Legal Practice Management Software For Family Law Firms

Now’s your chance.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with practice management software. You may have a general idea about why it’s important.

Now’s the time to strike.

The ABA’s legal technology report 2017 found many firms already use practice management software. At first glance, this doesn’t sound like an opportunity. It sounds like saturation.

Why “practice management” isn’t what it seems

There is a surprising secret here.

When it comes to software, the term “practice management” has a very broad definition. What does that mean exactly? It means 57% of those surveyed in the above report consider Microsoft Outlook and effective practice management tool.

Outlook is indispensable.

But it’s not a practice management tool. Yes, Outlook has email, calendaring, and contacts functionality. But Outlook lacks the timekeeping, billing and accounting functionality firms need. It’s missing the document, project and matters management your firm needs.

It’s not a dedicated tool.

It was never intended to be. It’s an ad hoc solution that’s adapted to meet the needs of attorneys and growing law firms. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not advocating that you abandon Microsoft Outlook altogether.

It’s actually the opposite.

I’m advocating that you augment Microsoft Outlook with a true practice management solution that performs the way your firm needs it to.

But why?

Why would your family law firm need a practice management solution?

You already know the answer to this problem

Non-billable work.

That phrase snaps everything into perspective, doesn’t it? If you’re like most law firms, your associates are spending (wasting) a significant amount of billable time on non-billable work.

It’s an unpleasant reality.

Furthermore, your employees hate filling out timesheets so they do their best to delay the inevitable. When they finally fill out their timesheets, they’re often wildly inaccurate. As a result, firms struggle routinely with under and overbilling.

But wait, there’s more.

You’re expected to wrangle with document management and retention headaches. You’ll need a client portal to communicate privately (and securely) with clients. You’ll need your associates to fill their timesheets out accurately and on time (which is difficult).

It’s too much to carry.

Yet that’s exactly what many family law firms are attempting to do right now. They’re attempting to manage all of their non-billable work on their own.

It’s soul crushing.

The good news here is that it’s also completely unnecessary.

You need help carrying your burdens

You work so hard.

You’re spending a significant amount of time on essential minutia. On the important non-billable work that needs to be done but absolutely shouldn’t be done by timekeepers in your firm.

It’s worse for you.

It’s difficult and stressful enough for attorneys in standard practice areas like business, tax or real estate law. It’s far worse for you because you’re dealing with emotional volatility. You’re seeing clients (and/or their loved ones) at their worst.

It’s high stress all the time.

Typically, there is a significant amount of emotion and hostility involved. Client expectations are high. Often times clients are facing a significant downside. The pressure on you to perform is constant, never-ending.

This is why you need help.

Client trauma + essential minutia = burnout

The research bears this out.

• Stress, Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, and Other Emotional Realities in the Lawyer/Client Relationship: A Panel Discussion
• Secondary Trauma and Compassion Fatigue when Working with Clients in Crisis
• Do Not Make their Trauma Your Trauma: Coping with Burnout as a Family Law Attorney
• Vicarious Traumatization: The Corrosive Consequences of Law Practice for Criminal Justice and Family Law Practitioners

Those practicing family law have a unique fight on their hands. It’s the fight against compassion fatigue, vicarious and secondary traumatization. The research shows it’s a consistent and distressing problem for those in your practice area.

It’s not easy.

But you can be successful, with the right tools.

Do the right tools relieve your burdens?

They should.

Your management burdens should disappear. That’s what good software does. Good software eliminates your problems. Great software eliminates your problems, simultaneously teaching and correcting your team without your direct, day-to-day involvement.

Great isn’t enough.

Great software requires an amazing team alongside it. When your team runs into trouble, get stuck on a routine issue or simply needs to ask a few “foolish” questions, they’re going to need help. Who will they run into? A customer support rep who simply can’t be bothered with their mundane problem or a consummate professional that’s looking for a chance to add value?

This should be your long-term focus.

Let’s be honest here. You not really looking for a software solution, are you? That’s the last thing you need right now. You’re looking for a solution to your problems. You’re looking for consistent results. Let’s say you’re in the market for practice management software.

Where do you start?

You’re interested in the results we’ve just discussed. What specifically should you be looking for?

Requirement #1: The feature set you need

Notice I didn’t say the feature set you want. It’s important to focus on the core set of features you need to manage your firm successfully.

What does this mean?

You’re looking for primary features such as…

• Accounting and reporting: Immediate and on-demand access to accounting data including but not limited to: outstanding balances, work-in-progress, aging reports and more. You should be able to access reports outlining profit per employee/partner, profitable practice areas and more.
• Calendar/docketing: You’ll need a simple and straightforward way to keep track of your appointments, meetings, events and court proceedings. Your software should work with common platforms like Microsoft Outlook.
• Client portals: The vast majority of your clients are going through an emotionally turbulent time. They’re going to want clear and consistent communication from you. The client portal gives you a significant degree of control over the amount of time and access the client has to you and the employees in your firm. This separation gives you the ability to focus your attention on your client’s matter rather than emotional support. Remember, it’s about the advocacy.
• Document management and retention: Many large firms rely on on-premise software. As a result, employees who are out of the office are typically unable to access the documents or data they need. Additionally, the search capabilities and user rights management protocols of most document management tools are poor. This means most employees are saving confidential client data to their personal Dropbox accounts. Ideally, your document management solution handles three specific areas for you: (1.) Storage, retention and access (2.) Security and user rights management (3.) User access and version control (to avoid creating duplicate content).
• Matter, project and task management: Who’s doing what and when? Which employees are the most productive? Are tasks being completed on time? Are client matters handled proficiently? This feature should provide you with a real-time, comprehensive view of what’s being done for each client or matter at any given time.
• Online payments: The easier it is for your clients to pay your invoice, the more likely you are to be paid fully and on time. You should be able to bill, invoice and receive payment through a single, unified system. Technical prowess and financial expertise should not be a prerequisite.
• Time and expense tracking, billing, invoicing: Automatic time tracking is a must. Manual timekeeping is expensive and inaccurate leading to billable leakage and under or overbilling. Time tracking should be initiated with the push of a button and completely hands-free. You should be able to record billable and non-billable time. Separately track internal non-client time, and track staff, contractors and consultants for precision accuracy.
• Compliance and performance requirements: You should be able to reconcile Trust and IOLTA accounts without a secondary application. You should have full access to the UTBMS litigation code set.
• Data security: Cybercriminals are aggressively targeting law firms’ data. Data breaches are becoming routine for solo and small firms. Your practice management software should be secure. Your data should be secure both in-transit and at rest. Look for 256-bit encryption and SSAE 16 (SOC 1) compliance.

Secondary features such as…

• Mobile accessibility: Your team should have access the full feature set, your data and tools both in and outside the office. If your team relies on automatic timekeeping in the office they shouldn’t devolve into manual timekeeping when they’re on the road. Your team should have access to the same suite of tools whether in-house, on the road or out of the country.
• Online and off-line access: You’ve just lost internet access but there’s work to be done. Can you still track your time automatically? The answer should be a resounding yes. You should be able to consistently access core features of your application whether you’re online or off.
• Data migration: Your practice management provider to offer a straightforward method to migrate your data. If migration is a challenge, your providers should be willing to help you migrate key portions of your data over to their platform at no cost to you.
• Third-party integration: Your practice management software needs to integrate with the tools you’re already using. It should integrate with the tools you’re already using e.g. Microsoft Outlook, QuickBooks, Box, Stripe, PayPal, and others. There should be a clear roadmap or plan to follow for future integrations and upgrades.

More importantly, these features need to be implemented thoughtfully. Some providers eschew hard requirements. They claim to provide firms with customization and flexibility as a compelling value-add. You should be free to run your firm your way, they say.

This increases risk and liability to your firm.

How?

Customization, when mismanaged creates legal liability. Remember the user rights example I shared earlier? The one where associates saved confidential client data to their Dropbox accounts?

That came from too much flexibility.

Your practice management provider should (a.) Have the feature set your family law firm needs (b.) be able to explain their specific implementation of those features providing you with a limited amount of flexibility and (c.) show you (and your team) how to use those features.

Requirement #2: Verify performance, vet customer service

What happens when you call for help?

Can you reach a real person when you call? How long does that take? When can you connect with someone via live chat? When you do connect with customer support how do they treat you?

You’ll need to ask questions.

With a good provider, it’s easy to get your data in and out of the platform. But not without considerable disruption to your business. Asking questions, verifying service quality ahead of time gives you the confidence and clarity you need to see their service for what it truly is.

Which questions need answers?

• Are support reps knowledgeable and clear?
• How often are your questions answered completely and concisely?
• Are support teams patient and kind or are they condescending and rude?
• How long do you have to wait for help or a reply to your support ticket?
• What do other customers say about the product?
• How do support teams handle “dumb” questions?
• Will support reps import your clients for you?
• Do they bill you for extra training, service or support?
• Are you consistently forced to rearrange your schedule around their needs?
• Do they have training-aids available at any time?
• How do they respond when you’re at your worst emotionally?

You’ll want to verify and validate the service you’ll receive before you become a customer.

Requirement #3: Ease of use

Your practice management solution should be easy to use. It shouldn’t be a headache or hassle for new associates and support teams.

The software should be intuitive.

There should be contextual clues and built-in training aids. These training aids should show your employees how to use the software appropriately. Yes, training should be readily available but this isn’t really ideal, is it? In an ideal scenario, your employees should be able to get started immediately. They should be able to figure things out fairly quickly on their own.

When this happens your software disappears.

It becomes a solution to your firm’s problems. Your software should perform beautifully without requiring a great deal of customization or flexibility.

It should just work.

It should perform immediately, generating the results you need without a significant investment of time or energy.

Now’s your chance to relieve your burden

Most firms aren’t on board yet.

As we’ve seen, the term “practice management” has a very broad definition. Almost 6 out of 10 surveyed considered Microsoft Outlook an effective “practice management” solution.

Outlook is indispensable.

But it’s not a practice management tool. It’s an ad hoc tool that’s been co-opted by the industry. Like many other practice management tools it works, but it’s just not good enough.

You deserve better.

If you’re like most firms, you lose a significant amount of billable time to essential minutia. What’s worse, your practice area keeps you under an incredible amount of stress.

Client trauma + essential minutia = burnout.

The right tool relieves (some) of your burdens. It frees you from the essential minutia most attorneys struggle with on a daily basis. An ideal practice management solution frees you from these headaches. It gives you the consistent results your firm needs to grow.

But only if you know what to look for.

Now you do. It all comes down to questions. Asking the right questions     gives you the data you need to identify your ideal solution.

This isn’t simply a software problem, it’s a software + service problem.

Identify the right provider, one that delivers the software + service you need. You’ll find you have the opportunity and support your firm needs to pull ahead of your peers.

You’ve made the leap.

You’ve given it a significant amount of thought. You’re ready to invest in a practice management solution for your family law firm.

Wait… pump the brakes.

You’re incredibly busy here. What sort of challenges are you going to have to deal with once you sign-up? Are you going to be hit with a stream of unexpected problems?

Absolutely.

Is practice management software challenging?

Will it create new headaches?

Choosing the wrong solution may hurt if you’re unprepared. There are unpleasant downsides that come with the wrong solution. Which is why you’ll need to know how to choose the right solution.

Your software is challenging.

The wrong software can create more problems than it solves.

What kind?

That’s what we’re about to discuss. Let’s take a look at the challenges Family Law Firms face when using practice management software.

Challenge #1: Switching creates transitional pain

Change can be hard.

Your associates are used to doing things in a specific way. Your paralegals are used to doing things a certain way. You yourself, are also focused on doing things a particular way.

New software changes that.

You’re suddenly expected to deal with a variety of unfamiliar twists and turns, also known as, transitional pain.

What is that? 

Transitional pain: The period of time where you switch from the old to the new, during which the “pain” that’s supposed to be relieved actually gets worse.  

It’s a normal part of any transition.

But normal doesn’t automatically mean necessary. Great software, when it’s truly useful completes, teaches and corrects staff simultaneously. This minimizes the length and depth of any transition.

Challenge #2: Deficient training ends

Is software enough?

Sometimes you need hands-on training and support. Sometimes you need a consistent amount of training. But the idea with training is that, eventually, it ends.

Deficient software ends training.

You learn the basics, then you’re given the how-to information you need to complete your day-to-day tasks. Which is what most of us want isn’t it? That’s not what law firms need though.

Law firms need more training.

Great practice management software continues to teach, monitor and improve your work automatically. 

This is crucial.  

Great practice management software gives you a variety of training and support methods – phone, live chat, email, knowledge base, social media and more. It meets law firms where they are.

You get instant help.

Time is money so you’re able to jump in at a moment’s notice, receive the training you need and get back to work. If you’re using software with hundreds of thousands of users, you’re going to have to wait for the training you need.

That lost time costs you money.

Challenge #3: Rise of non-billable work

The longer you wait for help, the lower your utilization rate.

The more time you spend bogged down in training webinars, the less time you have to generate revenue. Your software should be easy-to-use. You should be able to request (and receive) the support you need when you need it.

Not several hours from now.

Right now.

The poor practice management software creates billable leakage. It reduces your ability to ring the meter. Instead of increasing your billables, you’re stuck online. In a training webinar.  When you should be working.

It’s frustrating.

Great practice management software reduces your non-billable workload. It gives you the tools you need to make more money in less time and effort.

Practice management shouldn’t be challenging

It should be easy.

It should be simple and straightforward. An easy way to serve/manage clients in your Family Law Firm. If you’re ready to invest in a practice management solution you’ll need to make the leap.

No need to pump the brakes.

You just need to focus. Direct your time and attention to the right software. Great software, when it’s truly useful completes, teaches and corrects staff simultaneously. Use it to manage and improve your firm’s progress automatically.

Move carefully and you’ll avoid the management challenges your peers face.

Law firm utilization is a struggle for many attorneys.

Attorneys, as a whole, work incredibly hard. At the end of their day, they’re exhausted with little to show for it financially. They’re afraid they won’t meet billable goals or financial benchmarks.

The fear is pervasive.

What’s worse, the heavy expectations placed on your shoulders continues to grow.

Clients expect more yet offer less

Firms are hammered, pressured to deliver.

Clients are refusing to pay for junior/first-year associates.  They’re demanding deeper discounts. They balk at your hourly rates. Partners are systematically removing research costs from their invoices – before they’re submitted to clients.

It’s no surprise.

Firm utilization rates aren’t where they should be. Attorneys spend two-thirds of their day on non-billable work.

The good news?

Your firm’s performance can be much better than the industry at large. With the right utilization improvement techniques, you’ll be able to serve clients efficiently. You’ll make far more in much less time.

This sounds like a myth.

But it’s reality for a select few. Let’s take a look at the techniques they use to improve their utilization rates.

Technique #1: Fire yourself

Attorneys are paid for less than 30 percent of their time.

The reason?

We’ve just covered it. Attorneys lose six to eight hours a day on non-billable work. Research confirms this: attorneys spend only 28 percent of their day on billable work.

But why?

Attorneys spend the majority of their time on administrative and business development tasks. They waste precious time on details that, while important, don’t move them closer to their goals.

Which tasks?

• Scheduling meetings and appointments
• Non-urgent/critical tasks and deadlines
• Time tracking, billing and invoicing
• Sales, marketing, client intake and follow-up
• Document assembly and management
• Bookkeeping and accounting
• Client support
• Review management

It’s counterproductive which is why…

You need to be fired.

If you’re looking to improve you’ll need to remove yourself from these tasks as soon as possible. This is typically done in three ways:

(1.) Outsource administrative and business development tasks to a freelance provider.

(2.) Automate/semi-automate routine and mundane tasks.

(3.) Hire remote and/or in-house staff to handle each of these tasks.

Note: Read the ultimate guide to automation for in-depth strategies and tactics you can use in your firm.

Here’s the point.

You’ll want to remove yourself from administrative and business development tasks as soon as possible. These aren’t details you should be managing on a daily basis.

You need a team.

If you’re looking to grow your law firm in a way where you generate both more revenue and more free time you need to fire yourself.

Technique #2: Neglect your work with systems and procedures

Firing yourself won’t work.

If you don’t have the systems and procedures your firm needs you won’t be able to make it work. You can’t fire yourself without them. If you do, you’ll be faced with two unpleasant options.

1. Fix the mistakes/problems they created and doing the work yourself.
2. Ignore their mistakes and accept the consequences.

See what I mean?

They’re both unpleasant. That’s because we’re missing a key component of firm growth.

Consistency.

It’s not just that you want your firm or your results to improve. If it’s the fact that you want consistently positive outcomes, right? You want results that meet the high standards you have in mind.

You need a team.

That team, regardless of the composition you choose (e.g. freelance, employee, software), needs a set of systems and procedures. Protocols that dictate the when, what, why and how of work.

• How should they answer the phone/take messages?
• How do you market and promote your law firm? How do you handle client intake?
• What protocols or checklists need to be followed for document assembly and management?
• What are your court filing procedures?
• Process for dealing with delinquent payments?
• Which automatic timekeeping protocols should they follow?
• How do they go about scheduling meetings (e.g. depositions, strategy, team and follow-up meetings)?

See that?

There’s a reason why solo and small firms struggle to grow. When they’re missing the systems and procedures they need there’s no way to generate a consistent set of results. There’s no way to maintain quality standards.

Which systems do you need?

1. Accounting systems
2. Accounts receivable / payable systems
3. Customer service systems
4. Office administrative and space management systems
5. Sales and marketing systems
6. Human resources systems
7. General practice systems

Note: Read this post for a detailed list of the systems and procedures you need.

You should fire yourself.

If you don’t have systems and procedures in place you won’t be able to stay fired. You’ll be bombarded with requests from your team asking for help.

“How do I file these court documents?”

“ABC Corp is disputing this month’s invoice. What do you want me to do?”

“How do we handle a client who wants to meet in person?”

Here’s the bad news.

Fire yourself without the right systems and procedures and your utilization rates will continue to fall.

Things will get worse.

Clients are demanding, they want more for less

Your utilization rate is important.

It’s a reflection of your firm’s productivity and billing efficiency. There are two ways to calculate your utilization rate.

• Billable hours / total # of hours recorded in a particular time period = utilization rate

So…

• (25 billable hrs / 50 hrs total = 50% utilization rate)

Or

• Billable hours / fixed # of hrs per wk = utilization rate

Another example…

• (15 billable hrs / 40 hrs per wk = 37% utilization rate)

You have a choice to make.

If you’d like to build a successful firm that produces more profit year-over-year but rewards you with more free time you need these ingredients.

This is why attorneys struggle.

They, like you, work incredibly hard. It’s a discouraging thing to experience. At the end of their day, they’re exhausted with little to show for their hard work.

It’s no wonder they’re burned out.

Individual attorneys are hammered by firm expectations. Solo practitioners are buried under an avalanche of busywork. They’re pulled in multiple directions – their personal and professional lives warring for dominance and control.

You can have both.

Get have peace and success, but you’ll need to get out of your own way.

You can do this.

With the right team and a clear set of systems and procedures, you’ll have everything you need. To improve your utilization rates, to build the firm of your dreams.

Why not start now?

Is there a way for you to improve your firm’s utilization rates? To make your firm more efficient, productive and profitable?

No. There isn’t.

Not if you’re unaware of the root cause of your problems. You can’t fix the problems in your firm unless you know they exist. Not properly anyway.

That’s the quandary.

If you want to improve your firm’s utilization rate, to dramatically improve the performance of your organization, you’re going to have to peel back the layers.

You’re going to have to face the utilization problem

Sooner or later it’s going to happen.

It’s painful either way but there’s a silver lining here. If you choose to look at these problems you’ll have a significant degree of control. You’ll be able to choose when you’ll address the problem, what to do and how to do it.

Then there’s the alternative.

If you ignore the problem you’ll eventually be forced into a corner. If you’re lucky, you’ll be forced to accept concessions you don’t want, take on matters you despise to pay the bills. If you’re unlucky you’ll do severe damage to your firm which may not survive.

Sounds negative, right? Here’s why it’s not.

At this point, right now, you have a choice. You can identify these gaps and formulate a plan to deal with them.

Ready?

Let’s take a look at these gaps in your firm’s utilization.

Gap #1: Multiple roles

This is primarily a problem for solo and small firm attorneys. But it also applies to attorneys who are expected to bring in a significant amount of new business to their firm.

Are non-billables eating up your time?

This is an important clue that something is wrong. It means you don’t have the team,  resources or support you need to focus on the work that matters most to you and your firm.

Obvious, right?

If you’re an attorney and your specialty is intellectual property, you shouldn’t be focused on bookkeeping, marketing, customer service and project management. That may work in the very beginning when you’re first getting started but it’s a habit you need to quickly outgrow.

Wearing multiple hats stifles growth.

Gap #2: Poor timekeeping habits

Attorneys hate timekeeping.

They hate filling out time sheets, which is precisely why they procrastinate. This is the primary cause of billable leakage which, according to Adam Smith Esq., costs firms $20,000 to $40,000 annually per attorney.

No surprise there.

This isn’t because attorneys are lazy, irresponsible or difficult. It’s not because they’re disobedient and unhelpful. It’s because the process, at most firms, is poor. Many firms don’t have an automatic time tracking system.

Which means there’s waste.

According to the study above, most attorneys waste a mean of 3.1 hours/month. The mean billing rate in the study was $438 per hour. This meant filling out time sheets cost firms an additional $16,294.

This is significant.

This brings the leakage, so far, to $36,294 – $56,294. This doesn’t include the additional waste that takes place at an individual level. This is part of the reason why firms feel it’s so difficult to remain profitable.

A mindset shift is required.

Treat each line item in your invoices, each time entry, as inventory. Because that’s exactly what it is. This is incredibly important, even if you rely on alternative fee arrangements.

Finally, find a time tracking system that’s automatic.

Gap #3: Insufficient work, not enough clients

Most firms are starving.

They simply don’t have enough of the clients and new business they need. Even when they win new clients, collection realization rates still aren’t where they should be.

What’s the reason?

Is it because attorneys are terrible marketers?

Not really, no.

It’s because attorneys are using the wrong tools and resources to win new clients. That sounds peculiar, doesn’t it?

Let me explain.

When it comes to attracting new clients, there are three ways to do it.

1. Consulting
2. Training
3. Leverage

What’s the difference between these three?

1. With consulting, you trade your time on a one-to-one basis. You cold call on a one-to-one basis. You chase leads down in-person. You speak with prospects one-to-one.

It’s a disaster.

Time is your most precious resource. If you’re marketing on a consulting basis, you’re giving your time away free of charge. This ensures you’ll never have enough time to achieve the results you need.

2. With training, you’re still trading time but you’re doing it on a one-to-many basis. You’re hosting webinars, giving speeches, or conducting workshops. Handled well, this is an incredibly effective way to attract a steady stream of new clients.

Here’s the downside.

You’re still trading your time for attention. Your time needs to be guarded zealously. It should be given to those who are worthy of your time.

3. Finally, there’s leverage. With leverage, you’re not physically involved. You’re giving on a one-to-all basis. You’re not trading your time for attention. Your marketing team sells your books. They create guest posts on high profile sites. They generate positive publicity for your firm.

Your firm offers videos on YouTube, applications on your website and software for prospects to use. You’re constantly driving prospects to the helpful education, tools and resources you provide.

You’re no longer trading your time for attention. See the difference?

Here’s the problem.

Most attorneys and law firms try to generate business on either a “do good work and hope for word-of-mouth” basis. Or, they trade their time for client attention. They behave like consultants.

A better idea?

Stop trading time for attention. Rely on leverage instead. Use the right leverage pieces to attract a never-ending stream of prospect attention. With the right systems and procedures, you’ll be able to attract the clients and business you need without the need to spend any of your personal time.

If you face the problem your firm will survive

Can you improve your utilization rates?

Easily.

If you’re aware of your problem. Many attorneys are aware of the symptoms but they remain ignorant about the cause. If you want your firm to be more efficient, productive and profitable, you’ll need the truth.

Peel back the layers.

It can be frightening and discouraging. But it’s also a pivotal moment. Because even if it’s bad news, it’s good news to know.

It’s going to happen.

If you choose to face these utilization problems you gain control. Ignore them and you lose control. The choice is yours. It’s best if the producers at your firm spend their time producing.

This can be your reality.

In my next post, I’ll share some practical, in-depth details you can use to optimize and improve your firm’s utilization rate.