Is it time for some law practice spring cleaning?

The trees are getting their leaves back, everything is in bloom, and if you suffer from allergies, you’re feeling the pollen count rise. Spring is here! For most of us that means it’s time to spring clean the house. But what about your law practice?

Law practice spring cleaning means sprucing up processes, knocking things off to-do lists, fixing your law office filing systems, and increasing productivity. Here are five ways to spring clean your law practice. 

Admin

You know that stuff no one likes do? Documentation, filing, billing, accounting, bill pay… Make catching up on office items part of your law practice spring cleaning. You might actually find that desk of yours under everything that’s been piling up. You’ll also breathe a sigh of relief once you’ve accomplished those pesky admin tasks.

Tech tools

Speaking of admin tasks, did you know that on average, only 28 percent of a lawyer’s work is billable? That non-billable work mostly boils down to admin stuff.  A lot of it can be automated thanks to technology. Spend some time researching and setting up new legal tech tools that will make your practice run more efficiently.

For trademark lawyers, Name Warden can definitely save some time. With Name Warden, all your marks and deadlines are in one place, it’s easy to keep up with your filings, and the set-up is a breeze. Here are 20 Law Practice Technology Tools that are worth your attention.

Task triage

Another great way to approach law practice spring cleaning is to do some task triage. What’s on your to-do list? Isn’t it time to start knocking those things off? Maybe use a new tech tool to help! List all of the things you’ve been meaning to do, sort them by importance, and assign deadlines to hold yourself accountable. Which tasks are urgent, which need to be done next week and which can be done next month? You are more likely to get through your to-do list if you take the time to organize it.

Delegation

You don’t have to do everything. You shouldn’t try.  Anything that can’t be tasked to a robot should be delegated to an assistant. Take that list of tasks you triaged and see what can be delegated. Hiring help is a big step and always something of an overhead-expanding gut check.  We get it.  But we are willing to bet you’ll be very glad that you hired some support, whether it’s part time or full time.

Digital Check-up

An important item that law practices often forget about is their digital presence. If you haven’t looked at your website or social media channels in a while, make that part of your law practice spring cleaning project. Is everything on your website up-to-date? Are there changes that could be made? Have your WordPress plugins been updated? How about your blog? You should also take a look at your social media profiles. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and all other social media channels have proper descriptions and logos and look clean and professional.

You don’t have to tackle all of this in one weekend like you would a spring cleaning project at home. Go through each item, make checklists, delegate tasks, and assign yourself some deadlines. A little spring cleaning could get you on your way to increased efficiency and more time for billable hours.