The Future of Law Practice Management: Six Innovative Strategies to Outpace Your Competition with Ashley Kappel
On September 14, 2020, LawBank hosted a presentation on the future of law practice management with member Ashley Kappel.
Ashley is a commercial real estate attorney, legal consultant, executive coach, and founder of Kappel Law. The program focused on ways to increase client satisfaction and optimize profitability, efficiencies, and effectiveness.
Six strategies for law practice management
The six innovative strategies that Ashley discussed included: identifying what is included and excluded from the Scope of Work, developing a strong communication plan, using alternative fee arrangements, techniques to build a budget and get started with AFAs, using Kanban Boards, and completing After Matter Reviews.
Legal project management
Ashley explained the background of legal project management, stating that it emerged as a response from clients asking for predictability and transparency in legal fees following the 2008 recession. Legal project management requires discipline of planning and better communication, and results in increased client satisfaction.
To begin legal project management, the following will need to first be determined: the price of services you will perform, the schedule of your services, the outcome of your services, the staffing you will need, what progress and communication will look like, and how change orders will be handled. It is also helpful to watch for recurring events that will help you predict costs in the future. From the initial evaluation steps, Ashley suggested to consider the actions that will need to be taken, such as creating a budget, a staffing plan, a risk strategy, and implementation. To develop a process, use phases to create a work breakdown structure. Ashley provided a sample work breakdown structure that can be viewed in the full presentation.
Fixed fee engagements
Next, Ashley provided guidance on fixed fee engagements. She recommends limiting the number of document turn arounds, limiting the number of depositions, and allowing for proactive communication with the client. Ashley also shared best practices for client communications, starting with a preliminary meeting, followed by submitting a list of questions for the client to determine who is in charge at their business, what success means to them, and what their objectives are. It is important to have a sample communication plan to submit to the client during kick off, accompanied by your approach, rate, and a progress report with a summary of what have you done in the past.
Ashley presented the benefits of establishing an alternative fee arrangement. According to a 2012 LexisNexis survey, the top three benefits for a law firm using alternative fee arrangements are: attracting and maintaining clients, simplified billing and operations, and increased billing realization. Ashley then shared ten tips to get started with AFAs and explained the difference in calculating costs for fixed fees and AFAs. The presentation concluded with examining the benefits of using Kanban Boards to manage matters efficiently and completing After Matter Reviews with clients after every matter concludes.
Click here to view the full presentation. If you are interested in viewing upcoming programs hosted by LawBank, visit the events page.
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