Adopt dual monitors to increase satisfaction in moving to a paperless office system.

If you have to go to court, you want to make sure that you are being the most effective advocate possible. There are many ways to persuade the trier of fact – but you can shine by bringing a picture (or graphics) which, as they say, are worth a thousand words. So think about how you can make your next case sparkle (and hopefully win the battle) by bringing persuasive technology with you to court, to a mediation or to your next arbitration.

What can you use? Here is a selection of alternatives:

• Use (PC or Mac), Keynote (Mac) or

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In manufacturing, there is a metric known as “Cost of Goods Sold”.  When it comes to legal services, the equivalent metric would be the “Cost of Services Rendered” (CoSR).

Do you know what it costs you to render an hour’s worth of legal services?

This metric looks at what you expect an hour’s worth of each lawyer’s legal time to cost your firm, on average.  For a solo lawyer, it is straightforward – the total forecast expenses for the firm (including the lawyer’s draws) divided by his or her billable time expectation.

For example, if a lawyer expects that his …

We have spoken and consulted with a number of lawyers lately who have called about taking a law firm paperless.  Certainly many lawyers become anxious at the thought of giving up on paper and practising in a paper-less world (there will probably never be a situation where we fully abandon paper).  Often, that concern is rooted in a fear that somewhere the rules of professional responsibility or other regulations governing the firm require that paper files be kept. There are, of course, specific requirements in every jurisdiction regarding retention, maintenance and destruction of client files (check your specific practice …

A Virtual Law Office has been defined many different ways by many different people.  It can certainly be seen as one form of e-lawyering, or using the power of the  Internet to deliver legal services.  It is a secure method of delivering legal services online that is accessible to the client and the lawyer anywhere they can access the Internet.

Simply put, there are several different ways to create a virtual law office. One is to be entirely web based. Another is to establish a virtual practice as part of a “bricks and mortar” firm, meaning the virtual lawyer utilizes …

Many firms are coming up to a decision point.  Windows XP will no longer be supported after .  Accordingly firms are looking at replacing their desktop or laptop XP machines with Windows 7 (or perhaps Windows 8) PCs.  Or are they?  There has been a considerable growth in BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) to work.  iPads and other tablets have made considerable inroads.  Many lawyers now operate using an iPhone, Android or Blackberry  or indeed a lightweight Mac Air – and don’t relish the idea of lugging a PC laptop around.  So what is a firm to do?

Before they …

We all like to be on the same wavelength with people we work closely with, but this tendency to select others like us can be a problem when seeking out a new support staff hire for your law practice.  For example, if you’re a sole practitioner with a keyboard speed of 90 words per minute or skilled in the operation of voice recognition software, a speed typist may not be the best use of use of your hiring dollar.

Before you hire, think about the tasks that require a law license. Unless you’re considering hiring an associate, you are going …

Unless you went to school in a one room prairie school house (or were home schooled), you were probably put into a class with other people your exact age, and have been hanging out with people who are approximately the same age that you are ever since. To effectively market your law practice, break out of this mold and consciously make an effort to network with attorneys and other potential sources of referrals who are much older and younger.

Everyone wants to be with the “movers and shakers,” who are usually a little more advanced in their careers and, hence, …

At long last we come to the end of our top 10 Cash Flow Reports Tips with our final entry, Client Trust Balances.

Institute a procedure to ensure regular review of the trust account balance for each clients.  You want to determine whether there are funds in trust that can be applied against unbilled time or disbursements and whether there are clients or matters that are approaching the exhaustion of their retainers or cost deposits.  Keeping on top of this information will go a long way toward making sure that you are not placed in a position of having  to …

Daily time summaries by lawyer are also an important part of cash flow reporting.  To make this analysis accurate, all lawyers in the firm should be accounting for all of their time every day – billable, firm administration or management, marketing, mentoring, continuing education, pro bono, vacation, etc.  Doing so will allow firm management to look for aberrations or time summaries that don’t make sense or indicate poor time management or failure to meet minimum billable time requirements.

But once you start accounting for all your time, how do you know how you stack up?  Here’s a quick way to …