management for small law firms

Transcription

1 management for small law firms

2 Smokeball.com p 2 Introduction is ubiquitous. Not only does just about everybody have access to , the usage of as THE primary tool to communicate is on the rise. For law firms, is a double-edged sword. The benefits are many, and often so entrenched that we hardly notice them anymore. We are able to access written correspondence at any time, or fire off a short note to someone on the other side of the country within moments. Attorneys are able to send important documents rapidly, and to multiple parties. For small law firms, the challenge is that has changed expectations. Clients now want an immediate response and if they call, they expect whoever picks up the phone to be up-to-speed with everything happening in their file, including of course, any correspondence with your firm. Lawyers and firm staff often spend more time trying to manage an overflowing inbox than actually using to improve productivity, collaboration, communication and client service. Why Management Is Vital For Small Law Firms is potentially the biggest productivity roadblock for small firms. Organizing s sucks up time and creates stress. It also affects the way lawyers communicate with clients and with each other. Perhaps the biggest area where falls down is that it is intended for one-to-one conversations, yet the reality within law firms is far different. Often there are multiple people involved in a matter, and all staff working on it need access to the same inbox. There are hundreds of ways that law firms try to work around this issue, the majority of which are cumbersome and ineffective. With a great management system, you ll be able to seamlessly collaborate with staff, organize your mail so that everything is easily accessible, reduce frustration and ultimately better service your clients.

3 Smokeball.com p 3 The Guide to Better Management 1. Time spent on s How much time do you spend reading s every day? According to a survey by McKinsey the average worker spends 28% of the working week reading, writing or responding to s. This adds up to approximately 650 hours a year. One popular theory is that if you can t respond to an in under two minutes, then you should flag and file it until a later time which you have set aside to respond to s. should never be your number one priority, so to manage your workflow better, try setting aside one block in the morning to process , and one block in the afternoon to respond to messages that require more than two minutes. 2. Organizing Your Inbox File management is such a fundamental part of legal practice, and yet the component of file management is commonly neglected. Think about the massive volume of important, matter-related s you send and receive every day. The power of having a well-organized filing system for cannot be overstated in terms of saving time, increasing productivity and reducing the risk of malpractice. Everyone has their own system for managing their s, from using labels, to creating a folder hierarchy within an client. Most often these systems take so much time and effort to maintain that the productivity benefits are lost. One of Smokeball s key features is an management system that works within Outlook to save every matter-related to a digital file, along with other documents and notes relating to that matter. That way every you send or receive is filed correctly, and saved centrally so that it is accessible to anyone within your firm. It totally simplifies organization and prevents lost or misplaced correspondence.

4 Smokeball.com p 4 Mary s computer: Mary s computer: Matter Matter #A123 #A123 Jack s computer: Jack s computer: Jason s computer: Jason s computer: Without Smokeball, most law firms lack a centralized way of sharing s and documents for each matter. With Smokeball, important s and documents get stored automatically in a single, shared digital file. 3. Collaborating with other staff Consider this common scenario; you and three other staff within your firm are working on the same matter. There are s going back and forth between your client and your colleagues. However each person who is working on the matter only has access to their own personal inbox, and therefore is blind to potentially important s that have been sent to or from other staff within the firm. This scenario isn t just inefficient for the firm, it s also frustrating for the client and potentially risky from a malpractice point of view. Smokeball enables your staff to save any , either sent or received, to the digital file. As these s are securely stored in the cloud, attorneys and support staff with access to the file have full view of every related to the matter. Organizing s this way will save your firm countless hours trying to locate messages and document attachments, and enable everyone working on the matter to communicate and collaborate efficiently.

5 Smokeball.com p 5 4. Reducing Clutter Sometimes it pays to be liberal with the delete button. There s a great quote in this Huffington Post article about being the equivalent to a game of Tetris. You can never keep your inbox at zero, and you can never truly win. However you can stay ahead by being ruthless with clutter. With the majority of all law firms using Microsoft Outlook, additional steps can be taken to reduce clutter. If you don t open a newsletter or promotional regularly, create a rule that automatically files incoming s from the sender into an archive. Even better, just unsubscribe to it. Send fewer s. The fewer you send, the fewer you ll receive (and sometimes a phone call is a better option). Set aside some time to bulk delete s which are not important. Use specialized management software that automatically files important s against the relevant matter. Contact Get in touch with Smokeball today to see how we can help your small law firm effectively manage s and collaborate on your matters info@smokeball.com