3 Signs That You Should No Longer Find Comfort in Your Comfort Zone

Relying on an old law firm business model used decades ago is negatively impacting more than you may think. Get tips for next steps.

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Many solo and small law firm attorneys are limiting the amount of money they can earn and are negatively impacting their work-life balance by clinging to law firm business models that attorneys used decades ago.  Here are three signs that you have become too comfortable in your comfort zone and need to take a new approach.

Seemingly Endless Administration

How much of your time is spent on non-billable, administrative work? Administrative activities are an essential part of running a small law firm, but more often than not they take up a disproportionate amount of your time.  Let’s look at a few examples:

  • Are you manually tracking time in a spreadsheet, writing it down on paper, or sending it in an email at the end of the week?
  • Are you searching through file cabinets full of paper trying to locate previous work or quickly find an active client file?
  • Are you haphazardly keeping track of your matter notes and tasks and inadvertently overlooking them?  Do you have a post it note system or do you jot down notes on any paper in plain sight?
  • Are you spending too much time manually calculating – and recalculating – deadlines

You may be comfortable with the fact that this is the way small law firms have always been run, but all of this manual activity creates chaos and results in wasted time and effort.  It can also make you appear unorganized or unprofessional to clients. Your time could be better spent on billable activities, client development and/or your own work-life balance. You need to look for ways to automate and streamline your administrative work.

Ignoring Security Risks

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Paper-based law offices, on-site servers and email disclaimers are no longer secure options for your law firm.  According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, more than 70% of cyber attacks target small businesses.  And, what would happen to your paper files in the event of a fire, burst water pipe or flood?  The ABA Model Rules state that lawyers are required to make reasonable efforts to prevent inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure or access to information relating to the representation of a client.  Your law firm can’t afford to have its reputation and trust damaged due to a cyber attack or security incident.  Ensuring the security of your law firm and client data should not be ignored.

Cutting Costs to Increase Profits

Managing overhead costs is a skill that small law firms need to master.  However, many attorneys believe that if their costs are as low as possible their profits will increase.  Yes, expenses should be carefully considered, but it is also important to understand their full value.  Because of this overhead cost fear, attorneys overlook the opportunity to reallocate expenses to items with a higher return on investment that drive efficiency and improvements in the law firm.  Attorneys miss this key business management strategy if they are solely focused on cutting costs.

Let’s explore technology as an example.  According to the 2016 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, small law firms that use cloud computing rate their top 3 important benefits as:

  • Easy browser access from anywhere
  • 24 x 7 availability
  • Low cost of entry and predictable monthly expense

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The third item on the list speaks directly to reallocating expenses.  The cloud offers a low cost of entry and eliminates higher costs your firm probably already incurs with paper storage or maintaining servers.  And, when you consider legal practice management, the return on investment contributes to an even better story.  According to a 2014 Blue Hill Research study, attorneys were able to save up to 8 hours of administrative work a month with a practice management solution and in firms with fewer than 5 attorneys nearly 100% of that time was converted into billable activity.

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

If you recognize any of these signs in your firm, it’s time to evaluate what improvements should be made for your firm’s overall health.  One place to start is to understand the virtual law firm concept.  For those of you “comfortable” (and, are you really comfortable?) in your ways, a virtual law firm may sound overwhelming and foreign.  But it doesn’t have to be.  The beauty is that if you understand what a virtual law firm is, you can choose to implement as much or as little of it as you want and still realize big results.  Go ahead.  Take your first step out of your comfort zone.  Your law firm needs it.  Download The Benefits of a Virtual Law Firm whitepaper today and start exploring.