Posts by Lisa Teet
Your intake staff checks dozens (or hundreds) of potential conflicts every day. You’re also navigating potential former client conflicts with lateral hires. Every disqualification means lost revenue—but a strong ethical wall might save the client relationship. Walls (also known as ethical screens or screens) lock the screened person out of a client’s matter. When used…
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Compensation is a top reason why people stay at their firms—and you can’t afford to get it wrong. Losing just one associate may cost you at least half a million dollars. Partners can move laterally. Replacing a paralegal can cost twice (or more) their annual salary. As firms optimize their compensation models, traditional lockstep is…
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Orrick recently paid $8M to resolve a data breach lawsuit. More and more law firms are reporting breaches—yet many still share confidential information via unsecured email. Other firms use secure sharing software, but say it creates extra work. Here’s what you need to know, and why LexShare might be the solution for your firm. Emailing…
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The close of the year is a busy time at every law firm. Back-office finance staff are scrambling with end-of-year processes, and attorneys are anticipating the collections crunch. Finance-related work tends to snowball, adding to the stress of the holiday season. Starting early, however, can ease that stress. Read on for our top tips for…
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Every law firm is trying to solve the same problems, like understanding profitability and staying on top of accounts receivable. At the same time, every law firm is a little bit different. Maybe you have an unusually intricate compensation structure, or maybe you’re an insurance defense firm with tight billing deadlines. That’s why cookie-cutter business…
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For every deal or case your firm works on, you need someone to perform a role. Each matter has a core team, like a partner, associates and paralegals, office managers, back-office accounting and billing staff, and other professionals. But some roles are only relevant to certain kinds of matters. For example, you might need a…
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You’re ready to take the firm to the next level, but your financial management software is holding you down. Or, worse yet, your software vendor is no longer releasing feature updates. Your firm is losing ground against competitors, and you’re forced to rely on inefficient workarounds that eat up firm time. Fixing the problem by…
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The overwhelming majority of lawyers—85%, in firms with two or more attorneys—have remote access to their workstations, according to the ABA’s TechReport 2023. The ability to work on-the-go, whether by remote desktop access, web-based apps, or mobile apps, has tremendous potential to increase firm efficiency and productivity. It can also improve client service and bolster…
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“Too complicated. Too risky. Too expensive.” Suggest that your firm start accepting electronic payments, and you’re likely to hear objections along those lines. But those concerns, while valid, aren’t necessarily aligned with the reality of modern electronic payment processing platforms. In fact, your firm might save money on some transactions by offering an alternative to…
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Do you recognize yourself in the following story? Frustration is building at your firm. Your financial software system just isn’t enough anymore. Reporting is the biggest problem—you can’t get the data sets you need. Without them, you’re locked out of the deeper financial insights that the firm needs at this stage of growth. Something’s got…
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