Un-Billable Hour: Business Management Strategies for the Busy Lawyer Around the Community Table

Many lawyers are hesitant to regularly look at their finances. In addition to the regular workload and marketing, maintaining a budget seems overwhelming and is often undervalued in time management. After all, when managing a business, there are so many different factors that can affect cash flow and finances: personnel issues, economy changes, client payment plans, marketing and advertising, clerical errors, and many others. Although it may seem difficult to organize and prioritize the finances of a law firm, there are six key categories that break down the budget so that it can easily be managed. In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, host Christopher Anderson interviews financial analyst Brooke Lively about the six key numbers every attorney should know. Three are involved with the money that exists or has already been spent: cash position, budget, and accounts receivable. Lively emphasizes the importance of knowing how much the firm has, how much it is owed, and what is being spent. She recommends that an attorney then take these numbers and analyze them to provide cash projections, budget variance, and income variance. Any noticeable changes can lead to modifications to save the company unnecessary losses. By simply paying attention to these six numbers each month, the success of a lawyer's practice could greatly increase. Brooke Lively currently serves as a CFO to over twenty small and solo law firms around the country through her organization, Cathedral Capital. She focuses on fundamental analysis, firm modeling, and valuation backed by strong quantitative skills. She holds an MBA with a double concentration in Investments and Corporate Finance and has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst certification.

While identifying a client base, deciding on office space, and making countless other decisions, assumptions are made when developing a legal business plan that are, at best, educated guesses. Many startups have decided to follow in the path of previous companies only to find that their firm does not thrive in such a structured methodology. In the incredibly complicated world of legal business, social media attorney Scott Malouf argues that the Lean Startup method provides an alternative and relatively efficient approach to identifying the specific needs of potential clients. Lean Startup is a trial and error based business model in which a startup company makes small, specific assumptions and does vigorous testing on the results rather than depending on a big picture business plan. On this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, Christopher T. Anderson interviews Malouf about the benefits and difficulties of applying Lean Startup to law firms. New law firms can benefit by limiting wasted money, efforts, and time by truly sampling what clients might want and eliminating unnecessary services according to direct feedback. However, there may be challenges in ethical statutes surrounding lack of certain services and the ability to be transparent with clients. Scott Malouf is an attorney who helps other attorneys turn texts, social media, and web-based information into evidence and advises in social media risk reduction. He has extensive insight into the best practices for startups, challenges that may arise, and examples of how he has personally applied Lean to his practice. He writes the Social Media Law column for the New York Daily Record and can be found on Twitter @scottmalouf. Stick around to the end for details on how you can learn more about Lean Startup.

As the rate of new technology increases, it becomes more difficult for lawyers to keep up with industry standards for protecting client data confidentiality. In addition to the rigors of day-to-day practice, attorneys are expected to be familiar with terms such as SSL 256, SaS 70, and SSAE 16. On this episode of the Un-Billable Hour, host Chris T. Anderson interviews The Droid Lawyer blogger, Jeffrey Taylor. Together they discuss the importance of attorneys staying current through workshops, blogs, conferences, and state bar associations. In addition, tune in to learn more about the security issues associated with cloud-based vs. server-based practice management software solutions. Jeffrey Taylor is the author of The Droid Lawyer blog. The blog discusses Android mobile operating system for lawyers. The Droid Lawyer is one of the ABA Journal's Top 100 law blogs, and one of Biztech Magazine's Top 50 Must Read IT Blogs. Jeff is an attorney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Law firms are beginning to utilize Lean Six Sigma standards to improve service quality for their clients. This two-tiered approach is both paradigm and methodology aimed at increasing organizational efficiency and accuracy of work. It focuses attention and efforts toward changing those behaviors and systems that slow productivity and increase errors. On this episode of the Un-Billable Hour, host Christopher T. Anderson interviews managing consulting expert Debbie Foster from Affinity Consulting Group. Together, they discuss Lean Six Sigma and the 8 main areas where law firms are losing productivity and profitability. Tune in to learn how your firm can benefit from modern day management practices by reducing waste, down time, and much more. Debbie Foster is a Partner with the Affinity Consulting Group (ACG), where she specializes in practice management, time/billing/accounting and document management software, as well as providing technology audits for firms around the country. She has also trained hundreds of consultants around the country on software programs used in law firms and best practices when consulting on a law firm's specific technology needs. Foster is very active with State Bar Associations, a former Chair of ABA TECHSHOW, and a regular speaker on topics relating to technology, management, finance, and marketing of a law firm.

Nearly every firm has clients who are difficult to collect from. Most lawyers are not trained to deal with that. On this episode of the Un-Billable Hour, host Chris Anderson interviews experts Loretta Ruppert and Jeff Krause. Together, they explore ways to effectively track and manage client billing. Loretta Ruppert is the current Senior Director of Marketing for the SaaS Product Platform at LexisNexis. She is the subject matter expert for billing and accounting software solutions, including Time Matters, and has been involved in developing software products for law firms for nearly twelve years. She is a current member of the American Society of Women Accountants and the former Controller for the Bliss Riordan Law Offices. Jeff Krause is a Wisconsin attorney who founded Krause Practice Management, LLC and is a founding partner at Solfecta, LLC. He is a Certified Independent Consultant for software solution Time Matters and a frequent author and speaker on legal technology.

On The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, joins Paramjit Mahli, a Development Coach/Consultant for lawyers at The Rainmakers Roundtable, to discuss some of the biggest mistakes lawyers make when it comes to business development and what kind of "skill set" lawyers need in order to be successful when it comes to business development.

Do you use an iPad in your legal practice? On The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, chats with Tom Mighell, the author of three books about the use of iPads, iPad in One Hour For Lawyers, iPad Apps in One Hour For Lawyers, and soon to be released, iPad in One Hour for Litigators, about the explosive growth of the use of iPads in the legal profession, and Tom’s favorite productivity and entertainment apps for the legal iPad.

Attorneys can turn into leaders by successfully engaging others during difficult conversations. Learn more about handling these tough talks, how to prepare and how to get the results you want during these conversations on the Un-Billable Hour with host Attorney Rodney Dowell, the Executive Director at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers and Director of LCL’s Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program and expert guest Karen MacKay, President of the consultancy Phoenix Legal Inc.

Are you on LinkedIn? Un-Billable Hour host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Executive Director at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers and Director of LCL’s Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program chats with Dennis Kennedy, lawyer and co-host of The Kennedy-Mighell Report and Allison Shields, author of Legal Ease Blog, about their recently published book, LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers. Dennis and Allison talk about how attorneys are using LinkedIn, and the key features that make LinkedIn a valuable networking and client development tool without consuming all of an attorney’s time.

Find out how document assembly tools can increase efficiency and profits at your firm on The Un-Billable Hour. Host and Attorney Rodney Dowell, Executive Director at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers and Director of LCL’s Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program and Diane Ebersole, practice management advisor for the State Bar of Michigan explain how document assembly applications have advanced in the last few years and how these applications can increase the bottom line for your law firm.