jurisINK™ LAW PRACTICE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES
You went to law school not business school. Unfortunately for you, law schools do not really teach the business of law. Remember, a law firm is a business first. The law is second. Start thinking of your law firm as a business. Start applying business principles to your law firm. And, start seeing “real” results.
Led by our law practice management consultant and attorney, Laura L. Volpini, jurisINK™ offers law practice management consulting services to lawyers on a project basis. These services are designed to get solo and small firms to start thinking and acting like businesses by guiding, advising, implementing and executing “action” plans in each of the functional areas of business: General Administration, Business Development, Marketing, Accounting/Finance, IT, Operations, Human Resources, R&D, and Customer Service.
As a teaser, we believe successful law firms have three common traits:
A solid business plan;
Quality business policies, procedures, and systems; and
Lawyers who delegate.
Each of these three traits are dependent on the others. For example, you must have a solid business plan so you know which policies, procedures and systems you need to meet your firm’s plan, objective, and goals. Otherwise, you are shooting from the hip (so to speak). Similarly, you must have quality business policies, procedures and systems so you can properly delegate tasks. If not, you will get unreliable and inconsistent results. Last, the only way to scale a law practice and maximize revenue is to delegate as many tasks as you can to other legal or administrative professionals. The law practice management consultant and professionals at jurisINK™ have the necessary tools, knowledge, and expertise to help you develop, adopt, implement, and monitor these “best practices” in your law firm.
OPPORTUNITY COSTS: THE SILENT KILLER
Most lawyers do not understand or consider a key concept in economics called “opportunity costs.” As defined in the online Business Dictionary, an “opportunity cost” is “a benefit, profit, or value of something that must be given up to acquire or achieve something else. Since every resource (land, money, time, etc.) can be put to alternative uses, every action, choice, or decision has an associated opportunity cost.” (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/opportunity-cost.html).
Let’s take an example of how opportunity costs work in law firms. According to Thomson Reuters 2017 State of U.S. Small Law Firms Report, which included 300 participants ranging from solo practitioners to firms up to 29 employees, “nearly 40% of [attorney] time is spent on tasks other than the practice of law, increasing 1% from 2016” and “[a]ttorneys at “unsuccessful” firms reported spending nearly twice as much time on administrative tasks, 15.3% of their working time compared to just 8.7% for attorneys at “very successful” firms.” Assuming a conservative hourly rate of $200/hour (even contingency lawyers have a billable value) and 1,800 as an average of your annual working hours (which we know is much more), the “opportunity cost” associated with performing non-billable work is $144,000.00 and for purely administrative tasks is $55,080.00.
This means, as a lawyer, you should be working at the top of the pyramid meaning your time should be spent doing only one of three tasks: (1) developing business; (2) practicing law; and (3) enjoying personal time (when you can). All other tasks can be delegated. jurisINK™ provides solo and small law firms with a full spectrum of outsourced services so you can delegate all legal, management, and administrative tasks to trusted professionals. There is no reason to let “opportunity costs” be your silent killer. jurisINK™ is here to rescue you.
law firm start-ups
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you are starting a law firm, or want to start a law firm but don’t know where to begin, you are in the right place. We are law practice management experts and have already done the research, have the knowledge, and tested the systems, policies, and procedures for you. Over the last 12 years, the law practice management consultant and professionals at jurisINK™ have successfully started, built, and managed solo and small law firms. We can have your law firm set up and fully operational in a few weeks so you can focus on getting new clients, practicing law, and making money.
““I recently had lunch with a lawyer that told me he would have gladly spent $100,000 to have a consultant start his law firm years ago because, after-the-fact, he realized how much unnecessary time, money and energy he spent trying to do it himself. As he said, he could have gotten to the goal line much faster without the added stress, hassle and aggravation.””
Thankfully, our law practice management consulting services are reasonably priced (because, after all, you are a start-up firm with limited financial resources) and only a fraction of what some veteran solo lawyers would pay for our services in hindsight. Like most things in life, you spend a little money upfront to save big money in the long run. The best thing you can do when starting a new firm is get the right business plan, systems, policies and procedures in place from the beginning. In our experience, lawyers who try to tackle their business needs on their own at the beginning end up coming to us years later with significant and costly problems that could have been minimized with good planning at the outset . In other words, don’t wait.
““The only thing I would have done differently 6 years ago when I started my law practice is hire jurisINK.” ”
rates
The rates for our services depend on the scope of the project and are quoted based on the individual needs and requirements of each client. If you would like additional information about our law practice management consulting services or would like to talk with a law practice management professional, please complete and submit the “Request Information” form below or call us at 216-367-5677.
ABOUT OUR LAW PRACTICE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
LAURA L. VOLPINI
Laura is an attorney and law practice management consultant who has a true passion for the “business” of law. In 1999, she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from John Carroll University, and in 2002, she simultaneously earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Case Western Reserve University and a Master in Business Administration from John Carroll University. Laura’s 16 years in private practice is best described as a perfect union of law and business. Laura spent the early part of her legal career as a traditional civil litigation associate providing high-quality legal research, writing, analysis and strategy to both plaintiff and defense attorneys with whom she worked as well as the clients she represented directly. But, her true passion for business quickly surfaced in 2006. Laura switched her focus to law practice management and began to build and manage a successful, boutique law practice in Cleveland, Ohio. In this role, Laura experienced first-hand the seemingly endless issues facing solo practitioners and small firms – that is, how to maintain operational flexibility and maximize profits.
With a clear understanding of the demand for cost-effective solutions to these ongoing practice management problems, in 2013, Laura started jurisINK™ which provides “the back office for your law firm.” Over the course of her career, Laura has assisted many solo practitioners and small law firms in effectively organizing, operating, managing, and strategizing for, their businesses. Laura is often recognized by her peers and clients for her hard work, dedication and resourcefulness.
When she’s not working, Laura spends her time with her son and two dogs. She enjoys going to church, dancing, teaching her weekly wellness class, and traveling. To learn more about Laura, we invite you to visit her LinkedIn profile.