Strategic Management of the Family Law Practice

Family lawyers need to start thinking of their practices as businesses if they want to succeed. Just like how some stores like Wal-Mart do better than others like K-Mart, lawyers need to have a plan (or strategy) for how they want to run their practice in order to be successful. This plan should include setting goals, developing a strategy to reach those goals, and then evaluating and adjusting that plan as needed. It’s also important for lawyers to think about how their practice fits into their personal lives and make sure it supports their goals and priorities. It’s important to think about what you want to achieve in your future career, like how much money you want to make and how many hours you want to work each week. You should also think about when you want to retire and what parts of your job you like and don’t like. This will help you create a mission statement for your career, which should describe the type of work you want to do and who you want to help. You should also do a SWOT analysis to figure out what you’re good at, what you need to work on, and what opportunities and threats are out there. This can help you focus on your goals and what you need to do to achieve them. It’s important for a law firm to consider local and national legal trends, as well as specific statistics like the Florida Vital Statistics Annual Report. This helps the firm understand the market and its place in it. It’s also important to set specific, measurable goals for the firm and to focus on long-term success over short-term gains. Finally, the firm needs to develop a strategy to maintain a competitive advantage in the legal market. The main factors that determine a law firm’s success are how much clients value their services and the firm’s overhead costs. There are four main ways for a lawyer to create value for clients: being efficient, providing high-quality work, being innovative, and being responsive to clients’ needs. Specializing in one area of law can help a lawyer improve in these areas and stand out from the competition. In Florida, becoming board certified in a specific area of law can help a lawyer show that they are a specialist and stand out from other lawyers. This can help them charge higher prices and take on more important cases. Once a lawyer becomes board certified, they should consider joining the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a group of top family and divorce lawyers. Joining requires meeting strict criteria and passing exams, but offers benefits like referrals and networking. Standardizing procedures in the law firm through a procedure manual can also improve efficiency and quality. Technology can also be used to enhance client service and innovation. Using technology in family law practice can provide a competitive advantage. For example, voice recognition, spreadsheet software, and document assembly programs can make tasks easier. Client service is also important, and it’s not just about returning calls and sending copies of documents. A law firm must review every step of the process to make it easy and less stressful for the client. To implement the strategic plan, action plans are created with specific tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines. This helps in achieving the goals step by step. At staff meetings, we make plans and check our progress every week. We also keep track of how well the firm is doing, like how much money we make and how many new clients we get. By looking at this info, we can make changes to make things better. For example, we raised our consultation fee and got more clients as a result. It’s important for lawyers to keep track of how their marketing is working and to make sure they’re doing a good job for their clients. They should use data to see what’s working and what’s not, and make changes if they need to. They should also check in regularly with their staff to make sure they’re doing a good job. If they’re too busy to do that, they might need to hire more people or charge more money so they can keep providing good service. Overall, it’s important for lawyers to think strategically about how they run their practice.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/strategic-management-of-the-family-law-practice/