A work-from-home policy presents many benefits and drawbacks for a modern law firm. With a virtual law office, your firm will save on monthly rent costs and is likely to experience less employee turnover. However, remotely participating in meetings with clients and employees can be challenging when employees must rely on technology alone for critical communication. Luckily, there are affordable technologies available that will alleviate some of these challenges.

“A-B-C. A, always; B, be; C, closing. Always be closing! Always be closing!” Made popular by Alec Baldwin’s character in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” it’s a line that’s all too familiar to salespeople and rainmakers. With greater access to data, however, there’s a new mantra that should be leveraged by all those in business development: A, always; B, be; C, collecting; D, data. Always be collecting data!

The practice of law is complicated. A single case can involve multiple attorneys, dozens of files and hundreds of interactions among a law firm, clients, opposing counsel and courts. Given the vast scope of moving parts and operations of a legal matter, it is ripe for business process optimization.

Does your firm rely on a bookkeeping service to manage your books? Have you experienced data syncing issues or do you have concerns that your provider doesn’t have sufficient experience to manage your books in compliance with your state bar’s client trust (IOLTA) rules and regulations? If so, then it’s time to take your firm’s legal billing and legal accounting into your own hands.

There are so many benefits to keeping track of your time: efficiency, organization, and responsibility. Once you figure out where specifically you are spending your time, you can then determine where improvements in your time management need to be made. Budgeting your time and allotting more time for higher priority tasks, will lead to fewer distractions, better organization, and more responsibility (and accountability).

As an attorney, you are trained to keep track of every minute and bill accordingly. But what if you decide that you don’t want to bill your client for the extra time it has taken your new associate to research a topic related to their case? Or perhaps you’re feeling super generous and want to write-off the 20-minute conversation you had with your client updating them about their case. While you should be aware of every second spent sending emails, following up on payments, and learning a new skill, every second spent on a case may not be worth a check from your client.

We believe that in order for a law practice to thrive, it must operate like a business. A key component of operating like a business is understanding metrics and gaining insight in order to understand how the business is operating – what is working and what can be improved. This is displayed in our guiding principles – what isn’t MEASURED cannot be IMPROVED. As a result, we offer real-time data with comprehensive reports and analytics to help you better understand the business side of your practice.

As an attorney, there are no shortage of minefields that can land you in hot water.   While many of the dangers that lurk can be subjective or unavoidable, failing an audit of client trust funds is one that consistently strikes fear into one's heart.  Yet, keeping your trust funds in good order need not be a challenge if you employ the right process and software.

If you can’t get a real-time, 360-degree overview of your practice and its finances, you have little more than your intuition to help you make smart strategic decisions. This 360-degree knowledge is the “current truth” that informs you about your firm’s financial position and overall productivity. The trouble is, unlike mega corporations who have access to highly-customized applications and a small army of number crunchers, small (and midsize) law firms rely on disparate applications, each perform only a portion of the firm’s activities and hence there is no clear way to perform centralized reporting.