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Rethinking the roles of your law firm’s support staff 

By: Jim Calloway
Published: May 4, 2012

Tags: support staff

The old school model for staffing in a small law firm was often one secretary or legal assistant per lawyer, but it’s becoming increasingly incompatible with business reality. Lawyers USA columnist Jim Calloway explains why training staff to become experts with more focused assignments better reflects the needs of the contemporary workplace, and how to transition your firm to the new model.

Efficient legal document production for lawyers

By: Jim Calloway
Published: March 5, 2012

Tags: document management, legal writing

Lawyers have always been interested in better ways to produce legal documents and correspondence. Even before computers, memory typewriters allowed lawyers to reuse forms without retyping the entire document. But what are some methods that can be used to automate the document drafting process today?

Ten essential classes of websites for lawyers

By: Jim Calloway
Published: November 3, 2011

Tags: legal research, smartphones, website

The Internet is ubiquitous. Many of us get a growing amount of news from our favorite news sites.

For a challenge this month, I’m going to try to cover 10 essential websites (or classes of websites) for lawyers without referencing Google or some of the more obvious sites.

We will probably leave off your favorite, but hopefully you will learn of some new essential sites for your practice.

Checklists in your law practice

By: Jim Calloway
Published: July 25, 2011

Tags: task list

Lawyers may think they know all there is to know about checklists, but most law firms are only scratching the surface in using them successfully. One improvement we should see in law firm operations in the next several years is the development and use of more sophisticated checklists.

Delegating with confidence

By: Jim Calloway
Published: May 4, 2011

Tags: delegation, practice management

Delegation sounds easy. You get someone else to do something so you don’t have to do it. Some lawyers happily delegate as much as they can.

But some lawyers have difficulties with delegating important tasks to staff, since the failure of a staff person will be no excuse to a client or disciplinary authority. Lawyers USA Columnist Jim Calloway offers his suggestions to help lawyers delegate effectively.

Super-charge your conference calls

By: Jim Calloway
Published: December 10, 2010

Tags: conference calls, practice management

Do you find yourself participating in more telephone conference calls (aka teleconferences) today than several years ago?
Here are some tips on powering up your conference calls.

Why you need to switch to digital client files now

By: Jim Calloway
Published: July 28, 2010

Tags: digital files, practice management, technology

Here’s a question that’s posed to me from time to time: “What do you see as the biggest technological issue facing law firms?”

Lawyers USA Columnist Jim Calloway’s answer: the stubborn insistence of so many lawyers in clinging to paper client files.

In his opinion, every single lawyer needs to commit to using digital files.

What to keep in your employee files

By: Jim Calloway
Published: April 22, 2010

Tags: employee files, human resources, practice management, support staff

A solo or small firm lawyer may represent him or herself as Director of Human Resources, among many other responsibilities.
In some small law firms, there may be no personnel file or other records for employees besides payroll and tax records. Here’s a look at what the small firm lawyer forced to serve as Human Resources Director would want to keep in the personnel files.

Fixed fees needn’t mean working more for less (or for free)

By: Jim Calloway
Published: December 2, 2009

Tags: alternative fee arrangements, fixed fees, practice management

“I agreed to do the work for a flat fee. Now the client calls every single day. I’ve already invested more hours than I thought the entire matter would take. What can I do?”

This issue has been discussed recently in online forums and in law offices across the country. It’s the kind of thing that lawyers fear when they think of converting from an hourly-only business model to some sort of alternative fee arrangement.

Closing the client’s file

By: Jim Calloway
Published: July 28, 2009

Tags: client files, law practice management

Columnist Jim Calloway explores the importance of creating and implementing a written file destruction policy.