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Four Corners of Law Practice Management

by | Feb 21, 2017 | Accounting, Law Firm Technology, Practice Management

Four-Cornerstones-of-Law-Practice-Management

Jim Calloway, the Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program, has written an excellent article in the January/February 2017 edition of Law Practice, the magazine of the Practice Management Division of the American Bar Association. Titled The Four Corners of Law Practice Management, Jim provides some useful insights into the four facets of managing a law firm, which all firms need to pay closer attention to today.

You can read the full article here. I will summarize his key points below.

Jim asserts that the “four cornerstones” of an effective practice management approach for today’s law firms are comprised of the following:

  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Management

Finance
For the modern law firm, finance needs to be much more than simply getting out the billing and recording income and partner distributions. Profitability analysis, forecasting, and examination of key financial performance indicators are key to sustained viability for any firm, from the solo practitioner to the multi-office firm. For the small firm, just getting out those bills in a timely fashion without bringing firm operations to a halt can be a challenge. Harnessing technology (see below) can be an important aid to removing this obstacle.

Marketing
The explosion in social media usage, search engines, and the Internet in general, has had profound implications for marketing in all business sectors, law firms among them. As Jim’s article points out, there are no absolute right or wrong answers for pursuing an internet-savvy marketing program. Except, of course, that you had better have one if you plan to survive practicing law. Rainmakers are still the lifeblood of firm growth and sustainability, but they need to be able to use today’s tools to bring in those clients. Attending local “Meet and Greets” won’t cut it any more.

Technology
As Jim notes, “Technology improvement plans should be a part of every successful business today.” It is becoming increasingly impossible to manage litigation without relying on the technology tools required to successfully litigate (electronic discovery, predictive technology, etc.) Further, reliance on technology for core legal functions is hardly limited to litigation any more. Love it or hate it, every law firm today is in some respects a technology business, given the amount of electronic information every firm must create, process, distribute, and store to complete day-to-day tasks.

Management
Law firm management today has become more complex than the old model of selecting a managing partner to handle human resources and set overall firm direction, while all the remaining client relationship maintenance and legal work falls to the firm’s other attorneys. Jim suggests that today’s managing partner is akin to a symphony conductor, drawing on whatever management skills he or she can bring to the table to orchestrate the other three “cornerstones” described above. In many larger firms a professional law firm manager fills this role. This can allow for a sharpened focus on financial management, technology improvement, and development of technology-assisted marketing strategies, none of which skills seeped into the curriculums of most present-day managing partners.

Need help getting your firm up to modern standards for law office management? We can help in a few of the areas cited above. Give us a call at 877-357-0555 or email us at [email protected] to discuss your needs and find out how we might be able to address those needs.