Make More Rain : compensation, benchmarking

Could Your Law Firm Do Better?

Admin — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:47:00 GMT

How do you know if your law firm could be doing better? Christian Stadler, writing in the July–August 2007 Harvard Business Review answered that question this way:

“Benchmarking is the obvious answer, but not by comparing poor companies with good ones. The way to get at this problem is to compare good companies with even better ones.”

Stadler’s comment is a reminder of the important role benchmarking plays in driving law firm performance and is insightful commentary on how benchmarks should be used. If you depend on surveys for benchmarks, don’t overlook emerging continuous benchmarking service alternatives. The new tools from the likes of Juris and Redwood Analytics promise to replace stale survey information with a continuous flow of automatically collected “current” operating metrics.

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.

More Reasons to Participate in Law Firm Economic Survey

Admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:09:44 GMT

June 30, 2007 is the cutoff date for the Juris Law Firm Economic Survey. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to participate in this annual survey. The survey report and analysis you will receive for free as a participant will shed light on just why partners in the top performing 25 percent of law firms earned twice as much as the next best performing group. The accompanying analysis and recommendations will provide you with specific steps you can take as a firm to improve financial performance.

As if that were not enough, consider that Juris, Inc. has also increased the purse for the winning participating firm by $5,000 in a drawing to be held on June 30. In addition, to encourage last minute procrastinators, Juris, Inc. has agreed to give law firms using Juris software who submit a completed survey between now and June 30 a one-time $50.00 credit against their monthly software maintenance and support plan. And since you receive a free copy of the Survey report, you save the $495 publication cost.

The Juris Economic Survey, one of the largest in the legal community, is unique in that it targets midrange-sized law firms, particularly those with 10 to 150 attorneys. What you will learn from the survey will, in all likelihood, help you increase partner income. To increase your income per partner, ask your administrator or accounting staff to start on the Survey today. Participating is easy—even easier for Juris law firms since Juris, Inc. will provide you with a downloadable report to collect requested survey information.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. 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.

Law Firms Benefit From Competitive Intelligence

Admin — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:00:00 GMT

Janet Ellen Raasch asks and answers the question “What do the top firms have in common?” Her answer is competitive intelligence or CI.

Her article in Law Practice Today highlights some of the ways competitive intelligence is being used by “big law” to make better decisions. She notes the movement made by large firms to dedicate resources to the collection and analysis of competitive information.

Midrange law firms don’t have the luxury of a dedicated CI staff. They have had to rely on personal awareness of their marketplace and on 18- to 24-month old survey data. Those surveys are important sources of information, which is why Juris, Inc. conducts an Annual Law Firm Economic Survey specifically targeted at the midrange level—firms ranging in size from 10 to 150 attorneys. The survey, covering law firm performance for 2006 and the outlook for 2007, is currently underway. By participating in the Juris Law Firm Economic Survey, you can receive a free copy of the completed survey and its accompanying analysis and recommendations.

While surveys are important, Juris, Inc. has taken one giant step forward with its recent introduction of an online benchmarking service. The service is called Juris Insight and participation is currently limited to law firms that use Juris software for their financial system. Information is extracted automatically, eliminating the need to fill out survey forms. Participating firms will be able to compare their own financial metrics, prices, and other operational information with that of their peer group. Since information is present in a comparative format, it is immediately useful and insightful. The big payoff is that information is timely—current versus stale survey data.

Many of the examples in Raasch’s article might be better described as business and market intelligence. But one thing is for sure. Law firm leaders today have to look outside of the firm for information to guide their decisions and that includes understanding what the competition is doing. Until recently, surveys have been the only tool for systematically collecting that intelligence information. New online benchmarking services are changing that, providing easy access to timely information about what is happening in their marketplace. Redwood Analytics and Thomson West are addressing this area for large firms and through its Juris Insight service, Juris, Inc. , now does so for midrange law firms.

Benchmarking Services for Midsized Law Firms

Admin — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 17:55:00 GMT

Competitive intelligence and specifically peer group benchmarking has been growing in importance as law firms increasingly adopt traditional business practices. This post is one of several summarizing information garnered from the September 2006 Benchmarking Symposium held in Nashville, Tennessee.

Juris, Inc. recently joined the ranks of Redwood Analytics and Thomson West in offering automated peer group benchmarking. What sets Juris apart is that its service is targeted at midsized firms—those below the largest 200 law firms. Until now only BigLaw has had the insight one gains from meaningful peer group competitive intelligence. Not any more! Juris has changed that.

Juris, Inc. referenced the company’s recent Law Firm Economic Survey in noting that firms that set goals, measured performance, and held people accountable dramatically outperformed others. The disparity in per-partner income between the top performing 25 percent of midsized U.S. law firms and the rest of the pack is eye-opening. Partners in the top 25 percent earn twice the income of the next quartile and more than seven times the per-partner income of the lowest 25 percent.

Intuitively, managing partners understand. For years they have purchased every law firm survey they could get their hands on. Unfortunately, the surveys were always at least one year outdated. Most firms could never find survey segmentations that represented a perfect peer group for comparisons.

Automated benchmarking services change everything for the law firm. Live benchmarking and shared information among anonymous peers will identify areas of competitive advantage as well as areas for improvement—from billing rates to collection days. Just as record keeping in sports has changed the quality of the game, live peer group benchmarking will change the practice of law for the better.

Juris Insight is the first live benchmarking system created solely for the benefit of midsized law firms. Unlike traditional surveys, Insight provides information that is as up to date as your most recent monthly reports. Using state-of-the-art data extraction technology, Insight directly pulls standardized information from your database, encrypts it and sends it via highly secure Web services to the Juris data center – of course, all names and other identifying information are purged from the system – where it is aggregated into our data warehouse. The information is then presented via a customizable Web site called JurisInsight.com.

Today, law firm managing partners and executives invest significantly in the purchase of year-old surveys, and then invest their time and staff time in comparative analysis against imperfectly matched segmentations. They do this in an effort to collect competitive intelligence as a guide for improving the law firm’s own performance. Automated benchmarking eliminates manual compiling of information, replaces year old information with a continuous flow of business and competitive intelligence information.

Juris Insight service is currently available only for law firms using Juris business software but Juris, Inc. expects to eventually expand its offering to all law firms in the future.

Previous posting covering other presentations during the symposium include the following:

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.