The end of the first quarter of 2006 upon us! I just got off the phone with a client who is the owner of a small, but highly successful immigration firm. We were talking about our respective resolutions for the New Year (seems like just yesterday I had the whole year ahead of me). His was to be better at firm management and mine was to eat less chocolate.

It may surprise you how often I hear owners of small law firms making (and breaking) resolutions to manage their firms more professionally. In fact this is even a more common resolution than to do more marketing. And, for many lawyers managing is the more difficult resolution of the two. In my experience there are three simple reasons why:

1. It’s harder since most lawyers have never been educated about how to manage a law firm;

2. There’s less tangible gratification than when you market your firm and get a new client to show for it; and

3. The payoff is big, but farther away than next month’s overhead. For all of these reasons, this week’s feature article is a quick primer on law firm management

Philosophy of law firm management:

A law firm is a relatively straight-forward business to manage. There are essentially only four categories that can be “managed” in a law firm: Finances; Physical Plant; People and The Practice. In future articles I’ll discuss how these areas affects the profitability of a small law firm and what you can do to improve each one. We’ll begin our discussion this week with an overview of the major areas of responsibility for the office manager/administrator of a small or large law firm.

In its simplest terms, Practice Management is getting the work in, and getting the work out. This is the part of a law firm that is most visible to clients and the community. The quality of these business and workflow processes has the single biggest impact on not only profitability, but also client relations, client satisfaction and the level of attorney stress attributable to the practice.

The Four Key Management Functions

Management encompasses the core leadership functions of planning, forecasting, motivating and directing the day-to-day activities of others. The job of the Owner(s) of the firm is to decide what level of income s/he wants the business to provide and what lifestyle s/he wants to lead in order to accomplish that goal. The job of the Manager is to manage to resources of the firm in order to achieve the Owner’s goals.

At a minimum, the Manager of a law firm, especially a small law firm where there is less margin for error, should attend to the following key management functions:

1. Establish and monitor a monthly budget and budget variance report;

2. Develop, review and maintain a written policy manual for staff & clients;

3. Develop, maintain and spot-check a business procedure manual to document how key business procedures are carried out; and,

4. Review a weekly cash flow and accounts receivable report.

Plan to invest the few minutes each week it will take in the weeks ahead as we address each of these key functions in greater detail and share easy instructions for your firm’s Manager to follow (even if that’s you). From the hundreds of solo practitioners and Owners of small law firms who have implemented these techniques, many with no prior accounting or management experience, I am confident you’ll be a happier, healthier and wealthier lawyer for your trouble.

Members of my Gold Attorney Coaching & Support Group have access to interactive exercises to help them clearly define current and future goals (1/3/5 years) of the Owner of their law firm, as well as a variety of diagnostic and measurement tools to help your law firm business get you to where you want to be your in life.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RJon Robins - acclaimed author, lawyer and law practice management consultant - has a challenge for you:

If your law office looks like a GHOST TOWN, and if you're absolutely going insane trying to figure out how to bill enough hours to stay above water, then go to HowToMakeItRain.com right now to discover a whole new world of doing business as a solo lawyer.

It's time to start working smarter - not harder. It's time to make it rain. Make this year your year...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're sick of watching your profits getting squashed by unpaid bills, annoying A/R issues and bad clients overall, then you need to know that...

"You're Only Three TINY Changes Away From Exploding Your Law Firm's Profits..."

...and Finally Experiencing the Prestige and Lifestyle of a Successful Rain-Making Attorney Without Working Any Harder

(Just Smarter)

Introducing...

Legal Billing Secrets

"3 Dead-Easy Ways to Eliminate Client-Billing Hassles While BOOSTING Your Law Firm Profits..."

We Respect Your Privacy. Your contact info will be kept private, and we will never share, sell or rent your info to anyone. You can unsubscribe easily, at any time. This is an aweber.com regulated announcement list.

More Details on This Ebook >>