The document discusses the importance of automated billing and collections for law firms, highlighting research indicating inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement in current billing practices. It addresses ethical obligations in law firm billing, the benefits of technology solutions for payment collection, and the growing preference for online payments among consumers. The presentation also outlines steps for automating these processes to increase efficiency and revenue collection.

1. Get Paid Faster
Everything Your Law Firm Needs to Know About
Automated Billing and Collections
February 08, 2022
Joshua Lenon - Lawyer in Residence

2. 7
Joshua Lenon
TODAY’S SPEAKER
● New York-admitted Attorney
● @JoshuaLenon
Lawyer in Residence

3. 8
Agenda
• Clio’s Research on Billing Automation
• Ethical Obligations and Billing Automation
• Steps to Automating Billing and Collections
• Questions
• OPTIONAL: Clio Payments Demonstration

4. Clio’s Research on
Billing Automation

6. Our sixth annual edition
Legal
Trends
Report
2016
Powered by Clio
Legal
Trends
Report
POWERED BY CLIO
2018
2017
Legal
Trends
Report

7. Clio App Data
Aggregated and anonymized data from tens of thousands
of legal professionals in the United States.
Legal professional and
consumer surveys
We surveyed 1,056 legal professionals and
1,002 consumers in May and June 2021.
Longitudinal Study
This year’s report includes a multi-year study
of over 1,600 law firms grouped into three cohorts—
growing, stable, and shrinking.
Data Sources

8. 25%
of firms still mail bills and
29%
rely on clients to pay bills by check

9. Utilization rate
Number of billable
hours worked
Number of hours
in a day
30%
Realization rate
Number of billable
hours invoiced 84%
Number of billable
hours worked
Collection rate Number of hours
collected upon 89%
Number of billable
hours invoiced
÷ =
÷ =
÷ =
Law firm key performance indicators (KPIs)

10. 1.9 hours realized 6.1 hours missing
5.6 hours missing
2.4 hours utilized
Utilization rate
8 hour work day
1.6 hours collected
6.4 hours missing
How many hours were billable?

11. 48%
Administrative tasks
16%
Licensing
and continuing
education
16%
Office
administration
15%
Generating and
sending bills 11%
Configuring
technology
6%
Collections
Too much time eaten by
non-billable
administrative tasks
Not enough clients to
support billable targets
33%
Business Development

12. Revenue growth between firms
120%
40%
0%
100%
80%
60%
20%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Growing Firms
112%
Revenue growth
57%
Matter growth
57%
Client growth
32%
Lawyer growth
100%
0%
-50%
75%
50%
25%
-25%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Stable Firms
0%
Revenue growth
-1%
Matter decline
1%
Client growth
-5%
Lawyer decline
0%
-40%
-60%
-10%
-20%
-30%
-50%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Shrinking Firms
-54%
Revenue decline
-40%
Matter decline
-39%
Client decline
-17%
Lawyer decline
Revenue Clients Matters Lawyers

13. 37%
more likely to use online payments
Growing law firms are

14. Rate of online payments adoption*
100%
75%
50%
0%
Jan 2017
Jan 2018
Jan 2019
Jan 2021
*Normalized based on total adoption among growing firms
Growing Shrinking
25%
Jan 2016
Jan 2020

15. 5% and 16%
more revenue every month.
Customers using online payments
collect between

16. Revenue advantages to using
technology solutions (per lawyer)*
2019
2020
$40,000
$30,000
$20,000
$10,000
Electronic
payments
Client
portals
Client intake
and CRM
Multiple
solutions*
$0

17. $15,179
more per lawyer in 2020.
Firms using online payments
collected an estimated

18. Based on online payment data we see that
when collecting fees via secure online credit
card payment platform, firms get paid
faster than by other means.
39%

19. 8%
more new cases in a month.
Those using online payments
saw up to

20. of consumers expect
lawyers to o
ff
er the
option of a completely
remote client experience
67%

21. 67%
Responds to first call/
email right away
64%
Offers free
initial consults
47%
Offers fixed fees
28%
Let’s clients pay
by credit card
27%
Exchanges texts
with clients
19%
Great-looking
website
What potential clients look for

22. 65%
of consumers prefer to pay using online
payments.
73%
of law firms allow clients to pay
invoices electronically.

23. of law firms report the most common reason
for clients not paying their bills is that they
lack the funds to pay a bill all at once.
44%

24. There is an appetite for payment
plans, that not all lawyers are
taking advantage of.

25. 72%
When it comes to payment plans,
53%
of law firms are equipped to offer
payment plans.
of consumers would prefer to pay their
legal fees via a payment plan, while

26. Factors influencing choice of lawyer
100%
50%
25%
0%
Responsiveness to questions
Price transparency
Free consultations
Payment plans availability
Positive online reviews
Personal recommendation
Searchable online
Provide remote options
Available outside business hours
Available via text or IM
Support online bookings
75%
Somewhat positive influence
Very positive influence
26% 26% 28% 30% 33% 34% 33% 34% 35% 33%
33%
60% 59% 56%
51% 49% 47% 47% 45% 44% 44%
39%

27. of consumers say a law
fi
rm's ability to o
ff
er
payment plans in
fl
uences
their hireabilty.
81%

28. of lawyers plan to
accept online payments
beyond the pandemic
96%

29. 34
CLE Participation Poll
*Required for CLE Credit
You must click “Yes” to verify your
attendance during this program for
CLE purposes

30. Ethical Obligations and
Billing Automation

31. Keeping it Ethical
4 Issues to Keep in Mind:
1. Fees and Reasonableness
2. Proper Accounting Practices
3. Client Communications
4. Agency in Collections

32. 37
MRPC 1.5 Fees
(a) A lawyer shall not make an
agreement for, charge, or collect an
unreasonable fee or an
unreasonable amount for
expenses.
1. the time and labor required, the novelty and
difficulty of the questions involved, and the
skill requisite to perform the legal service
properly;
2. the likelihood, if apparent to the client, that
the acceptance of the particular employment
will preclude other employment by the
lawyer;
3. the fee customarily charged in the locality for
similar legal services;
4. the amount involved and the results obtained;
5. the time limitations imposed by the client or
by the circumstances;
6. the nature and length of the professional
relationship with the client;
7. the experience, reputation, and ability of the
lawyer or lawyers performing the services;
and
8. whether the fee is fixed or contingent.

33. A lawyer shall deposit into a client
trust account legal fees and
expenses that have been paid in
advance, to be withdrawn by the
lawyer only as fees are earned or
expenses incurred.
MRPC 1.15 (c)
38

34. 39
Client Communications
Disclosure Required
When a representation is based upon an hourly rate,
the minimum unit of time for which a client will be
billed should be apparent. See, Georgia Bar Formal
Advisory Op. 01-1
Get It in Writing
NYCRR §1215 Written Letter of Engagement
The letter of engagement shall address the following
matters:
1. Explanation of the scope of the legal services to be
provided;
2. Explanation of attorney's fees to be charged, expenses
and billing practices (emphasis added); and, where
applicable, shall provide that the client may have a
right to arbitrate fee disputes under Part 137 of the
Rules of the Chief Administrator.

35. Agency in
Collections
Using collection agencies creates greater ethical risks for law firms. Keeping collections in the
law firm avoids oversight and confidentiality concerns.
40

36. Automating Billing
and Collections

38. Automated Bill
Reminders
• Automatically reminds your
clients to pay their
outstanding balances based
on a customizable cadence
that’s right for your firm.
• Clio will keep track of your
client’s outstanding balances,
and remind the bill recipients
using your predefined
Bill Recipients
• Designate multiple
contacts as bill recipients
Bill Message Templates
• Get started quickly with
existing templates and quickly
personalize them to share
bills, trust requests or
outstanding balances with
your clients.
• Save time and share accurate
outstanding balance figures
with bill messages that
intuitively pre-populate unique
Bill Sharing Features
Set it up once and let your practice management take care of the rest.

41. Automated Bill
Reminders
• Automatically reminds your
clients to pay their
outstanding balances based
on a customizable cadence
that’s right for your firm.
• Clio will keep track of your
client’s outstanding balances,
and remind the bill recipients
using your predefined
Bill Recipients
• Designate multiple
contacts as bill recipients
Bill Message Templates
• Get started quickly with
existing templates and quickly
personalize them to share
bills, trust requests or
outstanding balances with
your clients.
Bill Sharing Features
Set it up once and let Clio take care of the rest.

43. Automated Bill
Reminders
• Automatically reminds your
clients to pay their
outstanding balances based
on a customizable cadence
that’s right for your firm.
Bill Recipients
• Designate multiple
contacts as bill recipients
Bill Message Templates
• Get started quickly with
existing templates and quickly
personalize them to share
bills, trust requests or
outstanding balances with
your clients.
Bill Sharing Features
Set it up once and let Clio take care of the rest.

48. Spend more time on billable work
than you do on billing.

50. Clio Manage
Legal practice management software
Our most popular product—the industry’s leading solution
to help manage clients, organize cases, and automate
tedious tasks and month-end billing.
Clio Grow
Client intake and legal CRM software
Standardize the client intake process with online intake
forms, email automation, and e-signatures to build strong
relationships, and get powerful data insights to grow your firm.
The Clio Suite
Legal practice management, client intake and CRM software. Get
unmatched performance with Clio Suite, the industry’s
only end-to-end software solution for your firm. Visit clio.com/pricing to learn more.
Clio’s Offerings

51. Polls for Non-Clio and Clio Customers
Poll 1: For Non-Clio Customers
Would you like to learn more about Clio?
a. Yes, I would like to learn more about
Clio’s Suite of products
b. Clio Cloud Conference
c. No, I’m not interested
d. No, I’m already a Clio Customer
56
Poll 2: For Clio Customers
Would you like to learn more about:
a. Adding Clio Grow to
streamline client intake
b. Adding Clio Payments
c. Clio Cloud Conference
d. No, I’m not interested
or I already use Clio Grow

52. Upcoming Webinars
57
● Virtual Meetups: Innovate Legal Online's Building a Successful Law Firm Series
● [CLE-Eligible Webinar] Disaster and Succession Planning for Law Firms, March 8
● 2022 Clio Cloud Conference: October 10-11 | Hybrid.
● All Upcoming Webinars & Content:
Clio.com Resources Page

53. Thank You

54. 59
CONTACT INFORMATION
Linkedin.com/in/joshualenon
@JoshuaLenon
joshua.lenon@clio.com
888-858-2546
www.clio.com
Joshua Lenon
Lawyer in Residence