MANAGE YOUR PRACTICE LIKE A BUSINESS AND LESS LIKE ALEMONADE STAND: CREATE SENSIBLE WORK SYSTEMS.BY: AUSTIN BENTONBENTON, BENTON & BENTON, LLCAYLA, LLC

What is this talk about?

Work System – The process (steps, technology, overhead, etc.) required to complete a task.

u Why lawyers have traditionally been terrible business people?

u Learn about the elements of a good system.u Look at the work systems being put into practice by

big and small firms?

Goals of the talk

Who makes up the private practice attorneys?

u 1,314,561 total lawyers in the United States

u 75% are in private practice

u 49% are solo practitioners

u Of the remaining 61% of law firms, 76% are firms having between 2 and 5 attorneys

Source: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/market_research/lawyer-demographics-tables-2016.authcheckdam.pdf

Who are lawyers?

Undergraduate Majors of Applicants to ABA-Approved Law Schools

1. 18.12% - Political Science2. 7.36% - Other3. 5.51% - Criminal Justice4. 5.39% - Psychology5. 5.07% - English6. 4.96% - History7. 3.88% - Economics8. 3.27% - Philosophy

9. 3.05% - Arts & Humanities Other

10. 2.93% - Sociology11. 2.58% - Communications

http://lsac.org/docs/default-source/data-(lsac-resources)-docs/2015-16_applicants-major.pdf LSAT

Learning the Business of Law

Law School

The Firm Route Solo Route

The Firm Routeu Attorney is an employee.

u Work time is spent learning or applying the law.

u Work is provided for the attorney.

u Little to no contact with the day-to-day billing, operations of the business, and marketing.

u File organization and case workflow established by someone else.

u The firm you started with had a different set of tools.

The Solo Route

u Time is limited; simultaneously must learn the law and run a business

u Limited resources

u Limited funds

u Not many good examples to learn from when setting up a practice

Law as a Business

Primary Tasks of a Business

u Offer a Serviceu Market Servicesu Obtain Customersu Organize Client Information u Provide Customer Serviceu Billingu Manage Finances

Practicing the law is not the same as running a business

Services offered by lawyers:

u Generate a legal document

u Give advice (prevent future conflict)

u Help resolve present conflict

Your workflow is not unique

u Interview Patientu Perform Testsu Provide Diagnosisu Non-invasive

remedyu Surgery

u Interview Clientu Discoveryu Analyze Factsu Mediationu Trial

u Obtain Objectiveu Perform Studies – Review

existing designu Determine code structure,

platform, etc.u Layout Alternative Designsu Build

Doctor Lawyer Engineer

* Each is governed by their own set of rules

Creating a business system that works for law firms

Legal services are a game of gathering, shuffling, and reorganizing information into different formats.

Intake à Pleadings à Discovery à Memorandum à Trial Notebook à Trial

The material lawyers build with is information

Business decisions should revolve around efficient information management that

reduces cost and improves the service or product

• Quickly access basic case information• Organize information in a logical manner• Reduce time on tasks that don’t build value or

move matters forward• Reduce overhead

Goals for developing a good system

Elements of a good system

u Reduce dependence on staffu Learn to use softwareu Invest in softwareu Commit to a case management systemu Get online storageu Be a paperless officeu Streamline document generation

Reduce staff dependence

uHard to find good staffuHard to keep staffuLosing staff can cause lasting difficultiesuStaff are a drain on financial resources that

could otherwise go to marketing, retirement, etc.

Learn to use technologyu Slow down and read the words on the screenu You’re not going to break software by clicking aroundu Invest in technology that offers user help videosu Hire a tutoru Utilize customer supportu Utilize YouTubeu Learn to use Microsoft Word and the .docx format

u Why are you using WordPerfect?

Investing in TechnologyCost analysis for legal staff vs. technology that can be utilized for answering phone calls, online document storage, calendaring, and document automation

Cost Secretary Paralegal Lawyer TechnologyDaily $98.63 $120.54 $230.13 $12.09Monthly $3,000 $3,666 $7,000 $368Yearly $36,000 $44,000 $84,000 $4,4165 Years $180,000 $220,000 $420,000 $22,08010 Years $360,000 $440,000 $840,000 $44,160

Automation monthly cost include: $160 unlimited phone answering service + $39 (MyCase),+ $169 (Ayla)Wages are based upon 2015 Occupational Wage Survey

Invest in Case Management System

uReduce staff dependencyuIncreases organizationuIncreases access to information

Case Management System FeaturesuCentral location to keep client contact

informationuBillinguCalendaruCentralize client communication (emails)uCentral location for digital filesuCase notes

Invest in a Case Management System

Online Document Storage

Online document storage allow you to have all of your documents on all of your devices at the same time.

Be a paperless office

u Definition - a work environment in which the use of paper is eliminated or greatly reduced. This is done by converting documents and other papers into digital form.

How to become a paperless office

1. Buy a scanner/printer2. Buy a scanning app for your phone3. Learn to use both4. Use both

Online Document Storage+ Paperless Office

• Preserve your files in the event of a natural disaster• Katrina• Great Flood of 2016

Document Automation

The cost of generating documents

u Expensiveu Training periodu Retention is difficultu More money once

trainedu They don't want to

do your work either

u Good luck finding a good one

u Expensiveu Customer service

skills may be lackingu Training periodu Dependent on them

u Reduced free timeu Reduced marketingu Overworkedu You can’t edit your own

work

Lawyer Paralegal You

The cost of Documents in Law Practice

u60% of office timeu45% of labor cost

u56% of the documents are repetitive

What is document automation?

uA computer program that assembles a document based upon selections that you make.

Document  Automation Companies

Pathagoras

Westlaw – Form Builder

XpressDox Desktop

Reasons why you should not automate your documents.

uYou have all of the forms already. uYou like your own language.uYou’re a special snowflake.

Purpose of Pleadings

uStart a lawsuituRequest the court order someone to

perform a taskuAnswer a pleading or motion

Why automate?

uReduce time generating documentsuReduce staff dependencyuReduce staff overheadu Increase time to spend with clientsu Increase available time to spend on

working the facts of a caseu Increase document accuracy

Automation in the Real World

Flat Rate Succession $2,000

Automated Traditional

10 hoursTime to Complete1.7 hours

$200Hourly Rate$1,176

40 Hour Work Week

Automated Traditional

4Completed Successions23.5

$8,000Total Revenue$47,000

How many staff members would it take the traditional law firm to generate 23.5 successions per week?

Value is in intellectual property within document and navigating the procedure to complete a task.

Automation and Flat Rate50 letters example

Flat Rate vs Hourly Rate

Automated Traditional

Rate$45 per letter $50 per/hr

Time per doc1.05 Minutes 10 Minutes

Total Time

Total Revenue$2,2508.33 hours52.5 Minutes

$416.50

VII - Hard Lessons of running a business

1. Hire the right kind of help.

2. Stop multitasking

3. Stop letting your ego make your decisions for you

4. Be willing to fail

5. Make time to be objective about all aspects of your business

6. Be willing to give up in order to gain more

7. Stop letting your staff make the decisions for you

8. Stop looking at software as a monthly expense

9. Do the things you don’t want to do first