Noah Schaffer, The Daily Record Newswire
Many solo and small-firm lawyers enjoy not being a part of a larger enterprise because they feel they can have more freedom and be more creative.
But let me share with you one of the most common complaints I hear from law firm staff, working in law firms of all sizes: lack of uniformity. They don't necessarily use that word, but they mention the concept to me repeatedly:
- "We have to set up the files one way when they are Bob's clients and a totally different way when they are Fred's clients."
- "We can't cross train anybody to cover for vacation or illness because Mary insists that her matters be handled differently than everyone else in the law firm."
- "Jim doesn't handle a certain type of matter frequently, but when he does we have to go search in his old files because he wants things done differently than everyone else in the law firm."
- "We have five lawyers in the firm, and so we have to use five different forms as the starting point for drafting a relatively routine document."
- "Deadlines and timelines for legal assistants are completely different for similar projects, depending on the lawyer."
Sound familiar? It sounds familiar to every law firm consultant and many law firm administrators.
Pam Woldow and Doug Richardson, co-authors of "Legal Project Management in One Hour for Lawyers" for the American Bar Association, recently posted a blog, "LPM for Associates: The View from Ground Level." They included the observation that one of the major frustrations that law firm associates experience is "the need for every partner to have things done in his or her own unique way. In the workshops, associates reported frequent false starts, do-overs, write-downs and dressing-downs resulting from a lack of consistency in how their work is assigned, managed and measured. They loved the uniformity (of even some of the basic steps) that LPM (legal project management) can offer."
If your firm suffers from the "every lawyer does it differently" syndrome, it's time to start the road to standardization. There is simply no reason for client files to be set up and managed differently for each individual lawyer.
There may be very good reasons for client file setup to differ among different types of legal matters, but there should be general standardization. It's simply in your best interest for every staff person to be able to assist any lawyer in an emergency.
If there are different basic internal forms, used as document drafting starting points, it's time to start ironing out those differences. Differences in substantive provisions should be discussed and resolved, leaving the final work product as the best that all the lawyers combined have to offer your clients.
This may sound like a small thing. But the future of law firms depends on better legal project management and process improvement. Automating repetitive tasks in a uniform process is key to improving efficiency. You cannot afford to set up five different pathways of automation when only one is needed.
If you're a small-firm lawyer, you have to be especially brutal in your pursuit of efficiency. Take your time when it comes to counseling your clients and making important strategic decisions, but streamline to the maximum information processing and data management.
Automating and improving day-to-day operations free up the lawyer to have more time to communicate with the clients and to focus his or her expertise on the high-value work of creatively solving clients' problems.
Uniformity can sometimes be thought of as the antithesis of creativity. But done correctly in a law firm setting via uniform policies, procedures and documents, uniformity can actually improve your creative output by streamlining data processing to allow more time for client service.
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Jim Calloway is the director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program. He publishes the weblog Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips at http://jimcalloway.typepad.com.
Published: Thu, May 07, 2015
