Peer to Peer Magazine

PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 64 Automated Time-Tracking: Just because you are working under an AFA, it does not mean you stop tracking your hours. More data means more information you can use in negotiating future agreements. While there are hundreds of software packages and apps that can track time, here are the features you should seek in a time-tracking solution: • Integration across all work devices, including laptops, tablets and smartphones • Automated time-capture capabilities that are user-friendly and efficient for busy staff and attorneys • Real-time reporting that allows you to quickly assess a project's status at a glance • Consistency of billing, either as a monthly status bill that the client does or does not see or as on-demand billing (the client sees the status when they ask for it) EDUCATION If more and more clients want to pay your firm via an AFA rather than an hourly rate, they will hesitate to sign any contract with a firm struggling with inefficiencies. From their perspective, why should they pay top dollar for a superstar lawyer when half that person's time is spent figuring out how to format a Word document? From the firm's perspective, if alternative fee arrangements are inescapable and clients are shrewd enough to ask about efficiencies, there is an immediate, bottom-line value in assuring that everyone is tech-savvy and moving at top speed. Here are some best practices to consider when taking on firmwide education initiatives: • Get Buy-In from Top Management: Your education efforts are doomed without the support and weight of upper management • Form an Education/Technology Committee: This committee should include representatives from across the firm to help design and launch the education initiative • Administer Individualized Assessments: Conduct technology assessments with every staff member and attorney to attain starting benchmarks that allow you to offer highly customized training • Create Customized Training: Use the assessments to design customized content for tailored training (do not offer one-size-fits-all training; you will bore advanced users and frustrate remedial users) • Award Certifications: People who achieve various levels of technology proficiency should receive certifications for their accomplishments, which could ultimately be used by the marketing department to tout the firm's technological proficiencies • Tie Training to Annual Performance Reviews: Aligning training and improved skills to annual reviews and compensation will prove that the initiative has weight behind it from top management Perhaps more than any other activity, these education efforts will improve workflow across your firm, enhancing profitability. MEETING NEW EXPECTATIONS Your clients are under increased scrutiny thanks to a challenging marketplace, government regulations and financial institution oversight. They are passing that scrutiny on to their legal teams. No longer are they going to accept bills that simply list hours worked. The firms that meet these new expectations through improved business intelligence and project management efficiencies will lead us all into the future. FEATURES There is an immediate, bottom-line value in assuring that everyone is tech-savvy and moving at top speed.

• Cover