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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Preparing for the LIBOR Phase Out: Contract Remediation Starts with Contract Intelligence
Ryan Drimalla and Karl Dorwart
The London Interbank Offered Rate has long been the global basis for agreements that include a variable interest rate component. However, LIBOR would be replaced by other benchmarks by the end of 2021. Key to assessing risk of exposure, quantifying the financial impact, developing remediation plans and communicating material information to stakeholders will be the identification, analysis and remediation of LIBOR-based contracts.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
How to Ensure Financial Health Ahead of an Economic Downturn
Derek F. Meek and Hanna Lahr
The economic downturn that is projected to come out of the shutdowns mandated due to COVID-19 is likely to be more wide-ranging than the Great Recession of 2008 in light of the non-discriminative impact of the virus. Given this outlook, now is a critical time for companies to reassess their business and finances so that they can be prepared for the future.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Estate Professionals Can Be Compensated for Services Performed Before Entry of a Retention Order, Even Without Nunc Pro Tunc Orders
Sheryl P. Giugliano
Bankruptcy professionals should be relieved by a recent decision holding that although nunc pro tunc orders approving a professional’s retention are now considered “inappropriate” in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan, there is nothing in the Bankruptcy Code, Bankruptcy Rules, or applicable case law preventing an award of compensation before a retention order is entered.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Introducing Pricing Transparency to Legal Services
Nathan Cemenska
The COVID-19 crisis has caused a money crunch across industries, and CLD budgets are tightening. This downturn demands that CLDs stop writing blank checks for services of indeterminate scope and duration. Here are some ideas for law departments looking to do better.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Legal Analytics and the Evolving Practice of Law
Josh Becker
While we may use analytics differently in our respective companies, one thing is certain: Legal analytics is the future and it’s time to jump on board.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Corporate Resiliency: How to Ensure Financial Health Ahead of an Economic Downturn
Derek F. Meek and Hanna Lahr
Proper planning is key to ensuring a company’s financial health when facing an economic downturn. Although companies will come into such planning with different levels of financial health, the same considerations can be helpful in determining the best path forward.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Small Law, Big Changes: The Coming Disruption in the Legal Industry
Rinky S. Parwani and Greg Garman
The billable hour is still profitable from a transactional perspective, but from a strategic perspective, in today’s economy, that profitability has begun to erode. That’s because our economy has fundamentally transformed into a service economy that is based on leverage and scale.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
COVID-19 Downturn Likely Won't Impact Health of Law Firm Billable Hour
Frank Ready
Not even the economic downturn imposed by the COVID-19 virus may be able to take credit for eliminating the billable hour. While attorneys could be relying more on legal tech to help defray costs, transitioning to a new pricing infrastructure in the midst of so much uncertainty could prove to be a bridge too far.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Adopting COVID-19 Cuts, Law Firms Balance Image and Economics
Patrick Smith
Firms Are Applying Communications Lessons from the Great Recession As They Deliver Bad News During the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Many firms have appeared in recent weeks to be signaling compassion, embracing (relative) transparency and sharing sacrifices across lawyers and staff. That can help make even painful cuts less harmful for a firm’s internal morale and outside reputation.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
How a Law Firm’s Comp System Affects Profitability and Partner Satisfaction
Hugh A. Simons
Compensation systems are typically a strategic afterthought, seen as the means by which to allocate the spoils of a successful strategy. They’re viewed as affecting the level of grousing among partners, but not a firm’s performance. The data, however, indicates the reverse is true.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
How to Survive (and Even Thrive) During and After the COVID-19 Lockdown
Valerie Chan
The ability to adapt, be nimble and pivot as necessary is crucial to surviving and thriving in ever-changing economic climates. Communicating in the age of social distancing requires a new way of thinking and being — not just in the virtual workplace with our peers but also how we communicate and partner with our clients.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Linking Partner Pay to Strategic Firm Objectives
J. Mark Santiago
In general law firms have been slower to adopt pay for performance systems. What law firms need now, and this article describes, is an approach to partner compensation that closely links a partners pay to their ability to contribute to the achievement of the firm’s strategic objectives.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Supreme Court Defers to State Law on Ownership of Tax Refund
Michael L. Cook
Federal courts should “turn to state law to resolve” a “fight over a tax refund,” held a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in Rodriquez v. FDIC (In re United W Bancorp., Inc.).
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The State of Legal Finance in 2020
Ari Kaplan
Legal industry analyst Ari Kaplan interviewed 32 lawyers from Finland, France, Hong Kong, Norway, Singapore, the UK and the U.S. about the evolution of legal finance. He also surveyed 20 in-house lawyers at Fortune 500 companies and 18 law firm lawyers from Australia, the Cayman Islands, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S. about emerging trends in legal finance. Below are some of his findings and what they indicate about the current state of the sector.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Recovery Models for e-Discovery and Litigation Support Services that Make an Impact
Nathan Curtis
In 2019, Mattern went to the market to conduct its first deep dive into e-discovery and litigation support cost recovery in the 2020 e-Discovery and Litigation Support Cost Recovery Survey. Some of the results surprised us.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Law Firm Mergers and Predictions for the Year 2020
Marcus Dyer
2019 went down as another record year for law firm mergers. But what do the numbers teach us? Did the tendency to merge apply to law firms across the board? Is the merger mania likely to continue in 2020? What was the impetus for record number of mergers? This article breaks down the available data to answer these questions and attempts to give us a glimpse into the future.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Client Maximization: Doing Well by Doing the Right Things
Linda Hazelton
Making the most of your firm’s client base need not be a costly undertaking. There are several steps a firm of any size can undertake to improve client experiences, ultimately, while also increasing the firm’s chances of thriving.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Outsourcing: How to Do Better Than Flipping a Coin
Rob Mattern
The legal industry is on the cusp of transformational change making the “siren song” of a successful outsourcing engagement ever more alluring: increase expertise and flexibility while lowering costs, and significantly mitigating risk.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
How Law Firms Are Overcoming New Business Development Challenges
Julie Savarino
With the intense competition for new legal work, demands on lawyers’ available time and the increasing discounts clients demand, it’s getting harder for law firms operating under a billable-hour business model to support the consistent development of new legal work by investing in and maintaining a marketing department alone.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Linking Partner Pay to Strategic Firm Objectives
J. Mark Santiago
Pay for performance is not a new concept in this country. The ideas and concepts underlying a graduated pay scale based on contribution and merit are deeply ingrained in our society. However, in general law firms have been slower to adopt pay for performance systems. What law firms need now, and this article describes, is an approach to partner compensation that closely links a partners pay to their ability to contribute to the achievement of the firm’s strategic objectives.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Sales Speak: Strategies to Avoid or Reduce Billing Rate Discounts
Eric Dewey
Requests for discounts have become a routine step in the legal services purchasing process. Lawyers face the uncomfortable task of defending their billing rates in both RFPs and client pitches. But too often, lawyers don’t make an effort to resist giving a discount when asked. Mostly because they haven’t been trained in how to do it.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Driving Law Firm Profits Through Data Analytics
John Schrumpf
“Data Analytics” have become more than just buzzwords and are an integral part of well informed decision making. The following best practices have the ability to bring your firm’s data management up to speed with competitors in the law industry, while turning what might be an underutilized resource into a working asset that drives revenue.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Strategies to Avoid or Reduce Billing Rate Discounts
Eric Dewey
For a large portion of engagements, discounts are not necessary to win the work. In fact, discounts come at a price. Both parties assume a degree of risk when margins are thinned. This article presents several techniques that you can use to re-direct discussions away from discounts and help to minimize their financial impact.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Lateral Partner Survey Casts Doubt on Compensation as King
Dylan Jackson
In a survey conducted by Major, Lindsey & Africa, lateral partners put firm culture and practice support ahead of anticipated compensation when considering a new firm.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Law Firms Enter the Golden Age of Data Mining
Doug Stansfield
Data mining is a relatively new practice in the legal space and the data profiles of firms are highly variable from one organization to another, so identifying the right tools and prioritizing initiatives can be challenging.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Bursting the Bubble of Associate Compensation
Timothy B. Corcoran
Smart business leaders compete by constantly seeking cost advantages. Yet law firm leaders compete by perpetually increasing associate compensation. As always, this will not end well.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
New Partners Are Worried About Mental Health and a Looming Recession, Annual Survey Finds
Dylan Jackson
Newly minted partners offered up some usual complaints on this year’s New Partners Survey, lamenting unexpectedly low compensation, opaque performance metrics and copious administrative work. But new anxieties have arisen among Big Law’s latest partner class, including the threat of a recession and growing concerns about mental health.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Increasing Client Requirements: Securing Law Firms for the 21st Century
Debra Gray
Clients expect sophisticated and secure systems to keep their information safe. This obviously makes your IT professional’s job much harder. Additionally, attorneys expect instant performance and near 100% up time. Achieving the delicate balance between accessibility and security is a challenge.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Law Firm Debt Levels Shrink as Partners Put More Skin in the Game
Lizzy McLellan
What Does Widespread ‘Deleveraging’ Mean for Law Firm Health?
Industry watchers say law firms have become less reliant on bank debt over the past decade, as they explore other funding options. Often, that means raising capital from partners, or turning to other, less common sources.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Law Firm Revenues Rise as Demand Accelerates, Citi Reports
Gretta Rusanow
There is a lot of good news in the nine-month 2019 industry results. While we might not end the year with the strong growth levels seen in 2018, we anticipate that 2019 will be a decent year. For the first time this year, revenue growth exceeded expense growth.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Determining Who Should Serve As the Billing Partner
Joel A. Rose
Due to a law firm’s team-oriented approach to business development and client service efforts, it is not always clear who should logically and most efficiently serve as the billing partner for a client or a particular client matter. A person should only be a billing partner if he or she is or will be performing the functions outline herein.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
A Primer for Forming Loan-Out Corporations
Maxwell Briskman Stanfield
In the entertainment industry, it can take years for actors, musicians and others to reach a point where their efforts begin bringing in a notable return. If and when these types of clients begin to make a consistently significant income, one method that deserves consideration for protecting the hard-earned pay is to organize a loan-out corporation.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Determining Who Should Serve As the Billing Partner
Joel A. Rose
Due to a law firm’s team-oriented approach to business development and client service efforts, it is not always clear who should logically and most efficiently serve as the billing partner for a client or a particular client matter. A person should only be a billing partner if he or she is or will be performing the functions outline herein.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
How to Become a Rainmaker
Arnold Keiser
Almost anyone willing to develop the qualities necessary can become a rainmaker.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The Global 100 Are in the Midst of a Growth Spurt
Dan Packel
The World’s Largest Firms Turned In a Second Straight Year of Robust Revenue Gains Amid Near-Universal Progress
Mergers, rapid growth among Chinese law firms, and a healthy American market coalesced to turn 2018 into a spectacular year for the world’s largest law firms.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Resolving Fee Disputes: It’s in Your Best Interest, Too
Patricia King
Lawyers should know that they ignore clients with questions at their peril. The first thing to remember is the client is entitled to an accounting of the fee and costs. No matter how exasperating the client, or how stupid the question appears to be, client questions need to be resolved.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The ‘Silly Season’
J. Mark Santiago
That term refers to the months of October through December. It's a way of pointing out to partners that the necessary activities of practice management that so many of them had avoided for the first nine or 10 months of the year now had to be addressed. Clients that had not been billed now had to be invoiced. Outstanding invoices, many issued in the cold days of early March and April, now had to be collected and current work would not only have to be billed but collected as well.
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Marketing The Law Firm
When Being a Star Rainmaker is Not Enough: Why EQ Leads to Even Better Business Results
Marla Grant and Yuliya LaRoe
Why EQ Leads to Even Better Business Results
It is not uncommon for law firms to face negative business outcomes caused by the behavior of a star rainmaker who is unaware of the impact that they have on others. And that’s what emotional intelligence (EQ) is about and why it’s so important to lead to better business results. What can law firms do to help their star partners increase their emotional intelligence to avoid potentially disastrous business outcomes for themselves and their firms?
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Litigation Support, E-discovery and the Recovery of Costs
Nathan Curtis
The Data Explosion vs. Recovery Model Stagnation
Firms are struggling with a legacy practice of writing off litigation support/e-discovery and related costs but have been challenged to identify and implement recovery models or managed services models that are both acceptable to the firm and to their clients. On top of all of this, many firms simply fail to dispose of the data at the matter closing and costs continue to accumulate year over year. Mattern has launched the first ever e-Discovery and Litigation Support Cost Recovery Survey to gather that needed data to help drive firms’ better business decisions.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
When Being a Star Rainmaker Is Not Enough
Marla Grant and Yuliya LaRoe
Why EQ Leads to Even Better Business Results
It is not uncommon for law firms to face negative business outcomes caused by the behavior of a star rainmaker who is unaware of the impact that they have on others. And that’s what emotional intelligence (EQ) is about and why it’s so important to lead to better business results. What can law firms do to help their star partners increase their emotional intelligence to avoid potentially disastrous business outcomes for themselves and their firms?
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Marketing The Law Firm
Voice of the Client: 9 Ways You Could Be Hindering New Business Efforts
Mike Mellor
Nine ways you may be hindering your efforts to win new legal business, and a few ideas on how subtle improvements can maximize both success and overall win rates for firms and attorneys.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
9 Ways You Could Be Hindering New Business Efforts
Mike Mellor
Nine ways you may be hindering your efforts to win new legal business, and a few ideas on how subtle improvements can maximize both success and overall win rates for firms and attorneys.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Continual Assessment: Preparation for the Next Recession
Phillip Bantz
Assess your legal departments regularly to find and fix inefficient spending and work habits while also implementing new tech solutions now — before it’s too late.
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Marketing The Law Firm
The Time to Improve Administrative Performance Is Now
J. Mark Santiago
This article focuses on what a firm can do now that will improve future firm economics regardless of what the future may hold. It identifies three areas that offer the great opportunity for improving a law firms’ economics and better positioning them for whatever the future may bring.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Expanding Your Digital Strategy with RPA
Arup Das
Beyond improving efficiency, new advancements in Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, are helping lawyers do more billable work without hiring more people.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The Time to Improve Administrative Performance Is Now
J. Mark Santiago
This article focuses on what a firm can do now that will improve future firm economics regardless of what the future may hold, identifying three areas that offer the great opportunity for improving a law firms’ economics and better positioning them for whatever the future may bring.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Law Firm Revenue Rose as Demand Dropped in the First Quarter of 2019
David Altuna and Gretta Rusanow
The legal industry saw greater revenue growth during the first quarter of 2019 than it did to start the strong year of 2018. However, the drivers of that growth were much different, as the demand growth that characterized 2018 gave way to a demand decline during the first quarter of 2019, and much of the revenue growth came in the form of cash collections from 2018 inventory.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
“Don’t Do Stupid”
J. Mark Santiago
6 Common Law Firm Accounting Practices That Need to Be Re-evaluated
There are a number of tried and true practices in law firms that need more thinking. Not because law firm managers are stupid; it’s just that some practices need to be periodically re-evaluated and adjusted to reflect the changing times.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Best Ways to Expand Key Client Relationships from the Lawyers’ and Firms’ Perspectives
Julie Savarino
Part One of a Two-Part Article
For a variety of reasons, many law firms and lawyers struggle to effectively cross-sell or cross-service. This article defines the specific and best actions lawyers and law firms can take to expand client relationships.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Lawyers: Being Paid Shouldn’t Be Like Pulling Teeth!
Peter A. Johnson
What Lawyers Can Learn From Dentists
Nobody enjoys visiting the dentist, but everybody knows you still must pay him or her on the day of service. Attorneys, however, have historically let the client lead the payment dance. Lawyers do the work and hope/expect to be paid without waiting too long or discounting the invoice too steeply. What can we do differently?
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