A workflow in a law firm or legal department consists of the steps required to move a matter or project from the beginning to the end. Ask yourself, what are the milestones for each project or matter type, and what are the tasks that need to be completed during each milestone to keep it moving to the next? Defining these processes for your team will allow them to always know the next steps to take, based on your specific workflow design. Workflows provide a robust boost in efficiency by capturing all the tasks that your team completes on a regular basis and making them the journey your clients or team will take to move the project or matter to completion. In this post, we will provide 7 workflow tips to run an efficient law firm and let you know why workflows are an important part of improving your law firm.
Why Workflows are Important
Because working in the legal field requires any team to work in a fluid environment with constantly changing priorities, there are endless trigger points that occur where information is collected and needs to be stored for easy access in the future. When you create workflows for all your processes, projects, and matter types, you are examining those processes in detail and ensuring that all the information you need is collected at the correct time. With that information being collected at the right time and stored in an organized manner for easy use and access in the future, you are eliminating redundancies that occur throughout the workflow. These redundancies can occur when your team is collecting and storing data, retrieving data for use, or not knowing the next steps to take, or during your client intake process.
7 Workflow Tips to Run an Efficient Law Firm
Client Relationship Management (CRM)
Use a CRM system or process or organize your leads. Not only will this create data for your marketing metrics, but it will also simplify your client intake process and allow you to automate tasks.
Matter Types
Know all the matter types you handle, and how they should be referenced and organized in your system. You can also do this for marketing campaigns or operational tasks like new employee onboarding or accounting.
Milestones
Break down the milestones for each of your matter types, and make sure your team understands them.
Tasks
Detail tasks that are required for each milestone of your matter types and create a system that captures and assigns them. This ensures critical tasks are reviewed and completed at each stage of the matter every time.
Client Communications
Make sure your processes cover keeping your client up to date. Have status update email templates and utilize a client portal where documents are added as they come in and go out.
Client Satisfaction
Use your CRM system to send surveys to clients when their matter is concluded. Gain valuable insights and identify issues promptly. Obtain client testimonials to use in your marketing.
Technology
Use technology designed for the legal field to organize and automate processes. Client intake, workflows, document generation, and client communications are all processes that can be automated with the assistance of technology.
Workflows are a great way to start improving your law firm or legal department. It requires no investment or training to get started, and the results will be immediate. The more workflows you can design for your processes, the more efficient you will become. Whether you are a small firm that wants to take on more cases or a large firm that needs to provide a consistent delivery of services by a large team, workflows can help you streamline all your work in progress and increase efficiency.
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