Building an efficient law practice means digging deep and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Stacey Burke has audited law firms of varying practice areas across the country. In this webinar she will give her top tips for running an efficient law practice by using appropriate technology and other best practices.

1. 10 Ways to Run Your Law Firm More
Efficiently
#EfficientLawFirm

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5. About Our Presenter
Stacey E. Burke
‣ Licensed Texas Lawyer Since 2001
‣ Works with lawyers and legal industry vendors
around the country
‣ Speaks and is published nationally on legal
technology, marketing, and law firm efficiency
‣ Favorite when practicing law: working with clients
and their families
‣ Favorite when consulting: helping small to medium
sized firms learn to own and control their own
marketing
‣ Text NEWSLETTER to 38470 for free legal
marketing news
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6. Business Efficiency:
How to Build Your Best Law Firm

7. Building Your Best Law Firm
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Systemization
Training
Accessibility
Assessment
Biz Dev

8. All Systems Go: Law Firm Systemization
What is systemization?
 Office Phones
 Answering Service
 Computer Hardware and Software
 Servers and Backups
 Documents and Scanning
 Remote Access
 Finances
1. Creating processes for handling
repetitive tasks and functions.
• Automate non-attorney tedious tasks
to achieve consistency, speed,
reliability, and cost savings.
• Example: Case-related document
generation.
2. Documenting these processes in a
real and meaningful way.
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9. Internal Best Practices for the
Intake of New Cases
Law firms need to adjust their internal processes to handle the
increased intake associated with both marketing and formal
business development efforts.

10. All Systems Go: New Case Intake
What do you need?
• People
• Software
• Hardware
• Transmission Methods
Procedures:
• Lead Tracking – What are your lead
sources? How are leads entered?
• Lead Qualification – Does the caller meet
the firm’s requirements to become a
client?
• PNC/Intake Nurturing – Automate follow-
up sequences.
• Lead Conversion – How do you convert
leads into clients?
• Remarketing – Monetize your entire
database not just qualified leads.
Universal merge documents and
forms:
• Sign-up paperwork
• Authorizations
• Employment Contract
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11. CALL
ASSIGNED
ATTEMPTS
CALL
CONTINUES
INTAKE
RATES
LEAD
SELECTS
FUNNEL
PNC EMAIL
1
PNC CALL 2
PNC EMAIL
2
PNC
FINAL CALL
REJECTED
LVM – Left Voicemail
NA – No Answer
REJ – Rejected (Red)
System will automatically
send rejection email and
queue for snail mail
QUALIFY NMI
NEEDS MORE
INFORMATION
NAC
NEEDS
ATTORNEY CALL
REFER
OUT
All Systems Go: New Case Intake

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Communication is KEY between intake, bookkeeping,
attorneys, and marketing vendors.
Weekly meetings regarding intake, conversion, problems
Quartlerly marketing meetings with partners to discuss
ongoing campaigns and spends
Monthly or Quarterly Communications with Referral Attorneys
regarding joint ventures, existing inventory, maintaining
relationships, future campaigns
All Systems Go: New Case Intake

13. Poll Slide #1
Does Your Law Firm Have A Procedure Manual?
1. Yes, it is printed out and lives in a three-ring binder.
2. What is a procedure manual?
3. We have checklists for certain tasks.
4. We have an internal portal with links to download various
items, videos, and more.
5. No.
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14. Building Your Best Law Firm:
Training
Training employees often begins and ends at the time of hiring. Much can
be learned about one’s business by continuing the training process on an
ongoing formal basis.

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Building Your Best Law Firm:
Staff Training
Why Train?
1. Is your business experiencing problems or being held back in some way?
Identify problems and roadblocks in your existing internal processes.
2. Do you receive customer complaints? Improve your customer service.
3. Is part of your business underperforming? Improve your productivity.
4. Do you rely on one or two key people for critical business functions? Cope
more easily with retirement, resignation, and termination.
5. Do you have a shortage of a particular skill set or a likely future skills
shortage? Identify where your real internal needs are so you can meet
them and keep your staff happier.

16. Train First, Train Last, Train Always
Essential Training Objectives:
1. What are our needs?
2. What are management’s expectations?
3. How will training move us closer to meeting those expectations?
4. What will the training require logistically?
5. Will the training improve employee performance and how will we measure
that?
6. How do we continue to cultivate a corporate culture of improvement?
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17. Training Preserves Intangible Assets
Human Capital
• Tacit knowledge
• Education
• Work-related know-how
• Work-related competence
Customer Capital
• Customer relationships
• Customer loyalty
Social Capital
• Corporate culture
• Management philosophy
• Management practices
• Informal networking systems
• Coaching/mentoring relationships
Intellectual Capital
• Intellectual property

18. Making Work Accessible:
Cloud Computing
Why focus on new technology?
 Professional responsibility in the context of new technology should be
considered on a proactive basis. Do we have a duty to ensure that we stay
informed of new technological options in order to provide the most cost-
effective, efficient, and high-quality representation for your clients?
 Profitability and business survival can be bolstered by innovation in one’s law
practice.
 Legal practice in general has become more reliant on e-discovery, electronic
documents, and digital sharing of files.
 Lawyers must ensure that client information is protected and so we must
understand the “terms of service” in our contracts with our technology
providers and hosting services.
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19. Make Work Accessible:
Practical Considerations
Accessibility:
Mobile devices
Remote access
To cloud or not to cloud
Advantages:
 Less expensive
 Flexibility
 Disaster recovery
 Ease of updates
 Less operational issues
 Better use of resources
 Scalability
Considerations:
 Ethics
 Service Interruption
 Security
 Data Ownership
 Work-Life Balance
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20. Poll Slide #2
When Do You Train Your Employees?
1. We have a formalized staff onboarding process and our employees are
trained when they join the firm.
2. We train new employees only and do not train existing staff.
3. We offer quarterly training on our case management software.
4. If an employee brings an issue to our attention, we train as needed.
5. We never train anyone.
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21. Building Your Best Law Firm:
Ongoing Assessment
The needs of your law firm will change over time. The technology and staff
members you use to accomplish your goals will also change over time. An
ongoing assessment of your key business functions will help your law firm
stay on track.

22. Ongoing Assessment
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You will need to periodically audit your systems.
As you make updates, you should log changes – who and why.
Areas to Assess
 Employee Training
 Systems
 Productivity
 Work Flow
 Employee Satisfaction
What to Do After Assessment
 Analyze Information
 Highlight Areas Needing Improvement
 Create Game Plan
 Develop Timeline for Implementation
 Retrain

23. Ongoing Assessment
Any successful business should undertake continuous improvements to
adjust and update education and training materials.
The findings from the evaluation process need to be used to make
meaningful changes to the law firm owners’ business objectives.
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24. Poll Slide #3
What Is The Top Complaint Of Law Firm Owners?
1. I cannot measure the return on investment of my marketing expenditures.
2. I don’t know what my staff members’ job duties are.
3. I don’t have time to [fill in the blank].
4. I can’t find or retain good people to work for me.
5. I know we need to make changes, but I don’t know where to start.
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25. Business Development
Business development is often confused with marketing, and the concepts
are incorrectly used interchangeably. Marketing and business development
complement each other and depend upon each other.

26. Business Development
What is Business Development?
 Making connections with referral sources and potential clients
 Identifying prospects and new areas of business
 Converting prospects into clients or other valuable relationships
 Understanding industry dynamics
 Making personal connections easily
 Being innovative and resourceful
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27. Business Development
I could find potential clients/referral sources by:
1. Attending networking events and social engagements
2. Raising my individual brand profile (i.e. speaking engagements)
3. Making phone calls
4. Being active in my community
5. Maintaining and cultivating existing relationships
6. Sponsoring local and community events
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28. • Know your audience
• Who are the decision
makers and influencers?
• Speaking engagements for
lawyer associations
• Legal article publication and
subsequent promotion
• Direct mail, Email, Case
Studies, Testimonials,
Public Relations
How to Market to Other Law Firms

29. Stacey E. Burke, P.C.
Website: www.staceyeburke.com
Email: info@staceyeburke.com
Phone: (713) 714-8446
Twitter: @staceyeburke
News: www.bit.ly/SEBPCnews or
TEXT NEWSLETTER to 38470
MyCase
www.MyCase.com
support@mycase.com
800-571-8062
Contact Us
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30. Thank you
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