Charging for your relevant support staff...why it's so important

I'm still finding firm after firm not charging for Support staff...even when they have a provision allowing it in their Client Service Agreements.

They do not (ever, in my experience) have hourly charge rates of lawyers high enough to compensate.

Here's a powerful example why it's so important.


I met a senior lawyer in a small firm in a NSW provincial city who was adamant that from his practice he had never been able to bill more than $350,000 in his career, even in a good year.

He had a good long time secretary assisting but she did not record her activity or get included in budget calculations.

On calculations using KMS WorkPlans the two between them should have been capable of $665,000 and for many years since instituting WorkPlans they have been achieving that or better.

Recently a 3 day a week paralegal was added to the team...with a fee goal of $70,000 initially.

Perceptions and paradigms can be exceptionally painful for profit. This firm would have laboured on, for how long, without the $300,000 a year extra profit available from the client base and wider marketplace.

Perhaps yet another practitioner would have continued to bemoan the fact that it's not possible to get a decent return in small legal practices anymore!

Footnote...the principal concerned now works 4 days a week...and bills much more personally than he formerly did in five days...and the additional secretarial revenue keeps coming in...