Legal Operations

Marketing The Law Firm

The Difference Between Service and Hospitality

Anthony Davies

Today, we see outsourcing accelerating as the pandemic has served to highlight the traditional benefits of outsourcing: cost reduction, flexibility, expertise and efficiency. But providers need to do something more to increase satisfaction rates among their law firm clients.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Are You Stuck With the Hasty Tech Decisions Made In Crisis Mode?

Tomas Suros

In March 2020 and the months immediately following, many firms found themselves scrambling to implement tools that would meet the needs of new remote work realities. Understandably, many of these decisions were done quickly without the normal level of due diligence. Now, the same firms are realizing that those hasty, though necessary, decisions should be revisited or undone.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Recession Proofing Your Law Firm

Melissa “Rogo” Rogozinski

Whatever term the economists use to describe the slowing pace of commerce, the real question is: how do you protect your law firm’s revenue stream when economic pressures are causing current and prospective clients to tighten their budgets?

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Solving the Information Governance Groundhog Day Syndrome

Ben Schmidt and Nathan Curtis

Security and privacy start with good information governance, and for many firms — trying to get their information governance policy implemented feels a lot like Groundhog Day. Yes, the one with Bill Murray. Let’s take a closer look.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Recession Proofing A Law Firm

Melissa “Rogo” Rogozinski

Whatever term the economists use to describe the slowing pace of commerce, the real question is: how do you protect your law firm’s revenue stream when economic pressures are causing current and prospective clients to tighten their budgets?

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Legal Sales Strategies

Eric Dewey

The “best choice” provider pitch may not be the optimal sales strategy. It's better to adjust to where the prospect is in their buying decision process — whether that means they are looking for providers, they are studying the situation, they already have counsel, or they have decided not to address the issue.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Time Well Spent: Make Meetings Valuable

Sharon Meit Abrahams

“Ugh, not another meeting!” Do you hear this from your colleagues and direct reports? If so, you should turn your meetings from a waste of time to a value-added use of time. We know meetings are important. They increase collaboration, set accountability, and create a shared sense of purpose and progress — all important elements of a happy, successful workplace.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Midlevel Survey Shows What Law Firms Are Getting Right — and Wrong

Dan Roe

Midlevel associates aren’t less willing than their predecessors to do the brain-bending amount of work. It’s that after two years of billing massive hours through an isolating global pandemic, they’re completely disloyal to the status quo. They kept firms going, they made partners rich, and now they plan to reshape the profession in their image.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Law Firms May Make ‘Course Corrections’ to Battle Inflation

Andrew Maloney

If inflation remains at current levels, law firm billing rate increases won’t be able to keep pace. But firm leaders may make other “course corrections” to capture profits through the end of 2022, analysts say, by utilizing leverage and alternative pricing models and making additional investments in technology.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Great Marketing Initiatives Happening Now

Stacy West Clark

Some great marketing initiatives happening in law firms around the country — as well as some recommendations.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Tips to Minimize Malpractice Claims

Michael R. McAndrew

So long as humans are practicing law, mistakes will happen; but well prepared attorneys are proactive and take the affirmative steps to put themselves in a position to minimize the danger to the client and the case.

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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy

Traditional Legal Ops Putting Law Firms At Disadvantage When Recruiting for Cybersecurity and Privacy

Bruce Love and Patrick Smith 

Law firms are still insisting on engaging with clients in the traditional legal model — by hours billed. Whereas cybersecurity services such as breach monitoring have the potential for a much deeper and stickier relationship with the client.

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Marketing The Law Firm

How to Properly Align Marketing, Business Development and Sales

Melissa “Rogo” Rogozinski 

As we move into a post-pandemic era of inflation and recession rumors, it is imminent that we make changes in how we operate and grow our businesses in order to move successfully — and profitably — forward. For law firms, we need to understand how marketing, business development and sales work together to produce new opportunities for revenue growth.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Do Law Firms Need to Re-think Outsourcing Strategies?

Anthony Davies

flexible sourcing models, with interchangeable or multiple service providers, is now becoming the mainstay for most client sourcing strategies. This outsourcing trend has been consistent over the past two years, with clients describing their strategies as “multi-vendor” and “multi-sourced.”

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

The Great Unbundling: Do Law Firms Need to Re-think Outsourcing Strategies?

Anthony Davies

Service “‘bundling” provides economies of scale, lower overheads, a single point of contact and a single invoice at the end of each month. However, the bundling of services to create a single multi-service provider may now be hurting firms who are increasingly looking for specialization, especially with regards to onsite workplace experience services.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Top Law Firms Look to Invest Profits In Future Success

Dan Packel

There’s no doubt that much of the legal industry’s profit gains are simply the result of surging demand. But smart firms were also able to harness booming demand to push through rate increases, owing to clients who were desperate to see their deals go through. There’s no doubt that the firms taking advantage of this confluence are in an enviable position. That doesn’t mean they are sitting on their laurels.

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The Bankruptcy Strategist

The Interplay Between Vendor Finance Agreements and Bankruptcy

Ann Pille, Richard Tannenbaum, Alexis Leventhal and Emily Costantinou

While regularly used among lenders, manufacturers, and dealers, treatment of Inventory financing program agreements in bankruptcy is not uniform, and uncertainty exists with respect to how such agreements may be treated in the context of a manufacturer’s Chapter 11.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Current Economic Climate Likely to Cause Law Firms to Offer Flexible and Creative Fee Arrangements

Nicole R. Rekant and Stevan J. Pardo

The current economic climate will incline lawyers, specifically litigators, to rethink their fee structures. With inflation at a 40-year high, residential and commercial rents rising, and a predicted looming recession, clients are tightening their budgets, but also demanding the same level of service and results from their attorneys.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Experience Is Everything: Why Focusing On Client Experience is Critical and How to Get Started

Kristen Dallman

In this marketplace, one thing is abundantly clear: To remain competitive, you must adapt. So how can you adapt in a way that meets the increased expectations of today’s client? Focus on client experience.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

The Connection Between Process Improvement, Project Management, and Pricing

Catherine Alman MacDonagh and Frederick J. Esposito Jr.

Law firms must continuously review business and legal processes to operate and interact with less waste and costs and develop pricing models that address client needs while generating profits for the law firm. This is actually simple, but not easy to do.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Using Process Improvement and LPM for Competitive Advantages in Pricing and Fee Arrangements

Catherine Alman MacDonagh and Frederick J. Esposito Jr.

This article explores the connection between process improvement, project management, and pricing. Clients want budget predictability, options in fee arrangements, and value. The firms that do this well, regardless of their size or location, will have the competitive advantage.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Use Marketing and Biz Dev Content for Cross-Selling Success

Wayne Pollock

If you’re unsure about how to get your cross-selling efforts going, marketing and business development content, in all of its forms, is your secret weapon for cross-selling your firm’s services.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

The Culture Code for Law Firms

Marci Taylor

Many firms have made a valiant attempt to maintain firm culture in the brave new world in which we find ourselves. Culture is not something that is pre-destined or accidental. Rather, it is something that exists and evolves in organizations where particular skill sets are present and cultivated.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Use Business Development Content for Cross-Selling Success

Wayne Pollock

If you’re in that boat, or you are unsure about how to get your cross-selling efforts going, marketing and business development content, in all of its forms, is your secret weapon for cross-selling your firm’s services.

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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy

Driving Innovation in a Dynamically Changing Legal Market

Ari Kaplan

A series of interviews with large law firm partners around the world to better understand how they are leveraging technology to drive innovation and transformation in their practices.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

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

Aligning with Client Expectations

Vivian Hood and Terry M. Isner

We’re well into 2022, and despite the flip of the calendar, COVID is still sweeping the U.S., it feels like not much has changed. Or has it?

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Sales Enablement: The Next Big Thing In Legal Services?

Eric Dewey

Sales enablement is how law firms can take control of their business development and marketing processes and improve the effectiveness of their revenue growth initiatives.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Highlight Client Service Skills In the New Year

Sharon Meit Abrahams

Attorneys need their clients to see them as a trusted advisor and partner in their legal solutions. If the lawyer takes time at the beginning of the relationship to establish expectations, then future conflicts can be avoided or resolved more quickly.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Legal Ops Tech: Tips for Success with Cloud-based Practice Management In 2022

Tomas Suros

While functionality and features are important, there are a number of additional considerations when evaluating a practice management solution. Will your platform provider serve as a partner that will offer expert guidance and be invested in your ongoing success?

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Lessons from 2021 That Will Help Prepare for 2022

J. Mark Santiago

Many firms are projecting that 2021 will be an improvement over 2020’s average revenue growth and PPEP growth, which in January was not the common wisdom. But we have also learned some things in 2021 that should not be forgotten or overlooked in the rush to year-end.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Disruption, Opportunity and Outsourcing In a Post-COVID World

Rob Mattern

Law firms are at a crossroads triggered by the transformational impact of the pandemic, and wondering whether the mandate for change will continue or shrink back to pre-2020 operations. For most firms, the answer is to continue on the road for change, including reengineering the delivery of legal services.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Five Things Law Firm Leaders Need to Do As People Return to the Office

Mark Beese

Slowly, ever so slowly, lawyers and staff are making their way back to the office. While we all look forward to returning to normal, the normal we left…

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Online Extra: Talent Crunch Triggering Alarm Bells for Law Firms

Andrew Maloney 

The talent crunch has triggered alarm bells about law firms’ long-term viability, as epic workloads and existential upheaval continue to rain on a generation that’s less interested in the traditional benefits of Big Law life.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Accountability Questions for Business Development Coaching Success

Vivian Hood

Working with a business development coach is an investment in yourself that can bring about career success by having a deliberate strategy in place.

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Marketing The Law Firm

Obstacles to Overcome So Attorneys Can Train Others

Sharon Meit Abrahams

This article delves into what firms can do to support their attorneys who lead training initiatives such as on-boarding new associates, delivering substantive knowledge, designing skill development training or any other aspect of professional development in the legal field.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Managing Outreach Is the Most Important Task for Practice Group Leaders

Eric Dewey

No other job of a practice group leader does more to solve the many challenges of running a practice group than does a steady flow of new work from new clients.

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Marketing The Law Firm

The Most Important Task Practice Group Leaders Fail to Manage

Eric Dewey

There is one task that practice group leaders prioritize above all others: the management of the group’s outreach. No other job of a practice group leader does more to solve the many challenges of running a practice group than does a steady flow of new work from new clients.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Understanding Your Clients’ Changing Needs In a Post-Pandemic Legal Market

Marci Krufka Taylor

If it was challenging to get facetime with clients pre-pandemic, that challenge has only multiplied in the post-pandemic world. As firms look for creative ways to reconnect with clients, client interviews and surveys have become more important than ever for ensuring client satisfaction, loyalty and profitability.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Stakeholders: How to See Things from the Client’s Perspective

Catherine Alman MacDonagh

Without hearing the Voice of the Customer (or Client), we risk missing the mark in our strategy, messaging and positioning, as well as delivery of work, product and service, operations, technology, staffing and so forth — in short, we potentially miss on everything.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

The Queen’s Gambit: Vetting Costs and Other Factors In Hiring a Tech Vendor

Abeer Abu Judeh

There are numerous “gameplays” to reduce risks when selecting and hiring a technology vendor. With each mitigating factor you incorporate into your contracting playbook, prepare to incur additional costs.

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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy

Virtual Reality or the New Reality of Virtual Practice?

Mark Sangster

In response to the worst period on record for cyber attacks, the ABA published Formal Opinion 498 to address practicing law outside of the traditional brick-and-mortar office environment. It reminds lawyers that while the ABA Model Rules permit virtual practice, they provide minimum requirements and recommendations for virtual practice, particularly in the areas of competence, confidentiality and supervision.

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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy

Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin

Emil Sayegh

With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.

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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy

The Queen’s Gambit: A Proactive Approach to Reducing Technology Vendors’ Contracting Risk

Abeer Abu Judeh

There are numerous “gameplays” to reduce risks when selecting and hiring a technology vendor. Whether you are able to accept a risk and to what extent are not always clear. Just know that, like in chess, your opening move to an IT deal can be your most powerful.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

The Future of Litigation Workflow: Reimagining Technology and Process in the Next Decade

Ari Kaplan

Hear what a cross-section of law firm leaders say about how the pandemic has impacted litigation in the short- and long-term.

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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy

Work from Home Could Lead to Higher Cyber Insurance Claims

Yakir Golan

A look at the main software and application categories that increased during remote work and the vast implications for user privacy, corporate cybersecurity and cyber insurance.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Biden Administration Budget 2022: Employer Sponsored Death Benefits a Forgotten Planning Tool

Lawrence L. Bell

Part Two of a Two-Part Article

Part Two provides more scenarios under which an Employer-Sponsored Death Benefit plan may be assigned, based on IRS memoranda.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Make Law Firm Culture Part of the Equation In a Potential Career Move

Sharon Meit Abrahams

When you are looking to make a career move, be sure to learn about the potential employer’s culture before you accept an offer. It is important to select not only a great place to work, but a place that is the right choice for you as an individual.

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Marketing The Law Firm

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE: Competitive Intelligence On a Dime

Michelle McCormick

Simple and Cost-Effective Ways to Help Your Firm Harness the Power of Competitive Intelligence

Many products and trainings promise to help with or automate your competitive intelligence research, but getting good data does not have to be so complicated or expensive. Here are some tips for how you can leverage competitive intelligence in your marketing efforts without a significant cost.

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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms

Biden Administration Budget 2022: Employer Sponsored Death Benefits a Forgotten Planning Tool

Lawrence L. Bell

Part One of a Two-Part Article

While providing a current benefit for employees, an employer sponsored death benefit is an asset that may create needless taxation if not properly handled. Taking prudent steps will avoid the problems of loss of control and flexibility while minimizing income, estate, transfer and capital income taxes.

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