Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog

July 2016

Jul 26, 2016

Law Firm Marketing – How Much Should We Be Spending on Marketing?

Question:

I am the managing partner of a 12 attorney firm in Providence, Rhode Island. In our recent partner meetings we have been discussing ramping up marketing. How much should we be spending on marketing?

Response:

Studies that have been conducted indicate that law firms that provide services to business firms (B2B) spend approximately 2.4% of fee revenue on marketing. However, law firms that focus on individual consumers (retail law if you will) spend much more – 10%+ of fee revenues on marketing – especially if strong referral networks are not in place. I have several PI, SSDI, Elder Law and Estate Planning firm clients that are spending 10%+ of their fee revenue or greater on marketing. I have some extremely successful PI firm clients spending 20% of their revenue on marketing. 

The amount of appropriate investment can depend upon referral networks in place. I have successful PI and Estate Planning firms that are spending very little on marketing, are getting all of their business from their referral networks, and spending next to nothing on marketing and advertising. (By referrals I am speaking about professional referrals not involving a referral fee and client referrals. If referral fees are involved they should be considered a marketing cost) So it depends upon your situation, the type of cases you are going after, etc.

Be careful of spending to be spending. Marketing expense scan be a deep hold that yields no return on investment. Insure that your marketing investments are targeted, well thought out, measured, and are working. Determine up from whether your goal is long term brand building or short term lead generation going in.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Jul 20, 2016

Law Firm Compensation – Moving From an Eat-What-You-Kill System to a Totally Subjective System

Question:

I am a partner in a 20 attorney firm in San Francisco. We have five partners. Two of the five partners are founders and the other three were made partners five years ago. Our firm was started twenty years ago by two partners of our existing partners. From day one our compensation system has been an eat-what-you-kill compensation system based on a formula with two factors – working attorney collections and client origination. While the system worked okay for the founders, it is not working for the present firm. The newer partners are unhappy with the system and believe that it does not consider other factors that a partner contributes to the firm. Some of the partners are hoarding work, refuse to serve on committees, and don't want to do anything but bill. A couple of my partners suggested that we move to a totally subjective system. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Response:

More and more firms are moving to more subjective based systems for some of the reasons that you have outlined – especially larger firms. Success of such a system is dependent upon the compensation committee that is put in place (typically a three- member committee elected by the partnership) and the level of trust that partners have in the partners serving on the committee. With only five partners you don't have a large enough partnership to put in place such a committee. It would have to be a committee of the five which would probably not be feasible. In addition, your culture may not be conducive at this time to such a system. Your founders have grown up under the present system and will more than likely resist such a formidable change. I suggest that you make some changes to the existing system and see how that works. For example:

1. Include responsible attorney as well as working attorney and originating attorney fee collection in the equation with a possible weighting of 60% working attorney, 20% responsible attorney, 20% originating attorney.
2. Factor in overhead or if not have a reduction provision for attorneys that are consuming un-fair share of overhead.
3. Factor in effective rate/realization and reduce compensation for realization that is below a certain threshold.
4. Setup a bonus pool (15% – 25% of firm net income) for exception performance decided by the five partners. If there is no exceptional performance or the partnership cannot agree the funds are cycled back into net income and distributed in accordance with the formula.
5. Provide production credit or paid special compensation for serving on management committee or as managing partner.

Jul 13, 2016

Law Firm Financial Management – Realization Rates

Question:

Our firm is reviewing its partner compensation system and one of my partners suggested that we incorporate realization rates. This term was new to me. Is realization the percent that we collect? Your comments would be appreciated by all of us.

Response:

Not exactly. There are the following three general types of fee realization.

Overall Realization which is the relationship between the standard value of time (standard billing rate) and the actual fees collected. This is calculated by taking the value of unbilled time at the beginning of the year plus fee accounts receivable at the beginning of the year plus value of billable time worked during the year minus the value of unbilled time at the end of the year minus fee accounts receivable at the end of the year – equals potential fees to be collected. Realization (Actual fees collected/potential fees to be collected.)

Billing Realization which are actual fees billed/potential fees to be billed. This is calculated by taking the value of unbilled fees at the beginning of the year plus fees recorded during the year minus unbilled fees at the end of the year – equals potential fees to be billed. Billing realization is then calculated by dividing the actual fees billed by the potential fees to be billed.

Collection Realization which are actual fees collected/potential fees to be collected. This is calculated by taking the value of AR fees at the beginning of the year plus fees billing during the year minus AR fees at the end of the year. Collection realization is then calculated by dividing the actual fees collected by the potential fees to be collected.

All three calculations are important and tell different stories. They can be calculated at a firm level, client level, timekeeper level. Realization reports are available in the better law firm time and billing software programs.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Jul 06, 2016

Law Firm Strategy – Building a Firm Brand

Question:

I am the owner of a fourteen attorney firm in the western suburbs of Chicago. I am 45 years old and I started my practice as a solo ten years ago. The firm focuses on business litigation exclusively. Like many law firms the name of the firm is My Name, LLC. The firm has grown rapidly and we have been successful. However, I am concerned that I should be building more of a "firm brand" and the firm is too much about me. I would appreciate your thoughts?

Response:

This is a common issue for solos and sole owners. While it may be an ego booster for you in the early days of your practice it can be a negative in future years, especially when you approach retirement and want to exit the practice. In essence the firm is all about you and the goodwill is you. This can have negative consequences when you:

1. Try to merge with another firm.
2. Try to sell your practice.
3. Try to approach certain clients.

I suggest that you consider the following to develop more of a firm image or brand rather than just you.

1. Do all you can to insure that the firm is not uniquely you.
2. Consider a firm name that does not include just your name. You might consider more of a trade name or a name that includes other partners or members if associates are made partners or members in the future .
3. Encourage your associates to develop their individual reputations/brands and feature their accomplishments in their bios on your website. (Writing, Speaking, CLE Presentations, Certifications, etc.)
4. Help your associates grow.
5. Consider at non-equity partnership for deserving associates.
6. Feature other attorneys in the firm in your marketing efforts and events.

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