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Client Services Bulletin May 1996
Bulletin Number: 96-001 Date: May 1996 Subject: Period News
  • OLMSTEAD & ASSOCIATES INTERNET WORD WIDE WEB SITE

  • This month we will launch our Internet World Wide Web Site and our Law Office Management Resource Page at OlmsteadAssoc.com. The Law Office Management Resource Page will provide law firms and other legal organizations with an ongoing source of legal management information. Special links will be provided to other legal sites.

  • STAFF TURNOVER

  • During the past year numerous law firms have experienced total concurrent staff turnover. Several of these firms have faced this situation more than once during the past year. Complete loss of staff is a devastating experience for any law firm and can have severe financial consequences. As can be expected, our review has indicated that the primary cause was not the personnel but rather the firm itself. Causes of such turnover was traced to the following:

    • No firm mission, goals, or statement of direction.
    • Lack of firm leadership.
    • Non-existent written firm policies, procedures and guidelines.
    • Treating staff as second class citizens rather than as members of the legal service team.
    • Inconsistent treatment of personnel.
    • Lack of adequate staff training.
    • Insufficient structure.
    • Poor office communications vehicles.
    • Non-existent office staff meetings.
    • Non-existent staff evaluation systems.

    Stress and the feeling of being insignificant and not trusted were the primary concerns expressed. Compensation had very little to do with the departures. We suggest that law firms begin paying more attention to their organizational infrastructure.

  • THE WEEKLY STAFF MEETING

  • The weekly staff meeting is becoming an important tool as law firms look to the team concept as a method of providing quality legal services to clients. Just as the traditional Monday morning sales meeting is used in the marketing world to charge up and motivate the sales staff the weekly staff meeting can be used to achieve similar objectives. Such sessions can greatly improve the communications flow within the firm, identify problem areas, and generate new ideas. We recommend that such meetings be early in the morning, limited to 45 minutes, and have a prepared agenda. Written minutes should be prepared upon conclusion and reviewed at the beginning of the next meeting. Complex topics requiring extended time should be presented in a different forum such as a quarterly staff workshop.

  • FIRM MANAGEMENT

  • Many people in law firm management are devoting too much energy to preserve the past and not enough to "competing for the future". The inability of many firms to look ahead for ways to reinvent their law firms has lead to both costly blunders and monumental catch-up costs. Firm strategy should be about changing the rules. A law firm can control its own destiny only if it understands how to control the destiny of its profession. To do so the law firm must change in some fundamental way. "Getting to the future first" is preferable to being a follower. Law firm's must rethink existing services, service delivery, service packaging, and firm structures. Law firm management must be asking questions to gain a point of view about the future and create a blueprint for getting there.

  • MANAGEMENT REPORTS WITHOUT GOALS

  • Recently we have had several law firms express frustration regarding the use and purpose of management reports generated by their accounting systems. The primary problem stems from the firm not having any form of financial goals or expectations. Management reports are simply tools that are used to assist firm management in ascertaining whether the firm is on track in achieving firm targets (goals). Without goals (fee collections, billings, billable hours, etc. per attorney) management reports serve little purpose. We suggest that law firms begin to formulate at least revenue and production goals.
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