Law Firm Leaders: Finances

For Lawyers as for Athletes, There Is No ‘I’ in ‘Team’
If you want to build firm revenue, don’t let individual players steal the show. Working as a team means greater value for the client and greater long-term success for the firm.

Leadership and Ownership: The Essential Law Firm Dynamic
In a down economy, lawyers tend to focus on their own clients and their own business interests, but putting the interests of the firm first is the essence of true leadership.

Step by Step
A biting recession and a slow recovery are leading some large American law firms to reduce their costs and rationalize their internal processes. One of the most interesting examples is a trend by some firms to eliminate lockstep compensation for associates, replacing it with a merit-based salary system. Law firms are among the last professional organizations to compensate employees by seniority.

Measuring Practice Group Performance
It takes a number of measures to approximate the truth of what is going on in any practice group. What you measure and how you do it depends in significant part on what use you want to make of the measurement.

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 reevaluating compensation, here are the top 10 tips for survival, including a checklist for your firm.

Best practices for setting managing partner pay
Law firms generally “get” the idea that they have to pay for physical assets and for the efforts of associates, partners and support staff. But they generally do not get that they have to pay for management or, alternatively, they have a hard time figuring out how to do it right.

What’s the real cost of responding to RFPs?
Now that business is down in many firms, many partners and executive directors are taking a long hard look at how the firm spends its time and money on responding to prospective client requests for proposals, more often known as RFPs.

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.

Outsourcing is “In” … But Be Sure to Demonstrate Value
The concept of outsourcing is a fundamental business strategy.  It allows individuals and organizations to focus on what they are best at, their core competencies, without diluting those capabilities by pursuing other, less productive areas.

How to Design the Right Compensation System for Your Law Firm
Whether it's a Bay Street firm in Toronto, a Magic Circle firm in London, or a Wall Street firm in New York, there's little doubt that the rich keep getting richer when it comes to law firm compensation.

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.

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.

10 Questions to Ask Before Responding to an RFP
The trouble with Requests for Proposals (RFPs) is that there are usually many other firms replying. This competition makes it crucial to differentiate yourself and demonstrate clearly that you can meet the client's needs.

Ten Ways Law Firms Lose a Lot of Money
You already know that you and your firm lose money when you write down your time or when clients don’t pay their bills on time (or at all). But there are several other hidden costs that claw back on firm profits that you may be unaware of.