Make More Rain : operations, technology

Large Law Firm Focuses Resources On Measuring Performance

Admin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:00:57 GMT

In the February, 2008 Managing Partner Magazine, a case study was published regarding the international firm Herbert Smith, who recently implemented a financial management system that focused on measuring performance. The case study mimics everything we promote on More Partner Income and thus deserves highlight.

The study begins with a quote from William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), who said "if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it". They may have done well to also quote "don't reinvent the wheel", since most of the sweat put forward in devising their system is already developed by software vendors such as LexisNexis. It is the process, though, that bears note.

The firm adopted a "phased approach" to implementation that focused on basic needs first, then expanded to add functionality as the basic needs were met and a comfort level established by the users. The firm initially only gave access to the system to the partners and used three phases:

Easy access to key financial reports
Financial planning and reporting
Time recording and "universe" design

The first phase entailed providing easy access to the important financial reports that had previously been distributed on paper. This not only provided the partners with the information they needed, it helped them become accustomed to viewing this information electronically.

Phase two was focused on budgeting and management accounts. They also placed some forward-looking indicators of performance and trend analysis. This helped the firm make future projections through modeling.

Phase three provided real-time information for fee earners, including alerts when time entries were late or incomplete.

In my opinion, phase three should have been phase 1, phase 1 should have been phase 2, and phase 2 should have been phase 3. However, whatever works is the right solution. The important thing is that the firm set up their implementation with the highest probability of success by not cramming an entire new method of consuming information to all fee earners at once. Instead, they focused on getting partners on board first, then eased them into the solution by first getting the most important information (read: what they had already been getting) to them first. Then incrementally adding new value to the system until it became an indispensable tool for managing the firm.

When your firm is looking to invest in a software solution:

If considering to develop it internally, which will require specialized staff to maintain, make sure you research to see if software vendors have already developed the solution you need;
When you implement the solution, make sure you do it in phases to ensure adoption by all those who will benefit from it.

We have begun taking submissions for the 2008 Law Firm Economic Survey. If your firm is interested in participating, please contact Brian by clicking here.

Business Development Opportunities For Law Firms In 2008

Admin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:00:08 GMT

An article in the Tampa Tribune (hat tip: Estrin Report) reports that foreclosures are so high in some areas that firms are hiring as many as 200 additional staff to handle the workload. Foreclosures in Hillsborough County, Florida in February more than doubled the amount from February 2007 and is more than 5 times the foreclosures from February 2006. This reportedly is putting a strain on the "assembly line" approach firms here use to push these cases through the system.

This is an extremely worrying sign. Granted, the investment houses purchased in Florida may not be the primary residences of the owners. However, their investments were lost and many lost their savings in the process.

This is more evidence that the 2008 Client Advisory published by Hildebrandt and CitiBank is off the mark. There does appear to be offsetting legal work to be found. This is reassuring news to law firms, especially those who have expanded practice areas, that they may not suffer what the Client Advisory termed "the perfect storm" where all areas of practice trend downward with no offsetting surge of work.

However, it is likely that Congress will act to slow foreclosure activity on primary homes sometime this year. Though good news on the surface, Congress isn't very effective in softening the effect of a market correction.

Our economy is volatile. Opportunities for work will be everywhere but not necessarily in areas traditionally served by your firm. Firms need to prepare to be innovative in their business development approaches this year to take advantage of the continued fall out from the several market corrections that have happened and will happen in the coming months.

We have begun taking submissions for the 2008 Law Firm Economic Survey. If your firm is interested in participating, please contact Brian by clicking here.

Eight Legal Technology Trends For 2008

Admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:00:56 GMT

Dennis Kennedy, in an article published February 27, 2008 on llrx.com, writes of eight trends in technology that will impact the legal industry this year. Although he predicts a "sleepy year for legal technology", Kennedy believes "[f]irms that are good at technology will take advantage of opportunities to widen their technology advantage over their competitors and position themselves well for the time when economic recovery comes."

The trends for 2008:

Making Better Use of What You Already Own.
Expect budgets to tighten and firms to look at what is on the shelf and spend more effort in making what they already have work better for them.

Lawyers Win Round 1 in the E-discovery Battle . . . by a Wide Margin.
E-discovery isn’t going to be nearly as big a hit inside law firms as it is inside of tech shows in 2008. "Electronic discovery remains a trickle rather than a flood in today's litigation world."

Security Begins to Matter . . . Really.
Kennedy expects clients, particularly in healthcare and finance, to press firms on security. He notes the lax policies at law firms related to sensitive data (something I too have observed). Hot topics include drive and folder encryption, remote access, and more stringent password policies. Email encryption is notably absent from this list. Speaking of email . . .

The Death Throes for Email?
Email has proven an unreliable mechanism for communication, says Kennedy. Because of the problems inherent with email (spam for example), communication tools like instant messaging and file transfer protocols will increase and use of email for quick communication and file transfer will decrease. In my opinion, the same security concerns are present in other online communication protocols, not just email. I am not betting on widespread adoption of more secure standards in the legal community in 2008, however.

Going Mobile.
For those who haven’t already moved to blackberry devices and other mobile devices, Kennedy predicts the productivity gains by those who already use the technology will lead others to adopt them. He also notes the widespread use of tools such as remote access that many attorneys now take for granted. I will add that I believe more and more firms will demand web-based applications to expand their mobile workplace.

Opening Audio and Video Channels.
In addition to the increased use of blogs and RSS feeds, Kennedy predicts a higher use of podcasts and streaming video by law firms in 2008. Several companies that cater to the legal market, including Martindale Hubbell, are implementing use of social networking tools such as this into their offerings. I think it is still a few years away before more widespread adoption by law firms, but it will certainly be something to watch.

Dancing with a Recession.
Sometimes you can talk yourself into a recession. Enough has been said about it ~~(though the media has been curiously silent lately)~~ and the indicators are still pointing downward. Kennedy predicts that firms will want to delay large investments and will look into ways to meet their needs without costly hardware upgrades. Kennedy expects Software as a Service (SaaS) and Open Source software use to increase in 2008 as cost effective ways to upgrade their technology.

Smart Ways to Work Together – Collaboration Tools.
When it comes to productivity tools, Kennedy writes, “2008 will see the growth of ways for lawyers to use technology to work together with clients, colleagues, courts, opposing counsel and others.” Kennedy, along with Tom Mighell, co-authored a soon-to-be published book called The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together. The book can be pre-ordered by clicking here.

Read the entire article by clicking here.

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.

CRM and the Client-Focused Law Firm

Admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:41:35 GMT

Over at Juris when they talk about customers (and prospects), they call them “THE FORCE”. If you are a Star Wars™ fan, you know that the Force flows throughout the universe influencing all things. It is an apt description of law firm clients—those the law firm exists to serve. Law firm clients are the law firm's only source of revenues. They give the law firm an opportunity to produce results for the benefit of law firm partners. May the Force be with you!

As basic and fundamental as that concept is, law firms lag behind the business world when it comes to CRM, Customer Relationship Management. Many have confused CRM with software. It is not. Naras Eechambadi, CEO of Quaero (www.quaero.com), a marketing performance management and technology services company, recently wrote, “When CRM efforts ‘fail’, it is often because companies look to technology to provide a silver bullet and are disappointed when it fails to deliver.” In a separate article, Lee, founder and principal of High-Yield Methods, went further: ”If we've learned anything over the past 15 years, we've learned that successful CRM starts with customer-centric business strategies. Plus we've also learned that technology does not enable strategies directly; rather, technology enables business processes that implement strategies. All we have to do is get these basic facts straight—and "get it" that we don't even talk technology until we fully address strategy and process.”

CRM is a state of mind. It is a strategy. It has to be an unshakable mindset at the top of an organization and must be widely accepted throughout the organization as cultural core belief. It can not be compartmentalized or delegated. Francis Buttle, an Australia Professor at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, put it this way: "CRM is, of course, a cross-functional business discipline. It sits nowhere, but it belongs everywhere. It could be claimed by marketing, IT, operations or strategy subject-matter experts, but it is generally owned by no one."

The organization must first believe that its purpose is to serve the interests of its clients. If it unabashedly does so, then it will achieve success and reap the benefits. All decisions and all processes have to place the client’s interest first. You can not do that effectively unless the organization’s systems place the client at its center, and that is what CRM software is designed to help the firm do by keeping track of firm-wide client activity and sharing that information organization-wide.

A key is to understand that CRM software is only a tool in support of the law firm’s customer-focused strategy. The strategy comes first. Software like ContactEase™ available from Juris Alliance Partner Cole Valley Software, Inc. comes next.

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.

The Midsized Law Firm Bargain

Admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 20:18:08 GMT

A February 2007 Law Office Management and Administrative Report article dealing with the continuing rise in large law firm rates includes the following chart of billing rates:

Compare the above to standard rates of the top 250 firms and major corporate consumers of legal services can reduce the cost of those services significantly by turning away from AmLaw 200 firms and their nearby wannabes. What is good for midsized firms is that corporate prospects know about the bargain that midsized law firms represent and technology makes it easier for them to find and do business with smaller firms.

Robert Denney, reporting on trends in the legal profession in the January/February 2007 issue of Law Practice noted the continued success of independent midsized law firms. He wrote "legal pundits have continued to predict their demise--however, the pundits' conventional wisdom continues to be wrong."

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.

Law Firm Clients Want Their News and Information with Pictures

Admin — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:50:46 GMT

The February 2007 ABA journal article Less Razzle, More Dazzle appeared in the Journal’s section Ideas From The Front. It should have been called Ideas From The Past.

The article was in praise of established legal newsletters that refuse to deviate from their long-time tradition of straight text. Why? Because they say that is what their readers want—substance with “no fluff, no fuss, no muss, no color, no gloss, no pictures, no graphs. Just black-and-white words. Lots of them.”

Well old guys, you just keep doing what you are doing and you will go the way of the Hershey candy bar! There was a time when in the psyche of the population there was only one candy bar and it came with or without nuts. New generations didn’t want their father's Oldsmobile. They didn’t want their grand parent’s Hershey Bar, and they don’t want their information the same way you used to receive it—all text and no pictures.

Much of the newer technology deals with managing the flow of information. Overly busy people don’t intend to waste their time digging through pure black-and-white text to see if it includes something of importance to them. If you provide information to your clients, you have to get with the times. We are talking RSS feeds, drill-down summaries, dashboards, mashups, podcasts, etc.

Hang tough and keep dishing out any product or service the same way you always have and the new guys and girls are going somewhere else. When it comes to information, Generation X and Generation Y people will not tolerate processing it the same old way. So if your law firm is putting out text-only newsletters to attract and retain clients, then the people you are appealing to are the same people who are leaving the scene. If you want to please them while they are still around at least offer an option. Give your clients a choice—the “text-only version” or the “next generation version”. It is great to continue to loyally serve the people who have made your firm what it is, but not at the cost of those you will depend on for your future.

One of the important steps in planning is to define the environment in which you must operate and succeed—market, social, economic, governmental, competitive, technology, human resources, etc. The fact that the next generation of clients and legal talent is changing the way it processes information is an important difference between yesterday, today, and tomorrow—one that you need to consider to remain competitive. Don’t go the way of the Hershey bar.

PS: After writing the above post, I received a nice e-mail from Howard Lax providing additional insight as to why he styles his newsletter as he does. Mr. Lax is greatly respected and his newsletters are valued highly by those who receive it. Howard Lax is an expert who knows what he is doing and why. For the rest of us, my advice is “don’t try this on your own”.

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.

Law Firm View of the Economic Outlook for 2007

Admin — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:27:00 GMT

Unfortunately, there is an overhanging concern that world events or terrorist activity could abruptly change the normal course of events. Nevertheless, the odds-on favorite is for a good economy in 2007. One investment organization I deal with places the chances of a down turn in the low 15 percent range. We appear on course for a GDP growth in the range of 2.75 percent to 3.25 percent. Inflation should hold to the 2 percent to 2.5 percent range. It looks like the Federal Reserve will hold interest at their current level or even ease in the second quarter. All in all, the outlook is a healthy one.

Nevertheless, world uncertainties warrant keeping some powder dry. Avoid overextending the firm in terms of debt, merger activity, or overreaching in terms of talent additions. Relying heavily on a major client or particular industry could prove to be an undue risk. If you are heavily dependent on a few clients or single industry, it is time to consider their susceptibility to the particular kinds of risks we face today, including the risk of a sudden change in the availability of oil.

While the outlook is for a good year, its may be one best suited to consolidating your gains and strengthening your law firm financial health and operation performance—emphasizing improved planning, workflow efficiency, and the firm’s overall performance metrics. Concentrate on improved effective rates, better scheduling and delegation of the firm’s associates and paralegals as well as on faster billing and collection. Use this period to replace any remaining legacy systems. You don’t want to get caught in recession or downturn with systems that are no longer supported or that become operationally unsound. Nor do you want to have the competitive disadvantage of being behind your peers.

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.

Sales Taxes on Legal Fees

Admin — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:47:48 GMT

States are constantly on the hunt for more sources of tax revenues. With our increasing service economy, their lustful eyes often fall on services fees.

Hawaii has just made the move to subject legal fees to sales taxes and you can bet they will not be the last. Of course, they couldn’t make it simple, so the tax varies from island to island.

I picked up the new Hawaii sales tax law when one of the Juris client service team members sent out an e-mail about Jay Fidell, partner in the Hawaii firm Bendet, Fidell, Sakai & Lee. The law firm is a long-time Juris client. Mr. Fidell had been interviewed by TV station KITV in Hawaii about the impact of the new tax laws. Juris got a nice plug from the partner, who remarked, “This tax increase will cost businesses thousands of dollars to reprogram their accounting software; our firm was fortunate—we use an accounting package by Juris.” Juris® already handles sales taxes, including multiple jurisdictions.

The moral of the story is that it is just a matter of time before sales taxes come to all U.S. law firms. So when and if you start considering a change in your business systems, be sure that sales tax capabilities are on your list of requirements.

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.

The Country Lawyer vs. the Modern Law Firm's Market Reach

Admin — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:11:00 GMT

I recently had the opportunity to discuss with a number of attorneys the difference between the geographic limitations of the traditional country lawyer model as compared to the modern law firm’s potential for national and international reach.

The old model of the country lawyer was simple but limiting. You hung out your shingle, and from then on, your success depended entirely on your ability to build relationships with those in the community. That model is still available, and even in big cities many law firms still operate as country lawyers.

Other than the limiting aspect of jurisdictions, the reach of a law firm no longer has to be confined to community and face-to-face relationship building. Make the right moves and the savvy can become a go-to firm on a national and international level. I live in the small town of Franklin that plays suburbia to Nashville, TN. But even in my small town, there are law firms that represent international corporations regarding matters within the local jurisdiction. Today’s small communities have national and international connections and investors—all are prospects for the technologically savvy law firm. And then there are those segments of law that are not limited to local jurisdictions.

The shingle has been replaced by the firm’s web site. Blogs and RSS feeds provide a boundary-free way to become a go-to firm. Relationships are built by providing value to others; blogs and RSS feeds are an opportunity to do so on a national and international scale. They provide a vehicle for the firm to demonstrate the four top characteristics of a go-to firm:

Knowledge of the law
Communication ability
Confident style
Industry (or consumer type) knowledge

The caveat is that doing so requires targeting narrowly defined market segments where the law firm is able to acquire and demonstrate its superior knowledge of the issues, needs, opportunities, and problems of the targeted industry or consumer.

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.

Wasserman on Law Firm Management

Admin — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:33:58 GMT

Marcia Watson Wasserman has an insightful article in the October issue of The Bottom Line, the publication of the Law Practice Management and Technology Section of the California Bar.

In her article, “Managing Law Firms in the 21st Century,” she reminds us how far professional management has come since the 1970s—from the benevolent dictator to the management by committee period to today.

What about today? Some law firms have it all together. Others do not. She notes that, in general, there is still a void in leadership and management training in most firms. She notes that too many firms select managing partners by default “without regard for business acumen and ‘people skills’.” Likewise, management by committee can lead to analysis paralysis without a strong leader capable of facilitating meetings that reach decisions. And like morepartnerincome, she stresses the importance of strategic planning as essential to position firms for success going forward.

I shared the podium with Marcia Wasserman in June 2006 at the ALM Small Firm Business Conference in Los Angeles where she spoke on succession planning. You can forget about passing the baton if you have no one to pass it to. In order for a law firm to take on a life beyond that of its current partners, it must develop management and leadership deep within the organization. Wasserman stresses the importance of management training. She encourages involving associates in the committee process to develop their skills. She emphasizes that those in management positions have to be compensated for their managerial role. To not do so leaves the best potential talent concentrating on more individually lucrative billable activities while encouraging others to take on the management roles for the wrong reasons.

Her comments ring true when you consider the results of the recent Juris Law Firm Economic Survey. The top performing firms, those with partner incomes of twice the next best performing group, got where they are because they planned, set goals, measured performance, and held people accountable. They could not have done so without having partners in leadership positions with people skills who understood the financial metrics that drive law firm performance then paid attention to the numbers. Magic happens when people pursue common goals guided by a shared set of core beliefs. You don’t get magic by default!

Marcia Watson Wasserman is President of Comprehensive Management Solutions, Inc. and special advisor to the executive committee of the Law Practice Management and Technology Section of the California Bar.

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.

Midsized Firms Have Available Capacity and a Pricing Advantage

Admin — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 17:21:00 GMT

Altman Weil has been conducting an annual Survey of Law Firm Economics since 1972. Its survey for 2005 contains information from 285 law firms. The survey indicates associate income gains outpaced increases in partner compensation. Given the associate compensation bump occurring in the current year, 2006 is likely to show more of the same. Altman Weil slices and dices their annual survey in many ways, and it has been one of the more popular sources for benchmarking one’s own performance against others. You can read more about the survey in their August news release or purchase the survey by going to the Altman Weil Publications, Inc. product page.

When you compare survey results, there is always a little “apples and oranges” problem because different surveys slice things differently. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to compare some of the Altman Weil news release numbers to those in the Juris® Law Firm Economic Survey. The Juris survey for 2005 combined information from 274 firms compared to the 285 in Altman Weil’s, so the sample sizes are the same for all practical purposes. The Juris survey does differ through its emphasis on midsized law firms; whereas, Altman Weil's survey includes firms with 150+ attorneys. The billing rate and billing hours reported in the news release for partners was for equity partners with 21+ years of experience and for associates with 4-5 years of experience.

Partner compensation from the Juris survey is the average of all firms surveyed. The top quartile in the Juris survey earned more than twice the average. What is striking is that midsized firm partners are on a par with firms in the Altman Weil survey as far as compensation is concerned, but midsized firms appear to be significantly more competitive in terms of billing rates. It follows that they must have a materially lower cost structure given comparable partner compensation numbers. The implication is that midsized firms have competitive pricing for competing with large firms and may very well have more pricing increase room.

Partners are working harder in midsized firms surveyed by Juris, Inc., and they are less skilled at fully utilizing associates. Improvements in scheduling and delegation would fall directly to the bottom line, partner compensation, for midsized firms.

Considering the lower billing rates and the lower associate billable hours, in the Juris survey compared to the Altman Weil news release numbers, one must conclude that midsized firms have both available capacity and the opportunity to improve pricing. Improving either or both would materially increase partner income.

You can purchase or learn more about the Juris survey by going toJuris® Law Firm Economic Survey.

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.

Big Law's Grip on Corporate Legal Fees is Weakening

Admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 17:29:00 GMT

JD Hull’s post Do BigClients Need BigLaw More Than 10% of the Time might have been titled “In Praise of Mega Firms", for he points out that their reservoir of people and expansive geographic coverage is needed by clients—but only for about 10 percent of their legal needs. It is the largest 250 law firms, varying in size from 150 lawyers to 3200 lawyers that he includes in the mega firm category.

Or his post could have been titled “The BigClient Opportunity for UnBigLaw” since 90 percent of the legal needs of those clients can be fulfilled as effectively and certainly more economically by smaller firms (say 5 attorneys to 150 attorneys). That is the zone I call midsized and to which this blog is targeted.

Hull is right on target. Law departments know the economic and service quality benefits of using midsized law firms versus the usual mega firm suspects. The barrier to using midsized firms has to do with demographics. There are only 250 law firms that Hull includes in the BigLaw list. General Counsels know who they are. It has not been as easy for the corporate law departments to know who the 10,000 midsized firms are. But that barrier is becoming smaller.

The barrier that has kept a majority of big company business in the hands of BigLaw is crumbling against an onslaught of technology and transformations in how we communicate. Those same transformations of the business environment have given rise to a new economic reality—one Chris Anderson calls the Long Tail. These changes in our environment have already begun to alter the prospects of midsized firms when it comes to BigClient business. Technology, communications, and the Web are weakening the big firm hold on BigClient business. This is especially true when it comes to high-valued specialties. Make the right moves and prospective clients worldwide can now find you easily; even large corporations are starting to shop the internet for niche players in legal specialties.

Given changes afoot, the savvy law firm will increase its efforts to become more visible to BigClient law departments. Start increasing the firm’s annual expenditure on efforts to become more visible on the Web. A survey by Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc. disclosed that law firm web sites are now the single, most effective marketing tool employed by law firms engaged in corporate, transactional, and defense work. The Alyn-Weiss report surmised “that purchase patterns for legal services are clearly shifting, [and] Internet inquiry and research, whether a personal referral occurred or not, is increasingly commonplace for counsel and executives.” The survey found that 82 percent of surveyed law firms now get business over the Web. In the June 2006 issue of Law Office Management & Administration Report, IOMA noted that the data suggests the shift toward the growing importance of the Internet, and the firm’s visibility on it will only continue.

For more about the Long Tail theory or to purchase Anderson’s book of the same name, visit his web site, thelongtail.com.

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.

The 10 to 15 Minute Rainmaking Plan

Admin — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:32:00 GMT

I just read a newsletter from the Boyens Group, Inc. and the title to the lead article hit home, “Plan your Work and Work your Plan.” The Boyens Group works with companies to optimize their sales processes.

The formula for successfully making rain as a legal professional is as simple as the title to that article. There are 365 days in a year over which that plan should be spread. The point is that there is plenty of time in spite of the 1600 to 1800 billable hour load shouldered by attorneys in the average midsized firm. It is all about setting small individual steps spread over a long time and carried out consistently. You are not going to be able to call 20 people on the last day of the month and ask questions like the following:

• What else can we do for you?
• Who do you know that our firm might be able to help?
• How about meeting me for breakfast and giving me an update on the things keeping you up at night?
• I read about the (anything) issue and wondered if that was something that concerns you?
• I know it’s your birthday; I called to see if I could buy you lunch to celebrate?
• The company is having a seminar about (anything) on (any date) . Do you think you will be able to attend?
• I have four tickets to (anything). Would you and a companion join Bob (or Betty) and me at this event?
• I read about your promotion (or career move) and wanted to congratulate you and ask if there is anything I do to help you in your transition?
• I’m having an open house next Saturday. There are some people I would like to meet you; do you think you will be able to join us?
• Our environmental (or estate, litigation, etc) group has been doing some valuable things for other clients; may I come by your place next week and introduce you to the practice leader?
• Etc, etc., etc.

While you are not going to call 20 people on the last day of the month, you can develop the discipline to set aside 10 to 15 minutes every single day to make one call and do it and do it consistently. Have a target call for the day and two to five alternative targets in case your first caller is unavailable.

You don’t have to do it all alone! Have a secretary line up your calls for you. Here are some of the tasks you can delegate:

• Keeping track of your growing list of contacts and prospects
• Keeping track of important dates – birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
• Scanning local papers, industry publications, client and prospect newsletters and web sites. Take advantage of RSS feeds for new releases and other sources.
• Keeping you informed and ready to make calls
• Taking the initiative to draft letters and provide you with addressed cards and notes to send regarding important dates and events
• Etc.

Make your secretary a hero. You are a team doing this together. Share the accolades for the successes. None of us can succeed alone.

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.

2006 Technology Survey of Law Firms

Admin — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:15:43 GMT

Exhibiting vendors at the Orlando Annual Educational Conference of ILTA, International Legal Technology Association, received a private briefing from the association. Representatives from Envision Agency reviewed results from the 2006 Technology Purchasing Survey conducted on behalf of ILTA.

There are some pretty remarkable insights. First, it is important to note that the survey respondents are members of ILTA. Thus, for the most part, those responding are non-attorney technology heads of their firm—CTOs, CIOs, and technology managers and directors.

What do these law firm technology leaders think are the most exciting technology or trends?

Microsoft® SharePoint®
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
VM ware (Virtual Machines)
KM (Knowledge Management)
Portals
Wireless
Matter Centricity

Besides hardware (workstations, notebooks, etc.), what tops the buying wish list for 2006?

Disaster recovery-related programs
Document and record management
E-mail management
Scanning
Litigation support
Internet/intranet/extranet
Microsoft® upgrades
Workflow automation
Phone system—VoIP

One notable item is a significant decline in the number of firms looking to implement wireless technology and devices. The decline reflects a universe where wireless technology is now widely implemented by law firms. In short, if you are not wireless, you are now behind the curve.

While Business Intelligence Software and Customer Relationship Management software (BI and CRM) are not at the top of the list, they still appear to be priorities. Likewise, business systems (accounting, bill auditing, and budgeting) viewed collectively would make the top of the list. Business systems like Juris® are also crossing over into business intelligence, which would place plans for new investments in law firm business software even higher on the list.

If you are wondering what to read to keep up with law firm technology, the most popular legal/technology publications among ILTA members were:

Peer to Peer (The association’s publication)

Interestingly, technology leaders do not appear to be big blog readers. Here is the list of Blogs that showed up on their “Yes, I read” list: