“DASHBOARD” for Law Firms

There are “fads” in everything that happens and it could not be otherwise in the entrepreneurial world! For some time, the word “dashboard” took the place of the so-called management reports and, for this reason, I will adopt it, too (but it is the same thing).

To the legal market, there is a very important tool and that generates several indicators that give an idea of the “temperature” of the office activity which is the famous (and infamous for those who must fill it out) TIMESHEET.

With it, the partners or coordinators have a tool that enables the efficient management of the team, as well as resource allocation, performance evaluation, and on the client’s side, the partner can (and must) manage all the matters that are being addressed internally, but although it is the fundamental tool for the operational management, several offices are still reluctant to adopt it and make it obligatory.

The Timesheet is important for the good management of any office, but it is not the only tool to be used. There are other indicators that must be easily available to the managers in order to help them in the governance (another buzzword) of their businesses. And here governance means the legal operation, the organization, the team management, the financial/ economic management, marketing and strategy.

The DASHBOARD is the set of tables and graphs that are presented intuitively and condensed in one or two pages so that the managers will have a global view of their business and that must be used in the strategic meetings of the company.

One important piece of observation has to do with the origin of data and how easily those data are obtained. The adoption of an up-to-date and integrated platform that enables the quick capture of information that will make up the dashboard is essential for the efficiency and reliability of this governance tool.

Below we have some examples of indicators that can become part of a DASHBOARD:

Financial/economic indicators

Evolution of revenues in the period (semester or year-end)
Graph of the revenues per client, with emphasis on the 20 biggest ones.
Biggest debtors (with aging)
Average receipt time
Cost structure and its evolution
Graphs of the income and expenses over the period
Total profitability and total per cost centers
Revenues per business area or per field of activity.

Non-financial indicators

Team structure per type of professional
Allocation of professionals per area
Evolution of the team along the period
Average of hours (marked, cut, discounted, charged and received)
Per type of professional
Per area of performance
Per cost center or branch
Clients gained per period and their persons in charge
Clients lost (mentioning the reason) and their persons in charge

The Institutional Indicators (that can become part of an auxiliary dashboard)

Published papers (academic ones)
Articles published in the media (who generated it and which media)
Visits in own site (Google Analytics)
Followers on the Linkedin (corporate and professionals)
Events generated
Speeches given

The support by an outsourced consultancy firm that is experienced and exempt from internal interactions may indeed help the solving of this challenge, as well as the definition of the specific model to each office/company.

Whenever we try to be MULTITASK, we lose FOCUS!

In this present discussion, I want to make an approach of a paradox that our society is experiencing in this early century and which impacts our lives and our companies.

As I belong to the “baby boomer” generation, I consider that I had and, still have, the privilege to have seen and, in some situations, actively participated in the deep social, behavioral and, lately, in the technological changes of the latest 50 years.

It is of common knowledge how fast everything is happening in the world and a good portion of this is due to the technological progress. Until a short time ago, we had specific times for each one of our daily tasks and there was a clear separation between our professional and personal life! I can clearly remember that when I was a kid /a teenager (in the 60’s), the TV had  only a few channels and it had an specific time to begin broadcasting and an specific time to end it. That world no longer exists!

I do not want to seem nostalgic, even because I am and I have always been fanatic for the future, for new technologies and the novelties that come with them! The fact is that everything has changed and the point I want to highlight with this sentimental wording is that, nowadays, we are bombarded by two forces that are fully antagonistic, which puzzle us and which force us to be extremely agile and adaptable:

The first one of them is the pressure for knowledge, efficiency, productivity, professionalism and responsiveness in order for us to become outstanding from others and to be able to reach a place in the sun.

The second one is the pressure to be able to catch up with the ‘tsunami’ of information that is laid on us daily and absorb those pieces of information which are of our interest and which may bring us benefits and makes us stand in outstanding positions.

If, on the one side, the first one demands specificity and focus more and more so that we may produce something with quality, the second one makes us feel spaced out in a brutal manner and, in order to try to conciliate those two pressures, we try to be (or we think we can be) “multitask”, like the current computer processors which have several “cores”, where each one is dedicated to a different task with the same attention.

There are several scientific clinical studies that prove that our brain, in spite of being the best computer in the world, uses some tricks to deal with that, so that the repetitive tasks that it can already do will get engaged in an automation process, but our attention is always turned towards the main task to which we are dedicated. The graph below shows a study prepared by the BBC about this issue!

In my humble opinion, the only possible way for us to be able to live and survive (professionally speaking) is to have much discipline and to control very well the selective use of our attention.

The correct choice for the best communication tools and information absorption (e-mails, whatsapp, twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc); the correct time management with the prioritization of its activities, separating the urgent from the important and the effective controlof the interruptions which knocks on our door will improve our level of attention to the tasks that we are developing. Additionally, the planning in advance ofour obligations and commitments and, finally, the most important thing, the allocation of a time that is only ours and dedicated to the THINKING, will let us feel a little less stressed out and will make us more efficient!

José Paulo Graciotti, is consultant and founding Partner of GRACIOTTI ASSESSORIA EMPRESARIAL, engeneer by Escola Politécnica Universidade de São Paulo, with Financial MBA at FGV and specialized in Knowledge Mnagement by FGV. ILTA Member since 1998 (International Legal Technology Association) and ALA (Association of Legal Administrators), with more than 27 years managing Law Firms in Brazil – www.graciotti.com.br

TIMESHEET, Oh! TIMESHEET !

The most spoken word, desired (by few people), hated (by the most) and that should be loved and worshiped by everyone!

Very few businesses can afford to have such few and important management indicators and tools as Law has in Timesheet. Other companies must be managed with production reports (PCPs), stocks (ABC curves), optimization of strategic resources, logistic of production and distribution , representatives, besides, obviously, all others economic and financial reports, etc, etc.

Law, mainly in corporate firms, has in Timesheet a single and complete management tool (except the exclusively financial ones) and its correct use may provide the most extensive vision of the business. It is a pity that not all office leaders give the proper value to this small procedure that is very simple to install and even easier to do.

Timesheet is basically a working agenda (Outlook -style) prepared by a professional that has some specific characteristics in order to appropriate the time devoted to each task, that is, time that was spent, task that was performed, to which client and matter (or contract, or process, etc), the job was dedicated.

Having in mind these basic pieces of information plus some more supplementary ones, which are the collection fee of each professional and his cost/hour, the sector or area of work to which this professional belongs to, the classification or seniority of each professional, the unit, branch or center he belongs to, and the kind of job the professional performed (this is a novelty introduced by the international systems of electronic billing where each task receives a specific code called code “LEDES”), the timesheet turns itself into the following tools to the manager:

1-) As the management tool of the team may (and should) estimate:

– The performance/efficiency by comparing the time spent in each task and the expected or normal time for each one per type of professional.

– The devotion to compare the downbeats versus the established goals.

– The consistency between the type of work and the experience (seniority) of the professional.

– The distribution of the tasks depending on seniority

– A better distribution of the staff in order to minimize downtimes.

2-) As the management tool of the client’s matters may (and should) estimate:

– which work is being elaborated to each matter or client.

-which professionals are involved.

– how the development of the work is going.

– what the estimates for the conclusion or steps are.

3-) Cost planning and control tool, estimating:

– the amounts spent in terms of the costs of the working hours of the professional versus charged amounts ( mainly in case of fixed charges.)

– What the best distribution of the team in the matters would be, allocating professionals that are coherent with the complexity and charged amounts.

4-) As budged support tool is able to:

– collect and estimate previous cases, observing the charged amounts, generated costs, teams engaged and mainly the results that were obtained.

5-) Estimating tool of:

Performance/efficiency per team, sector, area, cost centers or branch.

– profitability when associated to the financial controls and allocating of costs.

As it has already been mentioned, the simple exact making of the works executed by all professionals in a single system generates a very powerful tool in the management of any law firm.

If it is so simple and highly powerful and efficient, then why does not everybody adopt it? The answer is not so simple and goes through several interpretations and the first and most obvious one, as it is a repetitive task, it is very “boring” to be done. As it is boring, the professional tends to procrastinate its execution and this behavior ends up becoming one of the worst problems because, when not doing it immediately at the end of the work, they forget about the correct detailing and also forget about any other small works that were executed.

In addition to being boring for the ones that should do it, the task of review and checking by the team coordinators needs a very hard work, but its correct execution and checking provides a highly detailed report of the work done to the client, being an important factor for the client’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Another issue is the false sensation of the lack of need, mainly in the case of fixed charges, by steps and with professionals with fixed salaries. As opposed to what may seem, it is exactly in those cases where the figure of the timesheet may clearly determinate where the positive and negative results are, preventing the blind management of a “cake” (mess?) that may be potentially fatal for the business.

The support by an outsourced consultancy firm that is experienced and exempt from internal interactions and relationship may indeed help solving this challenge,  as well as defining a specific model to each office/ company.

José Paulo Graciotti, is consultant and founding Partner of GRACIOTTI ASSESSORIA EMPRESARIAL, engeneer by Escola Politécnica Universidade de São Paulo, with Financial MBA at FGV and specialized in Knowledge Mnagement by FGV. ILTA Member since 1998 (International Legal Technology Association) and ALA (Association of Legal Administrators), with more than 27 years managing Law Firms in Brazil – www.graciotti.com.br