Fundamental business habits for progressive law firms
Law firms in the SME market have the chance to onboard new strategies and overtake their competitors with digital-first habits – assisted by the right digital tools – says Chris Pucci, CEO of Osprey Approach
Regardless of your goals, running a successful modern law firm involves mastering the operational basics and adopting habits that help you remain competitive.
The results from the LPM and Briefing Frontiers reports highlight that, no matter your firm’s size, focusing on implementing the right technology is what will help you remain competitive. Building better habits is the easiest way for law firms to achieve their goals and utilising technology is the simplest way to implement better habits.
Whether utilising existing solutions or implementing new ones, it’s those firms that take a digital-first approach which pose the biggest threat and can effectively compete in the market – whether that’s to win new customers or retain top talent.
This resonates now more than ever thanks to the broad move to hybrid working. LPM Frontiers showed that only 15% of SME law firms are expecting their employees to go back to the office full-time, so flexible digital tools are key for operational effectiveness.
Building successful habits
Your persistent business habits help form your business reputation and how you’re perceived. Even the smallest habits, when combined, have a great impact on overall performance and, therefore, the longevity of a firm. Without good operational, compliance, and client service habits in place, legal professionals are inflicting unnecessary restrictions on themselves, hindering their chances of meeting their goals, exceeding client expectations, or having a stress-free workload.
Building successful habits creates freedom to focus on the bigger picture and those wider goals. It frees the team from being occupied by daily tasks and provides the luxury of time and space to look for improvements, make change, and drive the firm forward.
Fundamental digital habits of a modern law firm
Without purpose, habits don’t stick. Processes need to connect with your firm’s wider goals and ambitions – otherwise, your team may slip back into less effective habits.
This is why we’ve categorised below the key mindset law firms should adopt first to effectively implement better habits.
Mindset 1: Think ‘digital-first’
Having a digital-first strategy sets the foundation for all subsequent habits. To operate successfully, directors and partners need to have a digital-focused operational strategy that is more than simply a ‘working from home’ policy. Thinking digital-first is about adopting an Anywhere Operations strategy that ensures your business can operate, collaborate and service clients without reliance on physical locations, infrastructure, or processes, providing flexibility and continuity. You can find out more about the concept of Anywhere Operations and how it can benefit your firm in our guide.
This mindset should help your firm identify digital transformational changes you can make to your daily habits that embrace technology to make daily workloads easier, hybrid-working simpler, and going paperless the aim.
Mindset 2: Be client-focused
The success of any modern law firm will rely heavily on the quality of client service you can provide. A key benchmark of the value you have provided to your clients is how timely, convenient and personal the service is – regardless of the legal support you have offered. However, 59% of SME firms ranked ‘managing clients’ expectations and communications’ as their biggest daily challenge this year. Implementing client-focused habits that rely on digital tools will help you to reduce friction in your clients’ experiences and exceed their expectations. Client-focused software solutions will help you stand out from the crowd and compete with larger firms, which 54% of SMEs believe are their biggest threat.
Mindset 3: Continuous improvement
To run a continually effective operation, your fundamental processes need to be reviewed so habits don’t become stale and inefficient. Having a continuous improvement mindset will ensure you’re always optimising for the best outcome and preventing your firm from becoming irrelevant.
LPM Frontiers found 43% of firms believe optimising back-office technology for business efficiency is the organisational challenge that causes them most concern. This highlights that a continuous improvement mindset and plan, which would enable ongoing improvement, is yet to be implemented.
To facilitate a continuous improvement mindset, you first need to document existing processes and habits. Then it’s important to work on a cultural shift that encourages feedback, reviews and ideas for improving processes. Finally, having the right digital foundations, platforms, and tools in place is key to implementing improvements and optimising operations.
Mindset 4: Empower employees
With your processes, technology and clients taken care of, the final mindset is to empower employees. Of SMEs, 76% believe recruitment challenges pose the biggest impact to their business strategy – empowering your employees to perform their best and achieve their goals is crucial to the longevity of your firm. As one of the biggest investments you’ll make for your business, look to empower your team with the right digital tools and freedom to grow to be a successful modern law firm that will attract the best talent.
Technology facilitates better business habits
No matter your firm’s goals, practice and case management software provides the digital tools and centralised platform to implement effective business habits. With the fundamentals and essentials running smoothly with legal tech, you and your team can focus on driving the firm forward. To succeed as a modern law firm, you’ll need to adopt and implement efficient digital, tech-driven habits that help to improve profitability, empower employees, and deliver quality client care.
To find out more and discover the fundamental habits needed for each mindset explored in this article, download our free eBook: A guide to the fundamental business habits that modern law firms need to adopt.
