It’s a new year. Some of us have resolutions that keep us true to what we want to get out of it. Those of us who don’t are still fresh from the holidays and keen on making the most of it. It’s a great time to start planning a retreat for your law firm. Perfect timing, in fact, if you’d like it to take place in the summer or fall.

So, today’s tip?

If you want your next law firm retreat to count, give it a purpose that’s sure to make a mark.

Don’t waste your previous day away with …

It seems there is never a shortage of bad news going around. 2016 has certainly had its share. Brexit, the unexpected presidency of Donald Trump, corporate restructures, not to mention turbulent financial markets. Most people approach the New Year with excitement and hope. However, what happens after the first bit of bad news hits your world? Whether its job loss, health crisis or stock market volatility? How do you handle it? What can you do learn from, thrive and find opportunity in it?

In baseball you can only score points/runs by taking risks. Playing it safe is not progress. Progress …

For many of us, getting and keeping client information and documents organized is a struggle.  Without a proper process in place, one generally ends up with piles, emails, notes and scraps of information all over the place – and by that I mean in both your physical office and on all your various devices and digital equipment.

Below I share with you 5 steps that anyone can take to get and keep each new client’s file, information and documents organized:

1. Create a client contact sheet.

A client contact sheet is exactly as it sounds – a sheet of paper …

In the past year, lawyers are reporting a more sophisticated kind of cybercrime: a hacker will gain access into a client’s email account and comb through the account to discover communications with the lawyer. The hacker will watch communications between the client and the lawyer until money finds its way into the lawyer’s trust account, such as when litigation is settled, a house is sold, or a corporate transaction is complete, the hacker will then pose as the client and send an email to the lawyer with instructions to redirect the funds into the hacker’s account.

In some cases the …

While it’s not quite as superficial as wearing flare jeans when straight cuts are in, there is an aspect to web design that is simply about keeping up with the times.

That said, deciding whether your law firm’s website is ready for an update goes quite a bit deeper than fashion sense.

So, if you’re wondering, if it’s time for a makeover or even a complete overhaul, it might be helpful to familiarize yourself with some of the qualities that exemplify modern websites:

• Multi-media – Gone are the days of the static, ‘brochure’ website. Today, visitors are expecting to have

You’re sitting at an airport terminal and want to do some quick law firm work. You whip out the laptop, scan the wireless networks and bingo! there’s a wi-fi network available called “Airport Terminal Free Public Wifi”. But before you connect, consider that you may be walking into a hacker’s trap.

A hacker sitting in the same area can be operating the wi-fi network with an inexpensive hotspot device. If you connect to the hacker’s wi-fi network, the hacker may be able to snoop in and see what you’re doing online. It doesn’t matter if you’re at a coffee shop, …

(Missed Part 2 of this series? Read it here: So Why Are Lawyers Spending So Much Time On Administrative Tasks?)

And Finally: Volume

I think the last reason attorneys are spending so much time doing administrative tasks is the increase in information we have all been subjected to as the world has gone digital.

According to Surprising Statistics About Lawyer Information Overload:

By the end 2015, attorneys on average were creating or receiving more than 70 documents every day (and for some, many more). That includes emails, email attachments, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, client records, opposing
counsel …

(Missed Part 1 of this series? Read it here: Being Efficient Doing the Wrong Tasks = Not Being Efficient)

So Why Are Lawyers Spending So Much Time On Administrative Tasks?

To start, in Time to Work Workflow Technology into the Law Firm Arsenal, Eric Wangler states:

Initially when the market shifted, firms turned to cutting administrative staff to decrease their costs. However, it was soon clear that this type of short-term solution had significant drawbacks. The remaining support staff were expected to do the same amount of work with fewer people, leading to increased stress and compromised work …

We all love data. Crave it. We don’t put down our digital devices for a second of missing some interesting digital tidbit. Here’s some interesting data I’ve recently come across with regard to the administration of law firms:

Being Efficient Doing the Wrong Tasks = Not Being Efficient

According to Bob Ambrogi in: Exclusive Survey Results: Small Firms’ Greatest Challenges and What They’re Doing to Address Them, the numbers clearly show how the administrative functions of running a practice have taken over the average attorney work day:

Top five overall challenges (factoring in the issues ranked as both moderate …

When a meeting takes longer than anticipated, minds may start to wander. An inefficient meeting can cause participants to “switch off” and cease contributing meaningfully.  Similarly, starting a difficult task without a time limit can seem too large a mountain to
climb, and make it easy to procrastinate. One solution is to consciously set a time limit for a meeting or a task, and do it both verbally and visually.

A meeting would begin with an announcement to the participants, “We have 30 minutes to get through our theory of the case. Let’s make each minute count.” A visual cue …