Amata Law Offices

Hiring more legal support staff is a catch-22 situation for most attorneys. On the one hand, they are overworked, struggling to keep up with never ending tasks and casework. On the other hand, they have a tight budget.

A new employee is not only a time investment – during the hiring process and training – but a risk. Will they be worth the lost money to the firm? Will there be enough work to keep them occupied eight hours a day? Will revenue ever go back up after investing in this new hire, or will the benefit only be in decreased stress?

Then there’s the ultimate question. Which is more stressful: Having more help but less money to run the firm, or having more money but less help?

If you’re reading this you need support for your law firm. We’ve worked with attorneys for a long time, and over the past twenty years they have shown us that there are more options then simply hiring someone new.

Before Hiring a (New) Permanent Employee for Your Law Firm

Offer overtime to an existing employee or employees

If you have an employee who puts in 6-8 hours a day, ask them to work overtime occasionally to clear more tasks off the to-do list. Be careful you don’t push your employees too hard, though, or this method won’t actually benefit your firm. As this study from John Pencavel, of the Department of Economics, Stanford University, shows more hours logged doesn’t mean more hours worked, especially if the employees are already working long-strings of time without significant breaks.

Offer higher-level training to an existing employee

Your law clerk is a hard worker, but you need the expertise of a paralegal more and more. Your legal secretary is wonderful, but office and client management isn’t as important as the casework piling up on your desk. Before you hire that second employee, you could offer your current one more training.

Putting your law clerk through paralegal training can present a significantly lower cost to your firm versus hiring an additional employee. Plus, you’ll receive the added time benefit of avoiding hiring and training processes. Your current employee already knows you, your business, your priorities, and your clients. Invest in them first, and the benefits can be astounding.

Hire on-demand support with virtual paralegal services, virtual CFOs or more

Whether it’s for paralegal support, billing & collections assistance, or even a part-time, case-by-case attorney, hiring exactly who you need for only the time you need them is the most straight-forward way to find affordable legal support. This solution is not always easy, though. On-demand support is cost-effective and provides great benefits to your firm, but this support comes via a contracted employee and therefore they may not always be available. Which means the person you work with could change more often than you’d like.

If you hire on-demand support, find someone with great references, and make sure you inquire about their objectives. Are they doing this because they are trying to pay bills during law school? Because they can’t find full-time work? Or because they like the case-diversity the role provides? This can help you find someone who will provide longevity. A new law school student could be a great hire in a few years, but the contractor who is simply having a hard time in the job market could provide instability once they do land their dream job.

When to Hire a New Employee

At first you think it’s just a “tight period.” A couple months of low resources and high demand. You keep your head down and work hard, knowing that with enough overtime the path will clear, the demands will slow down.

But the tight period does not seem to wane. Because it’s not a tight period. Your practice is doing well and your demand has superseded the quantity of people at your firm (whether it’s a count of one – yourself – or twenty). Now is the time to hire. Your new employee will help not only relieve stress, but take on a size-able portion of the work. They will be worth the money. And because your firm is growing, you will see the return on investment from spending time training this new hire. Take the leap and get the legal support you need and deserve.

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Hiring is not an easy task, and sometimes it takes time away from your legal work. Too many businesses focus on the wrong aspects of employment. Keeping your current employees happy is just as important as hiring the right people for your law firm. Employee turnover and retention should be at the top of your considerations. By creating good retention practices, you can have a competitive edge in your field.

In studies on employment, one in three employees expects to change jobs within six months. So how can you keep your valuable legal support staff from leaving?

Determine the reasons for employee turnover.

The most important metric to track is why your employees are leaving. There are plenty of reasons having nothing to do with the company itself, such as life changes or relocation. But what about the reasons that are closely related to your firm and management style?

Are your employees leaving because they are dissatisfied with management, their co-workers, or their duties? If so, only you have the power to make these things better.

As each employee leaves, your focus turns to replacement rather than retention. These costs reach beyond salary and benefits. Your time is also valuable, and the more time you spend searching for the right candidate, the less you can give to your law clients.

It’s easy to think the solution comes down to bigger pay rates, but there are plenty of other factors that affect an employee’s decision. According to the Society for Human Resources Management, 42 percent of people responding to an employment survey indicated they would leave a job due to a toxic workplace, and 31 percent say it would come down to work/life balance. Considering a range of incentives to keep your top legal employees happy will only enhance their experience.

Think about the office environment.

It may not occur to you, but your law office also impacts an employee’s satisfaction on the job. Are they comfortable? Do they have all the tools they need, including technology and software, to make their job more efficient? If they’re feeling frustrated just by accomplishing their normal tasks on a daily basis, it can lead to unhappy, disgruntled employees. Keeping your firm conducive to productivity will cost less over time than replacing your legal staff with others who also will quickly become unhappy in the environment. Learning where to make investments to keep employees happy is the first step.

Realize why productivity levels will drop.

When an employee leaves, it doesn’t affect just their individual job. You will lose the productivity in that role, and it will affect the rest of your team. Someone will need to take up the slack and accomplish the work of two people while you search for a replacement. This will cause that employee’s productivity levels to dip for both duties. It can even start the cycle of unhappiness over again. Unhappy employees also affect their co-workers. The entire team will influence each other, and one disengaged employee can begin an avalanche.

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Some firms euphemistically call downsizing right-sizing because it enables them to alter their workforce according to the amount of business they’re currently generating. The staff-to-work ratio is deemed “right” and the workforce is the “right size” for the firm, hence the more upbeat lingo.

An even more optimistic interpretation of right-sizing is called “flexible” right-sizing.

Flexible right-sizing means providing alternative work arrangements to associates or support staff rather than laying them off or downsizing during slow periods. This method helps firms scale down or up, depending on the demand for services, without losing valuable employees.

If you’re looking to right-size, but not let anyone go, consider offering support staff the following:

1. Sabbaticals or furloughs are unpaid time off. They may be offered to staff who would be difficult to replace or they may be suitable for seasonal employees when the firm anticipates that the slowdown in work may be temporary.
2. Telework allows associates to work from home. Some firms find that by allowing more of their staff to make work-from-home arrangements, they can shift to smaller offices and save on leases and related expenses without sacrificing productivity. In fact, some firms find that productivity goes up. And with specialized Virtual Office phone programs, your workers can still maintain their business lines with their mobile!
3. Reducing the number of days worked per week may shift some full-time associates and support staff to part-time hours, or it may further decrease part-time hours.
4. Job sharing arrangements involve two employees who share one available position. Job sharing may coincide with flextime, in which your staff can work flexible hours according to their availability and job needs. This is ideal for people such as paralegals who may work with other lawyers and firms, and are not always available.

Flexible right-sizing isn’t always an option though. If you’re downsizing as you move to your own solo practice, then consider virtual assistants, who can work on-demand and allow you to maintain the right amount of support staff for incoming casework.

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Chasing after clients to collect money owed is no fun. That’s why attorneys often avoid the task until their coffers reach dangerously low levels. This is not a good idea. You can’t run or grow a firm without a reliable cash flow, which not only means attracting business but devising a system to collect what clients owe.

Here are 4 simple ways to improve the accounts receivable column of your ledger

Get Involved

Nobody likes calling clients and asking for money, especially lawyers, who can’t claim collections as billable hours. That’s why most law firms assign collecting receivables to lower-level employees, like paralegals or secretaries. Although this technique frees up partners and associates to do more productive work, it often is not effective. It’s easier to dodge the call of an assistant than it is to avoid the call of the attorney who’s handling your divorce.

If attorneys in your firm balk at getting involved with collections, you could tie their compensation to the money they actually collect, rather than what they bill. Also, tell them that every dollar collected is a dollar earned without putting in extra hours.

Don’t Delay

Clients won’t pay a bill they don’t receive, so it pays (literally) to send out invoices quickly and regularly. Don’t wait until the end of a case to bill clients, who then have no incentive to pay quickly.

Invoice Often

It’s easier for a client to ignore one bill than regular, monthly statements that remind them of how much they owe. Monthly statements inform clients of the terms of your service, how much they owe, and when you expect to be paid. Make sure statements have easy-to-read contact information so clients can call or e-mail you with payment questions or problems.

Become Tech Savvy

Technology may not be your specialty, but today’s billing software is so easy to use that it pays to invest in a program that regularly invoices clients and keeps track of those who fall behind on payments. If such software makes you shutter, consider outsourcing your accounts receivable division. You’ll pay money to collect money, but when you consider the billable hours wasted while you chase receivables, or the wages you pay someone else in your firm to collect funds, outsourcing won’t seem that expensive and, ultimately, could pay for itself.

Our next CLE will address attorney billing practices and how to maximize your collections. Join us on July 30th, email us at [email protected] for more information!

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