How mentors work best for lawyers...

Back on 3 November 2011 I posted a short blog about Business Coaches for lawyers...

That post is set out below for your interest...

I have a strong belief (backed by thirty-eight years of hard evidence!) that most of the problems in law firms start with the principals...and that often the wrong courses are set early on while practitioners are flying solo, or in a very small firm...

Professional Pricing Society...better fees...much better profits...

For those of you who feel you could do with additional expertise in pricing...there is a wealth of useful information in PPS...the world's only professional society dedicated to pricing training and education...

Very useful website and blog...in particular I find the discussions around the mindset of clients fascinating...especially as it's clear they're changing faster than ever...we will all need to be very professional and very nimble in this critical area...

Website:  http://www.pricingsociety.com

Why Staff Leave Law Firms

There's a wealth of information around on the reasons for people leaving organisations...most of it aimed at educating managers how to slow down the flow...

Today's post takes a different tack altogether...

How to set fee-earner budgets properly and profit big time...

This is one of the most fraught areas of legal practice management for firms large and small...but it needn't be...

Well over twenty years ago we developed KMSWorkPlans™ as a tool to ensure better planning of the way fee-earner resources are used in firms...and they're used successfully in firms throughout Australasia...

What we recommend you do is treat each person as the individual they are, and start with an agreed level of average daily input for them...

Lawyer profits... the truth about why they're often appallingly low...

How so many lawyers fool themselves that they're being productive...

In the last 38 years I've met a lot of lawyers who work very hard...but relatively few who are truly productive and make the profits that their training and experience warrants...

One particular problem is a lack of honesty and willingness to be self-critical in a positive way...

Employed Lawyer Remuneration...The Right Formula...

Few days go by when I am not asked about the "correct" formula for employed lawyer remuneration.

In varying types of language depending on my mood I point out that I regard such formulas as a nonsense...they always have been for 99.9% of circumstances and always will be...
Even if a formula was a good idea...the formulas used vary enormously so an average or even a band won't help you much...

Right staff for your law firm...

How Small Legal Firms Easily Find Experienced Legal Staff

One of the biggest challenges for small but growing law firms is finding good professional staff of the right experience...

Many are soaked up by the bigger competition...

It's important you don't appoint or keep those applicants that everyone else has rightly rejected.

Why Time-Recording Remains So Very Relevant To Lawyers

Hardly a working day goes by when I'm not faced with another version of the reason a particular lawyer does not see any value in recording time.

There are many reasons given...and I will not try to make a complete list here...

I'm advised that a lawyer charges lump sums...so no need to "time-cost"...

I'm told that it's more trouble than it's worth...

I'm told that a lawyer is into value billing so it's pointless to record the time involved.

I'm told that a lawyer records all ClientTime but sees no point recording anything that is not billable.

Best alternatives to time billing...

Federal Court of Australia in effect puts stamp of approval on care skill/time costing amalgam...

Friends of KMS will be aware of my long-held view that logically there should be no reason why skill care considerations cannot be applied to time costing where the Client Services Agreement allows.

I have considered it fairly easy to justify as "fair and reasonable" when it is appropriate.

Many KMS client firms have Care Skill provisions in their costs agreements...