Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog

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Sep 09, 2014

Law Firm Staffing and Growth Models – Lateral Partners & Of Counsel

Two weeks ago I was asked by the managing partner of a 16 attorney insurance defense firm about staffing and growth models for an insurance defense firm and I listed the following models and discussed the first model – grow your own associate staffing.

Attorney staffing/growth models include:

  1. Grow Your Own Associate Staffing
  2. Lateral Associate Staffing
  3. Contract – Staff Associate Staffing
  4. Lateral Partners (Equity or Non-Equity)
  5. Of Counsel (Various Approaches and Purposes)
  6. Mergers (Or Small Firm Acquisitions)
  7. Branching

This week I will outline the pros and cons for number 4 and 5 – Lateral Partners (Equity or Non-Equity) and Of Counsel.

Lateral Partners (Equity or Non-Equity

PROS

  1. Maybe a quicker way to increase profitability and cash flow.
  2. Allows the firm to acquire talent that it may not have time to grow or develop.
  3. Allows the firm to expand into new areas if the candidate has said experience and brings a book of business with him or her.

CONS

  1. Desired compensation may not fit within the firm's existing compensation structure.
  2. Clients may not come or materialize.
  3. May be issues with cultural fit.
  4. Costs may not be justified.

Of Counsel – Various Approaches and Purposes

  1. Allows the firm to acquire partner level talent, business, etc. without offering partnership.
  2. Provides the firm with a way to acquire a practice of someone wanting to retire.
  3. Provides the firm with a way to pilot test new lateral partner candidates and evaluate in a first-phase approach.
  4. Provides the firm with a way to partner with other firms.
  5. Provides a way for the firm to enter more new market areas.

Other models to be discussed in upcoming posts.

Click here for our article on hiring associate attorneys

Click here for our law firm management articles

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

    

Sep 02, 2014

Law Firm Staffing and Growth Models – Lateral Associate Staffing & Contract Associate Staffing

Last week I was asked by the managing partner of a 16 attorney insurance defense firm about staffing and growth models for an insurance defense firm and I listed the following models and discussed the first model – grow your own associate staffing.

Attorney staffing/growth models include:

  1. Grow Your Own Associate Staffing
  2. Lateral Associate Staffing
  3. Contract – Staff Associate Staffing
  4. Lateral Partners (Equity or Non-Equity)
  5. Of Counsel (Various Approaches and Purposes)
  6. Mergers (Or Small Firm Acquisitions)
  7. Branching

This week I will outline the pros and cons for number 2 and 3 – Lateral Associate Staffing and Contract – Staff Associate Staffing

Lateral Associate Staffing

PROS

  1. Less training and mentoring time
  2. Will become profitable more quickly – maybe a year sooner
  3. They will be more acceptable to clients than new untrained associates
  4. May be able to charge higher billing rates
  5. Tradeoff of higher salary vs. quicker profitability and cash flow – sooner profitability may pay for itself in the short term depending upon the salary differential.
  6. May generate new ideas and skill sets/approaches/insights that can benefit the firm.

CONS

  1. May have to de-train them. They may bring practices and approaches that are undesirable to the firm
  2. Higher salary initially and expectations for more
  3. Sooner expectations for non-equity and or equity partnership
  4. Clients may not allow you to charge any more for these associates than new young associates
  5. May not result in higher profitability and cash flow any sooner than new associates (probably will – but if not costs will be higher)

Contract – Staff Associate Staffing

PROS

  1.  Allows the firm to staff up when needed using a project/matter staffing approach
  2. Allows the firm to better manage fixed costs and manage contract staffing as a variable cost and match costs to staffing needs
  3. Allows the firm to evaluate candidates before committing to full-time positions
  4. Can be experienced and seasoned or not

CONS

  1. Cost per hour will probably be higher
  2. Turnover due to uncertainty as to their future

Other models to be discussed in upcoming posts.

Click here for our article on hiring associate attorneys

Click here for our law firm management articles

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

    

Aug 26, 2014

Law Firm Attorney Staffing/Growth Models – Overview

Question:

I am the managing partner of a 16 attorney insurance defense firm in Chicago Southwest Suburbs. We have 4 partners and the balance of our attorneys are associates – many of which have been with us for several years. We are on a growth spree and needing to hire more associates to handle client assignments. Associate hiring, mentoring, and training has always been a challenge for us and our clients are restricting us in the way we use associates on their files. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Response:

Attorney staffing/growth models include:

  1. Grow Your Own Associate Staffing
  2. Lateral Associate Staffing
  3. Contract – Staff Associate Staffing
  4. Lateral Partners (Equity or Non-Equity)
  5. Of Counsel (Various Approaches and Purposes)
  6. Mergers (Or Small Firm Acquisitions)
  7. Branching

I will address the pros and cons of each model/approach in upcoming postings. I will begin by addressing the first one.

The traditional staffing model for insurance defense firms has been Grow Your Own Associate Staffing.

PROS

  1. Large available supply of new lawyers.
  2. Lower salary than experienced lawyers.
  3. Better odds of integrating them into the firm's existing culture.

CONS

  1. Takes time training, mentoring, getting them ramped up.
  2. May take 2-3 years before they are profitable.
  3. Once they become profitable you may lose them to another firm.
  4. No business comes with them so you must have enough work to keep they busy.
  5. Clients may be unwilling to allow you to use them or dictate how you use them.
  6. Clients may be unwilling to allow them to train on their dime.
  7. Will have to bill them out at lower billing rates than lateral associates or lateral partners.

Click here for our article on hiring associate attorneys

Click here for our law firm management articles

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Aug 19, 2014

Law Firm Profitability Assessment Tool

Question:

I am the managing partner of a five attorney firm in Fort Worth, Texas. I am new to the managing partner role and am looking for a quick and dirty tool to examine our financial performance. Can you point me to a tool that I can use?

Response:

I have a quick and dirty tool that I call the Law Practice Profitability and Management Checklist and you are welcome to use it. It is not an exhaustive assessment – just a tool that can be used to get started.

Click here to access the Law Practice Management Checklist

Click here for our blog on financial management

Click here for articles on other topics

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

 

Aug 04, 2014

Law Firm Client Telephone Satisfaction Interviews in Insurance Defense Law Firms

Question:

I am the chair of our firm's marketing committee. We are a 24 attorney insurance defense firm in Houston. While we solicit feedback from some of our larger insurance company clients at lunch and face to face meetings – the sessions are not structured, data is not really tabulated, and only a handful of clients are usually involved. We have been thinking of embarking on a more structured process. I would appreciate your thoughts:

Response:

Our firm recently completed client satisfaction interviews for several of our insurance defense law firm clients. Here are a few quotes and a summary of what these insurance company law firm clients told us:

Much can be learned by talking to your clients. Structured telephone interviews conducted by a neutral in-house law firm marketing employee or outside third party can provide many surprises as well as answers. Client satisfaction interviews can be the best marketing investment that you can make.

Click here for our blog on marketing 

Click here for articles on other topics

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

Jul 29, 2014

Law Firm Fall Retreat – Insuring Success

Question:

I am a member of the firm planning committee. We are an 18 attorney firm based in downtown Chicago. We have had planning retreats in the past with mixed results. Some believe that they have been a waste of time. We are planning a fall retreat. I would appreciate any ideas that you may have that would help us accomplish more from these retreats.

Response:

A retreat will not be successful unless an implementation plan is formulated during the actual retreat and made a part of the proceeding. Specific assignments and completion dates must be agreed upon during the retreat itself and schedules for reporting on progress must be determined.

At the conclusion of the retreat the outcome of the retreat and the implementation plan should be summarized.

Within two weeks after the conclusion of the retreat a retreat report should be written and distributed to all firm members in attendance. Completion dates should be placed on the firm's calendar as well as the individual's calendar. A retreat follow-up item should be on each and every firm meeting agenda. A post retreat evaluation should be conducted six months after the conclusion of the retreat.

Click here for our blog on law firm strategy

Click here for our article on law firm retreats

Click here for articles on other topics

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Jul 22, 2014

Law Firm Attorney Retirement – How Law Firms Are Coping With Aging Attorneys

Question:

I am the Director of Administrator in a 45 attorney law firm in Miami. Twenty of these attorneys are partners and ten of the partners are in their late fifties and mid to late sixties. While we have a semi-retirement program in place it is not mandatory and many of our senior attorneys are unwilling to address issues pertaining to succession and transition of their practices. Do you have any thoughts or ideas you can share regarding creating incentives for senior attorneys to address and deal with the issue of retirement?

Response:

Larger law firms are moving away from mandatory retirement. However, many large law firms still have mandatory retirement. According to a recent survey approximately 57% of law firms with over 100 attorneys have mandatory retirement programs. At the other end of the spectrum many smaller firms that never had mandatory retirement are beginning to incorporate some form of mandatory retirement in their agreements. In firms of all sizes and whether they have mandatory retirement programs or not – getting senior attorneys to deal and cope with aging is a challenge. Here are a few thoughts:

  1. Begin planting seeds to get senior attorneys thinking about retirement and the next stage of their lives.
  2. Conduct educational programs designed to help senior attorneys visualize their retirement years.
  3. Help provide senior attorneys with a reason to want to retire.
  4. Provide career life coaching services to senior attorneys and help them develop other interests and hobbies.
  5. Help senior attorneys develop individualized retirement/succession plans.
  6. Provide financial incentives to those that retire by say age 70 in payout agreements.
  7. Implement phased retirement/wind-down options/approaches.
  8. Consider optional roles in the firm for senior attorneys after they retire and surrender their equity interests.
  9. Insure that the firm has in place competency/peer reviews for all attorneys including senior partners and Of Counsel attorneys.
  10. Insure that the firm has a program that effectively deals with underperforming attorneys.

Aging is a difficult time for all of us and it is normal not to want to think about age related issues much less to begin planning. Your role will be to help senior attorneys take baby steps and come to terms with aging in general.

Click here for our blog on succession

Click here for out articles on various management topics

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Jul 15, 2014

Law Firm Advertising – Should Our PI Firm Consider TV Advertising

Question:

Our firm is a three attorney personal injury plaintiff located in Los Angeles. We started the firm fifteen years ago. Two of the three attorneys are equity owners. Our firm is a high volume/low case value practice – we currently have 500 open cases. A high percentage of our cases are settled without a law suit ever being filed. We are an advertising driven practice. While over the years we have effectively used a variety of advertising vehicles we have never ventured into TV advertising. We are considering venturing into TV and would appreciate your thoughts regarding TV advertising.

Response:

I have personal injury plaintiff law firm clients that have had great success with TV advertising and other clients that have had poor results. High case volume/low case value firms such as yours have had the greatest success. In order to be successful you must have the budget to be able to stay the course and the infrastructure to support and manage the advertising effort and to support the work and cases. The worst thing you can "dabble" with TV advertising. Here are a few thoughts:

  1. Be prepared to invest in TV advertising for a least six months – or don't do it.
  2. TV advertising can be scary from two vantage points. If it is not successful you will have invested a great deal of money without receiving an adequate return on your investment. I have client firms spending one to two million dollars a year on TV advertising. You could easily spend $100,000 to $200,000 before you find out that the investment is not paying off. If your campaign is successful you may not be prepared to handle the volume of work that could result – either in the form of infrastructure or working capital. (Cash Flow)
  3. Be prepared to respond to client inquiries 24/7.
  4. Prepare your infrastructure scalability plan. Do you have the facilities, communications system capacity, staff and other resources to handle an immediate dramatic increase in case volume if it comes? If not, how quickly can you scale up? Do you have access to the capital to finance such expansion?
  5. Measure and monitor ROI from your program and fine tune adjust your program.
  6. Use a placement agency that has experience with personal injury law firms. Solicit law firm references from other markets and call each one and discuss their results in-depth.

Like any other business venture – if you do the proper due diligence and do your homework – TV advertising can be a great investment – if not it can be a nightmare. I have seen it go both ways.

Click here for our blog on marketing 

Click here for articles on other topics

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

Jul 08, 2014

Law Firm Partnership – Client Origination Expectations for New Associate Attorney

Question:

I am the sole owner of a four attorney general practice firm in Rockford, Illinois. I am 58 and realize that in the next few years I will need to begin implementing a succession and exit strategy by probably bringing in a partner. Two of the associates have no interest in partnership. However, the newest associate hired, who had his own practice for several years, does have such an interest even though he was recently hired. He is off to a good start as far as his production. However, I believe that he must be able to originate and bring in client business as well. So far his energy and focus has been totally on performing legal work. I want to get him started on the right track in order that I can make him a partner in a few years. Please provide any thoughts that you may have.

Response:

I agree that in a practice such as yours that client origination is important. I suggest that you start by laying out and discussing with him your expectations. In other words what will it take for him to become a partner – production, quality of legal work, billings, client satisfaction, and origination of new client business? Be specific and set specific goals for him and your expectations for him but also your timeline for partnership consideration. I would suggest five years. Personally, I believe his client origination goal at the five year point should be between $300,000 and $500,000 or higher. Establish baby step goals for origination – say $50,000 after year one, $100,000 after year two, $200,000 after year three, $300,000 after year four, $400,000 after year five. This will require that you track origination fee dollars in your billing/accounting system. Specific guidelines and rules regarding the attribution of origination credit should be developed. In other words an attorney should not receive origination because a client calls as a result of the firm's brand, advertising, etc. and he is passed the call because he is the only attorney in the office to take the call.

Click here for our partnership blog

Click here for articles on other topics

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Jul 01, 2014

Law Firm Marketing Investments – Investing Wisely

Question:

I am a partner in a 16 attorney firm located in Baltimore, Maryland. Our clients are primarily business firms. I am the chair of our three member marketing committee which was formed three years ago. Our firm is increasing our commitment to marketing and have increased our budget over the past three years. However, we are not sure what we should be spending our money on. Your suggestions would be appreciated.

Response:

Hopefully, you have developed a marketing plan and a marketing budget tied to the specific objectives outlined in the plan. Here are a few general guidelines, tips, and best practices:

  1. Money spent on good clients is money well spent.
  2. Allocate more money to specific practice areas or niches and individual lawyers than to the firm as a whole.
  3. Tie passive initiatives to active participation.
  4. Stand out as a major contributor to a single or a few campaigns rather than making many small contributors.
  5. Constantly measure and monitor your return on marketing investment. (ROMI)

Click here for our blog on marketing 

Click here for articles on other topics

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

 

 

 

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