Legal Back Office’s Post

Scaling a law firm? It's not about billing more hours. It's about working smarter. 3 SMB strategies I learned when building and growing my business, and they can be applied to any business, including law firms: 1. Client segmentation Understanding your most profitable clients leads to targeted marketing and better service delivery. Building a client persona also helps conceptualize what's important to the clients you serve, where you can find more like them and how to service them better. 2. Productized services Of course every client is different and has their own unique needs. And certainly those need to be understood and appreciated. But it's also just as important, if not more so, to understand what your firm does and the ways it can do it. Putting parameters and metrics around that helps you do more efficient, better, more profitable work. 3. Team alignment Everyone in your firm should have a clear understanding of your firm's mission, vision and values, as well as their role in helping achieve the firm's goals. This is often overlooked, half-assed or designated an "HR project." But I've seen the benefits of getting this right and they are transformational. #LawFirmManagement #BusinessGrowth

Law firms need to address the issues highlighted by the survey to aid their future growth and sustainability. By investing in their marketing and business development teams through support, fair compensation, clear career paths and greater access to clients, law firms can retain top talent and also enhance their overall market competitiveness. Hopefully law firms listen to the voices of their professionals and take steps to create a more supportive and rewarding environment!

Exploring New Horizons: Is It Time for Law Firm Partners to Test the Market? Are you contemplating a move to a new law firm? For many partners, the lure of a better package, a more robust platform, or a leadership role prompts the question: Could another firm offer more? At Lateral Link, we're in the thick of addressing compensation concerns from partners, a hot topic as they draft their compensation memos and evaluate their standing. Whether it's the quest for equity, dissatisfaction with current compensation, or concerns over firm stability, the underlying question remains: Might there be a better opportunity awaiting you? Testing the market can uncover various financial discrepancies and opportunities within firms. From unmet expectations of raises to the frustration of increased equity thresholds and the constraints of capital contributions, the reasons to explore are as diverse as the legal landscape itself. Regularly having to turn away business due to conflicts? This not only hampers practice growth but also directly impacts compensation. Navigating this exploration effectively usually means partnering with a seasoned recruiter. A recruiter's insight into demand for your practice area, the best compensation packages, and strategic advice can be invaluable. Even if the journey doesn’t lead to a move, understanding your market value can empower you to negotiate more confidently within your current firm. If you're sensing it's time to assess your standing and possibly embark on a new chapter, let's talk. You can contact me at [email protected] or 540-292-8553. #LegalCareers #PartnerMoves #CareerGrowth

Discover how new compensation strategies are reshaping law firms by providing clear paths for advancement and addressing productivity challenges. Maggie Miller's latest article with ALM explores the shifting dynamics of legal compensation and its impact on nonequity partners. As firms transition to performance-based models, they face the need to balance current contributions with legacy values, offering a more transparent and fair approach to career progression. Learn more in the link.

Every once in a while I find something so smart and so relevant that it's a "must-read". Here's one - a post by Jordan Furlong that's mainly about the billable hour but also includes an analysis of the current state of affairs in law firms, including some how-do-you-really-feel commentary (re: "history's trash can") on the business adjustments GenAI will require of the profession, and soon. Jordan's insights here are numerous, but I especially appreciate his reasoned case for killing off partner billable hour requirements. Partners have better things to do than create "billable hour scarcity"-- making it tougher for their associates to meet the hours goals that have long made an already demanding work environment near unbearable. Jordan's advice: "Abolish any and all billable-hour requirements for your equity partners. Reorder the priorities that you want partners to really concentrate on and incentivize partner behaviours that will accomplish those priorities. Free up thousands of hours of work to be distributed to the associates who desperately need them." This is a terrific article that will make you noticeably smarter in just 120 seconds. ______________________________ "[B]illing hours is among the least important things a partner can do for their firm. Anyone can bill hours. But only a partner, an owner, and a firm leader can consistently generate new business, make important decisions about the firm’s strategy and growth, oversee and aid in the development of younger talent, strengthen the firm’s reputation in its key markets, act as a firm ambassador through community and pro bono work, and more. That’s why you need partners..... Instead, by incentivizing partners to bill hours, law firms drive all the wrong behaviours. They encourage partners to hoard work for themselves, putting to lesser use time and effort that could have been spent on firm management and associate development. They create 'billable hour scarcity' within the firm, forcing associates to go hunting for work to sustain their continued employment and contributing to their stress and unhappiness. ... And if all those reasons weren’t enough, here comes Generative AI to clinch the argument. It’s becoming common knowledge that AI is going to shred the billable-hour profit model by vastly accelerating the performance of most legal tasks. The day will come, sooner than you might think, when your firm simply can’t generate enough revenue through hourly billing to keep the doors open. We’re going to need new pricing and compensation measures in a hurry. But the very first step towards making that incredibly challenging transition must be to stop requiring the firm’s owners to maximize a measure of productivity imminently destined for history’s trash can."

Striking the right balance between managing costs and maximizing profitability is a constant struggle for law firms. From covering salaries to investing in technology and office space, overhead expenses can quickly add up. Effective cost management isn't just about cutting expenses; it's about finding smart solutions to optimize resources and ensure the firm's financial health. Stay tuned as we explore strategies to tackle this critical challenge in the legal industry. #FirmTransitions #LawFirmConsulting #ManagementMonday #CostManagement #Profitability #LegalFinance

📰 EXTRA EXTRA 📰 It's here!!!!! BigHand's latest market research report is live, and it's packed with insights! 💡 Here are my top takeaways 👇: 💼 96% of firms have lost clients in the last year – what’s going wrong? 📊 Only 31% of firms measure matter profitability – is your firm tracking what counts? 💸 Salary isn’t the only reason people leave! 🚪 Work-life balance, hybrid working 🌍, and professional development 📚 are shaping career choices like never before. 🚨 69% of firms report rising support staff attrition – can we really afford to lose this talent? 🔑 Building career paths and creating specialized teams 🛠️ is essential for future success. ⚙️ Workflow Management + Resource Management = 💡 It's time for a data-driven 🔍 approach to managing talent and improving client service! 💭 How are you tackling support staff attrition? 👇 🛠️ #LawFirmInsights #WorkflowManagement #ResourceManagement #LawFirmStrategy #LegalOperations #AttritionManagement

Want to know which legal chief is earning the most at an S&P 500 company? How compensation compares across business sectors? Explore the ins and outs of GC compensation with our interactive graphic, part of the 2024 Law360 Pulse Compensation Report. https://lnkd.in/e3w9SBgb

Aligning Compensation with Strategic Vision: A Guided Framework for Law Firms https://bit.ly/4cc8r4u

Compensation Committees: Key to a Fair Pay Structure Having a dedicated compensation committee is a strategic move for mid- to large-sized law firms. It ensures that compensation aligns with strategic goals and is perceived as fair by the partner group. Does your firm have the right people in place to make these critical decisions? #FairCompensation #LawFirmGovernance #Trust @camillestell https://buff.ly/3k8EDiI brenda-barnes.com