Legal Operations

  • The 'Silly Season'

    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.

    October 01, 2019J. Mark Santiago

  • Producing Breakthroughs in Client Development

    It is easy to understand why many lawyers feel that only certain special individuals are blessed with the qualities necessary to be rainmakers. But almost anyone willing to develop the qualities necessary can become a rainmaker.

    October 01, 2019Arnold Keiser

  • When Key Employees Quit: 5 Things You Must Do to Keep Control of Critical Data

    Losing a key employee is never easy — they often take with them institutional knowledge, great internal and external relationships, and critical skill sets. There is also a risk that they'll take some information or data with them when they go, either inadvertently or on purpose.

    July 01, 2019Michael Ciaramitaro and Sarah Brown

  • Expanding Your Digital Strategy with RPA

    Beyond improving efficiency, new advancements in Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, are helping lawyers do more billable work without hiring more people.

    June 01, 2019Arup Das

  • "Don't Do Stupid"

    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.

    May 01, 2019J. Mark Santiago

  • Lawyers: Being Paid Shouldn't Be Like Pulling Teeth!

    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?

    May 01, 2019Peter A. Johnson

  • Case Study: California Law Firm Dowling Aaron Is Transforming and Modernizing Its Prebilling Process with Orion ePrebill Manager

    Orion's ePrebill Manager allows corrections to prebills to be tracked and applied in real time, with a one-click acceptance and approval process. Further, by distributing prebills electronically, attorneys can see the edits made by others, the overall net effect of write-downs, and how these affect the realization of both the working timekeepers and the client overall, in real time.

    March 01, 2019Gregory N. Miskulin, Jamie Carstens and Lindsay Powell

  • Unmasking the Impostor Syndrome

    Many talented lawyers shortchange themselves and their law firms by failing to implement a strategic business development plan. Some claim that they don't have time to market while others lament that marketing doesn't work — for them. While these and a variety of other excuses are common, it may be productive to dig a little deeper to determine whether other factors are at play.

    November 01, 2018Cynthia Sharp