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Boosting Receivables: One Large Firm's Approach

By Silvio Talarico

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. In law firms, where so much is dependent upon maintaining good relationships, getting clients to pay on time can be a delicate, sometimes frustrating, exercise. Smart firms are using everything from technology tools to psychological savvy to improve their realization rates. The efforts are paying off. Firms are getting paid almost 30% faster than in 1995, says Citigroup Private Bank. The challenge today is maintaining that momentum at a time when operations are increasingly dispersed and complex. As chief financial officer at Frost Brown Todd, I manage our collections. We have about 370 lawyers, and offices in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Although we do not publicly disclose our financials, The American Lawyer (an A&FP sibling publication) ranked us as #161 on its most recent AmLaw 200 roster, with 2002 gross revenues at $105 million and our revenue-per-lawyer at $310 thousand.

During the past 2 years, we've added people, processes and technology to enhance our collection speed and realization rates. We currently have six staff in the finance department who are mainly focused on collections. Our primary financial system is Elite Enterprise from Thomson Elite. We are using a combination of Minisoft Inc.'s Accounts Receivable Collection Systems (ARCS) and internally developed reporting systems and customizations. (Note to shoppers: Collect, from Select Associates, is a competing A/R system.)

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