed against one another. The accounting staff worked in chairs with missing arms, torn upholstery and busted springs. Their mismatched desks looked to be recovered salvage with missing drawers and loose veneer. This was an extreme case, but it is standard operating procedure for many firms to treat their non-professional staff as second-class citizens.

The non-lawyer support staff in a law firm has a lot of influence over the success of the firm's legal professionals—they can spoil the soup. How they feel about the firm is reflected in how they deal with law firm clients and prospects.

Excellence in client services starts with excellence in how the firm treats its own people.
 

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Paul Calthrop, writing in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review, gives all of us something new to think about regarding pricing. Calthrop is a partner in Bain & Company. His article is titled “Higher Net Price—Or Bust.”

He makes the point that lower pricing may be a viable strategy for entering a new market or launching something new, but otherwise it signals a path toward commoditization, which he says “…inevitably undermines the firm’s prospects of achieving sustainable revenue and profit growth."

For a law firm, Calthrop’s warning reinforces the importance of tracking the firm’s effective blended rate metrics. It also explains why it is so important for the firm to have strategies and tactics in place to increase its blended rate. You don’t achieve a continuing increase in the firm’s effective blended rate through price increases. It comes from increased value:

• Increasing efficiency coupled with pricing alternatives
• Moving into more valuable practice areas
• Increased specialization
• Adding new value to established services—convenience, response times, certainty, etc.
• Moving to new clients for whom your services have higher value
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

Price increases are still important, but the typical pricing increase strategy for a law firm is the annual increase to cover increased operating cost. Adjusted for inflation, it has a zero impact on the firm’s effective blended rate. Moving the blended rate can, however, be achieved through better pricing strategies:

• Multiple standard price sheets pricing higher value services at appropriately higher prices
• Targeted price increases to move underpriced services, clients and matters to higher competitive price
• Having more prices based on the deliverable versus the hours worked, i.e., Alternative Pricing

And the effective rate can be increased through improved collection and faster billing of services. Both improve realization and decrease lost revenue arising from adjustments and uncollectibles.

Managing partners need to take Calthrop’s warning to heart. If your effective blended rate is not moving up, then the firm is increasingly engaging in areas undergoing communization. Short of reinventing how legal services are provided, that will lead to an unsustainable trend of declining partner income.

For more on measuring and tracking blended rate, go to the prior post Blended Rate and Utilization Model for Law Firms.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center at 877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com ,or go to www.Juris.com.
 

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We often take for granted that everyone is on the same page when it comes to how clients and prospective clients are to be treated. Unfortunately, life just isn’t that simple. The leadership of the law firm has to communicate service standards—the firm’s expectations about how every member of the firm will treat clients and prospects. Law firms are in a constant state of change. People come and go. For services standards to become institutionalized, to become a integral part of the firm’s culture, the standards must be formalized, communicated frequently, and the leadership must hold people accountable for honoring those standards—they must be job requirements!

 

Janet Ellen Raasch has penned an excellent paper dealing with implementing a formal client service standard in the law firm. Her paper,Set Your Law Firm Apart with a Formal Client Service Standard Policy, appears on CBA PracticeLink, and the site also includes an online or downloadable presentation on the subject. The Canadian Bar Association puts out a wealth of top quality practice management material on their web site. Add it to your favorites list as a source of ideas for continuous improvement.

 

In her paper, Raasch includes the following sample list of client service standards which she complied from a variety of Canadian and U. S. sources:

 

We will put clients first – on our premises

• We will be welcoming – the client will be greeted by name first by a professional receptionist and later by attorneys and staff.
• We will be punctual – so the client will not have to wait.
• We will make an unavoidable wait pleasant – offering a beverage, a comfortable waiting area, entertainment (television or print materials), directions to the restroom or coat closet, and access to the phone and Internet. We will apologize for any delay.
• We will not make negative comments or discuss any client’s business in a public place (hallway, elevator, or snack room) where it might be overheard by a visiting client.
• We will keep the files of other clients out of the view of visiting clients.
• We will give a visiting client our undivided attention – putting other calls and distractions on hold until after the meeting.
• We will introduce the visiting client to other attorneys and staff – especially those on the client team.
• When we see an unfamiliar person in a hallway, we will ask “Can I help you?” and then stay with the visitor until the visitor’s need is met.
• When a client sees our office space or our print and electronic materials, the design will convey the message that we place clients first.

We will put clients first – by being accessible

• We will provide clients with our office, cell, and home phone numbers as well as e-mail addresses.
• When out of the office, we will carry BlackBerries, cell phones, and laptop computers with remote access to firm resources.
• We will provide clients with extranet sites where they can access information about their matter 24/7.
• We will answer our own phones. When this is not possible, the client will have a choice of phone mail or talking to a real person.
• We will train all attorneys and staff (especially switchboard personnel) in professional communication protocols.

We will put clients first – by being responsive

• We will check for phone and e-mail messages regularly and return them within a set period of time – no longer than 24 hours, and preferably much less.
• If we can’t respond to a message personally, we will make sure someone else who is familiar with the client’s case or matter returns the call.
• We will check for and acknowledge the receipt of all faxes.
• We will let clients know when we will be out of reach and give them the contact information of the person who can answer their questions in our absence.
• We will make sure that each client has multiple contacts at the firm, and that the client’s staff has contacts among parallel members of the law firm’s staff.
• We will learn and use the names of a client’s staff; we will be courteous and respectful at all times.
• We will respond to any complaints, fix them, and let the client know how the problem has been fixed.

We will put clients first – by understanding their needs

• We will ask clients about their service preferences before, during, and after each engagement.
• We will create a client service ombudsman – and encourage clients to contact this person if they are less than perfectly satisfied.
• We will listen more than we talk. We will never give the impression that we are too busy to give a client our complete attention.
• We will visit each client on their premises at least once a year – off the clock – to ask about client satisfaction. We will ask for a tour to learn more about their business.
• We will take a hard look at our own interpersonal skills – and ask for professional development assistance if necessary.
• We will keep current with developments in our client’s industry, reading industry publications and participating in industry organizations. We will keep track of and congratulate clients on their industry successes.
• When appropriate, we will co-locate a lawyer on the client’s premises.
• To respect the client’s financial needs, we will staff each matter in a way that provides the best value for the service provided.

We will put clients first – by continuously improving our procedures

• We will manage client expectations through clear client intake procedures.
• We will communicate clearly regarding fees, costs, team members, deadlines, risks and outcomes.
• We will hold a team meeting with the client at the start of any engagement.
• We will avoid surprises.
• We will discuss a proposed action with a client before we incur any fees.
• We will provide clients with copies of documents – in the format they prefer.
• We will review documents carefully for typos, misspelled names, or missing pages.
• We will meet or exceed our deadlines. If we cannot, we will let the client know well in advance.
• We will handle client correspondence promptly upon receipt, using a routing system.
• Our bills will be clear, correct, prompt, and in a format that meets the client’s needs.
• We will review the first bill with the client and resolve any questions promptly.
• We will provide a status update monthly, even if there are no billed hours.
• We will accept responsibility for any mistakes, apologize, and provide a solution.
• At the end of any engagement, we will send a thank you note. We will survey to find out how we could have provided better service. We will make changes to our procedures based on what we learn from our clients.

Sample Client Service Standards

Janet Ellen Raasch is a writer and ghostwriter who works closely with lawyers, law firms and other professional services providers – helping establish these clients as thought leaders within a targeted market through publication of articles and books for print and rich content for the Internet. She can be reached at (303) 399-5041 or jeraasch@msn.com.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
 

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A February 2007 Law Office Management and Administrative Report article dealing with the continuing rise in large law firm rates includes the following chart of billing rates:

 

 

Compare the above to standard rates of the top 250 firms and major corporate consumers of legal services can reduce the cost of those services significantly by turning away from AmLaw 200 firms and their nearby wannabes.  What is good for midsized firms is that corporate prospects know about the bargain that midsized law firms represent and technology makes it easier for them to find and do business with smaller firms.

 

Robert Denney, reporting on trends in the legal profession in the January/February 2007 issue of Law Practice noted the continued success of independent midsized law firms.  He wrote "legal pundits have continued to predict their demise–however, the pundits' conventional wisdom continues to be wrong."  

 

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc.  For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

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Many mature law firms have learned that their attorneys are not the best bill collectors. The job belongs to the administrative staff. At least, it is the administrative staff that should be the front line for routine collection efforts. When meeting with a group of managing partners several months ago, one partner explained that when routine collection efforts fail, the firm still does not let the responsible attorney get involved.  A second member of the firm who has no responsibility for the client or case in question is assigned the role of being the “heavy”.  Will law firms sue to collect?  A growing number say “yes,” in spite of the countersuit risk.  They refuse to leave their money on the table.

 

There are four places to turn to reduce losses from the wasting value of billed but uncollected fees:

           

• Intake Policies and Procedures

• Billing Speed and Procedures

• Routine Collection Efforts

• Non-Routine Collection Action

 

The first rule is, of course, to screen out those prospects for your services that are likely to be a collection problem and to have a clear written understanding concerning how the client will be billed and how the law firm expects to be paid.  The engagement letter should also spell out the consequences for non-payment within the agreed upon terms. Take the extra step of adding to your engagement agreement information to be used in routine collection efforts–clearly state within the agreement who the law firm should contact to confirm receipt of the bill and who to contact in case of a missing payment. Uncollected fees for services are a loan to your client.  Where permissible, you can reduce that financial burden and head off possible collection problems through the following steps:

 

            Require advance payment

            Require an evergreen trust deposit

            Accept credit cards

            Automatic debit to the client’s bank account

            Installment payment agreement

            Etc.

 

The second rule is to bill promptly for services provided.  Your clients’ attitude is if you expected prompt payment you would have billed promptly.  If you take your time, they are going to take theirs.  Prompt billing conveys a sense of urgency. Consider the following steps for increasing billing speed in your firm:

 

• Bill more frequentl - weekly or every two weeks vs. monthly, etc.

• Use e-mail or e-bills vs. paper bills

• Agree that on-time payment does not waive client’s right to dispute charges.

• Insist that billable information be tracked and reported as worked

• Get time in on schedule¾daily, weekly, etc.  This discipline needs to be a job requirement—period

• Require fee earners to submit time accurately with correct spelling and grammar

• Go mobile with PDA devices, like the BlackBerry®.

• Use time tracking software that turns your e-mails, appointments, and calls into time entries without the need to reenter

• Use time tracking software that passes time entries directly to your billing system once the timekeeper deems them to be complete and correct

• Administration must be thorough and accurate in new matter setup¾get it right from the start (use software that automates much of the handling once a client is properly set up, i.e., prices automatically handling exceptions for you, pre-audits entries against engagement rules, produces multiple bill copies to multiple addresses for different purposes, e-billing, etc.)

• Test e-mail addresses and e-bill formats before the first billing!

• Have the accounting area plan ahead¾prepare a calendar of dates to run bills considering weekends and holidays.  Make it a priority and get it done.

• Run your A/R statements monthly but separately from the billing cycle

• Have your prebill formats set up to give the billing attorney all the information they need when reviewing the billing

• Do not run prebills for clients with A/R-only balances¾run only those that need actual review prior to sending

• Run prebills (draft bills) on colored paper so they stand out and are easy to identify

• As with time entries, prompt review and approval of prebills (draft bills) should be a job requirement with published turnaround times and performance should be measured—and billing attorneys held accountable.

• Attorneys should review bills only once¾get it right the first time

• Don’t send custom cover letters; send a status letter under separate cover.

• Implement procedures that provide for exact attorney and administrative review of initial bills to assure accuracy.  Your initial bill will set the client’s expectations.  Initial errors, incomplete information, deviations from the engagement rules will create an expectation that the firm’s bills require review, rejection, correction, and rebilling each and every time prior to payment.

• Invest in software that facilitates management and editing of prebills

• Accounting has to take the initiative to track outstanding prebills and retrieve unreturned prebills

• Editing bills should be almost as easy as editing a document and software should handle the accounting and retain original information, changes, and the final bill data.

• Use window envelopes when mailing bills

• Don’t waste a day by letting bills remain in your mailroom

• Negotiate fixed fees with advance payment and/or progress payments

 

The third rule is to always remember that the majority of past due fees are attributable to clients that pay a little late.  Be proactive and work collections before they become past due.  When all else fails, the account gets kicked up to the professional staff.  The accounting or administrative staff should never threaten.  Theirs is a softer role.  Persistence in asking for payment and following up when it isn’t received works in almost all cases.

 

The time to work accounts receivable is before accounts becomes a problem, not afterwards.  And the preferred way is to work them as low as possible in the organization.  Assign collection duty to someone in your administrative staff who has a friendly phone personality. If you are billing individuals, have him or her call and confirm that they received the bill.  Ask if they have any questions.  Remind them of the due date.  If payment isn’t received within days of the payment date, call back and let them know you haven’t received the check.  Ask if they mailed it.  If they haven’t, ask if they will place it in the mail that day or bring it by the firm's office.

 

If your client is a business, get the client's agreement for you to mail the bill directly to accounts payable with an information-only copy to your engagement contact. Let the client know that paying the bill on time will not waive the client's right to raise questions or dispute charges once he or she has reviewed their copy of the bill.  If the client insists that the bill be sent to their attention, find out the name, phone number, and e-mail address of their secretary (or assistant).  Have the person in charge of routine collection call the secretary after the bill is mailed and ask the secretary to be sure the bill makes it to the top of the contact’s to-do stack.  Let the secretary know you will call back in a few days to check on the status of payment.

 

If you can establish an awareness that if the bill doesn’t get paid, “that nice person” from the law firm will be calling”, you will find that your bills sail through the system.  Of course, to make it happen, you need software to keep up with collection activity and payment promises.  Working your fees receivable before there is a problem will dramatically lower funds tied up in accounts receivable; 80% of your excess investment in AR is from clients paying a little late.

 

Rule number four is that when all else fails and the client refuses to pay or simply hasn’t paid, there is usually a reason. Taking strong arm collection steps without knowing the reason is asking for trouble. When routine collection efforts fail to produce results it is time for one of the firm's legal professionals to get involved, but not the attorney or partner responsible for the case or matter. By having an uninvolved legal professional contact the client, the discussion is on a business level involving the unpaid balance. It is not on the professional level dealing with the case or matter. The pursuing attorney will be unfamiliar with the case details, and thus the discussion can not be redirected into a rehash of events.  Likewise, the pursuing attorney’s objectivity means that he or she can listen to the client's complaints or position without becoming defensive.  The objective should be to work out a payment plan or to reach a fair compromise and settlement of the bill. If the client has the ability to pay but refuses even after the efforts of the pursuing attorney, a next-step alternative is the Fee Dispute Resolution program of your state Bar.  When nothing seems to move an intransient client, the firm has to make the decision to sue and risk being sued or to just walk away. 

 

A growing number of law firm are willing to sue in spite of the countersuit risk.  They refuse to leave their money on the table.

 

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc.  For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

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This post will probably get me in trouble with someone, but here goes.  According to consultant and author Elizabeth Pace, in dealing with others, we have an innate ability to understand the motivations of same sex prospects and to misread the intentions of the opposite sex.  We guys certainly can buy into that notion. 

 

Ms Pace provides the following tips for being more gender sensitive.

 

Be careful and thoughtful about physical positioning depending on if you are dealing with a man or woman. Men engaged in conversation prefer to stand or be positioned shoulder to shoulder looking outward.  Women prefer face to face conversations.

 

Men view communications as a way to solve a problem and interrupt only to introduce new information, change topics, or disagree.  Women talk to form bonds and gain consensus.  They interrupt to support, agree, or even clarify.  If you are a woman dealing with a man, resist the temptation to show support by interrupting.  Your male prospect is likely to view your interruption as rude or aggressive.  If you are a male, expect more questions from a woman.

 

Women tend to nod not to show agreement but to acknowledge and give you permission to continue.  If the nodding stops, it is time to say, “Enough about my thoughts, I want to hear yours.”  If you are a woman dealing with a male, nix the nods, which are likely to give mixed signals.  You will come off as more credible.

 

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I recently had the opportunity to discuss with a number of attorneys the difference between the geographic limitations of the traditional country lawyer model as compared to the modern law firm’s potential for national and international reach.

The old model of the country lawyer was simple but limiting. You hung out your shingle, and from then on, your success depended entirely on your ability to build relationships with those in the community. That model is still available, and even in big cities many law firms still operate as country lawyers.

Other than the limiting aspect of jurisdictions, the reach of a law firm no longer has to be confined to community and face-to-face relationship building. Make the right moves and the savvy can become a go-to firm on a national and international level. I live in the small town of Franklin that plays suburbia to Nashville, TN. But even in my small town, there are law firms that represent international corporations regarding matters within the local jurisdiction. Today’s small communities have national and international connections and investors—all are prospects for the technologically savvy law firm. And then there are those segments of law that are not limited to local jurisdictions.

The shingle has been replaced by the firm’s web site. Blogs and RSS feeds provide a boundary-free way to become a go-to firm. Relationships are built by providing value to others; blogs and RSS feeds are an opportunity to do so on a national and international scale. They provide a vehicle for the firm to demonstrate the four top characteristics of a go-to firm:

• Knowledge of the law
• Communication ability
• Confident style
• Industry (or consumer type) knowledge

The caveat is that doing so requires targeting narrowly defined market segments where the law firm is able to acquire and demonstrate its superior knowledge of the issues, needs, opportunities, and problems of the targeted industry or consumer.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
 

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Last week I was in Milwaukee attending the Milwaukee Bar's annual Conference. Technology and law firm management are an important part of their conference. It traditionally attracts faculty members of national (make that international) stature. One of the faculty members was Dave Bilinsky, the Practice Management Advisor for the Law Society of British Columbia. Among his other insightful tips was this high value four-pointer worth framing:

1. Teach someone

2. Delegate, delegate, delegate….

3. Concentrate on results

4. Push work down

When partners hoard work, they limit the firm’s prospects for future profitable growth. “Doing it yourself” means that you are short-changing associate professional development, limiting your ability to plan, bring in new business, or get more done by leveraging off of others. Taking the time to teach someone rather than doing it yourself increases the firm’s capacity in the long term.

Number two speaks for itself. Try to never do something someone else can do.

Too often we think first of the process required rather than the end result to be achieved. Short-cutting a process (or finding a new way) saves time, if it achieves the same or a better end result. Take the time to think creatively. Give delegates the opportunity to be creative.

For a partner, “push work down” means pushing it down to an associate. When you do, you get double the bang for your buck. The associate gets the work done, and you get a more experienced associate.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

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