Tips to Help You Cope with the Recession

I've been hearing about the "dog days" of summer since I was a kid, without ever really stopping to think where the expression came from. So, I looked it up and discovered that not only did it refer to unseasonably hot weather and the rising of Sirius, the dog star, but that one of the chief features of the dog days is how languid people become from the heat.

With fall upon us and winter coming soon, we don't have that excuse any longer. So these cooler days can be a great time to take some steps to get your practice ready to move to the next level. Here are some things you can do to save time, enhance value to your clients and boost your bottom line.

Recycle some work
Slow times are great for looking back at work you've already completed to determine whether there are ways that you can re-purpose that research or drafting. This will let you move away from hourly billing to value-based flat fees, and there's lots of value to be mined from much of the work you've already done. All you need to do is review what you've done and recycle it into a form in which you can readily find it and it can be easily used to provide value to the next similarly-situated client.

Your efforts can be extensive, such as taking a recent deal and automating all the documents with a document generation product such as Hot Docs; middle-of-the-road, like having your secretary go to http://office.microsoft.com/ en-us/training/default.aspx and learn how to create templates for uncontested divorces or other standard documents you use repeatedly; or super simple, such as taking an hour or two to devise a new file-naming scheme, renaming documents from short file names to longer and more descriptive ones and cleaning up your folder structure so that you can easily find and re-use old work product. A desktop search engine such as Copernic or X-1 can really help with this, too.

Develop your own policies and procedures manual
Be prepared to bring a new employee up to speed quickly or deal with an unexpected or lengthy employee absence by developing quick-reference guides for how the various jobs within your firm are completed. These can be as simple as one- or two-page "cheat sheets" which outline individual tasks, or full-blown manuals covering all aspects of firm procedure. Start by having current employees outline the tasks which they perform on a regular basis and then fill in the details.

If you don't already have job descriptions for each of your employees, these sheets can also be used to create job descriptions for each position within your firm and to evaluate whether work is evenly divided or determine whether there are overlaps or gaps in responsibility. If you do have job descriptions, compare them to the cheat sheets to determine if the employee is doing what he or she was originally hired to do. If not, you will be in a position to discover whether the job description or the work actually being done should be changed, or if you really need everyone you currently have on payroll.

Call the Practice Management Assistance Program at (334) 517-2242 or e-mail kristi.skipper@alabar.org to check out our sample policies and procedures manuals.

Go paperless
If you've been thinking of eliminating as much paper as possible but haven't really wanted to tackle a project like this on top of your regular work, now just might be a great time to take on the challenge.

Going paperless can save you money, which will fall straight to the bottom line, in several different ways. First, because electronic filing is becoming ubiquitous, going paperless can make you more efficient by helping you improve your workflows, aligning internal practices with what is needed for electronic filing. Second, you'll save money not only by reducing paper use in the office, but also on storage costs. Every paper file you keep in the office takes up space, at the same rate that a billing employee does. So turning your paper into bits and bytes can cut down on storage costs. Third, you'll save time (and money) because you'll never have to look for another misplaced paper file. Give the client the paper file you normally would have kept, document that fact and, when the case is closed, you're done. No file stripping, file closing, file storage, file re-appearance, and hassles finally getting rid of the thing years later. And this doesn't even begin to mention the trees you'll save.

Send e-bills
E-billing also provides multiple benefits: you reduce your expenses for paper, envelopes and stamps; your bills arrive faster, speeding up payment; and your invoices go straight to the person who pays them. According to the LexisNexis 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey, firms in the top quarter have a total cash flow cycle time (days to bill + days to collection) of 155 days. The bottom 25 percent of firms take 170 days. If you can shorten your cash flow cycle time, you'll benefit–especially if you are starting to face cash flow issues.

Become a business advisor
If you handle mainly criminal defense work, this tip is not for you, but if you represent business clients, tough economic times can actually present you with opportunities to better serve your clients while generating new business, too.

Most business clients, when asked, say that they would prefer their lawyers to work with them to prevent problems rather than help them fight their way out of tough situations once "the horse is already out of the barn."

Think about all the ways that you can use your legal knowledge and experience to create new services that will help your existing clients avoid problems in the future. Read up on the industries you serve. Assisting with establishing and presenting training programs for managers and employees, helping create records retention policies to be ready for e-discovery holds or putting together procedures for various types of quality control are just a few ideas. If you've seen it as a problem in litigation, you probably have a client who would like to be forewarned and forearmed.

Slow times will pass, regardless of what you do. Will you be better prepared to provide cost-effective legal services a month from now?
—Laura A. Calloway, director, ASB Practice Management Assistance Program

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