Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog
Category: Tools
Apr 24, 2019
Question:
I am the sole owner of a six attorney personal injury firm in San Francisco with five support staff. My father started the firm twenty-five years ago and has since retired from practice. I took over the practice five years ago. At the time I took over the practice we had just my dad, myself, a couple legal assistants, and no technology. Since then I have done a lot to grow the practice including adding attorneys and staff as well as implementing technology. My biggest problem is training new attorneys and staff. We have no written documentation as to how we do things so training has to be done orally by myself or others every time a new attorney or staff member joins the firm. Can you offer any suggestions?
Response:
Sounds like you don’t have a written employee handbook or procedures manuals. These are essential tools that every law firm regardless of size should have. These tools dramatically reduce time that has to be spent by others to on-board new employees and can facilitate bringing on lower cost employees with less experience such as recent law graduates or paralegal graduates.
The employee handbook outlines the firm’s employment policies and contains sections such as:
- Relations with clients
- Objectivity
- Confidentiality
- Investments and other financial dealings with clients
- Outside work
- Overtime or bonus
- Salary review
- Insurance coverage
- Sick leave
- Vacation and Personal time off
- Maturity Leave
- Continuing education and tuition reimbursements
- Time off to attend various training and professional functions
- Dues for professional and other organizations
- Allowable expenses and reimbursement procedures
- Involvement in civic and other community organizations
- Speeches, articles and books
An operation or procedures manual is the firm’s how-to-do-it guide. It defines the purpose of work, specifies the steps that need to be taken while doing the work, and summarizes the standards associates with both the process and the result. Your operation or procedures manual specifies this is how we do it here. Every process in the firm should be documented in your manual – from marketing – to accounting – to IT – to legal case work. Sections in your manual might include:
- Making initial new client appointments
- Handing the new client appointment
- Opening new clients and matters
- Closing matters
- Billing procedures
- Processing cash receipts
- Processing vendor payments
- Handing retainer payments
- Managing the firms trust account
- Managing the case file
- Filing the lawsuit
- etc.
Procedures manuals are often a list of steps in outline form. The American Bar Association has a book – The Law Office Policy and Procedures Manual that may help you get started.
In my earlier life I spent nine years in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) office and there I learned the importance of policy and procedures manuals and I carried this into both law firms where I worked prior to starting my consulting practice thirty-four years ago.
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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Feb 12, 2019
Question:
Our firm is a sixteen attorney personal injury insurance defense firm located in Dallas, Texas. I am a member on our three-person management committee. We have been experiencing associate attorney and staff turnover. Recently, we had all employees complete confidential surveys concerning their thoughts and feedback concerning the firm. One theme that was central to all was that the firm has poor communications with employees. I would like to hear your thoughts on what we need to do to improve.
Response:
Obviously, more specifics would be helpful. Communication is a broad topic. Are they talking about mentoring, training, updates of what is going on in the firm, etc? However, here a a few best practices to think about:
- Find ways to improve communications with members, associates and staff.
- Use the appropriate communications vehicle for the task at hand. (Face-to-face, voice mail, e-mail, memo, etc.)
- When a few employees are not following policies, or causing difficulties – resist the temptation to send out a blanket e-mail to all – and have the courage to counsel and discipline the individual offender. The will improve the overall morale and attitude of others in the firm.
- Hiring
- Terminate marginal people.
- Develop procedures to ensure that the firm is hiring from a pool of qualified
- Formulate formal hiring and firing policies.
- Insure that hiring’s and firings are documented in accordance with the firm policies.
- Updated employee handbook.
- Training
- More formal training and mentoring programs should be designed for staff and associates alike. In addition to typical legal and office topics, other topics should include skill training in:
- English language (staff)
- Communications
- Law firm economics generally (associates)
- Management
- Time management
- Time Keeping
- Marketing
- Client service
- Speaking and writing
- Communications and Policies
- Communications can always be improved, and the appropriate channels used for the appropriate situation. (e.g. individual face-to-face, staff meetings, telephone call, memo or email.)
- The firm should insure that it is delegating as much as it should. In particular,
partner time spent on administrivia.
- People with growth potential should be placed where they have the greatest potential to grow.
- The staff should know what they are trying to accomplish.
- Employee handbooks should insure that the following policies are included:
- Relations with clients
- Objectivity
- Confidentiality
- Investments and other financial dealings with clients
- Outside work
- Overtime or bonus
- Salary review
- Insurance coverage
- Sick leave
- Continuing education and tuition reimbursements
- Time off to attend various training and professional functions
- Dues for professional and other organizations
- Allowable expenses and reimbursement procedures
- Involvement in civic and other community organizations
- Speeches, articles and books
- Staff members should be made aware of the firm policies and changes in policy.
- The firm should develop a procedure for feedback from the associates and staff to use to improve the knowledge and skills of all staff. (Internal survey, suggestion box, and other tools)
- The firm should conduct regularly scheduled frequent meetings.
- Attorney and staff errors should be handled in a way to improve performance and maintain respect for the firm. Not placing blame.
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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC