5 Tasks That Every Lawyer Should Automate

Your time is irreplaceable.

It’s infinitely valuable, something you can’t get back. Time is value for almost every law firm. Every attorney knows this, yet most firms struggle with time tracking.

It’s a common experience.  

Time tracking at your practice is vital. It isn’t rocket science. It’s simple, straightforward and easy. You do the work. You record your time. Why is time tracking, specifically accountability, such a problem for law firms?

Law firms are missing the structure they need

Most approach this problem the wrong way.

The problem is viewed through a black and white lens. “Our attorneys aren’t tracking their time so we need to work on enforcing the rules.” When attorneys ignore that mandate, the most obvious solution is a punishment of some kind.

Which only makes the problem worse.

Attorneys begin relying on reconstructive time tracking. They comb through their emails, phone logs and appointments. Then they make a guess.

Which usually means the firm loses money.

Clients are overcharged for the work that’s done (eroding trust and your client’s lifetime value). Or, they’re undercharged. Great for them, but financially destructive for the firm.

Law firms lose either way.

The cause of the problem isn’t attorney negligence. It’s not your associate’s fault and it isn’t your fault. Rather, it’s a lack of training that’s to blame.

It’s a lack of systems.

Does time tracking at your practice follow a set structure?

Time tracking is a multi-pronged problem.

Accountability needs to be addressed at three fundamental levels. You’ll need protocols in place for each area, outlining the who, what, where and when.

1. Individual level. Individual attorneys and support staff who track their time. When it comes to time tracking, these employees may be doing an excellent, average or poor job. Most law firms focus their time and attention on individuals throughout the organization which, on its own, is ineffective. They often rely on punitive measures to gain compliance which eventually, pushes good attorneys away.
2. Group level. These groups can be formal (e.g. partners, associates, paralegals). They can also be informal (e.g. top performers vs. poor performers, finders vs. grinders, etc.). These groups typically have their own subculture, norms and expectations (e.g. paralegals are loyal to specific attorneys in their in-group). Social and moral norms, peer pressure and performance expectations – these are common at the organization, group and individual levels. How do associates respond to the few who are dutifully tracking their time? With hostility? Indifference? Pride?  
3. System level. This is the foundation of time tracking. The systems you have in place shape the responsiveness of your team. Handled well, it creates a culture of accountability and consistency. This includes details like your policies and procedures, software, tools and more. Good systems create accountability. They make it easy to hold individuals and groups accountable.

Time tracking in your practice is nuanced.

When law firms identify a time tracking problem (e.g. it isn’t happening, it’s inaccurate, etc.) most firms immediately approach the individual.

This makes sense…

If you’re looking to understand why. If your staff isn’t tracking their time appropriately here’s a better idea. Identify whether you’re dealing with an individual, group or systems problem.

The answer determines the fix.

If it’s an individual problem you could identify whether (a.) they know what’s expected of them (b.) how to do what’s expected and (c.) how to address problems that prevent that from happening.

What about a group problem?

You’d (a.) identify the group (b.) determine the group norms and rules, then (c.) determine whether you’d ignore, avoid, or work within those rules.

And, if it’s a system problem?

You’d identify the failure points. Does the software make it harder for staff to comply? Are there consistent problems? A lack of good policies and procedures? A systems problem means you’d need to work on the organization itself.

See the difference?

This is why staff members aren’t tracking their time properly?!

Not exactly.

There are also lots of little reasons that help to explain why time tracking is such a miserable affair for attorneys. But there’s one very big reason that’s mostly ignored.

I’m talking about Cognitive Fluency.

Cognitive fluency is a measurement tool. How easy (or difficult) is it to think about information?

Humans prefer easy.

When it comes to cognitive fluency we’re all pretty sensitive. The easier it is for us to understand a piece of information, the more likely we are to act on it.

Here’s why this is remarkable.

The research shows us several very significant things about cognitive fluency.

•  Cognitive fluency gets people to share secrets and embarrassing stories
•  You can get people to believe untruths by simply making it familiar or easy-to-understand
•  Stocks with easy-to-pronounce names significantly outperform those with hard-to-pronounce names
•  Cognitive fluency also dictates what we find beautiful (e.g. average faces that are a composite of other faces)

Cognitive fluency affects every facet of our decision making process, including decisions like whether we’ll track our time.

See it?

The secret ingredients in cognitive fluency?

1. Repetition. If it’s familiar, it requires less brain power. It’s easier to process, accept and trust information you’ve heard before.
2. Clarity. Information that’s easy to take in. It’s easy to see and hear. The colors are crisp. The picture is clear. The words are easy-to-understand. The easier you are to understand, the easier it is to get your staff to comply.
3. Simplicity. In this case, it’s the absence of complexity. The minimum amount of steps needed to accomplish a particular goal or task.

Want to improve time tracking at your practice? Use cognitive ease to optimize the individual, group and system dynamics at your firm. Use these ingredients to improve time tracking.

Easier said than done.

How on earth are you supposed to do that? It’s not like you’re taught how to do this in school.

Show your lawyers how to submit their time

This sounds patronizing.

And it would be if you decided to talk down to the lawyers and support teams in your firm. That’s not the approach I’m recommending here. No, I’m recommending a multi-pronged approach instead.

Remember the structures I mentioned earlier?

We’re going to use those to build a culture of accountability. If you play your cards right you can use this to dramatically improve time tracking at your practice.

Individual level

•  Create a suggestion box. A digital suggestion box enables employees to vent about anything and everything that comes to mind. Are they struggling with a software problem? Do they know how to track their time? The answer box is a great way for you to ask questions and get honest, anonymous feedback. It’s brutal and painful for partners and shareholders, but it’s an easy way to increase revenue and profits. Just be sure to maintain psychological safety.  Employees won’t use your suggestion box if it’s used to abuse, hurt or manipulate them.
•  Act on suggestions. Use tools like Typeform, Survey Monkey and SnapSuggest to get the feedback you need. Then act on it. Use voting systems to gauge staff interest in the issues that are discussed. Act on feedback that shows up repeatedly in your suggestion box. Vote on controversial or serious issues that appear.

Group level

•  Use social engineering via peer pressure and prestige. Create a list. Outline the attorneys and teams who’ve turned their time sheets in on time and those who haven’t. Keep the list factual. Don’t use your list to shame poor performers and stragglers.
•  Provide incentives and consequences. Create incentives that reward attorneys who (a.) accurately track their time and (b.) consistently submit their timesheets on time. Use incentives as a way to curry favor, benefits and prestige. Tie promotions and bonuses to socially engineered incentives. Praise top performers publicly.

System level

•  Set and define expectations. Let attorneys and support staff know that tracking their time and submitting hours is an indispensable part of working with the firm. Define when hours should be submitted, what the format should be, who depends on it, etc.
•  Shorten deadlines. If you invoice monthly, have attorneys and support staff turn in timesheets on a weekly basis. This gives the firm predictability which improves cash flow forecasting, budgeting and more. Shorter deadlines encourage consistency. Repetition creates habits and behavioral loops.
• Use natural consequences. Use withholding and reductions as a natural consequence/response for poor performers. Make it clear that this isn’t about punishment, it’s about giving the firm what it needs so they have what they need.

These suggestions are meant to spur ideas.

You’ll need to identify the ideas that work best for your practice. Approach time tracking from an individual, group and systems point of view.

Law firms want accountability, but they’re missing structure

Your time is valuable.

It’s a scarce and irreplaceable resource. Once it’s spent you can’t get it back. Which is exactly why a culture of accountability is so important.

You’re converting time to money.

Time tracking is simple, straightforward and easy. So, why do most attorneys hate it? It would be easy to assume that they’re lazy, difficult or uncooperative. But as we’ve seen it’s more than that. Building a culture of accountability requires a three pronged approach.

Individuals, groups and systems.

Create structure at three different levels and you’ll give your staff the tools they need to create value. Make time tracking simple, repeatable, and clear and you’ll find accountability in your firm comes naturally.

Is your time is valuable?

The obvious answer is Yes. Just one problem. There’s something standing in your way. A barrier that, if ignored, makes it impossible to claim the value that’s rightfully yours.

Tracking your time.

Your time tracking habits determine whether your law firm wins in the long term. A survey conducted by Adam Smith Esq. and Smart Web Parts found, billable leakage costs firms $20,000 to $40,000 annually, per individual.

Are your billables leaking?

Billable leakage costs firms $20,000 to $40,000 annually. This means a firm with 100 attorneys loses $2 to 4 million every year.

It gets worse.

According to the survey, attorneys are wasting an average of 3.1 hours per individual, per month, on filling out timesheets. The average billing rate in the survey was $438 per hour.

You see where I’m going with this right?

This means law firms waste a conservative $16,294 per person, per year by simply filling out timesheets. In a 100 person firm that’s $1,629,400, that’s billable time lost, on filling out timesheets.

Upsetting no?

Billables shouldn’t be leaking but they are. Why? leakage comes from (at least) three sources.

1. Time leaks. A failure to produce or accurately record your billable time. This typically results in under-billing. An associate performs a particular task but they don’t fill out their time sheet until the end of the week. They complete 12 hours of work but only report 8.
2. Manually filling out timesheets. Attorneys waste time manually filling out timesheets. Instead of relying on a hassle-free system to track their time, they’re relying on excel spreadsheets. Or scribbling them down on post-it notes. Or entering them into their CRM system where they don’t belong.
3. Write offs. A good example would be the total amount of completed work that’s recorded but never billed. A notorious example? A partner decides that writing off a junior associate’s time is the best way to boost their fees, salary or bonus. Write offs can include fee reductions to satisfy an unhappy client, bad debt or disbursements.

These are poor time tracking habits.

It’s also the source of our problem.  But there are even deeper issues at play.

1. Attorneys hate time tracking. Attorneys in our previously mentioned survey described time tracking as “the bane of my existence” and “the worst part of law firm life.” Time tracking is indispensable, but many attorneys see it as a morale-killing, soul-sucking endeavor. Why? It’s busy work that takes up too much of their precious time.
2. Competing work. The non-billable work that sucks up your time and energy. This work seems to be a necessary evil, a distraction that makes it harder to hit billable benchmarks. It’s a miserable ordeal because typically, these competing to-dos aren’t optional.
3. Delayed time tracking. If the time tracking process is difficult or tedious, attorneys are more likely to put it off. This delayed tracking inevitably leads to reconstructive time entries. The kind where attorneys engage in creative “guesstimation.”  These time entries are often inaccurate leading to the time leaks and under-billing I mentioned earlier.

These challenges create bad habits.

Are poor time tracking habits really law firm killers?

Law firm closures. Time tracking.

The two seem somewhat disconnected, don’t they? The unfortunate reality is that these two factors are more connected than we realize.

Why?

Ownership. For the most part, law firms are owned by their partners, not by investors. Partners, as you know, don’t receive a fixed salary. They’re paid via profit shares.

Why is this an issue?

Partners are sensitive to two factors (a.) the profitability of the firm and (b.) the inherent liability that comes with ownership.

• Partners are often personally liable when a firm dissolves
• Any compensation a partner receives is subject to a clawback during bankruptcy proceedings
• Partners may have to give up any billings generated after the firm is dissolved
• A decline in profitability may trigger partner withdrawals

These liabilities are unpleasant.

The easiest way to avoid these liabilities as a partner? Be one of the first to withdraw from the partnership.

You know it. I know it.  

Here’s the time tracking connection. Partners are taking on a considerable amount of risk. Naturally, they expect to be well compensated for their troubles.

It’s all about the partner draws.

Partners are happy as long as the cash continues to flow and their partner draws continue to grow. It’s a treadmill that comes with a significant amount of pressure.

Hold and carry.

Partners want to maintain the standard they’re used to. The partner’s draw must increase over time. The pressure is so intense law firms are motivated to borrow money from banks, anything to maintain the expected standard.

What if they fail?

What if the firm can’t live up to these lofty expectations?

Partners run.

They look for better opportunities somewhere, anywhere else.

Enter time tracking.

Poor time tracking habits lead to disaster

If you’re a small or solo firm good time tracking is a must.

A small/solo firm simply can’t afford to lose a significant amount of revenue each month and stay in business. As the saying goes, cash is king.

Running a medium to large firm?

You probably have partners. You’ll need to keep these partners happy. Partners are primarily interested in one thing.

Partner draws.

The more money they receive the happier they’ll be. Over-bill and you run the risk of losing clients. Under-bill and you lose a tremendous amount of revenue and your partners.

Okay then.

How do you improve your poor time tracking habits?

Simple.

Make it easy for attorneys to track their time

The saying “time is money” is literally true.

Want to improve your poor time tracking habits? Make it easy for attorneys to track their time. So easy they can track their time with the push of a button. Reduce the number of restrictions, details and red tape attorneys are required to go through.

Next, avoid competition.

Attorneys are forced to manage a plethora of unpleasant busywork.

• Reduce paperwork. Can you find the files you need, when you need them? Are your legal docs and paperwork centralized and available on-demand? The time your attorneys spend searching for a document? That’s non-billable work.
• Outsource marketing. Attorneys are typically expected to bring in business. When are they supposed to do that? Marketing is a necessary and important part of work, but it’s non-billable work. How can attorneys juggle these billable and non-billable work requirements? Outsource marketing whenever possible. Work with trusted advisors or work to create marketing leverage (e.g. write a book, give a speech, etc.).
• Reduce interruptions and delays. Gloria Mark, researcher at the University of California, Irvine found that it takes 25 minutes to recover from an interruption. Most workers in an office setting get 11 minutes to recover, which isn’t enough. Interruptions erode the amount of billable time attorneys have to work with.
• Systematize repetitive work. Are you writing the same emails, covering the same topics, or dealing with the same repetitive problems? Can you create a set of templates or scripts to reduce work times?

Use behavioral models to improve poor time tracking habits. Give your team the psychological motivators needed to produce outstanding results.

Wait a minute.

What if you don’t bill hourly? What if you rely on alternative fee arrangements (AFAs)? Time tracking isn’t really necessary, is it? Good time tracking habits are even more important.

Think about it.

If you’re working for a set fee, hours are still important. You’ll need to know (a.) how long it takes you to complete a given task or project and (b.) whether you’re still profitable at the price point or fee schedule you’ve set.

Are you working for free? Are you profitable?

With good time tracking habits, you’ll get a clear, straightforward answer.

Poor time tracking habits create leaks

Attorneys waste an average 3.1 hours per month filling out timesheets manually. Billable leakage costs law firms a conservative $20,000 to $40,000 annually, per individual. The true estimate is projected to be much higher but no one wants to admit failure.

Billable leakage is inevitable.

None of us are perfect after all. But leakage can and should be kept to a minimum. Your time tracking habits determine your firm’s success or failure over the long term. Leakage isn’t the source of your problem. You’ve identified the source, you have the cure.

Just simplify time tracking.

Minimize the barriers and you’ll find your time tracking habits are incredibly valuable.