Managing your practice workflow

In a thriving legal practice, workloads can quickly add up. Without adequate preparation and management tools, these responsibilities can become overwhelming and counterproductive. Take control of your workflow with these time and sanity saving tips.

Go paperless

The practice of law requires a lot of paperwork. Lawyers are constantly reading, writing, and sharing documents. An article by the American Bar Association discusses the advantages of a paperless law office.  Aside from cost savings and greater accessibility, a paperless office eliminates the clutter and confusion that massive paperwork can create. A clean work space helps clear your mind, which promotes greater productivity.

Automate

On a daily basis, your firm utilizes countless processes to keep the practice up and running. From billing management to the creation of court filings, many of these duties are repetitive and needlessly time consuming. The key to a successful workflow is the elimination of wasted time. By automating certain tasks, you free up resources to handle more important and profitable duties. Templates are extremely useful, so document creation only requires filling in blanks, instead of starting from scratch each time. Time keeping and billing are also great fits for automation. A comprehensive legal billing system, like TimeSolv, streamlines the billing and payment process, which saves a vast amount of administrative time.

Internal communications

Many law firms are turning to internal messaging applications as a way to promote efficient communication among staff members and cut down on response time.  The instant synchronization of internal messaging allows associates, partners and administrative assistants to communicate instantly about matters. This can significantly reduce on the time you spend sending, reading, and responding to emails each day.

A client portal

A client portal allows clients to independently access their individual account at any time of day or night. Upon accessing the portal, clients can view their billing statements, trust balances, and details of work in progress. A client portal saves administrative time. Instead of time spent answering questions and providing information to clients by telephone, assistants are available to help with more pressing and profitable client matters.

Practice management software

The right practice management software is essential for adequate workflow management. When choosing the best system for your law firm, look for the following:

• Calendar capabilities to keep you organized and on schedule
• Contact management to take the place of the space of those space stealing sticky notes
• Document capabilities for assistance with document automation
• Easy case access, so everyone assigned to a case can access necessary files efficiently

Your firm productivity greatly depends on the ability of your lawyers and support staff to properly manage their workflow. Promote efficiency by implementing some of these useful tips and tools.

About Erika Winston:

Erika Winston is a Virginia based writer with a passion for all things legal. As a former domestic relations attorney, she understands the challenge of determining the best fee structure for your practice. Erika is a regular contributor to TimeSolv and a variety of other publications.