Spin Cycle: How Quickly Do Your Cases Move?

Lawyers look for revenue in all types of places. Sometimes they try to reduce overhead.  Sometimes they try to generate more leads.  Sometimes they try to convert more leads.  Sometimes they try to throw more money at the problem.  Sometimes they try to throw less money at the problem.  If most of those solutions haven’t worked, keep reading.

One place you can find lost revenue is by focusing on your current clients.

The most efficient law firms make the most money, because they move through cases quicker; consequently, they can bring in new cases faster.  That’s pretty simple math.  But, making the equation work is hard.  Since law firms don’t generally pay attention to the speed at which they process particular tasks, or parts, of cases, there is no baseline to improve on.  In other words: you can’t reduce the time it takes you to do something, if you have no idea how long it takes in the first place.

To offer a simple example, if you run a personal injury practice, you can identify how long it takes you (on average) to get to settlement after a demand letter is sent.  Now, once you have that average, you can try to reduce the average time spent.  Publishing those rates of speed internally may even ramp up your employees’ efforts, because gamification is a real thing, and works in law offices, too.

Cycle time is a key concept in Lean Six Sigma, but law firms spend very little time considering or tracking process speed, and trying to eliminate waste from it.  But, without even utilizing that concept in full, law firms can create case workflows, and track the time it takes to get from one task to another.

Then, it’s just a matter of whittling down each segment.

. . .

If you need assistance with building out process management in your law firm, we can help!

The Wyoming State Bar offers free law practice management consulting services through Red Cave Law Firm Consulting.

To request a consult, visit the Wyoming State Bar’s law practice management page, and start running your law firm like a business.

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