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From technology companies to traditional corporations and now
into legal practice, sophisticated analytics have been driving a quiet
revolution in business productivity. The model of assessing employee
and business performance through annual or semi-annual review has
become obsolete, abandoned even by old-fashioned companies like
General Electric, Coca-Cola and Kimberly Clark. In legal, the billable
hour has long held sway as the gold standard of aorney performance.
But, with analytics, law firms have a more reliable method of
evaluating the performance of their aorneys.
Before the adoption of connected productivity soware, trying
to gather continuous performance data would have caused an
inordinate disruption in employees' primary responsibilities as they
filled out endless surveys and other paperwork. Now, the soware
employees already use generates a goldmine of data on their habits
and performance; managers just need the right tools to compile and
analyze everything. The objective for firms is to figure out which
metrics are most important and how they can use those metrics to
improve the firm's productivity.
Productivity vs. the Billable Hour
Legal management has come to recognize the inadequacy of the
billable hour as a measure of aorney performance. While billable
hours are a convenient way for firms to assess legal fees for clients,
they inherently fail to value productivity gains. If a new technique or
technology allows an associate to complete the same work in less time,
that associate will bill fewer hours than an associate using obsolete
practices. Inefficient practices allow firms to bill more, but, as clients
demand greater transparency, firms must show ever-increasing
productivity per billable hour to justify their billing rates.
by Adam McDonell of Salladore
Using Analytics To Boost
Attorney Productivity
Using Analytics To Boost Aorney Productivity
