Step 1: Identify your firm’s goals
Determine what's most important to you and your firm, and the goals that you wish to achieve as you build a more successful, client-centered firm.
Here are some common goals that law firms should be focusing on:
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Goal 1: Bring on more of the clients you want to work with
Market condition
68% of consumers speak to a lawyer they do not hire. There are a lot of window shoppers out there. Some people will call a law firm to gauge costs, others just want to vent, and a few even try to use a free consultation to map out their strategy.
How to adapt
Communicate early and often with potential clients. This doesn’t have to be time intensive or on a one-to-one basis; emails and reminders can be automated to make it easier to engage, collect information, and ultimately sign a new client up. (Sending forms electronically can make this process even quicker.) Explain how you will work with them—this can be done on your website or in initial calls.
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Goal 2: Better understand firm performance
Market condition
Only half of solo practitioners and managing partners are very confident in their knowledge of their firm’s major financial metrics.
How to adapt
Adopt reporting tools to continually track key performance indicators (KPIs) like billing and collection rates in your firm. These metrics help identify what is working well and what needs improvement to drive revenue growth.
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Goal 3: Understand and deliver on client expectations
Market condition
Client expectations have dramatically changed. 67% of consumers believe lawyers should offer the option of working with clients remotely. A further 79% want to work with a lawyer who offers services both remotely and in-person.
How to adapt
Build greater flexibility and more options into your services. Communicating with clients to determine how they prefer to access legal services can help you to align with these expectations to deliver better client experiences.
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Goal 4: Automate more administrative tasks
Market condition
Successful firms are increasingly adopting technological solutions to automate and streamline their firm’s processes to make things more organised.
How to adapt
Adopt solutions that offload some of the administrative workload of running your firm to free up more time for billable work. These tools include client intake solutions, interactive client portals, time recording, and bill reminders.
Step 2: Implement the right technology to achieve these goals
Implementing the right technologies is a crucial step towards accomplishing your firm’s goals in 2022. Over the course of several years, we’ve seen a consistent trend in which growing firms have adopted client-centred technologies at a much greater pace than firms with shrinking revenues.
Your 2022 Checklist for Success
Set your firm up for success with trusted technology that integrates seamlessly and securely with software you already use and can be accessed from anywhere, on any device.
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Case Management System
Client Intake Software
Client Portal
E-signatures
Document storage
Time recording
Video Conferencing
Google My Business profile
Performance reports
The data insights outlined here and more analysis of the current state of the legal industry can be found in recent Legal Trends Reports.
Clio can help you succeed—see how
Book a personalised tour and see how Clio can help achieve your 2022 goals.