Below are some frequently asked questions and answers about the program. 

How do I start the process? 

To start the process, you may file a Notice of Dispute and Request for Facilitation form with the program administrator at The Missouri Bar.  

Under certain circumstances, a dispute may be referred to the program by the Office of Chief Disciplinary Council.   

How long does the process take? 

The length of the process depends on the response rate of the parties. On average, it takes between three to five months from beginning to end. 

Read this article to learn more about the process. 

What types of disputes does the program receive? 

The program receives a variety of disputes including: 

• Law firm departures
• Law firm breakups
• Fee-sharing disputes 

What happens if the parties can’t agree? 

The program is voluntary for all parties. If they can’t agree or they decline to participate in facilitation or binding arbitration, the matter is closed as the program has no other options. 

From St. Louis to Kansas City to Springfield and across the whole country, one issue that seems to unite lawyers is this: We’re not great at billing our clients.

We didn’t go to law school to learn how to become bill collectors, and my school certainly didn’t offer many “how to run a law firm” management courses. So, when and how exactly are we supposed to pick up the details on invoicing?

Because of this, many firm owners learn receivables by trial and error (legal pun intended). With that in mind, here are a few billing tips and tricks to help along the way:

Three tried and true billing tips for Missouri law firms
1. It’s a mental game.

Clients come to you at some of the worst moments in their lives. The least lawyers can do is be predictable in our billing schedule.

Clients shouldn’t be waiting months to receive an invoice, and sending bills sporadically doesn’t foster confidence (or trust) between you and your client. Whether you bill monthly or on another cadence, the key is consistency.

A practical rule of thumb: send invoices around the 4th of every month. If the client gets paid on the 1st, their paycheck has likely cleared by the time your bill arrives, making yours one of the first bills they’ll pay rather than something that gets pushed to “later.”

2. The call is coming from inside the house (yes, you).

Often, the real reason firms fall behind on billing is simple: hours don’t get logged. We’ve all been there; waiting until the end of the month to input time, only to realize we’re trying to reconstruct an entire month of work like it’s a missing evidence timeline.

The problem is that it’s nearly impossible to recreate every billable increment for a month. We forget details. You log six hours for a day that happened two weeks ago, but you know you were at the office for ten. Now you’re losing revenue for the firm — and for yourself.

You and your staff need a rule for tracking time. Ideally, this happens daily, but weekly is more realistic for many firms.

And if you have a few “problem children” at your firm who struggle to track time consistently, consider adopting Smokeball’s Autotime feature. It runs in the background and tracks what you’re doing and for which matters.

3. It’s time to join the modern day

Lawyers are not always known for being early adopters of change, but if there’s one place where modernizing pays off quickly, it’s billing.

It’s time to adopt technology that can automate the most frustrating parts of the process. Your firm administrator will thank you. Your future self will, too.

That means using software like Smokeball, which lets you:

— Print prebills in bulk (and separated by lawyer)

— Automate invoice creation

— Send bills to clients all at once — without going case-by-case

Instead of manually pushing invoices one matter at a time, you can press a button, and your bills go out in a batch.

And if you bill hourly, it’s also worth thinking about adopting an evergreen retainer policy, which can also be automated with the right system.

Bottom line for law firm billing

Billing doesn’t have to be the headache it was back in the day. Technology exists now to make it easier and more consistent.

Try it and give yourself one less thing to chase at the end of every month.

Trust accounting and billing software by Smokeball

As a member of The Missouri Bar, you get access to Smokeball’s trust accounting and billing software at no cost, valued at $588/user/year, to help you manage your trust accounting compliantly and bill easily. Click on this link to access your software: https://bit.ly/mobarbill-blog-0226.

Jordan Turk is a practicing lawyer in Texas and Smokeball’s director of education and attorney development. Smokeball is cloud-based legal practice management software. 

The Missouri Bar and Smokeball recognize the important role solo and small firms play in every local community. By providing Smokeball Bill at no cost, all members of The Missouri Bar will now have access to a user-friendly software solution that ensures trust accounting compliance and simplifies billing.  

“By providing Smokeball Bill at no cost to all Missouri Bar members, we hope to assist them with running efficient and compliant law firms so they can even better serve their clients,” said Shelly Dreyer, 2024-2025 Missouri Bar president.

Manually managing trust accounting can lead to compliance errors and malpractice claims. Smokeball Bill makes it simple for members to easily comply with trust accounting regulations. The software also helps firms send and collect invoices and bills.

“By providing Smokeball Bill software, which typically costs $588 per user/per year, at no cost to Missouri Bar members, we aim to enhance the resources accessible to the legal community as a whole and to the clients they serve,” said Jane Oxley, CRO and co-founder of Smokeball.

This is Smokeball's 14th no-cost product partnership with a state bar, following the announcement of partnerships with state bars including the State Bar of Texas and the Oklahoma Bar Association. To learn more about Smokeball’s no-cost product offering with The Missouri Bar or to sign up, please visit www.smokeball.com/missouribill.

About Smokeball - Smokeball is your partner to drive your law firm into the future. As the industry's leading cloud-based legal practice management software, Smokeball empowers you to run your firm specific to your area of law. Our platform gives you all the insights and tools you need to work smarter, not harder: automatic time tracking and invoicing, streamlined workflows for your specific practice area, a library of over 20,000 standard legal forms and documents, and actionable reports. Smokeball is a member benefit of over 20 U.S. bar associations. Learn how to run your best firm at smokeball.com.

About The Missouri Bar - The Missouri Bar was created in 1944 by order of the Supreme Court of Missouri. Its mission is to improve the legal profession, the administration of justice, and the law on behalf of the public. Through educational programs, publications, and more, The Missouri Bar serves as a valuable resource for members — and for the citizens of Missouri.

Here’s the process: 

Step 1: A lawyer files a Notice of Dispute and Request for Facilitation form with the program administrator at The Missouri Bar. Under certain circumstances, the dispute may be referred to the program by the Office of Chief Disciplinary Council.  

Step 2: A file is opened within the program, and all parties are asked to voluntarily sign the Agreement for Facilitation to attempt to resolve the dispute. 

Step 3: Once the program administrator receives written consent from all parties, the matter is assigned to a neutral. Neutrals serving as facilitators and arbitrators are members of The Missouri Bar who volunteer their services. Either party may challenge the assigned neutral within 10 days of the assignment. 

Step 4: The neutral may contact the parties to clarify the nature of the dispute and the parties’ positions. The goal is to promote a better understanding of the issues and offer meaningful suggestions for resolution. 

Step 5a: The program administrator quickly schedules a facilitation meeting with the parties virtually or in a neutral location. The parties have the option to be represented by counsel at their own expense. A written entry of appearance is required. The neutral’s role is to promote communication and suggest ways to resolve the dispute — they will not impose a settlement. 

Step 5b: If needed and mutually agreed upon, follow-up sessions are scheduled. 

Step 6a: If an agreement is reached in facilitation, the neutral will assist the parties in writing down their agreement and the matter is closed. 

Step 6b: If an agreement is not reached in facilitation, the neutral assists the parties in developing criteria for a binding arbitration hearing, provided both parties consent to arbitration.  

Step 7: A binding arbitration hearing is held with another neutral assigned to arbitrate the matter. Participants may choose to seek arbitration outside the program. 

A matter will be closed if: 

• one of the parties does not consent to facilitation,  
• one of the parties does not agree to binding arbitration if an agreement has not been reached in facilitation,  
• the matter has been resolved prior to or during facilitation, or  
• a binding arbitration award has been filed with the program administrator’s office. 

Pursuant to the Lawyer-to-Lawyer Dispute Resolution Program Guidelines, the Lawyer-to-Lawyer Dispute Resolution Committee oversees the activities and proceedings of the program. The committee is appointed by The Missouri Bar Board of Governors.  

Mischa Buford Epps, Missouri Bar executive director

I hope the beginning weeks of the new year have treated you well. As your bar, we are always looking for strategic relationships that will benefit you, our members. One such relationship is with The Bar Plan. 

In December, I had the pleasure of joining the bar’s Board of Governors’ Executive Committee for a meeting with The Bar Plan’s board members and senior leadership at their holiday festivities. This annual event is an opportunity for Missouri Bar and Bar Plan leaders to connect and celebrate the strong partnership between our organizations. 

We appreciate The Bar Plan’s longstanding support of The Missouri Bar and our members in numerous ways, big and small. 

The Bar Plan actually has its origins in The Missouri Bar. In the early 1980s, a nationwide crisis arose in the lawyers’ professional liability insurance market. Many commercial carriers exited the market or enforced significant rate increases (100-plus percent) on their policyholders. 

Understanding the negative impact this would have on its members, The Missouri Bar, along with other state bar associations, researched ways to ensure lawyers could find professional liability insurance coverage and started a program in 1983 facilitating such coverage. The company now known as The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company grew out of this program and has existed in its current form since 1986. 

Focused on serving Missouri’s legal community for the long term, The Bar Plan shares the bar’s commitment of helping lawyers. 

We are fortunate that, more than 40 years ago, Missouri Bar leaders and volunteers took bold steps to meet the needs of Missouri lawyers and build a company like The Bar Plan. The challenges they faced were similar to those we encounter today: doubt, resistance to change, and uncertainty in the face of new technologies and an evolving legal marketplace. 

Stories like that of The Bar Plan remind us that progress is rarely achieved in isolation. Instead, it is a collective effort, built on the courage and collaboration of those who dare to envision and take action. 

Current Missouri Bar leaders and staff continue to take action in pursuit of improving the quality of legal services, the administration of justice, and the support and regulation of lawyers in our state. As we move forward in 2025, we remain focused on member value, improving delivery of services and program offerings to meet the current and emerging needs of Missouri lawyers. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as the bar’s executive director and to work alongside so many dedicated professionals committed to building a more promising future for our profession and communities. Please let us know how we can best assist you and your work. 

Best regards,
Mischa

The Missouri Bar has partnered with Fastcase since 2007 to offer complimentary legal research to its members. If you’re a member of The Missouri Bar, you can access Fastcase’s nationwide legal research service – cases, statutes, regulations, court rules, and constitutions. The service includes free reference attorney support by phone or chat and unlimited searching and printing. The service normally costs $1,145 per year, but Missouri Bar members receive this service at no cost. 

A merger of strength 

While Fastcase was building a deep library of legal materials in the United States, vLex was founded in 2000 in Spain and worked to democratize the law in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Sharing a common mission, Fastcase merged with vLex in 2023. The Fastcase legal research service will be called vLex Fastcase in the United States, and the global corporate name remains vLex. 

The merge formed one of the world’s largest law libraries, with more than 1 billion documents in the combined library from more than 110 countries, and more than 3 million subscribers. Veteran legal journalist Bob Ambrogi said the merger would “reshape the legal research and legal technology landscape on a global basis.” 

Big upgrade for Missouri Bar members 

The new version of vLex Fastcase had a soft launch in Missouri on Nov. 19. vLex Fastcase will remain at no cost for Missouri Bar members, but the new version will offer some significant upgrades to members. 

Cert citator 
Is your case still good law? vLex Fastcase will include the robust Cert citator, a combination of AI and a human editorial review of more than 700,000 citations. The teams have been researching, developing, and testing the citator for four years. The result is a more powerful new citator. 

Vincent AI 
vLex Fastcase will include some of the features of the Vincent AI platform from vLex. Vincent uses artificial intelligence to create headnotes for judicial opinions and find references similar to a selected document, as well as provide tools to translate research into other languages, which can be helpful for advising clients for whom English is not their native language. Some of the tools from Vincent AI will be available for an additional monthly subscription, such as AI-powered research, draft memos, redlines, reviewing contracts, drafting briefs, M&A due diligence, and more. 

Sleek, new interface 
The new vLex Fastcase features a more streamlined, easier-to-read design to make research simpler and more accessible for experts and beginners alike. 

The same benefit, but better 

Through vLex Fastcase, Missouri Bar members can continue to access up-to-date judicial opinions, statutes, regulations, and more for Missouri and the other 49 states, as well as at the federal level. If you subscribe to secondary publications or the briefs and pleadings database, those subscriptions will move with you to the new platform. 

Logging in to vLex Fastcase will work the same way. Visit The Missouri Bar website at MoBar.org/MemberBenefits, navigate to the “Research|Write” category, click the vLex Fastcase button, and log in with your bar username and password. That will log you directly into your personalized start page in vLex Fastcase. 

To learn more about vLex Fastcase and the available updates, watch a tutorial video at MoBar.org/vLexFastcase-Tutorial.

For more resources to help you open, build, manage, protect, and wind down your practice, visit The Missouri Bar’s Law Practice Management Resource Center at MoBar.org/LPM.

The improved “vLex Fastcase” service will provide no-cost access to extensive primary law collections, including case law, statutes, regulations, and constitutions, and is searchable by citation, keyword, or natural language query.

A key feature of the upgrade is the new Cert citator, which flags negative treatment and other citing references to a case. Cert is a major improvement over Fastcase’s previous citation service, with vastly more extensive coverage and more types of negative treatment. The real advantage of Cert is the review by editorial experts.

The new version also includes skills from Vincent AI, vLex’s AI research assistant. Members will have access to automated headnotes, case summaries, and the ability to find similar legal materials using Vincent.

vLex Fastcase’s filters help narrow searches by jurisdiction and content libraries for relevant results. The interactive outline allows browsing and searching individual sections of statutes, regulations, and practice guides. Lawyers can also tag frequently used documents for quick access later.

The platform’s alert system keeps lawyers updated on new developments of selected areas of interest. This feature is particularly useful for staying current without manual searches.

As before, Missouri lawyers get all of these features at no-cost, a savings of $1,140 per year.

No action is required from you today. In the coming weeks, we will provide you with detailed instructions on how to access vLex Fastcase directly through MoBar.org. You will continue to have access to the existing Fastcase platform during this transition period to ensure your work remains uninterrupted.

To help make the most of this powerful new tool, lawyers are invited to join a webinar at 1 p.m. Nov. 14 demonstrating the new features of the platform and show you how to maximize its potential for your legal practice. Lawyers can also access a recording that highlights features here. 

Jason Cecil, chief technology officer of The Missouri Bar, said the planned maintenance reflects the organization's commitment to continually improve the many technology-based resources and services The Missouri Bar provides to lawyers as well as support of the bar’s responsibility to maintain the official database of licensed lawyers for the Supreme Court of Missouri. 

"Scheduled maintenance helps ensure our technology-based services are up to date to help Missouri lawyers better serve their clients and communities,” Cecil said. “We apologize for any inconvenience you may experience during the scheduled maintenance window.” 

Cecil said the ongoing maintenance builds on a series of technology-based improvements over the past six years, including MyMCLE online reporting, improved registration process for major conferences, an improved online fee payment process, enhanced security through new password requirements and PINs, and new servers.

Keep up with technology-based features, as well as discounts, services, and resources for Missouri lawyers, using #MOLawyersBenefit.

“Whether it be severe storms, tornadoes, or flooding, Missouri faces a variety of deadly weather threats every year, each highlighting the tremendous need to be prepared no matter where we are,” State Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Remillard said in a press release. 

Law firms are not immune to weather events. To help lawyers even better prepare for these situations, The Missouri Bar’s Law Practice Management Center offers a series of checklists regarding tornadoes, wildfires, flooding, and other natural disasters with strategies for before, during, and after they occur.  

For more resources to help you protect your practice, visit MoBar.org.  

The program aims to provide members, members’ employees, and all eligible dependents of members and members’ employees with competitive insurance products, employee benefit plans, and services not usually obtained by individuals or small groups.

Member Group plans allow individual members (and in some plans, spouses, and employees) the opportunity to purchase insurance at group rates in plans designed exclusively for The Missouri Bar. Member Group plans provide coverage and are rated based on the plan’s actual loss experience, therefore allowing for premium savings, enhanced benefits, underwriting concessions, and other exclusive benefits to be passed onto the group plan participants.

Also available are individual products, firm plans, and services that are available with pricing discounts, enhanced benefits, and underwriting concessions that are only available through these programs.

Plans for solo practitioners

Designed specifically for solo-practicing lawyers and their dependents, BarHealthTM harnesses the size and scale of membership to bring you savings. If you are a 1099 solo practitioner, start here.

Individual and family health insurance

Also known as “Obamacare plans,” this type of medical insurance meets the ACA’s minimum essential coverage requirements. These plans are eligible for lower premiums through government subsidies. Enter your area code online to see your eligibility options, plans, and prices.

Non-ACA health insurance

Also known as “short-term health insurance”, non-ACA plans can be an affordable alternative for those who are in good health and don’t need coverage for maternity, mental health, substance abuse, or preexisting conditions. There is no designated enrollment period for these plans; you can apply at any time.

The planned server replacement reflects the Board of Governors’ commitment to continually improve the many technology-based resources and services The Missouri Bar provides to lawyers as well as support of the bar’s responsibility to maintain the official database of licensed lawyers for the Supreme Court of Missouri. 

Jason Cecil, chief technology officer of The Missouri Bar, said the replacement of the organization’s servers helps ensure these services and follows recommended best data security practices. 

“The Missouri Bar is dedicated to helping lawyers better serve their clients and communities,” Cecil said. “Updating our servers will help ensure safe and user-friendly services available to Missouri lawyers.”

Cecil noted the server replacement requires the IP address – a unique identifier used to communicate between devices on a network – affiliated with MoBar.org to also be changed. Cecil said for most users, their web browser will redirect MoBar.org visitors to the updated IP address with little to no delay once the downtime period ends. Unfortunately, a small percentage of users may experience trouble reaching MoBar.org while the Domain Name System is being updated. This propagation window could take up to 24 hours. 

“We apologize for any inconvenience you may experience during the scheduled upgrade window and subsequent DNS propagation to the new IP address,” Cecil added. 

Cecil said the server replacement builds on a series of technology-based improvements over the past five years, including MyMCLE online reporting, improved registration process for major conferences, an improved online fee payment process, and enhanced security through new password requirements and PINs.

Keep up with technology-based features, as well as discounts, services, and resources for Missouri lawyers, using #MOLawyersBenefit.

MOLAP
We know the practice of law can be stressful. The Missouri Lawyers' Assistance Program is a professional, confidential counseling program for members of The Missouri Bar, immediate family members who reside with them, and law students. Through a variety of free services, MOLAP helps individuals overcome personal concerns such as substance use, depression, stress, and burnout. All MOLAP services are free and strictly confidential. Learn more about MOLAP here.

MoBarCLE
When it comes to continuing your legal education, you don’t have to look further than The Missouri Bar. For decades, MoBarCLE has produced relevant, researched, and respected programs, publications, and conferences that help lawyers even better serve their clients. Plus, MoBarCLE offers in-person programs and webinars – allowing lawyers to earn live or self-study CLE credit at a time and place that’s convenient.

Journal of The Missouri Bar
The Journal of The Missouri Bar is the bar’s official publication. Published six times annually, the Journal carries substantive articles on timely legal issues, as well as regular columns, practice management articles, and features covering cutting-edge topics that are trending in the legal profession. Notices of Supreme Court rule changes, upcoming meetings, continuing legal education programs, and more may also be found in each issue. Download the latest issue here or write an article to share your knowledge and be considered for an award.

connect.MOBAR
Digital networking is simplified through connect.MOBAR. On this virtual platform, lawyers from across the state can collaborate and exchange knowledge through online communities. You can also communicate with members of any Missouri Bar committees and download files from an extensive forms bank. Get started here.

Committees and Sections 
Committees and sections represent the driving forces behind the work and activities of The Missouri Bar, and with more than 40 to choose from, all lawyers can find one that fits their professional interests. Committee members are lawyers who practice in or are passionate about a particular area of law, from Animal Law to Workers Compensation. Explore various committees here. In addition, committees gather virtually at least twice a year for Fall Committee Meetings and Spring Committee Meetings. These sessions typically include no-cost CLE programming and opportunities to network.

Research and writing tools
Research and writing play a major part in being a lawyer, so we’re here to help you along the way. Did you know all Missouri lawyers have free access to Fastcase legal research through The Missouri Bar? In addition, MoBar Net, developed through a partnership with REJIS, offers lawyers online access to Missouri DOR records, municipal courts, and warrant and arrest information in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas. Other available services include statewide criminal history, out-of-state driver records locator, and death file searches. Explore these benefits here.

Jobs bank
Whether you’re looking for different opportunities, hiring for a specialized role, or trying to land a place to hang out your shingle, The Missouri Bar’s Jobs for Lawyers service can help you find the right fit. Listings are updated weekly, and the service is provided at no cost to any firm, employer, or organization where a J.D. is required or preferred for applicants.

LawyerSearch
LawyerSearch is designed to link lawyers who are accepting new clients with clients in need of services. To be included in the search, lawyers must complete a profile sharing their area of practice, office location, and any language proficiencies. Once a lawyer is in the system, members of the public can find them by searching for potential matches by zip code, language needs, and area of legal concern. Opt in to use LawyerSearch here.

Ask an Expert at Affinity Consulting
Missouri Bar members have two easy ways to get legal technology and law practice management questions answered by an expert at Affinity Consulting Group. At no cost, members can email their questions to an expert or schedule a one-on-one, remote consultation. Questions can be about anything related to running a law firm: technology, management, leadership, software selection, process mapping - you name it. An Affinity expert will reach out with an answer at a time that works for you. Learn more.

Insurance
When you’re looking for insurance to protect you, your employees, or your family, we have options – and opportunities to save. Through The Missouri Bar Insurance Marketplace, lawyers can access plans for health, dental, vision, and long-term care coverage, as well as ID protection and even pet insurance. In addition, The Bar Plan offers plans for malpractice, workers’ compensation, life insurance, and more. Explore the options here.

Discounts on office needs
Having the right office supplies can help your practice run even smoother. Missouri lawyers have access to exclusive members-only discounts on everything from laptops to paper. Start shopping here.

Save on shipping
Missouri Bar members have access to flat rate discounts through UPS - no matter how much they ship, when they ship, or where it’s going. The pricing includes savings of 50% on domestic next day/deferred and 30% on ground commercial/residential. Lawyers can also take advantage of UPS Smart Pickup service for free. Get the details here.

Practice management tools and downloads
Whether you’ve been practicing for years or just recently passed the bar, we’re here to help you even better serve your clients with discounts on a range of practice management tools, technology needs, website design, virtual assistants, and more. Plus, Missouri lawyers can access a variety of white papers and educational materials to help make routine or specialty tasks even easier. Learn more here.

Missouri Bar members have access to scores of member benefits and services through The Missouri Bar. Learn more about all of the member benefits available to Missouri lawyers here.

Growing your law firm requires careful planning and strategizing. If you started your firm as a solo practitioner, you may already have completed some of these exercises, but now it’s time to think bigger about growth. 

Each firm will find a unique path forward to success, but these steps will help ease your law firm’s growing pains. 

Develop a growth strategy 
Before you take any steps forward, create a clear plan that outlines your law firm’s goals for the next one, five, and 10 years, as well as the resources needed to implement those changes. Because they’re so busy with the daily work of practicing law, many firms don’t take time to strategize for the future. But a plan that features guiding principles and goals sets the foundation for how your business decisions should be made; without it, strategic growth is nearly impossible. 

Include a detailed organizational chart while forming your strategy. This document forecasts each department’s development and expansion, as well as the number of projected employees needed for it. Correlate each stage of law firm growth with the necessary resources and budget. 

Build a successful culture
Before adding new staff, establish a positive, supportive work culture for existing employees that reflects your firm’s values. A written mission statement is an important first step. Then lay the groundwork for a culture that engenders pride, loyalty, and enthusiasm. Focus on work-life balance and workplace equality, the two issues employees most often report as lacking. Make sure to regularly reevaluate your culture and adjust your policies and processes at every stage of your firm’s growth to support a business that works for everyone. 

Bring business skills and tools to the table 
Because lawyers are not typically trained as businesspeople, formal learning and development will also help your firm grow as a business. Look to continuing legal education programs, as well as formal business management courses for your partners and senior lawyers. 

To be most effective, this business acumen must be paired with the technology and tools to run your firm like a business. These include: 

• Time tracking and billing: Adopting a system that records every action taken within your software not only reduces time spent on manual billing and time tracking, but also churns out valuable metrics that inform your growth. Unless your hours are accurately recorded and billed, your progress will be stymied. 
   
• Task management: As your firm grows, automating workflows and assigning tasks to appropriate staff ensures your firm can improve efficiency. Streamlined collaboration leverages employees’ skills and improves performance across the board. Delegation becomes not only easy, but second nature, when tasks, deadlines, and reminders are mechanized. 

Hire strategically
Rely on your growth strategy to determine which positions to fill so hiring is balanced across your organization. Seek people who are not only qualified for your positions, but those who want to advance within your firm. 

If you don’t already employ non-legal staff, start with an office manager who coordinates and implements your strategy across the firm. You also need human resources support via an internal HR position or an outsourced contract position. HR handles office conflicts, disciplinary proceedings, compliance, insurance, and policies covering discrimination, diversity, and harassment. A good HR team will also provide employee training and implement your firm’s policies, including creating an employee handbook. 

Focus on existing clients
Client retention is crucial to law firm growth — otherwise your firm will constantly be focused on replacing them. Identify your most profitable cases and clients, evaluate their needs, and plan to support them as you grow. This may include:  

• Providing consistent communication with clients 
• Offering convenient online payment options and administrative processes 
• Keeping a friendly, hospitable in-person experience 

Develop new clients
With your existing clients securely in place, it’s time to attract new ones. Apply metrics captured by your legal practice’s management software to calculate the percentage of leads who make appointments, appear for appointments, and sign with your firm. Then, isolate your most effective demographics to make your marketing more targeted and effective.  

Identify the types of new clients your firm wishes to attract to focus your growth. Many firms focus on increasing the number of overall clients, but don’t overlook a strategy that concentrates on fewer clients with bigger projects. 

Utilize marketing and branding 
Once your firm has identified your ideal marketing segments, focus on the features that make your firm unique, including your services and reputation. Use those characteristics as a springboard for your marketing program. Hire professional marketing and branding assistance to build an effective website, digital marketing, social media, SEO, and content marketing. While these services come at a price, they also give your firm a professional polish, helping you generate more leads and firmly establish your firm’s long-term market success.  

With a clear growth plan, the right hires, and the implementation of efficient technological tools and processes, your law firm can expand and profit for many years to come. 

Through The Missouri Bar, Missouri lawyers receive a 10% discount from Smokeball in the member benefits program. The Missouri Bar also has resources available for members interested in building their practice. Members also have no-cost access to the experts at Affinity Consulting through email or unlimited 30-minute virtual visits. Reprinted with permission of Smokeball. Originally published here.  

MOLAP
We know the practice of law can be stressful. The Missouri Lawyers' Assistance Program is a professional, confidential counseling program for members of The Missouri Bar, immediate family members who reside with them, and law students. Through a variety of free services, MOLAP helps individuals overcome personal concerns such as substance use, depression, stress, and burnout. All MOLAP services are free and strictly confidential. Learn more about MOLAP here.

MoBarCLE
When it comes to continuing your legal education, you don’t have to look further than The Missouri Bar. For decades, MoBarCLE has produced relevant, researched, and respected programs and publications that help lawyers even better serve their clients. Plus, MoBarCLE offers in-person programs and webinars – allowing lawyers to earn live or self-study CLE credit at a time and place that’s convenient.

Journal of The Missouri Bar
The Journal of The Missouri Bar is the bar’s official publication. Published six times annually, the Journal carries substantive articles on timely legal issues, as well as regular columns, practice management articles, and features covering cutting-edge topics that are trending in the legal profession. Notices of Supreme Court rule changes, upcoming meetings, continuing legal education programs, and more may also be found in each issue. Download the latest issue and learn how you can contribute here.

connect.MOBAR
Digital networking has never been more needed – or more simple. On connect.MOBAR, lawyers from across the state can collaborate and exchange knowledge through online communities. The platform is a place to ask questions and gather information. You can also communicate with members of any Missouri Bar committees and download files from an extensive forms bank. Get started here.

Committees and Sections + meetings
Committees and sections represent the driving forces behind the work and activities of The Missouri Bar, and with more than 40 to choose from, all lawyers can find one that fits their professional interests. Committee members are lawyers who practice in or are passionate about a particular area of law, from Animal Law to Workers Compensation. Explore various committees here. In addition, committees gather, virtually or in person, at least twice a year for Fall Committee Meetings and Spring Committee Meetings. These sessions typically include free CLE programming and opportunities to network.

Research and writing tools
Research and writing play a major part in being a lawyer, so we’re here to help you along the way. Did you know all Missouri lawyers have free access to Fastcase legal research through The Missouri Bar? In addition, MoBar Net, developed through a partnership with REJIS, offers lawyers online access to Missouri DOR records, municipal courts, and warrant and arrest information in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas. Other available services include statewide criminal history, out-of-state driver records locator, and death file searches. Explore these benefits here.

Jobs bank
Whether you’re looking for different opportunities, hiring for a specialized role, or trying to land a place to hang out your shingle, The Missouri Bar’s Jobs for Lawyers service can help you find the right fit. Updated weekly, the service is provided at no cost to any firm, employer, or organization where a J.D. is required or preferred for applicants.

LawyerSearch
LawyerSearch is designed to link lawyers who are accepting new clients with clients in need of services. To be included in the search, lawyers must complete a profile sharing their area of practice, office location, and any language proficiencies. Once a lawyer is in the system, members of the public can find them by searching for potential matches by city, language needs, and area of legal concern. Opt in to use LawyerSearch here.

Ask an Expert at Affinity Consulting
Missouri Bar members have two easy ways to get legal technology and law practice management questions answered by an expert at Affinity Consulting Group. At no cost, members can email their questions to an expert or schedule a one-on-one, remote consultation. Questions can be about anything related to running a law firm: technology, management, leadership, software selection, process mapping - you name it. An Affinity expert will reach out with an answer at a time that works for you. Learn more.

Insurance
When you’re looking for insurance to protect you, your employees, or your family, we have options – and opportunities to save. Through The Missouri Bar Insurance Marketplace, lawyers can access plans for health, dental, vision, and long-term care coverage, as well as ID protection and even pet insurance. In addition, The Bar Plan offers plans for malpractice, workers’ compensation, life insurance, and more. Explore the options here.

Discounts on office supplies
Having the right office supplies can help your practice run even smoother. Missouri lawyers have access to exclusive members-only discounts at Office Depot and OfficeMax. Save up to 75% off the officedepot.com regular prices on our Best Value List of preferred products with free delivery on qualifying orders of $50 or more. Start shopping here.

Save on shipping
Missouri Bar members have access to flat rate discounts through UPS - no matter how much they ship, when they ship, or where it’s going. The pricing includes savings of 50% on domestic next day/deferred and 30% on ground commercial/residential. Lawyers can also take advantage of UPS Smart Pickup service for free. Get the details here.

Practice management tools and downloads
Whether you’ve been practicing for years or just recently passed the bar, we’re here to help you even better serve your clients with discounts on a range of practice management tools, technology needs, website design, virtual assistants, and more. Plus, Missouri lawyers can access a variety of white papers and educational materials to help make routine or specialty tasks even easier. Learn more here.

Missouri Bar members have access to scores of member benefits and services through The Missouri Bar. Learn more about all of the member benefits available to Missouri lawyers here or by contacting the Member Services team at 573-638-2665.

The report provides economic information about Missouri lawyers who practice as solo practitioners, government lawyers, and corporate counsel, as well as those who work in law-related and non-legal professions. Some sections of the report include data from previous surveys to demonstrate trends over the last few years. 

Since 1958, The Missouri Bar has conducted a survey every other year to gain insight into the economics of law practice in Missouri. The 2021 version provides a snapshot of the economic performance of the legal profession in the state as of Dec. 31, 2020. 

To read the full content of “The Missouri Bar Economic Survey – 2021,” Missouri lawyers may sign in to their MoBar.org account and visit MoBar.org/economicsurvey. 

Highlights 

The survey was administered in the summer of 2021 to a random sampling of 8,000 lawyers licensed in Missouri, with 24.7% responding to the survey. 

Below are some of the highlights of the survey. 

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic 

About equal percentages of respondents had increased caseloads as had decreased caseloads. Likewise, similar percentages received pay raises as received pay cuts. 

About 57.5% of female respondents experienced increased family/home demands compared to 48.7% of male respondents. About 85.5% of female respondents worked remotely compared to 78.3% of male respondents. 

Income overview 

Missouri lawyers reported incomes from six categories: private practice; corporate law-related; government law-related; nongovernmental agency/non-profit; law school/education related; and non-law-related. In 2020, incomes ranged between $0 to $12 million with the highest median income ($150,000) reported by those working in corporate law-related positions. 

From 2019-2020, income increased for 22% of respondents, stayed the same for 23.1%, and decreased for more than half (54.8%). 

Income by gender 

In 2020, the median income for female respondents from all types of employment was 77% of the median income of male respondents from all types of employment. By comparison, the median income in 2018 for female respondents was 71% of the median income of male respondents and in 2016 was 64% of the total median income of male respondents. 

Income by age 

Respondents 46-65 years old reported the highest annual median income in 2020. Comparatively, from 2010-2018, respondents 56-65 reported the highest annual median income. 

In 2020, the median incomes across all age groups – except those 31-35 years old – were lower compared to the previous survey. Lawyers 30 years old and younger reported the lowest median income in 2020. 

Compensation for newly admitted lawyers in private practice 

The number of newly admitted lawyers in private practice who are paid $30,000 or less annually continues to decrease. In 2020, these lawyers accounted for 0.9% of survey respondents, compared to 5% in 2010. 

In 2020, 23.1% of new lawyers in private practice were paid $60,000-$75,000, while 20.1% were paid $45,001-$60,000. Slightly more than 11% were paid $75,001-$90,000. 

Changes in employment, underemployment, and unemployment 

In 2020, 15.4% of respondents changed jobs. Around two-thirds of these respondents reported their unemployment was somewhat due to the pandemic, while 36% reported it was completely due to the pandemic. The unemployment rate among survey respondents increased from 2.1% in 2018 to 2.8% in 2020. 

Student loans 

Approximately 45% of the 2020 survey respondents reported owing money on their student loans. That percentage has remained consistent since the 2010 survey. 

More than half of Missouri lawyers who received their licenses to practice law in 2020 owed more than $80,000 in student loans, with 15.3% owing more than $200,000. 

Nearly 6% of all survey respondents reported owing more than $200,000 in student loans. 

Sole practitioners 

In 2020, nearly one-third of respondents engaged in full-time or part-time private practice identified themselves as sole practitioners. Men accounted for 68.3% of sole practitioners, while women accounted for 31.7%. 

The percentage of sole practitioners who have designated a successor was 66.4%, an increase from 60.7% in 2018. 

Flat fee services and limited scope representation 

In 2020, 55.6% of survey respondents reported offering flat fees for some services in lieu of hourly billing, with 16.7% charging flat fees for most services. Slightly less than 28% reported that they do not offer flat fees for any services. 

The number of respondents or their law firms offering limited scope representation services decreased from 64.8% in 2018 to 62.9% in 2020. 

Payment of fees by credit card and e-check  

In 2020, 68.5% of survey respondents reported accepting credit cards – an increase from 59.5% in 2016 and 65.4% in 2018. 

Nearly 48% of the respondents in private practice reported accepting e-checks for fee payments in 2020. 

Private practice support staff 

Of survey respondents in private practice, 58.3% reported paying legal secretaries' annual salaries of more than $40,000 in 2020. Salaries for legal assistants/paralegals varied greatly, with most being in the range of $32,001-$64,000. 

Advertising and marketing 

Over the past five surveys (2012-2020), law firms have consistently reported their websites as the primary type of firm advertising. Social media remained in third place in 2020 after rising from fourth in 2016 and sixth in 2014. Networking or social events, professional organizations, and speaking engagements continue to remain popular types of advertising. 

Main sources of new clients 

Referrals from clients and friends remain the primary sources of new clients, closely followed by referrals from other lawyers or professionals. Another major source of new clients is the positive reputation of the lawyer in the practice. These continue to rank well ahead of advertising, social media, and lawyer referral services/other professional referral services as sources for new clients. 

Visit the Missouri Bar’s Member Portal to view the full report and access additional no-cost resources to help you even better serve your clients. Stay up to date on the bar’s lawyer resources using #MOLawyersBenefit. 

Last November, The Missouri Bar launched a free comprehensive practice management program featuring free consultations and a bank of resources – including more than 150 white papers, checklists, comparison charts, and other resources for Missouri lawyers looking to open, build, manage, protect, or wind down a practice.

Due to the high demand and success of these resources, The Missouri Bar has expanded the program as of Nov. 22. Missouri lawyers are now eligible to claim a complimentary standard membership to Affinity Insight as part of the bar’s practice management offerings. Valued at $50 per month, this service is available at no-cost to Missouri Bar members and offers access to 150+ hours of video content covering more than 30 different software products and general leadership topics, along with access to Affinity’s complete library of downloadable software manuals.  

To claim the complimentary Affinity Insight standard membership, click here or visit https://affinityuniversity.com/product/affinity-insight-standard-monthly-membership/. Then click “Subscribe Now” at the bottom of the page. On the “checkout” page, enter the code MOBARMEMBER in the gray box on the left labeled “Coupon code” and click “Apply coupon.” You should see your updated total of $0. Click “Proceed to checkout.” Fill in the blank fields to create your account with Affinity Insight and then select “Subscribe Now.”

Visit MoBar.org/LPM for more no-cost practice management resources and keep up to date on Missouri Bar resources to support your practice using #MOLawyersBenefit.

Email is by far the most used business application. Even though numerous studies demonstrate its distractive tendency, most people also keep email open and running on their computer throughout the day, just inviting interruption by anyone who happens to send them a message.

If you insist on keeping email open – and even more so if you have the app set to alert you when you get a new arrival – I promise you will benefit from a keen understanding of email rules, their creation, and how letting Outlook (or Gmail or Apple Mail) handle some message routing and filing for you will alleviate annoyance and allow you to focus on real work.

Where does your email live?

This used to be a simple question. Fifteen or more years ago, before the advent of broadly-used mobile devices, most email services operated on the POP email protocol (POP being an acronym for Post Office Protocol). It dated from 1984 and, for our purpose today, was designed so that a single computer would retrieve messages from a server. Once retrieved by the computer, the messages were deleted from the server. If you lived in an outlandish world (at least until the 21st century) with multiple computers with email, there was no easy way to keep all computers’ inboxes in sync.

Email-heavy users realized this problem quickly and POP’s eventual successor, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), was conceived in 1986. With IMAP, as well as similarly functioning proprietary protocols like Microsoft’s Exchange and Google’s Gmail, the “truth” about your inbox lives on the server. All mail resides on the server and copies are downloaded to each computer or device. The actions a user takes on a device, such as reading, responding to, or deleting a message, are reconciled to the server, which transmits those changes to other devices when those devices check for email.

You can easily imagine the benefit of a server-based inbox because you experience it every day. You check email from your work laptop, iPhone, and Android tablet, and all devices show all your messages, their status (e.g., read or unread), and replies sent from any device.

This history lesson as background serves as an introduction to email rules because an IMAP server (or MS Exchange or Gmail) can hold not just messages and their statuses, but also filing instructions. You could set up a rule to file all emails from a certain listserv to a specific folder and mark those messages read. The benefit of setting up rules at the mail server level means that no specific device or program (e.g., Outlook) needs to run to filter and file email.

Setting up a rule in Outlook for Windows

I expect that Outlook for Windows, connected to Microsoft Exchange via Microsoft 365, is probably the most common environment. I will focus on that for my examples.

Suppose I subscribe to Clio as my practice management system and I want all announcement and other emails it sends filtered into a single folder, to get them out of my inbox. I have two options:

• Server-side rules, meaning they run whether Outlook is open or closed.
• Client-side rules, meaning they run only when you have Outlook open. Client-side rules have more options.

A server-side rule to move messages to a specified folder.

1.Click on “File” > “Info” > “Automatic Replies.”

2. Ignore the out-of-office portion and click “Rules…” in the bottom left corner.

3. Click “Add Rule…” in the bottom left corner.

4. In the “From…” field, type clio.com. Check the box next to “Move to” and click the “Folder…” button to select a folder for the system to relocate emails from clio.com.

5. If you need to create a new folder, you can do that on the “Move Message To…” screen. Then click “OK.”

6. Confirm everything is correct and click “OK” again.

7. Click “OK” twice more to close the “Rules” windows.

This Clio rule will run on the server, so you don’t need to have Outlook open on your computer. But you’ll notice that your options are limited on what you can do with the message; basically, moving it, copying it, and forwarding it. If you want more options for rules in Outlook for Windows, you can create client-side rules.

A client-Side rule to move messages to a specified folder

This client-side rule, which reviews and acts on emails only when Outlook is running, will not only move the messages from clio.com to a specified folder, but also mark those messages as read – something not possible with server-side rules created in Outlook for Windows.

1. Select a message from Clio and right-click.

2. Select the “Create Rule” option. If you’re eagle-eyed, you could also choose “Always Move Messages From: Clio Cloud Conference.” The difference between going the “Create Rule” route versus “Always Move” is that “Always Move” will base the rule on conference@reply.clio.com versus a rule for all Clio emails from an email address containing @clio.com.

3. On the next screen, select “Advanced Options…”

4. Check the box “with specific words in the sender’s address” and then click on the “specific words” in Step 2 of the image below.

5. Enter “clio.com” in the specific word area and click “Add.” Then click “OK.”

6. Confirm that “clio.com” has replaced the blue “specific words” you saw in Step 4. Then click “Next.”

7. We’ve now chosen what we want the rule to check for. Now we tell the rule what to do if it finds a match. To have the rule move the message to a specified folder and mark the message as read, check the two relevant actions – “move it to the specified folder” and “mark it as read” – and then click the blue “specified” word in Step 3 displayed in the image below.

8. Select the folder where you want the messages filed. If a folder doesn’t exist, you can click “New…” to create a new folder.

9. For this example, I created a “Clio” folder and selected it. Next click “OK.”

10. Verify everything looks correct and then click “Next.”

11. The next screen permits you to add exceptions. If you don’t want to add exceptions, just click “Next.”

12. Outlook will default the name of the rule to clio.com, but you can change it if you want. Then, click “Finish.”

13. You will receive a prompt reminding you that you created a client-side rule that will only work when Outlook is running. Click “OK,” and you’re finished creating your client-side rule.

Other rule options

If you’re willing to create rules in the Outlook web client, as opposed to the Windows desktop app, you get additional options on what server-side rules can do.

1. Login to your Outlook web interface.

2. Click the sprocket (the toothed wheel) in the top right, and then “View all Outlook settings” at the bottom of the pane. The Settings screen should appear. Click “Mail” > “Rules” > “Add a new rule.” Your screen will match the one below.

3. If you click the dropdown for either “Add a condition” or “Add an action,” you’ll see copious options; far more than the server-side options in Windows desktop Outlook.

4. Building the rule for Clio messages follows the steps similar to those described for the client-side rule in desktop Outlook. Here is a screenshot of my finished product for moving emails from Clio to the designated “Clio” folder and marking the emails as read.

You’ll notice that, unlike the server-side rules created in desktop Outlook, my rule here can have two actions and, should I desire, multiple conditions as well. Clicking “Save” at the bottom right on this window saves my rule and runs it on the server level. In that case, if I check email from my work laptop, iPhone, or tablet, all messages whose sender includes “clio.com” will be moved to my Clio folder and marked as read.

Not an Outlook fan

This article focused on Outlook for Windows and Outlook Web. But rules are not limited to those platforms. Outlook for Mac users can take advantage of Outlook Web to create your rules, or look here for guidance on creating rules in desktop Mac Outlook. Gmail users can find guidance on rules here.

We’re here to help

The Missouri Bar has practice management resources on email etiquette and getting the most from Outlook (Windows or Mac) in the Practice Management Center. If you have questions or want assistance with setting up email rules, email mobarlpm@affinityconsulting.com or schedule a no-cost consult with the experts at Affinity Consulting.

Looking to purchase/change practice management solutions? Check out our cloud-based practice management comparison chart. Missouri Bar members receive discounted rates on many top practice management solutions, including Clio.

Collaboration happens in two forms: asynchronous and real-time. We generally prefer asynchronous communication – text messages, emails, and voicemails – over real-time communication. How often do you text or email from your smartphone compared to making actual phone calls in a day?

Asynchronous

Asynchronous collaboration allows people to work from anywhere at a time convenient to them. Early birds can collaborate with night owls. New Yorkers can collaborate with counterparts in the Far East. Time zones don’t matter. Here are tips to make asynchronous collaboration better:

Share basic documents

1. If you’re not on the paperless bandwagon, start by getting a scanner to turn important papers into something that can be shared easily. After scanning the document, programs like Adobe Acrobat or ABBYY FineReader can convert a PDF to an editable Microsoft Word document.
2. To collaborate over the Internet, your document must be accessible to your collaborator. The easiest sharing platform is Dropbox, although there are plenty of competitors in this market. In fact, Apple (iCloud Drive), Google (G Drive), and Microsoft (OneDrive) all offer free space, but I think they’re just a bit more challenging to share from compared to Dropbox.
3. Apple’s Pages, Google’s Docs, and Microsoft Word offer free web-based versions of their respective word processors. If your collaborator doesn’t have the same word processor as you, they can access these free versions to edit the document you share, although they must create an account with the vendor if they don’t already have one.
4. Each person can now edit the document. Some word processors also allow several individuals track their suggested edits.

Share information rather than a document

1. Microsoft’s OneNote is the most cross-platform of the note-taking or “everything bucket” solutions. Create a notebook, share it with your collaborator, and either of you can put just about anything you can imagine in there: lists; checklists; images (whose in-image text, like a billboard or street sign, is searchable like typed text); other documents like Word, Excel, or PDF files; and even handwritten notes from an Apple Pencil (via the OneNote iPad app) or Surface Pen (via a Microsoft Surface device). OneNote is available on all the major platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android). There’s even a web-based version if you’re collaborating with someone who doesn’t want to download the free app.
2. All major web-based practice management platforms offer some version of a client portal, but don’t be limited by the word “client.” These portals are shared spaces where anyone you allow can see and interact with information you choose to make available from your practice management program. Vendors offer a wide array of features under the umbrella term of “client portal.” Clio, for example, lets you share just about anything through the portal. Clients can even upload documents and send you secure communications through it. Cosmolex offers a similarly rich portal experience. Actionstep’s portal, on the other hand, is restricted to document sharing. Visit our Practice Management Center to get an idea of features, comparisons, and considerations regarding client portal services. If you decide to buy, the bar’s Member Benefits page provides discounts for many top contenders.

Real-time collaboration

If you and your collaborator need to work on the same document simultaneously, I have two questions for you: 1) how tech-savvy is your collaborator, and 2) how complex is the shared document (e.g., complex formatting, lots of images, etc.)?

Technophobe collaborators
If the person you’re sharing the document with is not a technophile like you, then the easiest thing to do is a web meeting where one of you opens the document and shares your screen. You can even grant keyboard and mouse control to your fellow participant, so that person can edit and navigate the document while the document resides on your computer. All major web meeting platforms support screen and control sharing, though many require a paid account. If you’ve made it this far into the pandemic without a paid account at Zoom, WebEx, or similar, this comparison chart will help you choose one. And, once you’ve made that choice, read up on video conferencing professionally and get a pair of good headphones. Although you don’t need it for mere document collaboration, I recommend getting a high-quality webcam. The ones built into laptops are not good, a fact even the Wall Street Journal confirmed. I have and like Logitech’s Brio Ultra HD Pro Business, personally. Despite the alphabet-soup of a name, it works wonderfully, has 4K resolution, a built-in microphone, a privacy shutter (great if your office doubles as a bedroom), and supports Windows Hello. Plus, it’s actually in stock now.

Complex documents
Complex documents share best in their native formats. In the legal world, this usually means Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Luckily, sharing is easy for these programs, and your collaborator doesn’t have to own (or subscribe to) Microsoft Office. Here are the steps to share a Microsoft Office document via OneDrive (or OneDrive for Business or SharePoint) so that others can open and edit it at the same time as you, so that you see each other’s changes as they happen:

1. Save your document to OneDrive.
2. Open the document via the Office desktop app or the Office web app.
3. Click the “Share” button in the top right of the Office app.
4. Enter the email address of your collaborator. Type a message if you like. Then click “Send.”
5. As an alternative to the step above, you can choose “Copy link” if you’d prefer to send the person a web link via a text message or other means.
6. The collaborator receives a link he or she can click to access and edit the document.
7. When you both have the document open simultaneously, you will see a circle with initials of others in the document in the top right of the app or web app window. Clicking on a pair of initials reveals what page of the document that person is currently viewing or editing.

Mix and match

Depending on the information you’re sharing and the tech skills of your collaboration counterparts, one method may make more sense than another. In my experience, older clients prefer web meetings where you control everything as they comment or dictate text. Other folks prefer asynchronous document sharing because, like text messages or emails, they can review the documents at a time convenient to them.

The Manage a Practice page of the Practice Management Center contains scores of white papers, checklists, charts, and other articles relating to this topic. Missouri Bar members can also schedule a free consultation through the Ask an Expert page or by emailing MoBarLPM@affinityconsulting.com.

Depending on your firm’s size, you may be one of several people, one of a few, or the only person who know how to do important firm tasks. This compartmentalization has strengths and weaknesses. For example, limiting access to financial accounts reduces the possibility of theft or falling victim to a phishing or wire fraud scheme. Compartmentalization is a form of security. On the other hand, core business functions must continue even if the managing partner, office manager, or other high-ranking employee is unavailable or compelled to take an extended, unplanned absence. Most such events are unhappy occasions – perhaps an illness impacting the employee or an elderly parent’s health. You can’t put off payroll, health insurance premiums, or rent payments indefinitely because the person who “always does that” is unavailable for an indefinite period.

Moving from the grim to the practical, unlock the knowledge stored in each staffer’s head, including your own, by documenting fundamental business processes. This brings several advantages:

1. Nobody needs to be interrupted while on vacation because a coworker couldn’t complete a form or find something;
2. The firm has a resource to help train new hires;
3. The simple act of documenting your processes naturally leads you and your team to evaluate whether that process still makes sense; and
4. If you are a solo or small firm, when you choose to retire, your “process cookbook” adds value to the firm, offering interested parties something beyond a rolodex to buy (see this related blog on succession planning for lawyers firms).

Step by step

When working with firms to create good processes, I’ve found it helpful to speak in terms of a “cookbook” and “recipes” rather than “manuals” or “process maps.” Familiar vocabulary helps make what could be seen as a remote and unfamiliar activity more approachable. We’ve listed out what you need to complete a task (“ingredients”) and the order in which you do things to get the right result (the “steps” in our “recipe”). We’ll also group similar recipes together for easier locating later (our “cookbook”). Here’s an example:

Returning original documents to a client
Hopefully your firm has embraced paperless practicing. (If not, see this blog to get started down that path.) A core part of a paperless firm (or paper less if you’re still transitioning) is keeping those original documents you need for specific reasons – such as something that statutorily requires an original document – and returning all other original documents to the client.

Ingredients
To send originals back to the client, we need the following ingredients:

• the original documents;
• name and address of the client;
• a cover letter;
• a mailing label; and
• an appropriate envelope or other shipping container.

Steps
Here are the steps to prepare and mail the documents:

1. Confirm that the documents are scanned and in the firm’s document repository.
2. Decide how documents will be sent (e.g., US Mail, UPS, etc.).
3. Place documents in an appropriate envelope or shipping container.
4. Prepare a mailing label with the appropriate delivery service.
5. Open the cover letter template. If your firm doesn’t use document templates, see the Why Template Building is Critical for All Law Offices white paper and the “how to” checklist on Getting Started with Document Automation.
6. Type in the client’s information, method of delivery, and delivery tracking information.
7. If you don’t have a digital signature stamp, print the document for the sender to sign. If you do have digital signature stamps, apply the appropriate stamp to the document and print the letter. To learn more about digital signatures, take this CLE.
8. Place the cover letter in the envelope or shipping container.
9. Seal the envelope or container.
10. Place the mailing label on the envelope or container.
11. Place the envelope or container in the outbox or call for a pickup, as appropriate.

With that, we’ve written our first recipe together or, in business-speak, mapped our first process. You can probably already imagine similar recipes or processes that would accompany this one in a cookbook or employee manual: sending and receiving intake forms from new clients; sending and receiving discovery documents; and sending paper invoices and receipts of payment.

Learning along the way

The first time you and your team sit down and document the steps in fundamental processes – such as taking information from a client and generating draft corporate formation documents or estate planning documents for a lawyer to review – will take a while. Here are two tips to make this process easier:

Tip 1: Have the people who do the work lead that portion of the mapping. In our “returning originals” recipe above, if one person is responsible for drafting correspondence, that person takes the lead in outlining what happens currently. You gain nothing substantive by just having higher-ups guess or declaim what the process is or should be. There’s a reason the process works this way now. It could be good. For example, the typist always asks the lawyer for the client’s address because the firm’s central client address book is reliably inaccurate or incomplete. Or it could be bad. For example, the typist doesn’t look up the address in the central client address book because that person was never trained how to do so or lacks access to the system. The first step is knowing what happens now.

Tip 2: Through the process mapping exercise, you will discover things you’ll want to note for later examination or remediation. In reading our “returning originals” recipe above, maybe you learned about document templates for the first time. Creating a template so typists don’t continually recreate cover letters from scratch would save time. Same thing with digital signature stamps. Make a note and set it aside as two things to investigate for process improvement.

In the case of our typist lacking training or access to the client address book, that’s a remediation issue. Granting access is likely either a few clicks or the purchase of an additional license. If it’s a training issue, most vendors are happy to help train employees on their products. It’s a simple thing to solve.

Having the employees on the “front lines” leading the relevant process mapping gives you an honest view of what happens now, offering you the clearest perspective of where potential changes might bring great long-term gains or quickly eliminate initially unnoticed bottlenecks.

Getting started

Head over to our Practice Management Center to get started making your recipes for business success. Here are resources to guide the way:

• Everything has a Process Part 1 - How to Identify Yours: This whitepaper includes process mapping tips.
• Everything has a Process Part 2 - How to Improve Yours: This whitepaper discusses breaking large processes into smaller ones.
• Process Workflow Worksheet with Sample Workflow: This Excel document will guide you through documenting each step in a process.

Missouri Bar members have access to hundreds of white papers, checklists, comparison charts, and articles for those looking to open, build, manage, protect, or wind down a law practice. Have questions? At no cost, members can ask an expert their legal technology or practice management questions via email or by scheduling a one-on-one, remote consultation.

For business development and correspondence, we know that handwritten notes and letters make the best impression. I received 18 handwritten postcards in the mail last year from my high-school best friend who was traveling across the U.S. in an RV with his family. I can’t remember the last time before then that I received a postcard, and it was a treat! When I worked around Congress, I noticed the handwritten letters from constituents were most likely to make it beyond legislative correspondent staffers to the Congressman’s desk.

We also have scientific evidence that handwritten notes beat typed notes for information retention. A recent study by Princeton University researchers compared students taking handwritten notes versus typed notes. It found students who handwrote notes performed better on exams, took shorter (but better) notes, could relay ideas better, and had better short-term retention.

For legal technologists, studies like this put us in an odd position. We spend a great deal of time convincing legal professionals that they should be less paper-dependent and more digital-native. Prior to 2015, I suggested lawyers continue handwriting their notes but make a concerted effort to date, digitize, and file those notes into a document management system. This approach remains viable and eminently affordable since the greatest expense is a scanner (if you need a new scanner, see our recommendations here). You get all of the benefits the Princeton researchers found with handwritten, and the storage and retrieval benefits of digital. The weaknesses are two-fold though: others may not be able to read your chicken scratch, and the notes you take are not text-searchable – meaning the most you can search by are file name and whatever characteristics your document management system provides.

Enter the Apple Pencil.

Hardware

Apple released the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil in 2015, which was a watershed for digital handwriting. As with most first-generation implementations, there were gaps. Price was one: the first iPad Pro started at $800 and the Apple Pencil added $99. The first Pencil was prone to roll off desks (just like a regular pencil) and attached to the iPad in a way so awkward that it could double as a self-defense weapon or medieval pike.

What a difference six years makes! The second-generation Apple Pencil, priced at $130, has a flat side to prevent “roll away.” lets you change tools by tapping on the Pencil body, and it attaches and charges via magnets in the iPad. And total price came down. An iPad Air and Apple Pencil (2nd gen) start at $730 total. An iPad mini and Apple Pencil (2nd gen) start at $630 total.

Software

Once you’ve made your purchase, here are four core note-taking programs to evaluate – two of which are free.

Notes: Every iOS device includes Apple’s Notes program that syncs between all of your Apple devices – iPads, iPhones, and Macs. If you’ve never used an Apple Pencil or other stylus in Notes, you may not know that it supports handwriting and drawing. You can even experience that with a cheap “trade show freebie” stylus to try it out, though the precision of an Apple Pencil is lightyears ahead of those giveaways – like the difference between your handwritten signature and how your signature appears on a credit card signing machine.

In Notes, you can choose your paper style – blank, lined, or dot grid. Notes performs handwriting recognition, so you can search the contents of notes and not just their names – the feature missing from our legal pad example above. iOS 15, released on Sept. 20, 2021, adds several new features:

• Quick Notes is a “Picture in Picture” type feature that lets you make a note from wherever you are in iOS. No matter what app you have full screen, say Microsoft Word reviewing a draft brief, simply drag the Pencil from the bottom right of the screen to open a Post-It-sized window to write whatever just came to mind. That Quick Note is stored in your normal Notes app and is viewable on all your iOS devices.
• Notes now include tagging and smart folder features. Tagging is self-explanatory. Create a tag called “Smith v Jones” and tag all of the notes for that matter with that tag. Smart Folders are a bit more complex, but fundamentally they are a way to automatically group similar notes. You could create a smart folder in Notes that looked for notes containing the “Smith v Jones” tag and the “discovery” tag that have been edited in the last month. Or you could have a smart folder that contained all notes tagged “discovery” irrespective of their matter tag.
• Notes can be shared easily with other iOS users, irrespective of whether the user has an iPad or Apple Pencil. Any handwritten notes can also include typed words as well.

In addition to the Quick Notes, another Notes-only feature Apple offers is that if the iPad is asleep, tapping the darkened screen with the Apple Pencil will take the iPad directly to a new note in the Notes app so you can start writing immediately. This perk of Apple’s hardware-software integration eliminates the “boot up” delay that hindered prior digital note taking solutions.

Notes is not without its downsides though. Chief among them is that notes are available only within the Apple ecosystem (starting with a free iCloud account), and thus not stored natively in your firm document management system. There are ways to export individual notes as PDFs, but that’s an extra step. I think the benefits, particularly the “wake from sleep” feature, makes it worth the trouble.

OneNote: Microsoft’s OneNote application has existed since 2003 on Windows, 2011 on iOS, and 2014 on Macs. Of the handwritten note tools for the iPad, it allows the most cross-platform functionality. It’s also free, although Microsoft 365 subscribers see additional benefits. The iPad version fully supports the Apple Pencil. If you share OneNote notebooks with colleagues, they can easily see and edit notes too, also without paying extra money or venturing into a potentially unfamiliar ecosystem. In another boost for familiarity, OneNote embraces the notebook metaphor, wherein you create a notebook, divide it into sections, and add individual pages to a section. OneNote has support handwriting recognition longer than the other apps mentioned here. Finally, any Microsoft Surface users, with their accompanying pens, can join in the fun. More than Notes, or Notability and GoodNotes below, OneNote is most likely to coexist comfortably within your existing tech setup.

Notability and GoodNotes: To the extent it’s possible to have a granddaddy in a 6-year-old market, Notability and GoodNotes are it. Both existed prior to the Apple Pencil (Notability since 2009 and GoodNotes from 2012), and they really gained notoriety with the Pencil’s arrival. Feature-wise, they are evenly matched. Both allow the inclusion of images, screenshots, typed text, and just about anything else you can imagine. Prior major distinctions, like GoodNotes being able to import PDFs for editing or annotation, or Notability being able to record meeting audio that synchronizes to your handwritten notes, have greatly diminished. Today, it’s akin to a pickup truck rivalry between Ford and Chevy; a great feature one model has is quickly adopted by the other. The remaining primary difference is that Notability follows the Apple Notes model of folders and notes within them, while GoodNotes embraces the notebook metaphor like OneNote. Both Notability and GoodNotes offer Mac, but not Windows, apps and support various export options like PDFs. You can share notes, but only with other users of the respective app.

Buy and Try

Once you’ve committed to an iPad and Apple Pencil, start with the free Notes app, particularly as enhanced in iOS 15, and see if you find it lacking. If so, and you’re a Microsoft-centric firm, next try OneNote. If Notes proves insufficient and you’re not a Microsoft shop, I’d spend the $16 to get both Notability and GoodNotes, and stick with the one that works best for you.

Missouri Bar members have access to dozens of white papers, checklists, comparison charts, and articles for those looking to implement or improve the legal technology in their practices. Have questions? At no cost, members can ask an expert their legal technology or practice management questions via email or by scheduling a one-on-one, remote consultation.

The American Bar Association recently released its 2021 Profile of the Profession, which compiles data the ABA collected from several surveys, most of which were conducted in 2020-2021. The report includes valuable information relating to the legal profession, including lawyer demographics and diversity, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the practice of law, lawyers’ perspectives on retirement and the future, and more.

The report also includes interesting data about lawyers’ use of technology. Some of the most notable statistics from this year’s report provide insight into how lawyers use online legal resources, their cybersecurity efforts, and the hardware and software choices they make. No matter how you look at it, the data from the report offers evidence of an important lesson for lawyers: technology is no longer an option and instead is a pivotal component of a successful law practice.

Online legal resources

The legal research statistics from this year’s report are particularly interesting, in part because legal research was one of the first law firm processes to be impacted by technology. The transition to online legal research occurred decades ago, and since that time legal research efficiency has increased significantly. Despite the increased efficiency, according to the report, lawyers still spend a big chunk of their time – 18% of each workday – conducting legal research. For nearly a third of the lawyers surveyed, the starting point for most legal research projects is a free search engine such as Google. Another third (30%) turn to paid online search tools before conducting any other type of legal research.

Lawyers also obtain most of their daily legal news online from a variety of sources. Nearly half of lawyers surveyed shared that Law360 was their top legal news source (41%). Next was the Wall Street Journal (22%), followed by Bloomberg Law News at 8% and Bloomberg at 6%.

The online world has also made its mark when it comes to legal marketing. Gone are the days of relying solely on the Yellow Pages, park benches, billboards, and costly television ads for lawyer advertising. In 2021 – especially while we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic – the internet is where it’s at. According to the survey results, virtual and in-person event sponsorships were the top way that lawyers marketed their firms (48%), followed by three web-based marketing opportunities: LinkedIn (42%), email (41%), and Facebook (33%). Other less popular marketing methods included print (21%), Twitter (16%), and direct mail (14%).

Cybersecurity

In 2021, lawyers are more aware than ever of the importance of implementing strong cybersecurity measures. The reason for this newfound vigilance is due to the increase in cyberattacks in recent years. Notably, however, the increased focus on cybersecurity is paying off, and the lawyers surveyed reported lower numbers of viruses, spyware, and malware.

Specifically, 36% of lawyers shared that their law firms were affected by cyberattacks in 2020, down from 40% in 2018 and 43% in 2017. Law firms took several steps – including spam filters (81%), anti-spyware (76%), firewalls (74%), and popup blockers (72%) – to prevent such attacks.

Another noteworthy finding from the survey was that solo attorneys fared better than their larger firm counterparts when it came to cyberattacks. According to the report, only 19% of solos reported that they had experienced a breach, compared to 42% of lawyers from firms with 10-49 lawyers.

Hardware And software choices

Finally, let’s turn to the technologies lawyers used, starting with hardware. When it comes to smartphones, 79% of lawyers surveyed reported iPhones were their preferred smartphones. Android phones came in second at 18%, and the once-popular BlackBerry is used by only 1% of lawyers surveyed.

Lawyers also relied on mobile tools more, which wasn’t surprising given the increase in remote work due to the pandemic. According to the report, lawyers used their laptops significantly more in the past year; nearly half (47%) of lawyers reported that their laptops were their primary work computers, compared to 39% in 2017. In comparison, less than half (49%) of surveyed lawyers used desktops as their main work computers, compared to 60% in 2017. Finally, only 1% of lawyers used tablets as their primary computers.

Next up, let’s take a look at the legal software statistics. As part of the survey, lawyers were asked about the legal software available at law firms. Conflict checking software and case management or law practice management software were the top software surveyed lawyers used. Other types of software that lawyers reported their law firms offered were specialized practice software (37%) and rules-based calendaring software (38%).

Missouri Bar members receive discounted rates from top practice management solutions, including a 10% discount on MyCase. 

The Missouri Bar’s Manage a Practice section of its Practice Management site has everything you need to select a new laptop, move to a new practice management solution, and much more. Have legal technology or practice management questions? Members can schedule a no-cost, one-on-one consultation with the experts at Affinity Consulting Group. 

Reprinted with permission of MyCase. Originally published here.

The number of potential clients searching for legal services exclusively online continues to increase. In 2018 72 percent of respondents to Thomson Reuters’ U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey said they consulted offline sources; this year, that ticked downward to 68 percent. Any law firm that wants more clients needs to have an online presence. Every firm without a high-quality website is losing clients since relying on word-of-mouth is no longer an option. Legal website hosting basics are essential for every firm to know – from choosing a hosting platform to search engine optimization.

What is website hosting?

Website hosting is renting or purchasing space on a server to host a website. All the images, content, and code that make a website is stored in this space, which is then accessible through the World Wide Web. To better understand it, think of website hosting like online real estate. People rent or buy a home to live in and that home is attached to an address so it can be found.

But with web hosting, a website’s address is called a domain name or URL (uniform resource locator). Then that URL is connected to the server space, using DNS (domain name system. Once it's all connected, search engines index the site and then it’s accessible on the internet.

Fortunately, setting up hosting doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. Many hosting platforms simplify the process or even set it up for the site owner.

Choosing a legal website hosting platform

When it comes to hosting platforms, there are many options to consider. Each platform offers multiple plans with varying features. Deciding which is the right one should be based on a few different factors. 

Purpose and planning

Every hosting service has different capabilities, features, and services. That’s why deciding the purpose of the site is an essential first step.

So, consider what the site will need to do before looking into hosting services. Will it need to host multiple email inboxes for lawyers? How many pages does it need to host?

Another thing to think about is the goal when a potential client lands on your website. This should help answer some of the questions above. Knowing this information will also help when choosing a hosting plan.

Build or buy a site

One of the next things to consider is who will build and maintain the site. For do-it-yourselfers, ease of use should be a priority. Most hosts provide some sort of website builder in the hosting plan. However, these site builders all vary immensely in how easy they are to use. Some simplify the process so anyone can quickly build an aesthetically pleasing site. Others cater to the technically inclined and require coding in HTML.

There are even some drag-and-drop site builders available. Some products, like WordPress, utilize plug-ins that can change the building interface. Services like that make the process more user-friendly for novices.

Depending on what the site needs to do, the possibilities are limitless.

How to set up hosting

The next issue is deciding how to set up the website hosting. Just like with building the website, hosting set up varies by platform.

Most domain name sellers like GoDaddy and NameCheap also offer hosting. Although the platforms are typically more limited, the DNS and domain are connected as part of the purchase. As such, the simplest way to set up hosting is to purchase it when buying a domain name. This option is ideal for do-it-yourselfers because of the ease and convenience. All the complicated setup is completed, leaving only the page build to handle.

The other option is using an independent hosting service such as BlueHost or HostGator. This option leaves the site owner to attach the hosting space and domain. It isn’t extremely complicated to do, but it is a more hands-on setup than GoDaddy or NameCheap. YouTube has countless tutorials and walkthroughs that simplify the process.

This host setup is primarily ideal for people with time, skill, or tech interests. The main upside to hosting companies like this is storage and features. These companies offer more features, optimizations, site security, and storage than other domain sellers do.

Plans and cost

No matter which hosting option you choose, they all offer a wide selection of prices. Your firm should base this decision on your needs, features, and overall budget. Website hosting prices can vary drastically for standard service and the more advanced types, like dedicated hosting, can be very costly. Fortunately, most platforms offer lower rates to first-time customers.

However, cost should never be the deciding factor when selecting a plan or type of hosting. It all comes down to what best suits your firm's needs.

Plan options

There are different hosting plans intended to cater to different needs. Therefore, knowing the purpose and needs of the site is essential. Most hosting plans include a set amount of storage on the server, but that storage is shared by the site’s pages, photos, and content. Then storage is further used up by email inboxes for people in the organization. So, the larger an organization is, the larger the required storage.

Depending on the hosting service provider, there are many optimizations available. Some providers may include a few optimizations in the hosting package. Others offer them as addons for an additional fee.

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) improves a website’s location in search query results. By improving it, a website climbs closer to the top of the search results. The higher on the list a site is, the more traffic it receives.

Good SEO ranking is crucial in lead attraction, but when it comes to SEO, not all hosting services are created equal. Some even limit a website’s ranking, making SEO an important consideration when choosing a hosting platform.

Legal website hosting doesn’t have to be complicated.

There is a lot to consider when choosing a legal website hosting service. No two platforms are built the same, so it’s important to identify what your law firm’s specific needs are in a website and use that to guide your decision. You’ll also need to consider skill level and the amount of time you have for setup.

With this guide and a clear plan of your firm’s needs, you’ll be on your way to holding a domain in the digital space.

Missouri Bar members receive discounts from member benefit providers who specialize in website hosting and SEO, including Brilliant Practice by Biztourage, Digital Age Marketing Group, and Zola Creative. Missouri Bar members have access to more than 60 member benefits.

PracticePanther is a proud Missouri Bar member benefit provider. Missouri Bar members receive a 10% discount for a year on PraticePanther’s law practice management software.

Members interested in learning more about opening, building, managing, protecting, or winding down a law practice have access to the experts at Affinity Consulting at no cost through email or unlimited 30-minute virtual visits. 

Reprinted with permission of PracticePanther. Originally published here.

Many would argue video conferencing shone the brightest over the last year in terms of legal technologies, allowing lawyers to hold client meetings, make court appearances, and even attend grandma’s virtual birthday party. But just because video conferencing got the most attention doesn’t mean it was the true pandemic workhorse for law firms. Legal professionals are ultimately wordsmiths. The clients don’t need to see your smiling face, but they do need the settlement agreements, incorporation packages, or estate planning documents they hired you to draft. 

The COVID-19 pandemic was a trial by fire for most firms’ document creation, storage, and distribution methods, particularly for remote workers. Some firms  sailed through while others crashed on the rocky shoals of paper-first, no backups, conflicted copies, and the dreaded “Legal Document v4 final final I mean it this time.docx” naming convention. 

As people who spend lots of time talking about, deploying, and training on document management systems for law firms, we’re comfortable saying that not every lawyer needs a full-fledged document management system. If you’re a true solo practitioner or a solo with a single support staffer, a cloud-based document storage solution is probably a better fit. But, once you get beyond three or four firm employees, and indeed the more you scale up, the advantages of a full document management system become self-evident. 

Two ways to handle documents 

Storing your documents is passive. Document storage is a place to save documents for later retrieval and potentially sharing with others. It’s a virtual filing cabinet — nothing more, nothing less. Your computer’s hard drive, a shared server drive at your office, even cloud-based storage such as Dropbox and Google Drive: nothing happens to these documents while they’re in storage, and the users can’t do anything with the documents apart from viewing and editing them. This option might be adequate for the solo or very small firm. Click here to learn how you can get the best parts of document management for free 

Managing your documents is active. A document management system (DMS) provides the user with tools to manage, organize, and otherwise make the documents useful for the firm. A DMS will do what document storage cannot. You can see and recall each iteration of a document with view, restore, or compare capabilities. You can check documents in/out, keeping others from making changes simultaneously and creating conflicting versions of the same document. A robust DMS will index every document and email stored within it, making all content immediately searchable. A robust DMS can convert scanned documents or image-based PDF files to text-enabled documents.  

Why firms benefit from a full DMS 

Matter-centricity: A matter-centric DMS allows users to create a “matter” – a virtual file cabinet to store and manage documents, email, and notes that relate to that matter. Dropbox, OneDrive, and SharePoint do not natively understand or work with “matters” as a concept (unless you want to spend money to upgrade the services). The user is on his own in creating folders and storing files. 

Email management: In law, an email is a document like any other. A legal DMS can store, index, and manage email just as it does documents. It’s ideal to get a legal-centric DMS that integrates with MS Outlook so users can save emails directly to a matter. The holy grail of any electronic case file is its completeness. A DMS dramatically eases the process of getting an email from your inbox to the case file, where others can see it, and where it is forever bound to the case and client to which it applies. 

Document types and tagging: Law firms work with all kinds of documents: motions, orders, pleadings, complaints, contracts, and so on. By tagging documents, you can identify the exact type in your DMS. By categorizing in this way, users can quickly assess the type or nature of a document immediately. Fundamentally, these tools help people other than the document’s original author find and interact with the document. Maybe the author is on vacation and you need to print a copy of an opinion letter he sent to a client. With a DMS, you just search for documents of the type “opinion letter” drafted by the vacationing employee. 

When do you know it’s time to “graduate” to a DMS? 

Below are some questions to guide you in determining whether your firm would benefit from a DMS. 

• Do you need matter-centric organization of your firm’s documents? 

• Does your firm struggle to keep document organization consistent? 

• Do you need the ability to manage versions of documents as they evolve? 

• Do you need a process to check documents out (like library books), keeping them from being edited or forcing you to reconcile conflicted copies later? 

• Would you like scanned images to automatically become text-searchable PDFs rather than hoping individual employees remember to do this? 

• Do you need to streamline workflow by having scanners (or faxes) imported directly to your filing system? 

• Is your firm outgrowing your local hard drives or the simple cloud storage of a Dropbox or Google Drive? 

• Does your law firm want to decrease the amount and reduce the mass of paper and paper files? 

Welcoming a new DMS 

If you decide that moving to a full DMS is right for you, welcoming a new, core piece of software into your firm’s technology “stack” raises further questions: 

• What tools does the DMS integrate with? If you already have a practice management program, for example, you will want the two to play nice together. 

• What security features does the platform provide? Will it meet compliance standards for your area of practice or those imposed by your clients? 

• How much mobility will this product provide? What is the app situation like concerning iOS and Android? 

• How well does the platform organize and search files? 

• Does the platform support collaboration with internal and external stakeholders? Can you share files with the client or co-counsel directly from the DMS? 

We know we’ve given you a bunch to think about and probably raised some questions. The Manage a Practice page of the Practice Management Center contains dozens of white papers, checklists, and charts relating to this topic. If you have any questions, schedule a no-cost consultations through the Ask an Expert page or email mobarlpm@affinityconsulting.com. 

For solo lawyers or solo law firms with small support staffs, the “big boys” of legal document management systems, like NetDocuments, Worldox, or iManage, are overkill for your needs and possibly cost-prohibitive. Full-fledged document management systems (DMS) possess undeniable benefits, particularly user compliance, security, and searching. However, solo or small-firm legal professionals need not jealously eye their larger firm counterparts regarding core DMS benefits. 

Below are four core DMS features and some tips on reproducing those features with tools you already own or could acquire at a low cost. 

1. Saving 

Every full DMS possesses the ability to force user compliance. This means that the end-user is required to save files into the DMS; the system prevents saving to your desktop or a network drive. Traditional Windows or macOS open/save dialog boxes are replaced by ones directly and exclusively connected to the DMS. The obvious advantage is that every firm document resides in the DMS. 

There’s no forced compliance on where to save documents for the solo and small-firm professional without a DMS. However, human nature can take software’s place with what security researcher and host of the Security Now podcast, Steve Gibson, called “the tyranny of the default”: 

“‘[T]he tyranny of the default’…[is]…the expression I like to use for that we know most users don’t go in and change things. They just assume that someone smarter than them chose the settings that are best for them, and so they say ‘yes’ a lot when they’re asked questions…[W]hat that means is that if it’s enabled by default, it’ll tend to stay on…” (emphasis added). 

Once you set a default storage location, whether for yourself or another user at your firm, that person is unlikely to change it. A quick internet search can turn up how to change the default save location in Word for Windows (File > Options > Save), Word for Mac (if you use OneDrive/SharePoint), and Adobe Acrobat. Many other programs offer this “set and forget” save setting. Making this change means when you hit CRTL+S to save a document, you’ll start in the folder you selected as the default. Visit our whitepaper on Managing Your Documents without a DMS for tips on client/matter folder structure. For example, if you set the default location to “Clients,” you can drill down into the client and matter, saving you several save dialog clicks. And, if you forget to change the folder to the right client, at least the document is in the “Clients” folder so you can find it later, which brings us to… 

2. Searching 

Complete DMS offerings provide searching capabilities every bit as good as you see in Westlaw, Lexis, or Fastcase. You can search by document date, author, document type, document tags, and even “word X” within a certain number of words of “word Y.” 

The native system searches in Windows and macOS are good. However, with some search criteria – particularly when combining criteria, such as date plus document type plus keywords –  the free search utilities built into the operating systems fall. 

Fortunately, there are great affordable options available to enhance your document searches. For Windows users, I suggest X1 Desktop Search ($80 per year). For Mac-using lawyers, I recommend HoudaSpot ($34). Indeed, as a Mac-using lawyer, I use HoudahSpot all the time and am pleased with it. Affinity partners Paul Unger and Barron Henley would say the same about X1 as Windows users. 

With either program, you can start with a simple search, easily add or combine additional criteria, pick the folders you want to search, add and remove columns from a list of search results, and preview documents before opening them. They get you close to the quality of a DMS-based search without the added overhead and cost. 

3. Sharing 

Many DMS programs let you share files directly from their interface. Depending on the program, you can share an individual document or an entire folder. You can set an expiration date for access and permit those with access to upload files to the system or merely download them. A savvy user can replicate many of these features, though not all, via services like ShareFile, Dropbox, OneDrive/OneDrive for Business, or Google Drive. 

4. Safekeeping 

The common sync storage services listed above excel at ease of use but fall short on security. They will all serve as a form of backup for your data, which is no small thing, but they all have a weakness. Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, et al. encrypt data that you store with them both in transit and on their servers. However, the services hold the encryption keys. If they are served with a subpoena or lawful warrant, they can turn over readable data. Whether they inform you beforehand is spelled out in their terms of service. 

If you are storing client information where this possibility is untenable, look at either Boxcryptor or Sookasa. Both are affordable tools that ride on top of Dropbox, for example, and encrypt your files with a password that only you know. 

Alternatively, I recommend skipping the “normal” sync services and investigating Tresorit instead. It’s a sync service that requires you to define your own data password from the outset. They never have the opportunity to know what’s in your files. 

Keep two things in mind if you go the “trust no one” route by defining your own data password for added security. First, with any of Boxcryptor, Sooksa, and Tresorit, adding your own layer of encryption hinders the sharing features, unless you share the password with those to whom you give file or folder access. Second, if you lose or forget your encryption password, no one can save you. Your data is locked forever. 

Hopefully the above suggestions gave you ideas on getting some of the best benefits of a DMS for a solo or small firm without spending a lot of money or adding complexity to your technology setup. 

We know we’ve given you a bunch to think about, and you probably have some questions. The Manage a Practice page of the Practice Management Center contains dozens of white papers, checklists, and charts relating to this topic. If you have any questions, you can schedule a no-cost consultation through the Ask an Expert page or email mobarlpm@affinityconsulting.com. 

Moneyball Analytics is based on the book “Moneyball, The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” by Michael Lewis. The book became the basis for the movie “Moneyball,” which told the story of the 2002 Oakland A’s. Limited by a small market, competition from a more successful team just across the bay, and one of the smallest payrolls in baseball, the A’s nevertheless fielded a team that made the playoffs for two straight years. The A’s accomplished this by making decisions based on data.

Anyone with even a passing interest in baseball knows that it is a game of statistics. There are stats for everything. Traditional baseball managers and scouts often relied on only a few of them and combined them with hunches and “gut” feelings when evaluating players. The moneyball concept was different because it relied almost exclusively on numbers and sought to monetize certain statistics. Moneyball was also different in that it looked at numbers that traditional statisticians overlooked.

What can law firms learn from moneyball analytics and sports statisticians?

Keeping Score

Like sports, business has winners and losers. During the game, you can tell how each team is doing by looking at the scoreboard. After the game, the compiled box score or stats sheet provides the details. Looking at the statistics in depth almost always explains the final score. Sometimes, a single statistic tells the story. In football, for example, the team that has the fewest turnovers usually wins even if they trail in other statistics.

Law firms, like any business, can benefit from keeping score. However, many businesses don’t keep even the simplest scoreboard. Some only check the final score when the game is over – its year-end net profit, for example. While that is better than not looking at all, the final score happens for a reason. If you want to improve the final score, you need to dig into the details.

Hot Streaks, Cold Streaks and Lifetime Averages

In sports, every player and team have streaks. Streaks happen in almost every sport. In the same season, a player may have a 20-game hitting streak or a five-game hitting slump. However, they also have a lifetime average that tracks how they perform over the long term. Coaches and managers watch for streaks and help players break out of bad ones to become more consistent over time. Ultimately, this improves a player’s lifetime average.

Streaks and averages are another place where law firms can learn from sports. Your players are your lawyers and staff. You expect a certain performance level from them. Are they consistently reaching that level? If not, are you helping them have fewer losing streaks and improve their lifetime average? Spotting trends early allows you to take corrective action sooner and avoid a single player dragging down your entire team.

A Balanced Offense

A good sports team has a balanced offense. In baseball, teams seek a balance of power, speed, and batting average. In football, teams look for a balance of running and passing. Sports teams know that being one dimensional or predictable will eventually cause problems as their opponents learn and take advantage of their tendencies or weaknesses.

Balance plays a role in business as well. Many law firms work in multiple practice areas to provide balance. If the economy is hurting one area, it may very well be helping another. Every firm, even one that specializes in a single area, looks for balance in two areas: getting more work (finding new clients) while at the same time getting the work done. Many firms focus on one or the other and then scramble to change direction as the need arises. The other perennial balancing act is work-life balance. A sports team does not worry about work-life balance, but a law firm should.

Non-Traditional Stats

In sports, certain statistics grab the most attention. Baseball is famous for its triple crown of home runs, runs batted in, and batting average. Teams have always sought and paid for players with high numbers in these areas. Baseball teams following the moneyball concept look at statistics differently. While these numbers are important, moneyball teams place a higher priority on slugging percentage. They feel that slugging percentage is a better indicator of a player’s overall offensive contribution to the team. Specifically, they believe slugging percentage reflects the player’s ability to create and extend scoring opportunities. Also, because slugging percentage is not a statistic that makes headlines, good sluggers might be available at a lower cost.

Every business looks at certain traditional numbers. The first thing we all create at the end of the year is a profit and loss statement. In addition, specific industries or professions have their own traditional indicators of success or failure. Law firms, for example, run productivity reports and track the number of new clients added each year. Are there non-traditional numbers that are better indicators? A lawyer whose productivity numbers seem lacking may spend their non-billable time acquiring new clients or expanding their professional skills. Everyone agrees that those skills are valuable. Perhaps assigning a value to these skills is a better indicator of the total value of the lawyer.

Every business wants to add new, high-quality customers. Does the traditional count of new clients tell a firm everything they need to know? Detailed record keeping and a little math reveal so much more. Where did the clients originate? How much revenue and profit did they generate? Now, add some math. On average, how much revenue or profit does a client acquired from a specific source generate? How does that compare to other sources? A firm that is armed with this information makes smarter decisions about where to spend their marketing dollars or invest their business development time.

The Missouri Bar’s Practice Management section provides a wealth of resources to help members build and manage their practices. This includes offering white papers on ways to double your referrals, make your website the hub of a successful marketing strategy, and much more. At no cost, members can also email their practice management questions to an expert or schedule a 30-minute one-on-one remote consultation.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of mobility and the ability to work from anywhere. Before the pandemic, when we presented on "mobile lawyering" topics, we would spend 20% of the presentation preaching the virtues of being able to access matter information wherever you were (that doesn’t mean being “always available”). Examples included looking up facts or phone numbers at court or feeling comfortable leaving work early to attend a child's sporting event. The COVID-19 pandemic added a new spin on the importance of being able to "pick up and go."

Depending on the sophistication of your pre-pandemic setup, you may have felt some acute pains or noticed technology gaps. Below are ideas to address potential gaps.

It's not all or nothing

Don't think of going paperless, or "paper less" to start, as akin to extreme dieting. You don't have to throw out all your legal pads as though they were Halloween candy, just sitting there tempting you. If you are a fan of handwritten notes, and many studies extol handwritten over typed notes for recollection or "stickiness" in memory, then a good start would be to scan handwritten notes and file them on your computer with the other electronic documents for that matter.

If you don't have a high-quality, easy-to-use desktop scanner, we recommend the Fujitsu ScanSnap line. Their latest model, the ScanSnap iX1600, can usually be found on Amazon for about $400 and works with Windows PCs and Apple Macs. For those with mobile scanning needs, we recommend the ScanSnap S1300i and the ScanSnap iX100. Another portable option is the camera on your smartphone. Both Apple and Android app stores have several mobile apps that make it easy to scan multipage documents, use optical character recognition, and upload them to cloud storage services. SwiftScan is an excellent app for this purpose. It works on iOS and Android. An annual subscription to unlock all features costs $35.

Start with what you already have

Although full-featured document management systems ("DMS") like NetDocuments, iManage, and Worldox have wonderful, valuable features, the first step to paperless doesn't have to be opening your wallet.

If you are a solo or small firm, starting with a sync storage service places you on the right path for having the most recent version of files accessible everywhere. If you subscribe to Microsoft 365, you already have a terabyte of OneDrive space per person included in your plan. If you subscribe to Google Workspace, formerly G Suite, you have two terabytes of space per person already. If you subscribe to neither and just need cloud sync space, Dropbox's business plans start at three terabytes for $200 per year.

These offerings act as giant hard drives that save data from your computer to their servers while ensuring that any computers you connect to the service have access to the most recent versions of every saved file. The Missouri Bar's Practice Management site has an article with guidelines for managing your documents without a DMS, so the storage space has an understandable organization.

If you go this route, we recommend investing in a high-quality search program to help you locate documents. For Windows users, we suggest Copernic Professional Edition for $25 per year. For macOS, HoudahSpot is the way to go, for $35.

Meet PDF, your new pal

Going "paper less" means spending more time working with PDFs. Most legal professionals are comfortable downloading and reading PDFs, but less so with creating and customizing PDFs. Both Windows 10 and macOS can create PDFs as easily as printing to paper. You don't have to print a document and scan it back into the computer. Use the free functionality to create a PDF. Click here to learn what free PDF software can do for you.

More elaborate things with PDFs, like creating bookmarks to different pages or restricting how someone might edit the PDF you make, require spending some money to get a PDF editing program.

Everyone has heard of Adobe Acrobat, the granddaddy of PDF software. Adobe Acrobat Pro is available only as a subscription for $15 per user per month. That $15 per month subscription also includes access to Adobe Sign, Adobe's legally binding e-signature platform. If $15 per month is too much, or you dislike having more subscriptions, many PDF programs are available with the same features as Acrobat Pro (other than Adobe Sign) that you can buy on a traditional "pay once" model. Visit the PDF Programs Comparison Chart for more information.

Besides a good PDF program with editing features to replace your red markup pen, some legal professionals have found it helpful to rotate one of their computer monitors from landscape (wide) to portrait (tall). Rotating a monitor better reflects looking at a real piece of paper. Doing so is a two-step process. First, you must rotate the monitor physically. Most monitors support this out-of-the-box, but not all do. If your monitors do not rotate but do support VESA mounting, like a flat-screen TV, then a $40 stand from Vivo gets you over that hump. Second, you must tell the computer that you flipped the monitor; otherwise, everything will be sideways. Both Windows and macOS make this easy.

A potpourri of paperless practice pointers

• Audit History: For paper documents, you can't easily know who touched them last or perhaps who lost them entirely. Electronic documents stored in a cloud-sync service can keep a trail of who made what changes when. Dropbox's file recovery feature, for example, lets you look back and undo file changes for up to 180 days. Full DMS programs like NetDocuments take auditing, recovering, and restoring files to a whole other level of capability and security.
• iPractice on iPad: Once you become comfortable with digital files, if you want to set the legal pad and fountain pen aside, we recommend an iPad and Apple Pencil as your new notebook and pen. The Apple Pencil is key. No other stylus comes close. A base iPad Air ($600) with a second-generation Apple Pencil ($129) combined with either GoodNotes ($8) or Notability ($9) is a game-changer for handwriting fans. GoodNotes and Notability even search your chicken-scratch handwriting as if it were typed text and do a shockingly good job of it.
• PDF Bonus: Many full-featured PDF programs offer integration with Outlook on Windows, giving you the ability to save an email and its attachments to a "PDF-like" container where the email text is a PDF but the attachments remain in their native formats (e.g., Word, Excel, JPEG, etc.). You can save the email and its attachments as a single bundle.

Have questions? At no cost, members can ask an expert their legal technology or practice management questions via email or by scheduling a one-on-one, remote consultation.

After I got a haircut one sunny Saturday afternoon when I was a child, I remember looking up at my mom with big wondrous eyes and saying: “Mom, when I grow up, I want to work in marketing for a legal tech company.”  

Actually, that’s not true. I never said I wanted to work in legal tech. I never even said I wanted to work in marketing. But for the past five-plus years, I’ve found myself at three different “legal tech” companies. As bankruptcy lawyer Michael Hamersky once said to me: “Nobody goes to law school saying they want to be a bankruptcy attorney. I think most people just fall into it, like I did.” You could say the same thing about me — I just fell into the world of legal tech. 

And while Tracers works in a number of different verticals — from law enforcement to healthcare — lawyers have used our public and private records database for decades to help them complete their legal research, locate witnesses, perform asset searches, and help with due diligence.  

So, when I went on Jared Correia’s “Legal Toolkit” podcast, I shared all the dirty little legal tech marketing secrets I’ve learned over the last five years, but I wanted to dig a little deeper. In this post, I’m going to share some new strategies and tips for marketing your law firm.  

Now, a disclaimer: honestly, these are just a few ideas from a marketing guy. If you want something more academic, Clio, the proverbial elephant in the legal tech room (and a partner with Tracers) recently did a pretty good post that talks about marketing strategy versus plans, tactics, KPIs, goals and … well you get the point. So, if that’s the kind of blog post you want, read it here.  

Otherwise, stay here and let’s get to my five marketing strategies to grow your business in 2021 

1. Build a great website 

You might be saying: “Chad, this tip sucks.” Well, then just scroll to No. 2. But the truth is, just because you have a mobile-responsive website or get 10,000 visitors a month doesn’t mean your website is great (if you do get 10,000 visitors a month – nice! Please keep reading). A great website takes effort and it doesn’t come out of a GoDaddy box (no offense to GoDaddy).  

A slow website does not make for a great website. Site speed is a tough nut to crack but impacts your search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience. Now, you’re not Amazon, so I’m not going to tell you that improving your website speed by half a millisecond will increase your conversions tenfold (because, I don’t think it will). That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do a few things to optimize your site. Use GTMetrix and Google Page Speed Insights to test and optimize, and then continue to keep an eye on it. 

I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t pretend I’m one. I don’t spend my free time looking up case law or going to the local law library to learn about torts. So, when it comes to your website, I would say tread carefully. If you can, hire a professional and make sure he or she does some of the things listed below. You could also consider “bartering” for services from somebody who knows what he or she is doing. But if you do this alone, here are some more tips: 

• Go with Google. Make sure you have Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console set up. At the very base level, Google Tag Manager will help you set up and easily manage conversion pixels (helpful if you are running ads). Google Analytics will tell you who is coming to your website and how they got there. Google Search Console will tell you how your website is doing in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) with impressions and clicks on keywords. 

• Compress and optimize images. Don’t download and use the full-resolution stock image from Unsplash as your homepage hero image. You have to resize them for web and shoot for keeping them under 50kb if you can. Use plugins like SG Optimizer or Imagify to serve .webp image formats, compress PNGs with TinyPNG.com or Sqoosh, and always use alt and title tags. 

• Get good hosting. If you are using WordPress (powers 40% of the web), I like SiteGround because they have some decent built-in speed enhancement tools. Honestly, I like SiteGround more because if you buy a three-year plan, they are pretty cheap ($9.99 per month for their GrowBig plan). If you have the extra cash, go with WP Engine and setup WP Rocket plugin to speed things up. Another option is to go with a platform like Webflow. You can do some clean, cool things with Webflow and their site structure is much better than WordPress, but harder to manage. 

• Don’t just let it sit there. A website is not a satellite. You don’t just launch it into the world wide web orbit and get stuff back. You must update it. The best way is to have a blog where you post at least every week, but also update your other main pages. Google doesn’t like stale web pages. 

• A/B test if you have the traffic. If you do get a good amount of website traffic, use a tool like Google Optimize to A/B test headline copy or images. If you get 30 visits a month, try to get more traffic first. 

• Add testimonials and social trust icons to your homepage. You know your local and state bars you are a member of? Add their logos to your homepage. Top Lawyer in Texas? Add the icon to your homepage. Appeared on your local ABC affiliate? Add it to the homepage! Get testimonials from your client (or mom) and add them to your homepage. This builds trust and can help SEO. Speaking of…. 

• Focus on SEO. See tip #4. 

There’s a lot more that goes into creating a great website, but hopefully that will give you some ideas of where to start. Don’t be good — be great. 

2. Start advertising with connected TV 

Video can be a great tool — on social, on YouTube, and on your great website. But if you do video, do yourself a favor and make sure the audio is clear and the content you are creating is interesting. I think ESPN’s Chris Fowler’s “Tequila Nightcap” Instagram videos are a great example of using just an iPhone but consistently sharing knowledge and perspective in a really interesting, engaging way (that you can hear!). What’s your law firm’s version of this type of series for social media?  

When it comes to video, I really want to talk about using connected TV ads if you have room in your budget and want to do something more polished. A couple of years ago I worked on a video campaign with Calista Flockhart (the famous TV lawyer). We didn’t have the rights — or the budget — to run the ads on broadcast TV, so we turned to social media and streaming TV. 

The great thing about streaming TV is that it’s pretty affordable and gives you a nice “bling factor.” Companies like Choozle and Genius Monkey can get your 30-second professionally produced ads (not your iPhone selfie video) onto streaming networks. Even Hulu is now offering self-service ads. And once you have your well-produced TV spot, you can ask your friends who have “cut the cable” if they saw your ad during “Chopped,” “Meet the Press,” or “Sunday Night Football.” You can geo-target or even retarget your website visitors via IP addresses assigned to devices connected to computer networks. 

If you are one of those firms who have been running those local TV ads during the evening news (or have been saying, “I should do that,”) consider running connected ads via streaming services and devices.  

3. Don’t start a podcast … go on someone else’s 

It seems like everybody and their mom has a podcast these days. But the truth is, it takes a lot of time and effort to produce the content every week. Most people don’t have that time and can’t come close to doing it as well as others do (like the Correia Family History Rump Roast). 

There are tons of legal podcasts out there (here’s a list Lawyerist put together). Find out how to get on one of those before telling everyone you know, “Hey, I’m starting a podcast.” You will still get great exposure, as well as share it on social and put it on your website — you just don’t have to commit to doing it every week. 

You can also go old school and try to get on the radio. Out in California and streaming online, NPR station KCRW has a great show called “Press Play” with Madeleine Brand. Every Monday she has law professor Jessica Levinson as her “Legal Eagle” guest segment. Can you create an opportunity like this for yourself? Sure you can. 

4. Focus on SEO, not PPC 

This isn’t a blog post about how to master SEO, but as I mentioned in tip No. 1, SEO is the way to go. I like to say, “SEO is the blood pressure of your online presence.” Nobody likes to talk about blood pressure; plastic surgery is way sexier (and like pay-per-click advertising, it gets you a quick fix). But as they say, blood pressure is the silent killer. If you don’t have good SEO, your website will die. 

Okay, that’s a little extreme. But the point is, if you plan on being a lawyer for more than a decade, in five years you will be better off investing in SEO now than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.  

Take Tracers.com for instance. We launched a new website on June 1st, 2020, focused on SEO, and increased keyword rankings. It has worked so far, and yes, it has helped drive more sales. 

SEO has a lot to do with having a great website, but there are also tactical steps you can take to help your SEO and keyword rankings. Again, I say tread lightly because if you find yourself spending five hours a week in SEO tools like SEM Rush, Google Search Console, and Ahrefs, then you might consider applying for a marketing job. That said, here are two SEO tips: 

• Optimize on-page SEO. On-page SEO includes title tags, internal links, and header text (h1s and h2s). Take for example this post. I’ll admit, my headers are not the best, but look at the internal links I have at the start of this post. Also, I could have called this blog post “5 Marketing Tips for 2021” but instead I called it “5 Marketing Strategy Tips for 2021.” Why? Because “marketing strategy” has about 25,000 more in keyword search volume. 
• Get (or buy) backlinks. What are backlinks? They are links on a website’s webpage that guides visitors to another website. Backlinks matter. Backlinks on anchor text keywords matter more. Backlinks coming back to your website from high-ranking websites matter even more. If you get a backlink on the keyword “best family law attorney” from your neighbor’s blog that gets 20 visitors a month, honestly it won’t matter. If you get a backlink on that keyword from LegalZoom (that has a domain authority score of 66) or hls.harvard.edu, it matters. 

5. Don’t forget, at the end of the day, you’re a lawyer 

If you’re a writer, obviously you can’t write for eight hours a day (you have to drink for at least 6!). Joking aside, don’t forget at the end of the day, you are a lawyer and should do lawyerly things.  

A few years ago, I worked in marketing for a real estate company, and I think the same thing applies to real estate agents. You can’t be showing houses, writing contracts, and having client meetings for 40 hours a week. Part of being a good real estate agent is networking and well, putting yourself in the position to tell people you are a real estate agent. It’s a “people” business. Same with lawyers. If I need an estate planning lawyer, I have a lot of choices, which means I’ll probably pick someone I like and want to work with. If I’m charged with murder, it might be a little different, but you get the point. 

Go play in a tennis interclub league. Go golfing and play in the member-guest tournament. Like to hunt? Go hunting or fishing with people who like the outdoors. Like to drink? Well, I guess go drinking with people. Put yourself in the place where others (strangers even) ask you what you do and you can say, “I’m a lawyer .” 

I realize the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a bit of a wrench in this last tip, but when things return to a resemblance of normalcy, I’m going to update this post and remove this sentence. 

And probably update the year in the post title. See what I did there? If you have been paying attention, that was SEO tip No. 3. 

Tracers is a proud Missouri Bar member benefit provider. Missouri Bar members receive a 10% discount on all Tracers’ search services. Click here to learn more and start your free trial.  

Click here to learn more about The Missouri Bar’s member benefits.  

If you have questions or want information from those who have implemented these solutions for law firms, members can ask an expert at no cost via email or during a virtual visit. 

Reprinted with permission of Tracers. Originally published here.  

At The Missouri Bar’s Solo & Smal Firm Conference earlier this month, Mark Lanterman, chief technology officer at Minneapolis-based Computer Forensic Services, presented ways individuals can protect themselves against cyber attacks. 

The most common, and most successful, cyber attack is phishing – when someone sends a fraudulent email to trick another person into revealing sensitive information that the attacker can then use maliciously. Lanterman said he has seen “a significant increase in phishing attacks against lawyers,” particularly those with solo and small firms.  

“Don’t ever think, ‘Why would any hacker come after me? I’m just a small shop here,’” Lanterman said. “They don’t care. They don’t take the time to figure out if you’re big or small or medium. They cast a wide net, so be careful before you follow instructions you receive via email.” 

The best practices to avoid phishing schemes are to always be skeptical of the emails you receive and to confirm information via phone call before acting on email requests. A phishing email may contain a sense of urgency, poor spelling and grammar, and  fabricated email addresses. It may also ask you to download a document, click a link, or provide sensitive information – like passwords and credit card information. 

If a hacker does compromise your business and gain access to sensitive information, Lanterman said, do not pay the ransom the hacker requests. When individuals pay the ransoms, they are doing two things:  

1. They are identifying themselves as victims who are willing to pay ransoms, currently and in the future. 

“Once you pay, you don’t become best buddies with these guys,” Lanterman said. “They will come back because they know you have money and you’re willing to give it to them.” 

2. They are funding cyber terrorism. 

“This money will go toward paying coders to develop cyber weapons that will be used against you, your colleagues, your associates, corporations, the government,” Lanterman said. “These weapons, these cyber-attack tools, will be used against others and they will come back to be used against you.” 

Lanterman isn’t the only one encouraging companies to not pay the ransom. The U.S. Department of Treasury warned that if companies pay ransoms – which are commonly used to spur cyber terrorism – they may face sanctions for violating the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s regulations. 

If a company experiences a cyber threat, it should work with its information technology staff to recover from ransomware attacks. These types of cyber threats are in the news constantly, and IT staff should be prepared to recover from ransomware attacks, Lanterman said. 

Jason Cecil, chief technology officer with The Missouri Bar, recommended law firms hire outside consultants, if their budgets allow, and listen to the consultants’ recommendations. If law firms can’t afford to hire outside consultants, Cecil added, he recommended enabling multi-factor authentication on every account. 

“If the feature is available to you, turn it on and use it,” he said. “It is necessary in today’s world. If your password falls into the wrong hands, this is an additional layer of protection.” 

A couple of other options lawyers can use to protect their law firms include routinely changing their account passwords and contracting with companies that provide tools to educate staff about phishing scams.  

While these tips may seem obvious, and many individuals may think they would not fall for such schemes, Lanterman has seen hundreds of examples where regular employees have thrown their businesses into turmoil – all with one click of the mouse. Unfortunately, Lanterman added, these cyber threats will never stop since “they make criminals money.” 

Missouri Bar members have access to discounted services, including some to help protect businesses from cyber threats. Click here to review your member benefits. 

Lawyers have an ethical obligation to preserve client confidentiality. For that reason, the need to protect client information has always been a top priority for lawyers. This means that when lawyers and their staff work remotely – a practice that has become commonplace due to the pandemic – it’s all the more imperative for lawyers to ensure that confidential client data is protected when communicating electronically. 

Because so many lawyers and staff have worked remotely over the past year, law firms have increasingly relied on online communication and collaboration tools when interacting with clients. Of course, this newfound uptick in the use of electronic communication methods has impacted the ethical obligations that lawyers have when it comes to preserving client confidentiality. That’s why it’s important for law firm leaders to understand cybersecurity issues and how those problems may affect their displaced workforces, especially since lawyers and other law firm employees will likely continue working remotely and communicating electronically for many more months. The good news is law firms have solid options when it comes to secure online communication. 

Client portals: a more secure option than email 

Since the mid-1990s, lawyers have communicated with clients via electronic means, and for many years email was an accepted way to interact with clients electronically. However, because email is inherently unsecure and is like sending a hand-written postcard through the post office, it has begun to fall out of favor – both ethically and practically – as technology continues to improve. 

That’s why ethics committees and cybersecurity security experts have increasingly recommended methods other than unencrypted email when communicating and collaborating with clients online. For example, in 2017, the American Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics concluded in ABA Opinion 477R that due to “cyber-threats and (the fact that) the proliferation of electronic communications devices have changed the landscape … it is not always reasonable to rely on the use of unencrypted email.” Instead, the committee recommended that for particularly sensitive matters, lawyers should consider using encrypted communications, including encrypted email and the encrypted client communication portals built into law practice management software. 

Florida issues secure communication guide 

Recently, The Florida Bar issued an updated secure communications guide that included recommendations relating to remote work during the pandemic. This comprehensive guide, “Best Practices for Professional Electronic Communication,”offers an in-depth overview of the issues that arise when lawyers communicate and collaborate with clients electronically. The types of electronic communications addressed in the guide include texting, email, social media, telephones and cellphones, laptops, and court appearances via videoconference. 

Email is easily hacked 

The authors of The Florida Bar’s communications guide focused on the technology issues that lawyers need to keep in mind when communicating with clients through unencrypted email. An important factor emphasized in the guide was the need for lawyers to understand the risks associated with using technology, including email. The authors emphasized how unsecure traditional email is and encouraged lawyers to find a more secure way of communicating with clients. 

As they explained, the reason for this recommendation is that email is easily hacked. That’s why, according to the authors, if the situation should arise where a lawyer must use email, it’s important to scan each and every email that is received and sent: “Attachments may contain malicious software code. Use scanning software for both outbound and inbound emails.” 

Emails can be easily intercepted 

The authors also addressed the likelihood of bad actors interfering when using email. They cautioned that because email is inherently unsecure, it can be easily intercepted. Fortunately, they explained, one way to mitigate that risk is to use an encrypted email service: “There is always a chance that your email may be intercepted. Many of these risks are mitigated if not entirely eradicated when using an encrypted email service.” 

Of course, email encryption technology often requires the assistance of an IT expert with the ability to set up this type of system – something that can oftentimes be a complex endeavor. Nevertheless, for some law firms, encrypted email can be a viable option. 

Client ports are a secure and easy-to-use form of communication 

The authors also turned to secure client portals. Due to the risks inherent in email, they recommended that lawyers consider using secure client portals like the ones built into law practice management software. They shared that client portals are a secure, safe, and easy-to-use alternative that is one of the best ways to ensure that confidential information is preserved whenever you communicate and collaborate online with clients: “Secure client portals are an emerging and safe alternative to email. There are many case and practice management systems that offer a client portal component. You should seriously consider this option as a method of communication for confidential information.” 

Missouri Bar members receive discounted rates from top practice management solutions including MyCase. To find the practice management solution that’s best for you, check out The Missouri Bar’s practice management features checklist, cloud-based practice management comparison chart and traditional practice management comparison chart. Need additional help selecting a practice management solution? Members can schedule a no-cost, one-on-one consultation with the experts at Affinity Consulting Group.  

Reprinted with permission of MyCase. 

People are used to the convenience of electronic payments and online bills. Many studies show most people expect businesses, including retail and service providers, to offer a wide variety of electronic payment options. 

If your practice is committed to providing a 21st century client experience, you must adopt frictionless billing payment processes. Not only is doing so necessary to give your clients the service they want and deserve, but if your firm doesn’t step into the modern era with electronic billing and payments, you’ll discover another firm already has, which can make them more attractive to your clients. 

What Is frictionless billing?  

Frictionless billing is a payment process that involves fewer steps and simpler interactions. Online retailers and service providers have pioneered the frictionless transaction process for the digital age by removing the need for customers to visit physical locations, implementing one-click purchasing, and offering automatic billing. 

In the law firm context, frictionless billing involves making it easier for clients to pay by reducing the number of steps in the process. Like with online retailers, having electronic payment options is central to frictionless billing and a positive client experience. 

Frictionless billing eliminates waiting for a paper invoice to come in the mail, getting out a checkbook, and mailing a check. It also alleviates a client’s uncertainty regarding whether he or she sent the payment or the law firm received it. Instead, electronic payment options reduce the payment process to just one click in many cases.  

How electronic payment tools reduce friction for clients 

Electronic payment solutions simplify your firm’s billing process and increase the ease of submitting payment for your clients. Electronic payments can help remove barriers for your clients and enhance their experiences by doing the following: 

Eliminating paper bills 

Electronic payment solutions clean up the messy paper trail of old payment methods. Emailed invoices and online platforms your clients can log into make it easier for them to access invoices and payment records or refer for information they may need. 

Offering instant confirmation 

One of the keys to online retail’s success is the provision of instant gratification. Electronic payments offer this same feeling to clients, who can receive immediate automated payment confirmations to know that their payments have been received by their lawyers. Both the lawyer and client no longer need to wonder where the client’s payment may be. 

Facilitating preferred payment methods 

Surveys of consumers show that most people prefer paying with credit or debit cards or by other electronic means. This includes payments not only for consumer goods but for any bills they receive, including invoices from service providers like lawyers. If a law firm continues to require clients to pay by check, it only creates another point of friction in the payment process, especially for those clients who no longer use or own checks. In some cases, the friction may be too great for a client or prospective client, forcing them to look for another law firm willing to accept electronic payments. 

Allowing clients to pay on their own schedule 

The proliferation of electronic payments has taught us all the convenience of being able to pay our bills on our own schedule. If clients can pay your invoices on their own schedules rather than during your business hours, it represents a small but noticeable improvement in the client experience. 

What lawyers should consider when accepting electronic payments 

Of course, lawyers face unique issues in accepting electronic payments that many other retailers or service providers do not have. This mostly stems from lawyers’ ethical obligations with respect to client and third-party funds. Ethical rules require lawyers to separate payments received from a client or third-party that do not represent expenses or earned fees into a separate trust account. 

In the earlier days of electronic payments, lawyers did not necessarily have the option to divert client payments into trust accounts. However, in recent years, the legal industry has seen the launch of electronic payment processors targeted specifically for law firms, offering lawyers the ability to separate payments into earned and unearned funds and send funds to their proper accounts. 

Processing fees from electronic payments also posed ethical and operational issues for law firms. Lawyers cannot use payment processing to accept client payments representing unearned fees if the payment processing fees are deducted from the payment itself. Those funds still legally belong to the client, so deducting fees and expenses from client property represents a violation of ethical and fiduciary obligations. 

However, payment processors for lawyers allow firms to ensure that fees and expenses are appropriately deducted from operating accounts rather than client funds. 

From a practical perspective, payment processing fees also represent an expense or overhead that lawyers have resisted. But more and more firms are recognizing that payment processing fees should be looked at as just another cost of doing business and factored into the firm’s financials accordingly. Many lawyers also note that the minimal costs of electronic payment processing are far outweighed by the benefit of immediate, confirmed payment. 

LawPay is a proud Missouri Bar member benefit provider. Missouri Bar members who sign up for a new LawPay account between June 1-30, 2021, will pay no monthly fee for nine months. Learn More

Click here to learn more about The Missouri Bar’s member benefits. 

If you have questions or want information from those who have implemented these solutions for law firms, members can ask an expert for free via email or during a virtual visit.

Reprinted with permission of LawPay. Originally published here. 

As a legal professional, you have encountered your fair share of PDF files and assumably created more than a few. Even in our personal lives, PDFs are ubiquitous: appliance instruction manuals, new car brochures, bank statements, etc. The PDF format’s great attraction is that it reproduces electronically exactly what a printed document looks like. And it does so across any device – smartphone, iPad, computer, TV, etc. 

The primary reason for PDF’s ubiquity in our lives comes from two business decisions Adobe, PDF’s creator, made 15-25 years ago. The first decision was made in the mid-to-late 1990s, at the start of the internet boom. Adobe decided to charge a bundle for the PDF creation software (Adobe Acrobat) and give away the software to read, but not edit, the files (Acrobat Reader). At the time, this was revolutionary. We’re accustomed now to opening Microsoft Word documents, for example, on devices that don’t have Word installed so you can read, but not edit, the file. That was hardly the case when Adobe took that innovative step. 

Similarly, Adobe had a version of Acrobat Reader for all platforms, not just Microsoft Windows, another major difference in the late 1990s when Apple macOS were a tiny, shrinking market and Linux was unheard of outside of nerd circles. Today, when we do so much computing through websites and phone applications, this move seems obvious. It was not at the time. 

Adobe’s second major strategic move came in 2008 when it took its PDF specifications and made them open source. With the specifications free to all, any developer could create software to create or read PDFs without running afoul of Adobe’s copyrights. And developers did. Now there are tons of PDF creation software packages at different price points. Adobe’s Acrobat Pro is still the gold standard and requires a subscription, but there are great alternative options, including free ones. 

What can free do for you? - Creating PDFs  

Ten or more years ago, if you wanted to create a PDF out of a document, you purchased software from Adobe or one of its newly minted competitors. If you’re running recent versions of macOS, Windows, or Microsoft Office, you don’t have to buy anything to create a PDF document of another electronic file. 

macOS users have had PDF creation ability since 2001. PDF creation is a system-level feature accessible through the print dialog box. Select “File” and “Print” (or “CMD” + “P” for keyboard fans), and “save as PDF” is located at the bottom center of the print dialog. Click here for details.  

Windows users have a similar capability in Windows 10. Select “File” and “Print” (or “CTRL” + “P” on your keyboard), select the “Microsoft Print to PDF” printer, and click “Print.” A dialog box will appear asking you to name the file and select a place to save it. Windows can also print multiple PDF files to a single combined PDF file. Just select the PDFs you want to combine in File Explorer, right-click, and select “Print.” The limitation here is the PDFs are combined in whatever order they appear in File Explorer; there’s no re-ordering. 

Microsoft Office, both for Windows and Mac, offers the ability to save most files as PDF, including Word files. 

For iOS users, you have the same ability, but it’s just more hidden. Tap the “Share Sheet” icon in the app and then tap “Print.” When the print preview for the document opens, do a “pinch and zoom” gesture to expand the document. The document will enlarge on the screen. It’s not obvious, but that enlarged document is a PDF. Tap the “Share Sheet” icon in the top right-hand corner and select the app or place you want to save or send the PDF. 

For Android users, the steps are similar to iOS, except instead of a “pinch and zoom” gesture there is a “Save to PDF” option to select from a dropdown menu. 

What can free do for you? - Editing for free 

Besides creating PDFs, you may want to edit, comment on, or otherwise mark them up. Free PDF software has you covered there, too. 

Acrobat Reader – Windows and Mac 

Acrobat Reader allows a user to comment on a document (such as sticky notes, annotations, highlights, etc.) and sign forms. You cannot do any editing for free, unlike Foxit Reader below. However, if you are willing to pay Adobe either $2/month ($24/year) or $10/month ($120/year), you can add either Adobe Export PDF or Adobe PDF Pack features to Reader. Export PDF adds the ability to turn PDF files into native Word, Excel, or RTF files. PDF Pack includes those features plus the ability to convert PDFs to PowerPoints or image files, create PDFs from files less than 100MB, and combine multiple PDFs into a single file. 

Foxit Reader – Windows and Mac 

Foxit Reader published a full manual on what their free Windows and Mac readers can do. With these free packages, you can get a PDF word count, sign and “stamp” documents, comment and annotate documents, fill out form documents, and even add bookmarks, links, and images to the PDF (assuming the PDF is not protected). 

Preview – Mac 

Mac users get a free, decently capable app with macOS. Its Preview app lets users annotate PDFs, fill out and sign forms, and add, delete, or move pages. This covers most of what you would generally want to do with PDFs. 

Generally speaking, you can generate a PDF and comment on it all without paying a dime. 

What costs money 

A couple of power features that legal professionals may need are not available for free anywhere. Those two features are redaction and Bates numbering. This may matter depending on your practice area. If you are not in litigation, neither may matter. But, particularly with redaction, do not tolerate shortcuts. Do not draw black boxes assuming that’s “good enough,” because nationally reported examples, such as the Broward County School Board case show us what happens when you redact improperly. 

Comment 6 to the Supreme Court of Missouri’s Rules of Professional Conduct 4-1.1 admonishes lawyers to “keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice.” This includes having the proper technology, knowing how to use it, and making sure supporting lawyers and non-lawyer staff have access and know how to use it. 

Fortunately, thanks to Adobe’s open sourcing of the PDF specifications, capable PDF software that redacts and Bates numbers doesn’t have to cost the $15/month (or $180/year) for Acrobat Pro DC (Acrobat Standard DC lacks redaction and Bates numbering). While Adobe’s offering includes access to its e-signature platform, which could be valuable during the pandemic, if you just need to redact and Bates number, $15/month could be considered high. Here are some lower-cost options: 

• Windows:  Foxit PhantomPDF Business (redaction and Bates numbering; $180 once or $132/year), Kofax Power PDF Advanced (redaction and Bates numbering; $180 once), and pdfDpcs Professional (redaction and Bates numbering; $107 once). Both Foxit and Kofax make a standard edition but, like Adobe’s, their standard editions lack redaction and Bates numbering. 

• Mac: Foxit PhantomPDF Mac (redaction only; $140 once or $99/year), Kofax Power PDF Standard for Mac (redaction and Bates numbering; $130 once); PDF Expert (redaction only; $50/year); and PDFpen for Mac or PDFpenPro for Mac (both have redaction and Bates numbering; $80 and $130 once, respectively). 

For more information, refer to the PDF software comparison chart in our practice management resources. If you have questions or want information from experts who have implemented these solutions for law practices and legal organizations, members can ask an expert their questions for free via email or during a virtual visit. 

¿Hablas Español? You might not, but your clients and prospects do. 

With over 41 million native speakers and 12 million bilingual speakers, the United States is the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world — and we’re on track to become número uno by 2050.  

This poses both opportunities and challenges for growing legal practices. On one hand, multilingualism is undeniably good for us as individuals and as a society. Compared to monolinguals, people who can speak more than one language are smarter, according to recent studies. Those who speak multiple languages learn better, solve problems easier, understand the world more deeply, and exhibit more cognitive resilience.  

Organizations with multilingual workforces can tap into their collective brainpower to stand out and become industry leaders. As Microsoft points out, language diversity leads to innovation, ultimately fueling business growth. 

On the other hand, language barriers could be an issue. If you are not already multilingual, learning a new language can be — how should we put this? — hard. Really hard. Children seem to be natural linguistic sponges, absorbing new words with little effort. Adults, not so much. If you’re over 18 years old, it can take months or years to become fluent in a different language. 

Do you really need to learn a new language to run a successful legal business? 

Let’s face it: most lawyers are simply too busy as is. When you are spending 40-100 hours a week working, plus making connections, managing employees, wrangling technology, and navigating the big and small disruptions of modern life, the last thing you need is that Duolingo owl shaming you for not learning Spanish faster.  

Consider the fact the average lawyer spends only 29% of each workday on billable time, using the rest of his or her hours to manage administrative tasks and business development essential to the practice’s survival.  

Good luck fitting vocabulary lessons into all that. 

The struggle is real. 

So, what’s a time-strapped monolingual to do in an increasingly bilingual world? How can you ensure you’re not leaving any clients or prospects out — that you are delivering the same quality of service to everyone you serve, regardless of which language they speak? How do you communicate respectfully, professionally, and authentically across the language barrier? 

We’re glad you asked! You don’t need to hire new employees, try to translate conversations on the fly, or listen to language tapes while you sleep in hopes you will learn subliminally. A bilingual answering service can delight your callers in English and Spanish. 

How do bilingual answering services work? 

With a bilingual answering service, you can ensure Spanish and English-speaking callers are receiving the same continuity of care since a team of virtual receptionists handles client inquiries and communicates about your practice on your behalf. 

Your incoming calls go straight to the answering service, and professionals greet your customers in English, Spanish, or both. The best bilingual answering services employ trained receptionists who ensure your clients feel comfortable, understood, and taken care of.  

It adds up to better, more inclusive service, along with more time in your day to focus on your practice — or those language courses you’ve been putting off. 

Ready to get started? 

Check out answering services on The Missouri Bar’s website. Missouri Bar members even receive discounts from top answering services. 

Reprinted with permission from Ruby 

Whether you’re straight out of law school or ready to strike out on your own after practicing at a firm, you face several “unknown unknowns,” as former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would say. 

People 

For recent graduates, you know you need clients, as well as mentorship and guidance. You may know the law -- or at least an idea of where to start -- but no law school teaches you the mechanics of filing, the preferred languages of certain judges or mediators, and all the other seemingly small but fundamental “wheel greasing” aspects of legal practice. The Missouri Bar’s sections and committees can be a great resource for forming mentorships. The LawyerSearch tool can also help connect you with prospective clients. 

For seasoned lawyers charting a new path, your prior firm probably took care of more than you think. Unless you were in a managerial position, it was someone else’s job to think about everything from rent to health insurance to breakroom snacks. Furthermore, it’s possible you relied on secretaries, legal assistants, and paralegals to facilitate client interaction and document preparation. For insurance options, check out the Plan | Insure member benefits page. If you’re looking to hire an associate or contract lawyer, post on The Missouri Bar’s Jobs for Missouri Lawyers board. For support staff positions, some local bars, like Metropolitan St. Louis, accept postings for non-lawyer personnel. For office space, look to the Office Space/Office Sharing page. 

For additional considerations regarding business structure, employee compensation, and accounting options, review the bar’s Practice Management site for the Starting a New Firm checklist. It doesn’t have all the answers, as some questions are fact-specific, but the checklist will move some topics from “unknown unknowns” to “known unknowns.” 

Technology 

Beyond legal knowledge and personnel, you also must consider technology. Gone are the days where a legal pad, law library card, and well-placed Yellow Pages ad got the ball rolling. When starting a new firm, we can break down your technology needs into two core categories: hardware and software. 

Hardware 

On the hardware front, I encourage you to equip all employees, lawyers, and support staff with laptops. It is a slightly pricier route, and you can argue that certain job functions don’t require mobility. But, if you had started your firm prior to March 2020, how much better-positioned would your employees be if they could grab their laptops and pick up working from home immediately? 

Depending on your practice area, and any specialized software you may need, you have two options. If you are platform-agnostic, meaning you don’t require software that runs only on Windows, and are already in the Apple ecosystem with iPhones and iPads, it’s worth considering a MacBook Air. If you need Windows-only software or are not in the Apple ecosystem, I suggest a ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Both the MacBook and ThinkPad start at about $1,000. Bar members get a discount on ThinkPads via this link. 

Beyond the laptop, there are a few additional core tech pieces: a docking station, webcam, quality headset, and scanner. With docking stations, the convenience and technology has shifted in the last three years. You want to find a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 or 4 dock. These docks connect to your laptop with a single cord that provides the connection for external monitors, webcams, wired internet, and other peripherals. On the USB side, I like the ICY BOX USB 3.0 Universal Docking Station, available at Amazon for around $100. On the Thunderbolt side, where the single cable will also charge your laptop, I recommend the CalDigit TS3 Plus, which retails for about $250. For webcam, you can’t go wrong with Logitech. Any of their webcams are a step up from what’s built into laptops. For headphones and a microphone, refer to the headphone recommendations on our Practice Management site. Finally, the Practice Management site has recommendations on printers, scanners, and portable printers and scanners, which are useful if you’re going to clients’ locations or to court. 

Software 

Software for your new firm falls into one of two categories. There’s the everyday, core software that you’ll need, and then there’s the legal-specific software. The two core software products are an office suite, usually Microsoft Office, and a PDF program that lets you create and edit PDFs. For email and word processing, I suggest subscribing to Microsoft 365. Rather than buying a shrink-wrapped copy of Office that never receives updates, Microsoft strongly encourages people to subscribe for $8.25 per person per month, or more depending on desired features. That $8.25 gets you the desktop programs most people think of as “Microsoft Office,” with installation rights on up to five machines per user, and full access to the smartphone and tablet Office programs. An additional $4.25 per month would move you up to the Microsoft 365 Business Standard, meaning Microsoft hosts your email and provides you access to many additional, business-oriented web-based programs. 

On the PDF side, everyone has heard of Adobe Acrobat, the granddaddy of PDF software. It is available as subscription only for about $15 per user per month. That $15 per month also includes access to Adobe Sign, Adobe’s legally binding e-signature platform. If $15 per month is too much, or you dislike having more subscriptions, there are many PDF programs available that have the same features as Acrobat (other than Adobe Sign) and can be purchased on a traditional “pay once” model. Visit Affinity Consulting’s Practice Management PDF Programs Comparison Chart for more information. 

On the legal-specific side of the fence, your firm should consider how you’re going to handle matter information and financial information. For matter management, you must decide if you want a web-based case management program or a traditional program that runs on a server. If you are fresh from law school with no established work habits, I suggest going the web route. On the other hand, if you are already familiar with PracticeMaster, for example, I might lean more towards sticking with the familiar program as you begin your new business. One hesitation on this point is that all web-based programs are subscription based so they let you try them month-to-month, with minimal-to-no upfront expense. For a server-based program, you will need to pay for hardware and software upfront. 

The Practice Management section contains resources to help you decide what features are most valuable for your practice areas. Affinity Consulting also has two comparison charts corresponding to web-based and server-based practice management options. 

As for financial information, nearly all practice management programs let you record time, send bills, and track trust accounts. A minority of practice management programs also allow you to track general ledger business information, such as rent and office expenses. The programs lacking this functionality usually integrate with QuickBooks Online or Xero to bridge the gaps. After you have narrowed down your choices, visit the Build | Manage page to see which programs offer discounts to Missouri Bar members. 

Off and Running 

The Open a Practice section of The Missouri Bar’s website holds additional information not covered here, including suggested minimum computer specifications, helping prospective clients become DIYers, and a walk-through of using the comparison charts effectively. 

If you have questions, contact Affinity Consulting through the Ask an Expert page on the bar’s site or email mobarlpm@affinityconsulting.com.  

There is also an upcoming CLE on this very topic in the bar’s Management Matters Series. The program is available in both a webinar and self-study format. Click here to register. If you were admitted to the bar in Spring 2021, the starting a law firm CLE is complimentary, so check out the flyer from MoBarCLE in your welcome kit for more details.  

Succession planning is all about leaving a legacy. Lawyers who built their firms from the ground up and who contributed blood, sweat, and tears to the firms deserve to leave their marks. Leaving your legacy requires years of strategic planning and decision making. 

When considering your legacy, you must think about the people who will carry the torch once you retire, the core processes that keep business running smoothly, and how to successfully transition work and clients to those who follow in your footsteps. 

First Rate Players: You can’t plan for succession without planning for those who will succeed you. Early identification of star players provides you with time to mold them into stellar leaders and rainmakers. The sooner you start working with these key players, the more time you have available to help shape them into whom the firm needs them to be. 

Fundamental Processes: Every firm is driven by numerous fundamental processes. Leaving a legacy requires identifying those processes and documenting every step in that process, from client intake to closing letter. Process documentation has immediate benefits. New hire on-boarding is more efficient, and process documentation helps get everyone in the firm on the same page. 

While documenting processes, look for areas of potential improvement and gaps in the firm’s coverage. Ensure there is a backup for each task. Should someone suddenly leave the firm, you don’t want to be left in the lurch. 

Future Transitions: Transitioning work and clients is never easy. The most successful transitions start before retirement is on the horizon. When possible, ensure that every client works with and trusts at least two lawyers in the firm. Your clients must be comfortable with your replacement before you decide to retire. 

Train associates to handle every type of matter that comes in. Work side-by-side on the complicated matters and provide them guidance on how to handle the thorniest issues. Then, when you are ready to retire, they will be ready to handle the workload. 

Succession planning isn’t easy. It requires strategic planning and must be kept in mind with every decision your firm makes. It is never too early to start planning for retirement. 

Missouri Bar members can access white papers, checklists, and charts related to succession planning and process documentation, including the Planning Ahead Guide, at mobar.org/LPM.   

Members can also email their questions to or set up a one-on-one remote consultation with Affinity Consulting Group. 

The lawyers I know like to read and write. The profession attracts folks who like researching and writing, hence the outsized number of humanities majors in our ranks. One of my favorite quotes is the apocryphal Mark Twain quote: “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.” Were it a TV series, the quote would be described as “based on true events” rather than a genuine quotation. But the phrase and its sentiment go back much farther than Twain in 1871. Henry David Thoreau had a version in 1857: “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.” Ben Franklin and John Locke also had their own versions. The oldest provable attribution comes from French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal in 1657, who wrote, “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.” 

As harried legal professionals, we know that speed tends to produce errors and verbosity. Great minds throughout history felt this problem. There is no writer who would not benefit from an editor and no writing that would not benefit from tighter phrasing or the removal of redundant and duplicative words (see what I did there). 

Therefore, with all the humility I can muster as a writer, here are some suggestions to improve your legal writing. 

Be Concise: Active verbs are your friends here. 

Don’t write: “Defendant is guilty because of the fact that he stole the coat.” Instead write: “Defendant is guilty because he stole the coat.” 

Don’t write: “It is undisputed that defendant trespassed.” Instead write: “No one disputes that defendant trespassed.” 

Don’t write: “Tim was bitten by Sally’s dog.” Instead write: “Sally’s dog bit Tim.” 

Coupled Synonyms: The Norman Conquest is long past. 

Years ago, I took a CLE from Hamilton County Ohio Judge Mark Painter, who wrote two books on legal writing: “Write Well" and “The Legal Writer.” He walked attendees through the origin of coupled synonyms, phrases like “free and clear.” The historical reason for the coupling was one adjective was English and the other French. If you want to continue for history’s sake, that’s fine, but the coupled synonyms are unnecessary and have no unique legal effect. 

Don’t write: “Last Will and Testament.” Instead write: “Will.” 

Don’t write: “Ordered and decreed.” Instead write: “Ordered.” 

Lists: They deserve numbers or bullet points. 

Lawyers have a tendency to write lists in paragraph format. For example: “Recipient may dispose of the property by: 1) giving it to her descendants; 2) donating it to charity; or 3) selling it at auction.” Such paragraph-encased lists are not easy to spot when skimming documents. 

Instead write: “Recipient may dispose of the property by: 

1) giving it to her descendants; 

2) donating it to charity; or 

3) selling it at auction. 

Break long sentences into numbered, lettered, or bullet-pointed lists. Lists are easiest to read when each item is on its own line. When listing things, use parallel structure  — each item in the list should start with the same form of speech (such as a noun or verb). 

Use Names: Nouns are people too. 

Replace legal labels (Plaintiff, Defendant, Lessor, Lessee, etc.) with names. Good writing is about telling a story, and stories use names. 

Don’t write: “Defendant sold Plaintiff a defective toaster.” Instead write: “Big Box Co. sold Smith a defective toaster.” 

However, it is fine to use legal labels when discussing other cases or referring to classes of people. In this situation, generic legal labels reduce confusion by not introducing additional actors with “bit parts” in your story. 

Don’t write: “Big Box Co. sold Smith a defective toaster. Big Box Co.’s action violates §6 of the act. This court, in Thompson v. Giant Retailer, where Giant Retailer sold George Thompson three defective appliances, held that toasters are covered under §6.” 

Instead write: “Big Box Co. sold Smith a defective toaster. Big Box Co.’s action violates §6 of the act. This court previously held that §6 covers a retailer’s sale of a defective toaster.” Thompson v. Giant Retailer, 123 S.W.3d 456 (Mo. 2021). 

As an aside, I incline toward putting citations in footnotes rather than in line with paragraph text. I think paragraphs are more readable without the citations. Certain courts may dictate where citations appear. 

More Power: Add grammar tech to your writing arsenal. 

Microsoft Word's grammar checker has improved significantly. If you previously turned it off, turn it back on and see what it catches.  

To activate Microsoft Word’s grammar checker on Windows: click on Options under Word’s File menu. On the Proofing page, check the box to mark grammar errors as you type.  

On macOS: Click on Word menu, then Preferences, and then Spelling & Grammar. Under Grammar, check the box to mark grammar errors as you type. 

Microsoft also offers the Microsoft Editor, a writing assistant that works in Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge web browsers. While Word’s grammar checker is limited to one application, the Microsoft Editor helps improve your writing on any webpage. The free version checks just spelling and grammar. If you subscribe to a Microsoft 365 plan, the Editor also checks your browser-based writing for clarity, conciseness, formality, repetition, and punctuation. If you’re a Microsoft 365 customer, it’s free, so give it a try. 

A great non-Microsoft tool, with a devoted following, is Grammarly. It functions similarly to Editor but works not only in Word (via a plugin) and your browser, but also has iOS and Android keyboards (Grammar suggestions at your fingertips!). It also  has a full desktop app in case you write in a program other than Word. Grammarly has a free version with the same features and limitations as the free Editor. Paid versions of Grammarly start at $11.66/mo.  

Missouri Bar members also save 10% on any Wordrake subscription by using code MOBAR at checkout. Wordrake is an editing system for Microsoft Word and Outlook. 

Ready to Learn More 

See the new whitepaper, A Lawyer’s Guide to Writing Well, on the state bar’s practice management site for additional details. If a lawyer has questions or wants to do a deeper dive into writing and grammar software, schedule a free consultation with an expert or send an email to mobarlpm@affinityconsulting.com.  

Every day is a new adventure for Trevor Mulholland as he works with The Missouri Bar’s member benefit providers to raise awareness of various resources that help Missouri lawyers even better serve their clients and manage their practices.

Mulholland, now the assistant director of membership services, joined the bar’s staff as member benefits coordinator in December 2018, when the position was created. He routinely works with the bar’s partners -- advertisers, sponsors, exhibitors, and member benefit providers -- to help them reach Missouri lawyers, whether that be through event exhibits, the Journal or web advertising, blog content, or other outlets.

“We’re really putting ourselves everywhere where Missouri lawyers go for resources to make sure when they’re ready, those resources are readily available in whatever format they prefer,” he said.

The Missouri Bar offers more than 60 benefits from more than 50 providers, including insurance products through The Missouri Bar Private Insurance Exchange, free legal research through Fastcase, and more. This means members could save hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars annually by utilizing the bar’s member benefits, Mulholland said.

“With so many lawyers also being small business owners, we recognize the importance for lawyers to save money and be more efficient,” he said. “That’s why we partner with member benefit providers. For instance, lawyers save up to 70% on office supplies from Office Depot or can utilize a payment processor specifically designed for lawyers, LawPay, that integrates with their preferred practice management software, timekeeping, and invoice programs, just to name a few.”

Along with promoting member benefits, Mulholland is also the team leader behind The Missouri Bar’s recently launched Practice Management Resource Center. With most Missouri lawyers working as solo practitioners or at small firms, the state bar partnered with Affinity Consulting Group to provide practice management resources to help members open, build, manage, protect, and wind down their practices. Resources include white papers, checklists, product-comparison charts, and more. If members have specific questions, they can also email Affinity Consulting Group or schedule a one-on-one remote consultation, at no cost.

“Our goal is to help Missouri lawyers spend less time worrying about their practice and more time doing great work on behalf of their clients,” he said.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced The Missouri Bar to take its conferences and events online, Mulholland said he enjoyed having one-on-one conversations with members and fostering connections between them and partners.

Between coordinating advertisers, promoting member benefits, and helping plan events, it’s no exaggeration that every day is “a new adventure,” Mulholland said.

Before joining The Missouri Bar team, Mulholland worked with an association management company and was assigned to help associations plan events, as well as coordinate with the associations’ sponsors, exhibitors, and advertisers. He credited that position for providing the skills he needs to reach his goals as assistant director of membership services at The Missouri Bar.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mulholland enjoyed traveling and trying new food.

For lawyers, particularly solo practitioners and those responsible for making payroll each month, it seems there are only two states of the business. Either you are too busy to breathe, or you are scrounging around for billable work. One of my colleagues refers to slow spells as time to “shake the trees.” The obvious work is complete or absent, so it’s time to look into client files for those small things that need to be done but you’ve forgotten about or were always less pressing than other matters. 

We should become more comfortable with law’s cyclical nature. The previous 20 years demonstrate that economists have not mastered the business cycle with the dot-com bubble, the Great Recession, and now COVID-19 lockdowns. Law is no different. Only billable work and paying clients will keep your business solvent and staff gainfully employed, but there are useful things you can do during slow periods that will eventually turn your “molasses time” into money: 

• Invest in Training: You and your employees use core tools every day. I guarantee the computer programs you already own have features that would help you work faster and more accurately. If you draft documents, do you have templates with key language in one place that’s consistently editable with ease? Have you customized your email application with rules to filter incoming mail, separating client correspondence from newsletters and advertisements? How about setting up reusable task templates in your case management system? Or developing a documented procedure for redacting PDFs for filing? Use your downtime to learn how to use your tools better. If this interests you, Missouri Bar members receive a 20% discount on Affinity’s legal-specific software manuals. Click here to view the manuals and use coupon code MOBARMEMBER. 

• Catch Up on CLE: Irrespective of business conditions, you will need CLE at the end of your reporting period, which is June 30. Many states, including Missouri, allow a portion of “excess CLE” earned in one reporting period to roll over to the next. Get it out of the way while business is slow. MoBarCLE is one option for Missouri-law specific CLE programming.  

• Take Inventory: Take inventory of your technology. Ask the following questions: 

1. Who has what? Make a list of each staffer and what they have as far as computers, monitors, scanners, printers, phones, and headsets. Also record what software each staffer has, the version of that software, and any associated licensing key. The software list states who have access to special software, like a child support calculator, and whose software should be upgraded. For example, Microsoft ended support for Word 2010 in October of 2020, meaning no more patches or security updates. Anyone running Word 2010 should update immediately. 

2. Where is it? After making the list, identify where that equipment is. Some is likely at the office but given the global pandemic, a fair portion might be in the homes of remote employees. 

3. How old is it? Record the purchase date and warranty status of each piece. 

This inventory list will serve you well for two purposes: insurance claims, if necessary, and planning for replacement of equipment as it ages out of warranty. 

• Everything has a Process: Whether you think of them as processes, what you do in the firm has an “order of execution” or checklist of events/actions you take for everything, including drafting a letter to a client, scheduling a meeting, creating and executing documents, and paying rent or restocking the coffee beans. Document how you do both administrative and substantive processes. Documenting processes helps you discover and eliminate bottlenecks. It also creates a “cookbook” so, should the person “in the know” be on vacation, the work still gets done. Use the workflow spreadsheet to start your documentation process. Start with the “Everything has a Process” whitepapers as your guides: Part 1 – How to Identify Yours and Part 2 – How to Improve Yours 

• Centralize Your Knowledge base: If you currently create client documents -- whether it be a letter, estate plan, or operating agreement -- by finding the most recent one you did for a client and modifying it, there are other tools you could use to help you save time. Take time to gather a representative set of recent wills, for example, and assemble a single template, a starting document that contains the best versions of your provisions. Put those provisions into a single word processing document to use as your future starting point. See this document automation checklist as a guide on the subject. 

Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Slow times in your business are stressful but remember there are useful things you can do during those times that will pay dividends down the road. Plus, focusing your mind on something immediate and useful has benefits of its own. 

Missouri Bar members have two easy ways to get their legal technology and law practice management questions answered by an expert from Affinity Consulting Group. At no cost, members can email their question to an expert or schedule a one-on-one, remote consultation. Visit the Law Practice Management Resource Center for more information. 

You don’t have to be into politics or ceremonial occasions to have seen, understood, and enjoyed the Sen. Bernie Sanders photo and consequent memes from President Joe Biden’s inauguration. If none of those hit the spot, you can create your own of course.

One of my favorites is the photo of Sanders with the words “This could’ve been an email.” I don’t know whether the senator thought that about the eighth inauguration he could attend as a member of Congress, but I’ve certainly been to meetings that felt like they were worthy only of an email at best. I bet you have too.

Meaningful Meeting Building Blocks

Right Size and Right Participants: At Affinity, we have four types of formal, as opposed to impromptu, meetings. I’ve applied our model to examples for a legal organization:

1. Staff meetings that everyone attends, which happen once a month and at which management and team leads give business updates;
2. Team meetings attended by members of a team, such as corporate, litigation, or estate planning, where all team members give updates, share challenges and good news, and address team-wide issues;
3. One-on-one meetings, usually 15-30 minutes long, between a team lead and an individual team member for discussions that don’t affect the whole team; and
4. Client or project meetings, which are external between firm members and the client as part of a case or matter. These meetings vary in length from between 15 minutes to an hour.

The right size and right participants principle means you address the question with the smallest number of meeting participants necessary. You don’t address an individual or team issue at a company-wide meeting. Team meetings and one-on-ones are the venue for that. A project team wants to have its ducks in a row and fix miscommunications outside of the client’s view when possible. Don’t take time out of five people’s day when two people can handle the question. Our exception to these guidelines is that good news can always flow upstream. Who doesn’t like more good news? Good news aside, the best way I’ve found to summarize this principle is that most meetings should have participants and few to no mere attendees.

Meetings are for Making Decisions: Whatever “background information” is a necessary basis for the meeting’s topic should be distributed in advance so participants come to the meeting ready to discuss and decide. The volume of what’s distributed could vary greatly depending on the subject. Maybe you want to hold a meeting about recruiting more clients. I suggest the pre-reading available should include what the firm does now to recruit clients, what those efforts cost, and how successful they've been. People do the pre-reading and come to the meeting prepared to decide on a strategy for the months ahead.

The objection I hear to this approach is people don’t make time to do the pre-reading. No doubt! My response to that is to suggest Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ approach to meetings. The first 30 minutes of each meeting is “study hall” time for participants to complete the pre-reading. That way no one tries to bluff his way through or asks questions preparation would answer.

Even if you invite folks to a “blue sky” brainstorming session, don’t just book a calendar appointment for “brainstorming;” give participants context. I had a college professor who, when handing out the weekly essay prompts, said, “Even if you’re not going to begin writing until the night before it’s due, read the prompts immediately because your mind works on questions without you being aware of it.” I did as he said, and it seemed to work. I have continued to do so ever since. So, don’t schedule a “brainstorming” meeting, but instead a “brainstorming meeting on estate planning services to offer people transitioning from homes or independent living to congregant or assisted living.”

Everyone has Something Else to Do: This is true even of the meeting host or organizer. Run a tight ship. Be respectful of everyone and start your meeting on time. And, more importantly, end the meeting on time come hell or high water. We’re all busy, often booked back-to-back. One or more people have given you the gift of their time. Make good use of it.

What Shall We Talk About: A meeting without an agenda is like cooking without a recipe or driving without a destination. Serendipity may bless your endeavor, but the odds makers bet against you. There’s no need for a detailed plan but telling folks in advance what’s going to be discussed and what questions or problems you expect to resolve helps participants frame their own thinking.

Who Said That: A corollary to points two and four above is that a meaningful meeting should have a scribe or secretary whose responsibility is to record what the group discussed, what decisions the group made, and who agreed to do something and date by which that person updates the group or relevant people. Shortly after the meeting, the scribe sends around notes of the meeting. Remember that a meetings purpose isn’t a gripe session or happy hour; it’s to produce a concrete positive effect.

Possible Perilous Pitfalls

Few meetings will be perfect and many might not satisfy all the meaningful meeting building blocks above. The goal is to make each meeting you can influence at least a little better than the previous one with same participants.

Getting off the starting line is the biggest challenge, but you will encounter hiccups along the way:

Tech Roulette: You’re most likely to encounter this issue with clients or other external participants. Many comparable digital meeting platforms exist: Zoom, Teams, GoToMeeting, Webex, and so forth. If you don’t have a platform, check out the Web Meeting Service Comparison Chart for top vendors in this field.

Irrespective of your platform choice, clients, colleagues, and courts will be using one or more of the alternatives. If your client base tends toward individuals and families, they’re probably most comfortable with Zoom. With businesses it could be Teams, Webex, or Zoom. With courts, I’ve seen Zoom and WebEx. In any event, we’re unlikely to return to plain, vanilla conference calls. The less technologically sophisticated your client is, the more time you’ll lose to tech issues at a meeting’s start. Take that into account when planning and scheduling meetings.

Practice Makes Perfect: I think it was Jack Newton, CEO of legal technology company Clio’s, who commented that COVID compressed five to 10 years of legal tech changes into a few weeks of 2020. If you were a technophobe or tech-naive attorney, you had to figure out webcams, audio, screen sharing and all the rest. You’re better at it today than you were months ago. If you have team members who conduct virtual meetings with clients, make sure they are equipped with the necessary web meeting technology and know how to use it effectively. I encounter many paralegals and legal assistants who meet with clients but lack the audio and video tech to easily participate in web meetings. Make sure people representing your firm to the world do so professionally, just as you would want for in-person meetings.

Quick Tips

Finally, here are some quick tips to encourage everyone’s involvement and best ideas:

• Offer feedback with respect and the intention to help;
• Receive feedback without debate;
• Choose clarifying questions over defensive statements;
• No redundant comments: “I agree with...” or “Like Sally said…”;
• Respect one another;
• Pay attention and engage; and
• One person speaks at a time.

For more resources on opening, building, managing, protecting, and winding down a law practice, visit the The Missouri Bars’ Law Practice Management Resource Center. If you have any questions or want information from experts who’ve implemented these solutions in law practices and legal organizations, visit the Ask an Expert page to email questions or schedule a phone or video call.

When does it start, and how long does it last? 

The 2021 special enrollment period began on Feb. 15 and runs through May 15. Coverage effective dates for those who enroll during this time will begin on the first day of the month following an enrollment date. (For example, an enrollment date of March 4 will have an effective date of April 1.)  

Will there be another open enrollment period later this year? 

Yes. The annual open enrollment period will run Nov. 1 through Dec. 15. Individuals who enroll during this time will have a Jan. 1, 2022, coverage effective date.  

I enrolled during the open enrollment period last year. Will I need to sign up for my plan again? 

No. If you are currently enrolled in health insurance coverage, you do not need to enroll again. However, if you are interested in changing your coverage, this is your chance to secure health insurance that is compliant with the Affordable Care Act outside of the annual open enrollment period. Keep in mind if you decide to change your plan, your deductible and out-of-pocket maximum will reset based on your new coverage details.  

Is this only available to those impacted by COVID-19? 

No. Even though this is being called a 2021 COVID-19 Special Enrollment Period, it is not a requirement that you experienced COVID-19 or even a qualifying life event to enroll in (or change) coverage. 

Get ready to apply 

To learn more or to begin shopping plans, visit The Missouri Bar Private Insurance Exchange or schedule an appointment to speak with a licensed benefits counselor. 

The Missouri Bar Private Insurance Exchange is an online marketplace where Missouri Bar members and their employees can compare and purchase products and services from insurance providers that compete for business within the exchange. Occasionally, The Missouri Bar shares content from the exchange’s administrator, Member Benefits. The Missouri Bar is not a licensed insurance entity and does not sell insurance.  

Have you tried to compare products or services slightly off the beaten consumer path? Or well-known products for a non-marquee feature? Despite that product’s market being worth tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, the information is difficult to come by. 

If you’re in the market for a pillow or bedsheets, there are obvious sources of information such as the website Consumer Reports that rate pillows and bedsheets on relevant categories like softness, durability, and ease of cleaning, for example. Easy enough. But suppose you want to buy a pillow made in America or in a union shop? It’s harder to come by that information in part because most buyers are not including those features in their buying decisions. In that case, your best recourse is to look for manufacturers who brag about location or employees. You could also look to sites that promote “Made in America” products. 

The same information gap occurs with tech products too. To begin with, honest feature comparison sites that aren’t littered with ads are hard to come by for the general consumer. And once found, those sites target the broadly relevant features. Websites like PC Magazine or CNET will compare Dropbox, OneDrive, and G Drive, but they’re unlikely to do so with a legal professional in mind. General audience news sources will talk price, speed, and ease of use, all relevant to legal professionals as well as the general public, but they won’t address more esoteric things important to lawyers. A PC Magazine comparison won’t address data center locations, what the service does when served with a subpoena or warrant, or how you could use a “roll your own” encryption on top of the service. 

For legal-specific products, the problem is worse. While potential buyers can compare Dropbox, OneDrive, and G Drive, software and services targeted at legal professionals have websites and marketing materials that often offer vague descriptions of capabilities, lacking important caveats, and many times hide pricing behind a “Request a Consultation” form that results in a sales call. 

These problems are exacerbated because lawyers, particularly those new to the profession or unaccustomed to comparing and choosing software, may lack a good idea of what features they want in a practice management solution, for example. 

Using Your Resources to Make Good Legal Tech Decisions 

That’s where the Law Practice Management Resource Center come into play. We’ve collected and analyzed information in key law practice tech areas so you don’t have to. Let’s walk through an example: 

Suppose you find your case and matter organization lacking. You can’t access documents unless you’re in the office. You rely on one or more people to figure out what, if anything, a client owes you and how much, if anything, the client has in their trust account. A client calls, texts, or emails you inquiring about case statuses, and you spend time rifling through emails, handwritten notes, and your memory to give updates. You talked with clients all day but, at the end of the day, are hard-pressed to remember who you talked to for how long and what was discussed. The clients are happy, but poor recollection has cost you billable time. Not good! 

If we treat this like a law school exam, we can unpack it and get an idea of issues this law office should address when evaluating a new practice management system. 

• Document access: You want to be able to access documents from outside the office. Is it just documents or do you also want access to case information? How important is it that access works well on tablets or iPhones, or is good laptop access enough? 

• Accounting: You want to know what the client owes and what’s in his trust account irrespective of whether the bookkeeper or support staffer, if any, is reachable. Do you want to know other financial information as well, like upcoming rent or office supply bills in the same program? If not, what accounting program do you use now, and will it share data with your prospective practice management program? Should clients be able to see and pay bills over the internet? 

• Case status: Most practice management programs hold general case information, party contact information, calendar dates, and tasks. Most also have some form of document storage. All would be an improvement over the “rifling lawyer” in our hypothetical scenario, but there are wrinkles in the options. How important is mobile access and from what device? Many programs can capture email and sync calendars and contacts but are you a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace firm? Many products, particularly the web-based ones, offer client portals where the client can see upcoming appointments, share documents, exchange secure messages with the lawyer, and see bills. Is this case status “self-help” a feature you want? Some programs integrate with voice over internet phone (VOIP) systems so phone call numbers and length become proposed time entries, so you don’t lose billable time as in our hypothetical situation. How valuable is that? 

As with a law school exam, our one paragraph hypothetical became three paragraphs of additional questions and considerations. You don’t want to do all the leg work yourself! 

Our Law Practice Management Resource Center offers checklists and whitepapers to spur these types of questions. Find the checklists (here and here) and whitepaper relevant to practice management software on our Law Practice Management website. Once you’ve picked your “must have” features and prioritized their importance, then head over to the Checklists and Charts resource, scroll down to the “Manage a Practice” heading, and you’ll find two relevant comparison charts. The “Practice Management Server-based” comparison chart compares vendors offering software that would install on a desktop or server that you maintain. This route is popular with lawyers who have more complex needs, want to integrate with other desktop software such as PCLaw or Microsoft Word, and those who don’t want client data stored with a cloud-based provider. The “Practice Management Cloud-based” comparison chart compares vendors whose offerings run in a web browser, requiring little to no software maintenance on the user’s side. This route is better for lawyers newer to practice, those who are more mobile, those who desire tablet or smartphone apps, and those who don’t want to make an upfront investment in software and hardware to run traditional software. 

The comparison chart organization makes feature analysis easy. For example, if you are committed to desktop/server software over a web-based solution but want the ability to email or text appointment reminders to clients, then Coyote Analytics is your answer. Or if you’re committed to a web-based offering but want offline access to case information because you have spotty internet, then Smokeball is your answer. Missouri Bar members receive discounts on many top practice management programs, including Smokeball, at the Member Benefits section of the bar’s website. 

Finally, once you’ve selected a practice management solution, be sure to clean up your data before moving case and billing information to the new system. 

Much More to Discover 

Practice management software is just one example of high-value, legal tech decisions that the comparison charts can help you make. Comparisons exist for everything from document management solutions (that can talk to your practice management solution) to document assembly tools (that can pull information from practice management software into documents) to voice over internet phone (VOIP) that can automatically create times from phone calls. Visit all the checklists and comparison charts available for bar members. 

If you have any questions or want information from experts who’ve implemented these solutions for law practices and legal organizations, visit LPM’s Ask an Expert to email questions or schedule a phone or video call. 

The annual enrollment fee a Missouri lawyer pays is allocated to services and programs the bar provides or supports to help lawyers even better serve their clients. For every dollar, 63 cents go toward the state bar’s operational costs, 25 cents fund the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, and 12 cents is directed to Legal Services. 

Of the 12 cents allocated for Legal Services, the Supreme Court of Missouri collects 60% – labeled the “Low Income Legal Service Fee” – and pays the statutory basic civil legal services fund before it is distributed to Legal Services. The remaining 40% is passed through The Missouri Bar, with the Board of Governor’s permission, and paid to Legal Services.  

When Missouri lawyers pay their enrollment fees, they open the door to more than 50 services, benefits and discounts, whether it be for building and managing a law firm, purchasing insurance, adding research tools, and more. Missouri Bar members receive discounts from companies, saving nearly $1,000 annually. Missouri lawyers can also connect and collaborate with other lawyers from around the state through connect.MOBAR or The Missouri Bar’s more than 30 open-enrollment substantive law committees. 

With its portion of lawyers’ annual enrollment fees coupled with non-fees revenue, the bar can hire and maintain staff who administer programs that benefit Missouri Bar members, such as the Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program, dispute resolution programs, free access to legal research tool Fastcase, affordable CLE programs, and more.  

The Missouri Bar doesn’t stop at assisting lawyers though. The state bar is dedicated to improving the profession, the law and the administration of justice on behalf of all Missourians. Along with providing benefits and programs to lawyers, the bar also provides a variety of resources and services to the citizens of Missouri. Members of the public may find an attorney online, download guides on legal topics, and take advantage of civics education programming – all aimed at helping Missourians gain a better understanding of how the law impacts their daily lives. The Missouri Bar also coordinates multiple pro bono efforts, connecting volunteer lawyers with low-income Missourians in need of legal help.  

Licensed Missouri lawyers receive an annual enrollment fee statement from the Supreme Court of Missouri. Annual enrollment fees are due on or before Feb. 1, as Jan. 31 is a Sunday this year. Missouri lawyers can view their attorney enrollment fee balances by clicking here. Lawyers can also pay online using a credit card or echeck process via MyFees.  

Learn more about Attorney Enrollment Fees in our MyFees FAQ. 

A year of innovation through crisis
Looking back over this year, The Missouri Bar has worked to improve the administration of justice on behalf of the public as Missouri works to reduce the spread of COVID-19. To achieve this, your Missouri Bar has helped lawyers do an even better job for their clients safely and has worked with our courts to allow utilization of remote tools so justice can be obtained safely and without delay. Some of those successful efforts include:

• Electronic notarization, executive order and statutory changes
• Virtual hearings, depositions and jury trials (including free trainings on each)
• Virtual oaths, including virtual enrollment ceremonies
• Removed in-person requirement from certain proceedings
• Free COVID-19 MoBarCLE Series (10,000+ registrations during Apr.-Sept. 2020 limited offering)
• Extended MCLE Reporting Year and Deadline (Sept. 30 and Oct. 31, 2020)
• Coronavirus Resource Center for Lawyers

Virtual meetings will continue through August 2021
Having adapted, we are now planning for how to best continue to support you and your practice safely until a vaccine becomes readily available and the health risks associated with large events diminish. That is why the Board of Governors recently voted to continue with virtual formats only for all Missouri Bar events, multi-day conferences and programs through August 2021. This enables us to continue to provide the quality, Missouri law specific programing you expect and deserve in the safest ways possible for you and our staff. We will continue to monitor changes to the pandemic to see if the Annual Meeting of The Missouri Bar, set for Sept. 22-24, 2021, could be our first hybrid event of virtual and onsite offerings.

Are you okay?
As lawyers, we are susceptible to feelings of isolation. The unique environment in which we do our work is not easily translated to many of our closest family and friends. Combined with the restrictions placed on our communication by confidentiality and privilege, a large part of our lives is locked away. Pile on pandemic precautions such as social distancing and the stress of the holidays and it is easy to see why one might not be okay.

This fall, I partnered with Chief Justice George W. Draper III to convene a Roundtable on Lawyer Well-being with national experts and Missouri judges and lawyers. The group generated many great ideas for new lawyer wellness initiatives in Missouri and I look forward to announcing these new projects as they are launched. In the meantime, I encourage you to connect with others who can help through our current programs:

Lawyers Living Well is an online community for lawyers to discuss self-care, mindfulness and more in a supportive environment of their peers. To sign up, visit the Join a Committee/Discussion Group page and select Lawyers Living Well under "Other Community Opportunities".

The Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program is available 24/7 to help you with substance and mental health concerns. For help or a confidential screening, call 1-800-688-7859 to talk now or get the link for a face-to-face session through a new, secure telehealth platform. MOLAP is a free, confidential counseling program that serves lawyers, judges, law students and immediate family members.

All the resources you need to manage your practice
As a small firm practitioner, I know that help with managing a law office is something we lawyers in solo or small practices crave. The Missouri Bar’s newly expanded law practice management program features consultations and a bank of resources to help you even better serve your clients. The program is free to Missouri Bar members and includes access to more than 150 white papers, checklists, comparison charts and other resources for lawyers looking to open, build, manage, protect or wind down a practice.

Members also now have two easy ways to ask an expert their legal technology and law practice management questions. At no cost, you can email your question to an expert or schedule a one-on-one, remote consultation with Affinity Consulting Group. These resources are available to all Missouri Bar members at MoBar.org/LPM. The expanded practice management resources are the newest addition to The Missouri Bar’s member benefits.

While we were all working to continue to adapt to life and practice amidst this global pandemic, please know we are thankful for your service to the profession, the law, and, especially, your clients. Please contact me with your concerns, ideas, or just to chat.

Please take care of yourselves and each other,

John Gunn
2020-21 Missouri Bar President

Five hours of free CLE

Earlier this month we announced that we will help members obtain their needed continuing legal education credits while providing meaningful content directly related to our practices during the pandemic. Our MoBarCLE team has worked hard over the past few weeks to produce this programming.

Each member of The Missouri Bar may now access up to five free MoBarCLE programs as follows:

• two hours of ethics credit, including one hour of elimination of bias credit, and
• three hours of practice management programming consisting of new content specific to the pandemic and responses to it. 

MoBarCLE has developed seven live webinar programs – including four ethics programs and one elimination of bias program – which are all set to repeat multiple times between now and Sept. 30. 

To register for complimentary programs in the COVID-19 Free CLE Series, select the program you wish to attend and follow the instructions in red under description to register.  

We're listening

The lawyers you've elected to represent you on our Board of Governors are diverse in many ways. Of note, nearly half of the board are lawyers from solo or small firm practice settings. As such, we recognize the responsibilities, joys and stresses Missouri lawyers in all parts of the state experience and will continue to offer resources, services and more – such as this free CLE series – to aid all our members in weathering this current crisis. 

As always, please contact me with your suggestions or ideas when it comes to improving the law and our profession.

Stay well,

Tom Bender, 2019-20 Missouri Bar President

"As lawyers, we are susceptible to feelings of isolation. The unique environment in which we do our work is not easily translated to many of our closest family and friends. Combined with the restrictions placed on our communication by confidentiality and privilege, a large part of our lives is locked away," said John Gunn, 2019-20 Missouri Bar president-elect. "The purpose of this forum is to provide space for members to connect with other lawyers with similar experiences. While the duties of confidentiality and protection of the privilege might still apply, here you have participants that understand the professional obligations and stresses you are encountering."

Missouri lawyers are not alone when it comes to experiencing stress, high rates of depression and substance use according to the 2016 ABA CoLAP and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s study of mental health and substance use disorders among lawyers. 

Gunn said stress and feelings of isolation can impact the professional and personal lives of lawyers if not addressed and encourages members to join the group where their peers will listen, leading to supportive connections.

Gunn added the discussion group builds on the many ways The Missouri Bar works to help lawyers by promoting health and wellness among our members and staff. Those efforts include the:

• Missouri Lawyers' Assistance Program (MOLAP) which offers 24/7 free and confidential counseling
• Missouri Lawyers' Assistance Program Annual Conference
• CLE programming at major conferences focused on wellness 
• New lifestyle member benefits including fitness discounts 

Gunn also noted the collection of well-being resources for the legal profession during COVID-19 on the new Coronavirus Resource Center for Lawyers.  

In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19), The Missouri Bar Private Insurance Exchange is offering Missouri lawyers a complimentary subscription to telehealth services through May.  Using the service, lawyers can chat with board-certified physicians by phone, video or app. Telehealth physicians can assess symptoms, including those affiliated with the virus, and help determine the appropriate next steps for every patient they see. A $45 virtual visit copay will apply. 

The service also allows for lawyers to upgrade to lower copay plans and add dependent family members to a subscription. 

The Missouri Bar Private Insurance Exchange is an online marketplace where Missouri Bar members, and their employees, can compare and purchase products and services from insurance providers that compete for business within the exchange. Occasionally, The Missouri Bar shares content from the exchange’s administrator, Member Benefits. The Missouri Bar is not a licensed insurance entity and does not sell insurance. 

Join Missouri Bar members and lawyers from throughout the United States while exploring top destinations and learning from local experts – all while gaining MCLE credit. Here are the trip opportunities for 2020:

Havana, Cuba 

March 14-18, 2020

7.2 MCLE| 0 Ethics | 0 Bias

Registration Deadline: Dec. 31, 2019

Provider: Cuba Cultural Travel

Join the delegation in Support of the Cuban People while authorized travel to Cuba is still accessible for Americans! Participants will be hosted by local scholars, experts, entrepreneurs, musicians and artists who will offer in-depth commentary on the Cuban legal system, its evolving political society and rich culture.

Lisbon & Northern Portugal 

March 20-25, 2020

MCLE Credit Pending

Registration Deadline: Dec. 31, 2019

Provider: CLE Abroad

Journey through Portugal’s old-world allure and new world splendor, exploring Lisbon and Porto‘s rich history, diverse wines, and vibrant culinary scenes. This immersive program will engage with local guides and attorneys offering poignant commentary on the Portuguese and EU legal and political systems, international relations, art history and architecture.

Hawaii 

March 23-27, 2020

15 MCLE | 12 Ethics | 1 Bias

Early Registration Deadline: Feb. 22, 2020

Provider: Destination CLE

Hawaii's big island holds a three-day seminar filled with both education and expeditions. Topics include lawyer wellness, the future of law through AI, business valuation, client financial statements, virtual law practice and more. Excursions can also be purchased as part of your registration.

London, UK 

June 8-13, 2020

MCLE Credit Pending

Registration Deadline: Feb. 5, 2020

Provider: CLE Abroad

Journey through London’s rich history within a legal and political context, visiting the Inns of Court, the Supreme Court, and Windsor Castle. The timing of the visit will allow participants to study the impact of Brexit and Great Britain’s struggle for autonomy and coexistence with its European counterparts.

Scotland, UK 

June 15-19, 2020

9 MCLE| 0 Ethics | 0 Bias

Registration Deadline: Feb. 5, 2020

Provider: CLE Abroad

The amusing capital of Edinburgh will be the home base for this unique opportunity to enjoy the best of Scotland while learning about Scots law and earning MCLE credit.

This company helps solo and small law firm owners build law firm business that fulfills their personal, professional, and financial goals – all at a do-it-yourself pace. Among the services offered are a monthly coaching call, a newletter, and access to professionals who will answer questions and offer feedback on a firm’s business plan.

Missouri Bar members who join How to Manage a Small Law Firm will receive a $100 discount off the regular monthly cost of the service.

Watch The Missouri Bar’s weekly electronic newsletter, ESQ, for more information on this new member benefit or visit http://www.mobar.org/memberbenefits/ for a complete rundown of all the existing benefits, services, and discounts available to Missouri Bar members.

Washington University School of Law9/23/19 Busch Hall Suite 210 12 noon – 3:00 pm

University of Missouri - Columbia School of Law10/15/19Memorial Union South Tower, Room S3029:00 am – 1:00 pm

Saint Louis University School of Law10/16/19Room 74210:30 am – 2:30 pm

University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law10/21/19Judges Chamber10:30 am – 2:30 pm

Washington University School of Law10/28/19Busch Hall Suite 21012 noon – 3:00 pm

The Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association was one of the early endorsers of the policy, and Stinson; Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner; and Gray, Ritter & Graham, P.C. have all adopted it. If your law firm is interested in adopting the model, we’re here to help! If your firm has already adopted the model policy, please contact the Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program office at 1-800-688-7859 to let us know so we can give your firm a shout out at the Missouri Bar Annual Meeting and Judicial Conference in September. This year’s annual meeting will feature a wellness track; get the details at http://www.mobar.org/am2019/.

The 7 Point Lawyer Well-Being Pledge

Wellness is a hot topic on a national level, and American Bar Association President Bob Carlson and the Working Group to Advance Well-Being in the Legal Profession recently announced a challenge for legal employers to sign the Well-Being Pledge for Legal Employers. Several firms across the U.S. promptly did so, pledging to take the following seven steps to reduce substance and mental health concerns in the legal profession, improve the well-being of attorneys and help create a healthier profession:

1. “Provide education to attorneys and staff on topics related to well-being, mental health and substance use disorders.” MOLAP can help by providing education and prevention programs that address stress, depression and substance concerns for firms, local bar organizations and conferences upon request.

2. “Disrupt the status quo of drinking based events by making meaningful alternatives available.”

3. “Develop visible partnerships with outside resources committed to reducing substance use disorders and mental health distress in the profession.”  

4. “Provide confidential access to addiction and mental health experts and resources.”

5. “Develop proactive policies and protocols to support assessment and treatment of substance use and mental health problems, including a defined-back to-work policy following treatment.”Missouri’s Model Policy on law firms addressing impairment is a good example of this.

6. “Demonstrate that help-seeking and self-care are core cultural values by regularly supporting programs to improve physical, mental and emotional well-being.”

7. “Highlight the adoption of this framework to attract and retain the best lawyers and staff.”

Learn more about the law firm well-being pledge here.

The Power of Recovery

If problems are successfully addressed, performance returns to normal, and sometimes it is even better than before. Interested in learning more about the power of recovery? Check out the inspiring Besden Redemption video and the Voices of Recovery Series, which features real-life stories of recovery. Recovery retains rainmakers, and protects clients, reputations and careers. The Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program video at mobar.org/molap/lawyers/ speaks about the practical and personal benefits of recovery. Struggling lawyers sometimes reach out after considering such messages of hope and encouragement.

If you are concerned about substance use, please contact the Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program at (800) 688-7859 for free, confidential assistance. If you are struggling right now, we welcome your call.

References:

1. ABA Press Release. “ABA launches pledge campaign to improve mental health and well- being of lawyers.“ https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2018/09/aba-launches-pledge-campaign-to-improve-mental-health-and-well-b/, 9/10/18.

2. ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs. “ABA Working Group to Advance Well-Being in the Legal Profession.” https://www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance/working-group_to_advance_well-being_in_legal_profession/, 4/12/2019.

3. Missouri Bar. St. Louis firm Gray, Ritter, Graham, P.C. Most Recent to Join Effort to Build Safety Net for Lawyers. http://www.mobar.org/Media-Center/News-Blog/Strategies-to-strengthen-the-safety-net-for-legal-professionals/, 2018.

• BlockDrop:  A traditional document assembly software that contains industry-focused resources such as templates, workflows, checklists, practice guides, drafting tips and a legal dictionary.
• ClientPay: A cloud-based payment solution dedicated to helping law firms save money and process payments more efficiently.
• Community.lawyer:  Legal professionals can use the platform’s intuitive interface to rapidly build and deploy their apps.
• Digital Age Marketing Group: Drives more paying clients to law firms’ websites by leveraging social media and search engines to draw more filtered, targeted potential business.
• Filevine:  Customizable cloud-based case management system that manages all data for cases from intake to settlement.
• Legal Matter Point: Law firm case management system offering complete access to file data and system functionality regardless of location.
• LexReception: Provides a live answering service for firms who can’t hire a full-time receptionist or for after-hours calls.
• Hertz/Dollar/Thrifty Rental Car Service: Car rental discount at thousands of locations worldwide.
• SimpleLaw.com: Attracts potential clients to the same platform where cases and the practice are managed to eliminate redundancies and offers on-demand paralegal support.
• Smith.ai: Offers live U.S.-based receptionists for phone calls and web chats.
• SoFi at Work: A student loan refinancing benefit offering immediate savings to members paying undergrad and grad loans.
• The Expert Institute:  A legal-tech platform that connects attorneys with expert witnesses for complex litigation matters.
• Trustifi:  Offers email cybersecurity through encryption and Postmark, court-admissible proof of the sending, delivery, receipt and content of each sent message, including any attachments.
• Zipwhip:  Facilitates the use of texting for a variety of client/business functions.

Keep up with implementation of these new member benefit providers, as well as discounts, services and resources for Missouri lawyers, using #MOLawyersBenefit and through ESQ., The Missouri Bar’s weekly e-newsletter. In the meantime, visit MoBar.org/memberbenefits/ for a complete rundown of all benefits, services and discounts available to Missouri Bar members.