The members of your legal team are the rockstars and backbone of your law firm. They play a huge role in handling complex legal cases, nurturing client relationships, and winning high-stakes litigation. Their specialized knowledge and skills can skyrocket your firm’s results and reputation, leading to long-term growth and success.
So why distract from billable hours by doing all the administrative work of running your practice in-house and using outdated, manual methods?
Thankfully, you don’t have to. Using a comprehensive practice management system can save you tons of time and handle busy work so you can focus on delivering exceptional client services.
Let’s see what busy work is and how you can use legal practice management software to shift your team’s focus to activities that optimize their talent and boost your bottom line.
Identifying ‘busy’ work: tasks that distract from value creation
Let’s face it: every law firm has its share of ‘busy’ work. It’s the stuff that keeps you busy but not necessarily productive in the ways that matter most.
In a law firm, busy work encompasses:
- Administrative tasks like endless paperwork, filing, and data entry
- Manual billing and bookkeeping
- Juggling countless emails and phone calls
- Tedious document management
- Complex scheduling
- Marketing and website management
The benefits of focusing on value-driven tasks
Imagine if you could shift your focus away from energy-draining tasks to delivering value to your clients. There are many benefits to doing so, such as:
- An enhanced client experience
- Increased efficiency
- Higher profit margins
- Improved work quality
- Greater employee satisfaction due to meaningful work
- A competitive edge
By honing in on these value-driven activities, your law firm can operate like a well-oiled machine, doing more of what makes you exceptional.
5 strategies to ditch the busy work and make impactful contributions
Trying to redirect your team’s focus to value-driven tasks can be challenging. You’ve got to spend time and effort training them, pay out of pocket for new solutions, and integrate new processes and systems—all without disrupting your workflow.
But you can overcome these obstacles by planning strategically and incorporating legal-specific software to handle all your mundane tasks.
Let’s look at five solutions you can implement to stop the busy work and focus on tasks that move the needle.
1. Take advantage of legal-specific website services
Your website is your online presence. It’s where you make first impressions, showcase your suitability and expertise, and convince prospective clients to choose you for legal representation. So it’s a no-brainer that your website needs to be set up correctly for success.
There are many moving parts to a robust, high-converting legal website, including:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Aesthetic, functional website design
- Compelling content
- Client convenience features, like client intake forms and payment options
- Robust security
On top of that, websites aren’t a one-and-done deal. They require ongoing maintenance, updates, SEO, and new content so that your website continues to be a client-attracting magnet. It’s a lot to handle, especially when you’re busy with more important matters.
That’s where legal-specific website services step in. Also known as Done-for-You (DFY) websites, these services provide a turnkey solution tailored to the legal industry. A team of experienced, legal website experts delivers a fully optimized website that matches your brand within a matter of weeks.
With these services, you don’t have to stress about your website. It’s all taken care of for you so you can focus on activities that directly boost revenue.
2. Let your CRM support lead management and client communications
When you’re busy juggling core responsibilities like client meetings, court appearances, and case research, following up with prospective leads often falls through the cracks. Keeping up with the flurry of calls, texts, and emails can be overwhelming, but missing even one can be a lost opportunity for revenue.
Your speed to lead—how long it takes you to respond to potential client inquiries—is critical here.
The faster the response, the higher the likelihood of securing that client.
Legal client relationship management (CRM) software becomes your one source of truth for client management and communication. CRM for law firms is a specialized tool designed to manage interactions with current and potential clients by organizing and centralizing client data.
It also actively enhances engagement through automated, instant follow-ups and ongoing nurture campaigns via email and text.
With automations, no lead will slip through the cracks, even when you’re buried under piles of legal work.
The best part? These messages can be personalized, making the client feel acknowledged and valued. With regular communication, you’ll stay on their mind and be the first legal firm they come to without you or your team having to lift a finger.
3. Use a single platform for billing and accounting
Juggling between different platforms for billing, logging expenses and billable hours, and managing accounts eats into valuable time and increases the likelihood of potentially costly errors.
By switching to a single platform for billing and accounting, you streamline these processes and take the burden off your team. With this software, you can:
- Track time
- Generate invoices
- Batch bill
- Accept payment
With everything in one place, tracking finances becomes more straightforward, accurate, and much less time-consuming.
4. Tie everything together into a comprehensive solution
While each of the above solutions is excellent for optimizing time and profitability, it takes a lot of time to toggle between different systems, click from one platform to another, and manually transfer redundant data.
What if you could consolidate all these essential functions into one unified platform? Legal practice management software makes it possible. Practice management software combines CRM, practice management, billing and accounting, and more into a single, integrated system.
What’s even better, your client intake and conflict checking automatically sync with your website. No more manual updates or cross-referencing between systems—you’ll have everything you need to manage your practice at your fingertips in one cohesive system.
5. Use secure AI and automation tools to take care of ‘busy’ work
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, including the legal field. Automation is a close second. And for good reason! These technologies can take over various mundane yet necessary tasks like:
- Drafting, reviewing, and compiling legal documents and contracts
- Brainstorming blog ideas and outlines
- Augmenting client intake
- Performing diligence and legal research
- E-discovery and predictive coding
- Marketing tasks
Adopting these tools makes your law firm more efficient and significantly reduces the potential for repetitive tasks, setting your team up to be a lean, mean, money-making machine.
Empower your talent to focus on value-centric tasks with CosmoLex
If you’re looking for robust legal practice management software to help you maximize your talents, time, and revenue, CosmoLex is here to help! Our comprehensive solution has everything you need to help you identify and prioritize value-driven tasks in one platform, including:
- Client relationship management (CRM)
- Timekeeping
- Document management and creation
- Calendar management and matter workflows
- Built-in trust accounting tools
- Legal-specific accounting
- Website creation and maintenance
- Built-in end-to-end payment processing
Start your free trial today to see how we can help you revolutionize your practice.
Six Essential Features in Your Legal CRM (and How to Use Them)
While your legal practice management software keeps the daily work of a law firm moving, legal CRM software makes it easier to bring in new clients, engage current clients, and increase your profits. But not all legal CRMs are created equal. Look for these six features when choosing a legal CRM—and put them to work for your law firm.
Six Essential Features in Your Legal CRM (and How to Use Them)
While your legal practice management software keeps the daily work of a law firm moving, legal CRM software makes it easier to bring in new clients, engage current clients, and increase your profits. But not all legal CRMs are created equal. Look for these six features when choosing a legal CRM—and put them to work for your law firm.