Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024 - 41

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Pick the Right Tools
to Manage Your Work
By Kaitlin E. McGee
W
hen it comes to legal
technology, all-in-one
practice management
software and AI innovations
often come to mind.
However, for many law firms, picking one comprehensive
product is like committing to permanent
office space - it's the right choice for
some firms, but overkill for many others. And
once you commit to practice management
software, it can be difficult or overly burdensome
to change services down the road. Sometimes
a simple solution is available for little to
no extra cost, perhaps within services you already
have.
To build an efficient and effective law firm, you
need to think through areas where you might
be wasting valuable time. Many solo and smallfirm
lawyers spend hours each day on administrative
tasks that could be automated easily.
Ask yourself: Are you or your staff spending
hours on email when you could be using TextExpander
to reduce repetitive responses? Are
you still manually checking multiple team
members' calendars and exchanging emails
instead of using scheduling software?
It's important to assess your firm's needs and
find the tools that address those specific needs.
You may already have resources available to
you through a Google or Microsoft 365 account.
In other cases, you may opt for a specialized
tool for a low monthly cost. Many of these
simple, affordable tools have been available for
years, if not decades, but may not be obviously
applicable to law practice.
Unassuming technology that saved me countless
hours in my law firm was Microsoft Mail
Merge, which I learned to use to print name
tags while working as a part-time administrative
assistant in college.
Years later, when I was running my own firm,
I used Mail Merge to transfer client information
from spreadsheets to custom document
templates. First, my clients would fill out a custom
form I created on Google Forms (Microsoft
Forms does this, too). I would review the submitted
data to check for accuracy, and then use
this data to populate custom document templates
I had created for different case types. I
could then edit and finalize these documents
and send them to clients to review. Even better,
as long as the information was input correctly
into the spreadsheet, my documents were always
typo-free. Programs like LawYaw (now
Clio Draft) offer the same services that Mail
Merge has made possible since 1980.
While running my food business, I used another
nonlegal application, Asana, to manage tasks
and projects with different team members.
I brought the tool with me to my law firm and
found it extremely useful in tracking larger,
more complicated litigation cases. I've seen
other attorneys successfully use Asana in their
practice, especially when paired with Zapier
and other applications. Asana's new template
feature can also be useful for creating custom
forms and streamlining client intake.
Trello is a similar application that can be used
to manage law firm processes and delegation
of tasks to other attorneys and staff. Tools like
Asana and Trello have free versions available,
with paid versions costing only about $10 per
month.
Scheduling tools are also extremely affordable
and often underutilized in law firms. How many
of us are still emailing back and forth with colleagues
and clients to set up meetings that
work with everyone's schedules? Applications
like Calendly and TidyCal simplify this process
to save you time. A link to your schedule can be
added to your website and your email signature,
or sent to your virtual receptionist to make
scheduling quick and streamlined. Calendly,
you to accept payments for consultations, add
appointments to your calendar, reschedule
meetings online, and even create virtual meetings
on Zoom. Like many of the other tools,
there is a free version of Calendly. With the paid
version, you can create more meeting types
and connect more calendars. TidyCal, available
for free, has a lifetime plan that costs $29 and
allows you to connect 10 calendars.
Financial and trust accounting is another area
where many lawyers struggle to find efficient
solutions. However, there are so many affordable
and easy-to-use tools on the market that
can address these issues. For trust accounting,
if you struggle to keep up with ledgers for your
operating account, trust account, and client
trust balances, a program like TrustBooks can
help you manage all those transactions and
even help you avoid an unintended overdraft
on your IOLTA account. If you just need a program
where you can track your time and generate
invoices, FreshBooks and Time59 are lowcost
and user friendly.
While all-in-one practice management software
might be the right choice for your firm,
make sure you know what you're using it for. It's
worth evaluating your law firm's existing systems
and subscriptions to find out what tools
are already available to you. Whether it's simplifying
document creation, managing complex
litigation cases, or streamlining scheduling
and financial management, there's a tool out
there that meets your needs.
D.C. Bar practice management advisors Dan Mills
and Kaitlin McGee are available at 202-780-2762
and 202-780-2764, respectively. They can also be
reached at dmills@dcbar.org and kmcgee@dcbar.
org.
Visit dcbar.org/pmas for recordings of Practice
Management Advisory Service Lunch
and Learn programs on tech tools for
attorneys.
MAY/JUNE 2024 * WASHINGTON LAWYER 41
http://www.dcbar.org/pmas
Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024

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