For any law firm, legal operations are an essential part of the business. Lawyers may think they have it easy because they only need to focus on their cases, but without a strong back office staff, lawyers can’t get anything done. The reality is that there are many things that go into running a successful law firm and one of the most important is ensuring that your team has all the tools necessary to succeed.
Legal operations include a wide range of business functions that are critical to the success, profitability and growth of any company. When talking about law firms specifically, legal operations covers everything from managing client relationships, overseeing billing procedures and ensuring efficient communication between attorneys and clients. In other words, legal ops professionals ensure that lawyers have all the tools they need to do their jobs while staying in compliance with the company’s policies.
Legal operations for law firms is an extremely diverse field, but the work can be broken down into four main categories: Legal administrative support, legal billing and accounts receivable, document review & production management and compliance.
Legal administrative support includes tasks like managing calendars, organizing meetings and trial dates. This also involves coordinating travel arrangements for lawyers so they can attend depositions or hearings without disrupting their schedules. It may surprise you to learn that the law office is not the best place to keep track of these details because it’s easy to lose documents in between case files. Therefore, it is important to have a dedicated team member who can keep track of these tasks and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Legal billing and accounts receivable involves overseeing the day-to-day transactions that occur in any law firm including: Building relationships with clients by keeping track of their history within your company as well as their billing and payment history. Monitoring the work that is performed by attorneys in order to ensure proper billing procedures are followed. This also involves reviewing invoices for errors before they go out the door, which can catch any mistakes early on and prevent them from doing further damage.
Managing accounts receivable: this includes sending out monthly statements, collecting payments and following up with clients who have outstanding debts.
Legal document review & production management includes everything from scanning documents to e-filing them in order to ensure that lawyers are able to access the information they need when it is time for trial. This also involves organizing physical files so any attorney can find what he or she needs without wasting time.
Compliance includes tasks like managing attorney conflicts of interest and ensuring that all security protocols are being followed. This can include things like making sure no sensitive documents end up in the wrong hands or requiring two-factor authentication for attorneys who work remotely. Compliance also involves creating a code of conduct for everyone who works at your company to follow, which can protect both the company and its employees.
Legal operations for law firms are extremely important to any firm’s success, which is why it is so crucial that lawyers understand their role in this process. Legal professionals need to know how they fit into the bigger picture while still being able to focus on doing what they do best: practicing law. However, this is only possible when they have the right tools and resources available to them, which is where legal ops professionals come into play.
As discussed earlier, there are four main sub-categories of legal operations for law firms: Legal administrative support, legal billing & accounts receivable, document review & production management and compliance. Any successful company will have a team member who’s in charge of each one, although the job titles may vary from company to company.
In conclusion, legal operations for law firms are an important part of maintaining any successful business. Legal administrative support ensures that lawyers have access to all their documents when they need them without wasting time searching through boxes full of paperwork. Legal billing and accounts receivable means that lawyers spend less time chasing down payments from clients, which allows them to focus on their work. Document review & production management ensures that all the available information is readily accessible in order to prepare for trials or hearings. Compliance protects both your company and its employees by creating a code of conduct they must follow at all times.