Tips for Managing a Small Law Firm

As your small law practice grows from a one-person operation into a multi-person law firm, you will be presented with new challenges and rewards. Your growing practice should see an increase in revenue, but it will also bring more responsibilities. Hiring staff and other attorneys will help spread the workload, but now you have a team to lead. Here are some tips for managing your small law firm.

Run Your Law Firm Like a Business

Since your law firm is a business, you must run it like one. Gone are the days when you were able to handle all aspects of your law practice. Now that you have an employee or two, you can share the responsibilities with others in your firm.

It may be hard to let go of some of the tasks you have been doing for years, but it is crucial that your staff handle operational and administrative tasks. Take the time to hire the right staff for the roles you need filled and train them properly. To expedite the training process, have each staff member create and update a process manual for their role in the firm. You can have a manual for each task and procedure or one manual with everything in it. The key is to keep it updated. You’ll be able to help new hires get up to speed more quickly and reduce the amount of time spent training them.

↠ How to Market and Grow Your Elder Law Practice ↞

Automate Processes

These days many aspects of a law firm’s operations can be automated, including:

• Client intake and scheduling
• Billing and receiving
• Payroll
• Some parts of document preparation
• Some aspects of marketing and outreach

Open Communication within the Firm

The nature of law firms often creates a top-down organizational structure. The attorneys are at the top, and the staff is there to take direction from the attorneys. Try adopting an open-door policy with your team so they feel that they can come to you whenever they have an issue or question. Schedule weekly check-ins with your staff members to talk about how things are going and how processes can be improved.

Creating an atmosphere in which all members of your firm feel they are a valuable part of the team will help keep a positive attitude in the workplace. If members of your firm start to feel as though they are coming to work to punch a clock in a vacuum-like environment with little purpose, they will likely begin to look for a new job elsewhere. Set clear goals for the firm and the individuals within it to make sure everyone is on the same page.

>>> Stay Top of Mind with Your Clients and Referrals <<<

Outsource to Experts

In the same way your clients hire you as an expert in your field, you can hire experts in areas where you can use extra help, such as accounting, payroll, IT, and marketing. The areas of marketing, branding, and communications are excellent choices for outsourcing since they often fall by the wayside when you get busy with other work. Hiring a marketing agency, such as Law As a Business (LAB), that specializes in all aspects of marketing and communications for law firms can help you grow your business while you focus on the legal work and management.

Increase the value of your law firm!

There is a right way and a wrong way to build and then exit a law practice. Specific decisions and actions build value while others do not. Watch this video and learn the steps you should take to create value within your firm and increase desirability to a potential buyer.