Law Office Management & Administration Report

With year-end drawing closer and economic challenges building, cost control is likely to be on your clients’ minds more than ever. You may find of interest an approach intended to appeal to firm controllers, especially if your fourth quarter work takes you into their offices to help with planning and budgeting.

Firm administration leaders and staff serve one client: the firm. But the firm is made up of a number of partners, and being able to balance their needs and desires can sometimes seem like an impossible task.

According to John Kirk, director of administration at Manko Gold Katcher & Fox, an environmental and energy boutique spin-off of Philadelphia’s Wolf Block, law firms everywhere are discovering the benefits of adopting "green" practices. He cites as examples those firms that have signed on to the ABA’s Law Office Climate Change Challenge.

Securing your law firm’s financial transactions against loss or outright fraud isn’t all that challenging, according to Randy Becker and Henry Macchiaroni. Becker and Macchiaroni are administrators and financial managers for law firms, one with 20 lawyers and the other with 700, one with an international practice and the other with a local presence only.

Is the legal profession in a work-life crisis? Few might accept such a contention, but the numbers suggest that something is amiss. Who can overlook, for instance, that 78 percent of associates leave law firms by their fifth year and nearly half of women lawyers leave the profession at some point in their careers.

Data on Paralegals Can Help Your Firm Compete If laying off associates, freezing salaries, and other measures are not enough to keep your firm competitive, you may want to shift legal work to your nonlawyer professionals in a bigger way this coming year. Need a resource?

Each month LOMAR updates its Law Office Cost Index for major cities nationwide. This exclusive LOMAR monthly feature is aimed at helping law firm managing partners and administrators monitor relevant office cost changes within their area and compare them with those of other regions.

2008 Toronto Winter Meeting, Toronto, Canada, Dec. 3. Contact: NALP, 1025 Connecticut Ave., Suite 1110, Washington, DC 20036-5413. 202-835-1001; fax: 202-835-1112; info@nalp.org; www.nalp.org