Redwood Analytics

I spent a good bit of time with 230 law firm management and administrative folks at the annual Juris International Users conference. The Juris user group is unique in that the organization is completely independent. It is financed and run entirely by licensees of Juris software.

I find these annual meetings insightful on two levels. Meeting topics reflect management trends in midrange law firms. Informal group discussions about daily life in the law firm shine the light on the things that motivate and the things that frustrate. Those conversations are often about the relationship between the professional side of the law firm and the non-lawyer people who make it possible for lawyers to concentrate on law.

Reviewing the conference topics for this year, it is pretty clear that those involved in running the business side of the firm are interested in more sophisticated management and operational tools—more user-driven reporting tools, dashboard technology, workflow optimization, pre-billing compliance testing, electronic billing and advanced financial accounting. Business intelligence is a hot topic and Juris has rolled out some extraordinary products and reserves in response to this increasing sophistication in law firm management. One of the interesting new services is Juris Insight, a continuous benchmarking service that not only tracks key performance metrics for the participating law firms but provides comparisons with peer law firms.

As for the informal conversations, I was pleased that more of those were focused on the firm’s objectives—what the law firm was trying to accomplish. There appeared to be fewer dealing with “difficulties of working with attorneys.” There was still some talk about the second-class treatment afforded to non-lawyer members of the law firm team. I ran into one administrator who is trying to do her job and survive under an abusive boss. Abusive bosses don’t get the best out of people, but jerks do get law firms sued. That reason alone warrants a “no jerks allowed” policy. For the most part, however, conversations were upbeat with the interest of the law firm at the center. That is a good sign.

One thing that has become clear over the years is that the administrative and accounting people in a law firm are the gatekeepers when it comes to putting powerful capabilities and features of software to work on behalf of the law firm. That is especially true of capabilities added to software subsequent to the firm’s original purchase. Take automated compliance testing, for example. An increasing number of corporate law firm clients have mandated billing guidelines. Bills that deviate from those guidelines get rejected or adjusted. Juris includes tools for automatically testing billing transactions against those client-mandated requirements and suggesting the corrective action needed to bring the transactions into compliance. At firms where the automatic compliance testing capability is being used, revenue losses due to client adjustments or rejected bills have been eliminated or significantly reduced. Unfortunately, there are other law firms where the accounting people have not taken advantage of the Juris capability. This powerful benefit remains locked away, unused, with firm leaders in the dark, unaware of the available system feature that would improve law firm performance and client service.

Software is unique in that through enhancements and optional additions, the software becomes more valuable and beneficial over time. Newer users of a software product often get more value out of the same software. That is because older users often have not updated their skills for features and capabilities added since the original purchase. So many beneficial capabilities go untapped that I suggest law firms require their administrator or principal accounting person to repeat the training regimen for their business software at least once every two or three years. It is also well worthwhile to engage the consulting arm of your business software vendor to perform a two- or three-day performance review and recommend changes in your procedures or system use for improved financial performance and for increased client satisfaction. Such a review always pays for itself.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris®. For information about Juris products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income contact Juris National Sales Center:

877/377-3740, e-mail info@juris.com or go to www.Juris.com.