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Month: April 2020

Secure Potential Clients Today – Save Money & Time Down the Line

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Secure Potential Clients Today – Save Money & Time Down the Line

This is part two in our series “Being Remote: Lessons to Take Back to the Office.” You can read part one here.

Business phone technology is an overlooked area of any attorney’s business. Most assume that by having a phone number, they are set. Like all areas of business, however, there is a better way, and attorneys who have this “better way” setup are not only functioning in a way that maintains the appearance their physical office is open right now, but they have also avoided the disruption to their business, client intake, and handling of potential customers that many others scrambled to fix during the first few weeks of shelter-in-place.

The “better way” business phone setup for attorneys is simple. You have:

  1. A professional appearance

    A live receptionist who answers your main line, knows you, know your business, and understands client intake

  2. Control over your schedule

    Either via screened calls, so you can choose who you want to speak to, or via the ability to redirect calls automatically to your partner when you’re in meetings, working without disruption, or on-the-go

  3. The ability to answer and make business calls from anywhere

    A crucial, and often missing aspect to the “traditional” law firm’s phone setup

You may be thinking, “I have one and two right now with my personal receptionist” or “my phone technology checks off items two and three.” And to be fair, that is a great start! But only attorneys who had all three of these services were able to keep focus on running their firms this past month, instead of scrambling to fix things.

These are the same attorneys who go on long vacations or travel overseas and don’t worry about interruption to their business. Attorneys who stay at home semi-regularly, with their client or opposing counsel never knowing they just dropped their kids off at school. These attorneys simply have it better, because they have more flexibility and control over their life and law firm. All from a simple business phone setup.

The business phone is your lifeline for adding potential clients to your pipeline.

In the digital age, the average person is more desperate for human connection. When a client is calling an attorney, that feeling is amplified. They want to hear a real person on the other end of the phone, and they want to feel both heard and supported by them. A professional law firm receptionist is invaluable for making these connections. They are also an expensive commodity for the modern firm.

As an attorney, however, you have a lot to do. You’re juggling work and life, and being on call for each client just isn’t possible. Unlike a doctor however, you can’t make rounds, and your clients aren’t in a room waiting patiently. Having a receptionist fielding your calls will satisfy your client’s needs for being attended too, while also allowing you to be in control of your schedule.

Additionally, the proper phone software can allow you to make changes to your call handling on the fly. If you need to adjust and redirect your calls to a partner you can do so on the backend. Or if you’d like a more personal touch you can send a quick email to your live receptionist and let them know how you’d prefer your calls handled.

This one simple measure ensures you continue adding clients into your pipeline without sacrificing anything.

The ability to take calls anywhere

This is the secret ingredient many attorneys phones are missing. Having control of your schedule, and having a live receptionist are nice, but they are both only at the top of their game if you can also make and take calls from anywhere. The technology exists for attorneys to go out and grab their coffee and lunch and breath of fresh air, and also still take the call from that opposing counsel or judge they have been waiting for. Amata’s own 3CX technology allows making and taking calls from your business phone line. And you’re not sacrificing you physical office device to do so. The number will ring to all devices, and you simply choose where to pick up from, cellphone of office phone.

When you’re in complete control of the calls you take and don’t take, you can also be in control of where you’re sitting walking and being, with no one else knowing anything different. Making an important call from the Chicago Riverwalk has never been easier than it is now.

By having a professional receptionist you have not only great client intake and by having control of your schedule you increase your billable hours (because being interrupted decreases your billable income more than you may realize). And you keep your firming running at the level you’re used to even during these strange times.

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Announcing our New Webinar Series “The 90-Day Sprint”

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90 Day Sprint

Ironically created and curated by a man who runs long-distance, Ron Bockstahler (CEO & Founder of Amata Law Office Suites).

A lot of people are giving advice right now. We’re overwhelmed by their invites to webinars, emails about new blog posts and articles, and we’re betting you’re overwhelmed too! This webinar series will cut through the noise.

We’ve invited all the professionals and experts who are giving attorneys advice to speak in one place: our weekly webinar series “The 90-Day Sprint.” By focusing on one concept each week, you can prepare your firm for success without feeling overwhelmed, or like you’re missing any information.

Over the next 90 days we will cover a handful of topics including:

  • Cyber-security and ABA Rule 1.6
  • Insurance practices for attorneys
  • Marketing on the micro level and creating strategies on the macro
  • Developing your client base
  • Practice management software
  • Time management and delegation
  • Maximizing the use of paralegals
  • Growing your brand

Come out of the next 90-days a better firm, and move ahead of the competition. Register for the Series.

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Attorneys can now use RON (Remote Online Notarization) in Illinois! Here’s how it works.

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At the Office

Governor Pritzker has approved an executive order for remote online notarization (RON) of documents. This executive order will be in place while the Gubernatorial Disaster Proclamation is in force.

If you need remote online notarization services, reach out to your regular notary, set up a web conference and follow the guidelines below. Or if you’re an Amata Law Office Suites client email [email protected] and a notary will work with you.

Below are the key provisions of the executive order:

  • The remote notarial act must be done by two-way, real time web conference communication that allows for direct interaction between the Notary and the signer.
  • The signer of the document must attest that they are currently physically in Illinois during the web conference, and state what they are signing on the web conference.
  • The resolution of the web conference must be of sufficient quality for the Notary to properly examine the signer’s personal identification credentials.
  • All attorneys must record the remote notarization process using their web conference platform. A copy of the recording must be emailed to the Amata Notary to retain for a minimum of 3 years.
  • The signer must show the Notary every page of the document being signed. The signer should also initial each page to ensure that the document is complete.
  • The signer must fax or send by electronic means the signed document requiring notarization to the Notary no later than the same day, and the Notary must send the completed notarized document back to the signer by fax or electronic means within 24 hours.

Amata also provides virtual paralegal services to attorneys in need. For our virtual paralegal rates, reach out to Director of Legal Support Services, Tisha Delgado at [email protected].

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Being Remote: Lessons to Take Back to the Office

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At the Office

If you have a physical office space, being remote may feel like a temporary burden. You’re either:

  • making the office set-up you have work, and hoping this will be over soon, or
  • you’ve signed up for a couple of telework services that you can cancel as soon as you’re back to ‘normal’

This can be more than just an aberration in your firm’s history, though. Many attorneys are hoping measures like RON (which Gov. Pritzker is permitting in Illinois while the gubernatorial disaster proclamation is in place) and video conferencing for uncontested motions stay in effect long after the pandemic has passed. In the same context, measures put in place to manage your firm remotely can be brought back to the office to benefit your firm’s efficiency and bottom-line.

There is a lot to talk about, so we’re splitting it up into three parts, each a blog filled with lessons we’ve learned and that our clients have learned, and that are worth taking back to the office. This week, we are discussing technology that feels practically necessary when working remotely: practice management software and the cloud.

Practice management software & the cloud

Law firms who aren’t on the cloud are scrambling to set up VPNs and put their employees on secure networks at their homes. Law firm partners are struggling to share files and manage their employees remotely (and the employees are having a hard time co-editing docs). Practice management software and cloud drives can help firms overcome these momentary hurdles, but many attorneys find they are also just a great addition to a firm in general.

We grouped these two services because they go hand-in-hand. You won’t attend a single practice management software demo without the salesperson covering document management and the cloud drives they can integrate with. It’s not a surprise; much of the casework you and your team is working on revolves around documents! Similarly, the benefits of these two pieces of tech intertwine.

How these technologies help your firm work remotely now, and will benefit your firm in the future.

Fewer emails. More answers.

What was the status of that case? Who sent the document you are group editing last? Outlook used to hold the answers. Now your inbox is flooded with pandemic related email updates, webinar invites, and your neatly defined folders have been muddled. Not to mention spending fifteen minutes searching Outlook wasn’t the best solution in the first place.

With a practice management software, you don’t need to depend on Outlook to know who is working on what, to find the status of any given case, or to see a version of any given file. Additionally, if you’re group editing a document with your team, and want to work on the most recent addition, then you simply need to pop into your cloud drive and open the file – no guess work. (For many cloud drives, including Office 365, you can even edit a document collaboratively). By removing your dependence on emails, you’ll have less of a chance of missing important updates or accidentally sending the wrong version of a file. Plus, less time is spent digging through your inbox. And we all know time is money.

Benefits summary: Saves you time, keeps you organized, and gives you the answers you want when you want them.

Better team management.

With a practice management software, comes two items called ‘tasks’ and ‘workflows.’ Workflows are simply a series of tasks that you put in order and can assign to specific staff members. When a client comes through, you place them in the appropriate workflow, and a robot assigns your staff tasks for the casework as the case progresses.

We’re not saying you can drop the ball and let your staff do as they please, but we are saying that the documents will be assigned to the right staff member, at the right stage, with little oversight and managing necessary on your end. And when you spend less time managing your team, you spend more time on the billable hour (or with your family).

Benefits summary: Once again, frees up your time and provides better organization; this time not just for you but for your whole team, which means you’re improving the efficiency of your entire firm.

The convenience of working from anywhere.

This is the most widely touted benefit of both practice management software and the cloud. It’s also the most ignored! For firms who have a physical office, this isn’t a selling point. They don’t want to work from anywhere, they have their office for that. Firms who say “we don’t need to work from anywhere” are missing a huge part of the picture: decreasing the overhead costs of physical space.

Let’s say your firm has two attorneys, a paralegal, and a law clerk. That’s space for four people that you pay for each month. It you shift your firm’s thinking, and have yourself, your partner, your law clerk, and your paralegal, working from home part-time, and rotating days in and out of the office, then you can cut office costs in half while maintaining all the benefits for being a brick-and-mortar firm. It’s a simple solution to decreasing overhead costs for your firm; and if you pass the cost savings onto your clients, you’ll find yourself a strong competitor due to your decreased rates.

Additionally, by cutting out the commute to work on some days (and Illinois commutes are no joke) you’ll each earn more time in your week.

Benefits summary: More money kept in the bank each month. More personal time for both you and your staff. And potentially greater mental health due to having more free time in your day and a healthier financial state for your business.

The main concept is that these two tech items bring (the ever elusive) efficiency to your firm.

It’s easier to know what is going on with casework and to find the information you need. You spend less time being shifting through disorganization, and less time on tiny tasks like following up on casework, assigning tasks to staff members, or trying to find the latest version of a document someone sent you. If there are any pieces of tech you are looking to adopt to increase your remote office functionality, these should be the top two on your list. They are easily applicable to traditional and private office setups — though if you decide to move to a partial remote office setup for your firm, you can see even more of a payback in money saved.

If you’re intrigued, but don’t know where to start, we have some ideas:

  • Ask other attorneys what practice management software they use.
  • Contact us! We have the wealth of knowledge from 700+ Amata member attorneys at our fingertips and have experience with both types of tech. If we don’t already know a good solution for you, we can put you in contact with an attorney who does. Reach us at [email protected], or give us a call at 888-497-9957.
  • If you use a cloud drive already, reach out to some practice management companies and ask if they integrate with your cloud drive. Then you’ll be able to set up demos with ones that fit into your existing infrastructure.

Why we’re writing this series: Private law office members at Amata have reached out over the past month and told us how using the remote services we offer has changed the way they will operate their firms in the future. We’re not exclusively a virtual office for lawyers, but this is remote office technology we’ve had for a while that many legal office space users didn’t have an immediate need to use until COVID-19. The out-pour of client support has been incredible, and many have explained that this is tech they will continue to use. We’re building this series of blogs based on their emails, and the conversations we’ve had because of them. To every Amata member, we just want to say: thank you.

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