Newest Articles
A Recession Coping Guide for Canadian Law Firms
The legal profession is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, but there are steps you can take to lessen the impact. From renegotiating what you pay for office supplies to asking partners to take a cut in pay, here are the top 10 tips for survival. More...
When Is a Law Firm Like an Airline? When It “Unbundles”!
Rather than raise the fees for all, airlines are being selective. Just because it’s an extra charge doesn’t make it unreasonable, so long as customers see the reasoning and the value behind it. This is an excellent lesson for law firms facing client pressures to reduce billing rates and fees due to the recession. More...
More Secrets of the Business of Law
CBA PracticeLink has teamed up with LawBiz.com to offer our readers a series of excerpts from Ed Poll's must-read book, More Secrets of the Business of Law:
The Complex Conundrum of Cash and Lawyer Compensation
If your revenues from a given client are less than the costs to service that client in lawyer and staff compensation, your law firm is like an athlete exercising in hot weather. Lawyers often see only the intake—the cash “hydration” of revenue—and do not realize the dehydration that dissipates cash faster than the money comes in. More...
Is Flat Fee Billing a Viable Alternative?
Rather than setting price by a standard unit or result, alternative billing options focus on actions taken to benefit the client, beyond the time of how that value is applied. One of the simplest such options, and one that has increasingly received a great deal of attention in Canada, is billing for legal services at a flat rate. More...
Not If, But When: Prepare a Disaster Recovery Plan Today
There are two types of law firms: those that have experienced a disaster, and those that will. Protect yourself with these steps and checklists for developing and implementing a disaster recovery plan for your firm. More...
Is Your Overhead Too High? The Factors Involved in Reducing Law Firm Overhead Costs
All law firms, large and small, have one thing in common: a finite limit to discretionary spending. Overhead can, with some creativity, be reduced if necessary—there should be no such thing as a fixed cost. Spending for such items as leases and staffing is important but can be modified when necessary. More...
How to Get Paid
These columns address a variety of issues—structuring an engagement letter, raising your fees, working with your banker on cash flow management—all of which have the same basic theme: helping you get paid.
How to Benchmark Your Law Firm’s Financial Performance
Financial benchmarks can help uncover operating deficiencies in a law firm and provide fact-based information to gain consensus among your colleagues. Most importantly, benchmarking enables you to measure progress toward achieving the firm's goals and strategies. More...
Developing Alternatives to the Billable Hour
Choosing the right alternative is ultimately a business matter for both the firm and the client. There is no universal best billing alternative. Client preferences and each firm's operations differ, and each project or case has a multitude of factors that could accommodate these billing options.
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