Authored By: Candace Whitman
Does your law firm have written procedures for the different tasks your team performs in their day-to-day work? Procedures are extremely helpful even if they are for a task you feel your team is well-accustomed to performing. At Advocate Capital, we have written procedures for almost all of our tasks in all of our various departments. New hires and employees that have been a part of our team since the beginning find them useful.
Dustin Cole, law practice management educator, explains in his article for Attorney at Work that procedures are beneficial when training new hires, covering for team members when they are out of the office, completing tasks that don't have to be performed frequently and maintaining accuracy when you are busy or distracted.
Procedures are also helpful when introducing and getting accustomed to new technology. Transitioning to a new case management software, for example, can be challenging but if you have a team member take the time to write out the steps and make the procedures available to all employees then it can be easier to learn and adapt.
Including screenshots, templates, and examples in your procedures, in addition to written words can ensure that your procedures are easy to understand for everyone.
It can be overwhelming to think about all of the procedures that need to be written when you are starting from scratch. Cole suggests thinking about your firm's process from the first phone call with a prospect to the time you wrap up a client's case. Make a list of the tasks that need procedures and assign them to your team one by one to write down as they complete the task. Cole also says that new employees can help create procedures by writing down the steps as they learn them.
The work you do for your clients is important and requires care and attention to detail. Procedures can make your firm's job a bit easier. For more tips on creating helpful procedures and systems at your firm, click here to read Dustin Cole's article for Attorney at Work.
