The solo and small-firm practitioner decides to start and build a law firm because he or she has a passion for a particular field of law. You have a connection with family law, bankruptcy, criminal law, personal injury … whatever it is, you’re in it for a reason.
The firm you built exists to serve [...]
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Category Archives: Practice Management
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Managing The Bankruptcy Practice – Does It Scale?
When you’re setting out to manage your law firm, the one thing you need to ask is whether a particular process or procedure scales. That is, whether the management process you put in place today will still be valid when you’re pushing out 30, 40, 50 or more cases each month. Whether your Chapter 13 [...]
Remodeling The Bankruptcy Law Practice
Managing a bankruptcy practice is hard work. You’re working with clients, bringing in new business, and doing the heavy lifting. Starting a bankruptcy practice is also difficult, and for different reasons. But what if you need to start a bankruptcy practice while managing the existing one? In other word, re-creating a law firm from within?
I’m [...]
Afraid To Raise Your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Fees?
You do a decent book of business each month, feeding yourself and your family. You’ve got a good stream of clients coming into the office and, though they drag their feet on paying their legal fees, most of them end up paying sooner or later.
Is it time to raise your fees?
Don’t tell me the competition [...]
Starting A Bankruptcy Law Practice: Don’t Be Afraid
When you’re starting a bankruptcy law practice, it’s easy to experience a rush of fear when sitting in front of a new client. What if they ask me about how many cases I’ve handled? How long I’ve been doing this?
For the new practitioner, this can be overwhelming. You don’t have answers that will inspire confidence [...]
Staffing A Bankruptcy Law Practice $1 At A Time
Bankruptcy lawyers are currently experiencing a boom in business such as has not been seen in years. Small practitioners are finding themselves flooded with new work, and new lawyers are entering the field faster than ever before. The economy is in the toilet, and consumers need help.
To some extent, the main concern is how to [...]
The Paralegal’s Role in Managing the Law Firm
They say that behind every good lawyer is a great paralegal, but that the great lawyer keeps her paralegal right by her side. Okay, I say this, but it is catchy and probably true. Especially in the world of solo practice attorneys and small firms, paralegals can be very necessary to the success of a practice.
Speaking [...]
Practicing Bankruptcy Law: 4 Essential Information Tools
Practicing bankruptcy law used to be simple – grab a petition preparation software package, load it up onto the computer, and fill in the blanks. At least, that’s what I used to think when I started my practice. But with the 2005 changes to the bankruptcy laws and the attendant upheaval in the statute, the [...]
7 Reasons to Use a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant Instead of Hiring a Staff Member
I am a big fan of productivity. Improvements in productivity almost always result in better profitability – regardless of the business or practice. In general, productivity improvement occurs in two ways: more output for the same input; the same output for less input.
You get more output for the same input by using experience to increase [...]
Why Most Practice Management Systems For Lawyers Don’t Work
My friend Long Duong recently asked if there is such a thing as a perfect practice management system. I pondered that same question for a long time.
For years I tried to use practice management systems for my bankruptcy practice. I tried TimeSlips, TimeMatters, SlipMatters, MatterSlips, TimeTime … well, you get the point. After [...]