Managing a small law firm means juggling admin tasks while still going about your practice — and that’s not to mention marketing! Small law firms come with their own unique challenges and their own rules and best practices. That’s what this article is about: tips that will make it easier to manage your firm while saving time and money. Let’s get started.
The right tool is half the battle!
For most people “law firm” immediately brings up images of huge offices in a sky scraper down town, and you may end up scaling your law firm to that level too, but for now, you’re running a small law firm, and that comes with its own rules and best practices. So, it makes sense for large law firms to hire administrators and managers, but managing your small law firm is up to you. Handling that while still practicing is not easy, so you’ll need all the help you can get, especially anything that can help you save time.
Time is your most valuable resource and you don’t want to put so much of your time into managing your firm that you neglect your practice or damage your work-life balance — lawyer burnout is a very real and as much a danger to your career as anything.
Since you can’t magically generate time, you’ll need to manage what little of it you do have and as efficiently as possible. In the end, getting more done in less time comes down to one thing: what tools are you using to get things done? Are they making it easier to manage your law firm or are they actually adding more to your workflow? The answer may not be as obvious as you think. Those hours you spend on that clunky invoicing software can be spent getting more clients or relaxing at home. That’s why cloud-based legal practice management software like RunSensible have become indispensible to all legal practices no matter their size.
Keep up with technology
Technology is an important part of running a law firm. If you’re not using technology, it can be difficult to stay up to date with the latest legal news and trends. For example, if you were going through an employee dispute at your firm, would you rather have access to all the relevant case law and statutes on hand or have to go searching for them?
The same goes for client communication; email has become one of the most common ways people communicate these days. it’s easy for clients who are used to emailing friends and family members about personal/professional matters will expect that kind of quick response from their lawyer as well. Legal automation can be a big help in improving how you manage your law firm.
Stay Organized
Organization is one of the most important things you can do as a small law firm owner, and it will make your life easier in every way. Organization helps you save time by ensuring that everything has its place, which means that when someone asks for something or needs something done, they don’t have to hunt around for it! It also gives you something productive to focus on during your day-to-day activities instead of wasting time looking for things that have been misplaced or lost. When you’re organized, you can make better decisions because you know exactly where everything is at all times; this includes knowing what clients need from you next so you aren’t scrambling at the last minute because someone forgot about an upcoming court date or deposition date.
Growth vs. Retention for Law Firms
If you’re looking for a way to keep your schedule organized, try using an online calendar with multiple features. It can help you manage tasks, appointments, and even emails all in one place and with the ability to sync across devices automatically without having to enter anything manually twice (or more often than not three times if there are changes made after initial inputting takes place because no one has ever heard of “backing up” data before sending it somewhere else).
As an example, RunSensible calendar allows you to share your free time with your clients so they can schedule their appointments with you. It will also send automatic reminders to the client and yourself. It also has a notes section so that you can keep track of important things about each appointment such as what type of massage you are doing, what the client’s preferences are, and anything else that might be useful to have at your fingertips. It also has a calendar view where you can see all your appointments for the day or week at once (as well as their notes). The feature-rich software is flexible enough to allow businesses of all sizes and types to customize their calendars, making it one of the most useful online tools (cloud-based software) for running an efficient business today.
Hire and train your staff
Hiring and training your staff well is an important point of managing a small law firm. We have guides and cheatsheets on how to hire paralegals. Here are some tips:
- Make sure you hire people who are a good fit for your firm. You’ll want to ensure they have the necessary skills and experience, but also that they will mesh well with the rest of your team. Personality conflicts can create significant challenges, so it’s crucial that team members get along and share similar views on handling cases and managing clients’ needs.
- Set clear expectations for all new hires from day one. Many small law firms fail at this step, assuming their expectations will become clear over time without explicit communication. This is especially important for using technology; new lawyers often need guidance on available programs and how to use them effectively. Address these areas immediately to avoid any ambiguity.
Nurture and retain clients
In addition to being responsive to clients, you should also be clear about your expectations. Communicating clearly and effectively is an essential part of managing a small law firm.
Use these two channels to communicate with clients:
- Regular emails, even if just touching base or sending a meme. You can also experiment with text messages or phone calls by creating segments and running an A/B test. RunSensible helps you easily turn your clients into segments and track your communication. That’s going to help you optimize your retention and get that revenue to new heights.
- Social media is a great option for reaching out and touching base without trying too hard. At the very least, try engaging with their posts on LinkedIn or Twitter X.
No matter what type of outreach you decide on, you should think about tracking your clients and their retention rate using an end-to-end legal practice management software like RunSensible.
Managing a small firm is easier than you think!
Managing a small law firm can be challenging, but it’s not as difficult as you might think. You just need to follow some simple rules and make sure that you’re staying organized, up-to-date with technology, and getting feedback from clients and peers. Here are some tips:
- Time management is key. You’ll want to make sure that you’re keeping track of all of your cases so that they don’t fall through the cracks or get forgotten about altogether!
- Lawyers in small firms need to stay organized because there isn’t always someone else around who can help out when things get busy; so, it helps if everyone knows what their responsibilities are at all times. And speaking of responsibilities
Use Online Tools
If you work in a small firm and there isn’t anyone else around who can help out when things get busy, then it’s important to stay organized. You’ll want to make sure that all of your cases are kept up-to-date so that they don’t fall through the cracks or get forgotten about altogether. Online CRM tools can help with this, as they allow lawyers in small firms to easily manage their workloads while staying organized. Since RunSensible is specifically designed for lawyers, you can count on it to handle all your case management needs. It has many features that will help you stay organized, including:
- Automated client intake forms
- Case tracking and reporting
- Customizable templates
- Easy collaboration with the RunSensible team.
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Conclusion
We hope you found this article helpful and informative. Managing a small law firm is a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be as difficult as it seems. With these tips and tricks from experts in the field, we hope that you can take some of the pressure off yourself by learning how other successful law firms manage their time and resources effectively. You can read more articles on our blog if you’re interested.
FAQ
1. Do I need management education to run my own law firm?
Eventhough running a law firm can have its difficulties, managing your staff and clients will be a breeze when using the right CRM tool.
2. What can Runsensible offer as an online CRM tool?
Runsensible is the all-in-one Legal practice CRM tool that covers from time management to client communication options. Here’s a detailed article about the benefits of using Runsensible.
3. What about billing?
There is no need to worry about billing clients when you’re using Runsensible; since it’s integrated with an automated billing software.
