It’s not the only solution available, but one method for dramatically increasing your collections is to adopt an evergreen retainer model.  The way it works is: the law firm sets a retainer amount for an initial client payment; and then, moving forward, it’s the client’s job to ‘top off’ that amount, on a recurring basis, when it falls below a predetermined threshold. 

The most efficient law firms make the most money, because they move through cases quicker; consequently, they can bring in new cases faster.  That’s pretty simple math.  But, making the equation work is hard. 

So, let’s do a quick crash course on what millennial (and younger) employees want out of an associate position.

Utilizing these features from a single interface not only means that you’re more efficient, it also means that you’re paying less because you don’t need to buy alternative products to substitute for what you’re already paying for. 

So, if you’re not sure about what to do with initial consultations, and you’re afraid that you might be wasting your time, consider what you ultimately want out of those conversations. Then create your system around your end goals.

The stats on law firm intake are pretty damning.  64% of voicemails left for law firms by leads are never returned.  Only 1 in 3 phone calls for law firms are picked up live.  It takes an average of 8 emails to schedule an appointment with a law firm.  Those aren’t the sort of numbers you want to see in an economy driven by consumer convenience.

As is clear by now, more efficient law firms make more money than inefficient ones.  The more work you can get through, the more money you make.  Of course, efficiency does not build up out of thin air; you need to work for it. And, the best step to take, in terms of building law firm efficiency is to map out everything you do. 

The good news is that it’s not going to cost you anything, and will take less than 5 minutes to set up.

With most law firms shifting to cloud-based tools, you can effectively integrate multiple calendars — even linking your personal and professional calendars, if you’d like, including with appropriate color coding for different events.

And, this isn’t about Google or Microsoft or Amazon’s server architecture going down in flames — if that happens, we’ve all got real problems — it’s more about creating an alternate pathway to your data.  What if you need a particular file when your document servers are offline for maintenance?  What if there’s an extended power outage, and you can’t get to your files on the web?