1. Larry Frazen said Bryan Cave was encouraging its lawyers to take an active role in managing accounts receivable. | 2. Larry Greenbaum, discussing career management at McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips, said the firm wasn’t looking to train lawyers; it expects its hires to eventually become partners. | 3. Jim Heeter and Jennifer Shafer assess Larry Greenbaum’s description of how his firm’s staff is leveraged. | 4. Joe Hierstiener said that what’s good for the goose in this economy works for the gander: His firm, too, is challenging past assumptions on costs.

McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips is not heavily leveraged with associates, either. As Larry Greenbaum noted, the firm expects new hires to become partners if they don’t leave before they are eligible.

McDowell Rice’s model is a bit more opportunistic: “Most of the people we’ve gotten over the years,” said Pete Smith, “someone else has trained,” thanks to an aggressive compensation strategy.

 

Billing

Pete Smith raised an issue that was not on the agenda but that was on the back of many minds: namely, in a world where revenue flow depends on billable hours, how to get attorneys to turn in their hours on time. “I tried everything in the world,” said Smith before settling on a $100 a day cumulative fine for those who cannot keep their time current.

“We are doing $50 a day,” laughed Ben Mann.  “So I’m going to have good news to bring back” to the office.

Lathrop & Gage prefers “the carrot approach.” As Joel Voran explained, the firm gives a bonus to those who get their bills out by the 10th of the month. The firm gives a bonus to secretaries as well, which has proven to be a highly successful way to keep everyone motivated.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal has a unique policy for late fees, explained the managing partner of the Kansas City office, Jim Heeter. Fines are placed in a pool, and the firm allows all those who have kids to enter a lottery for scholarships. “The money goes to a good purpose,” he said, “and boosts morale.”

Once the bills are received, there can be problems on the collection end, especially given the state of the economy.  As Larry Frazen of Bryan Cave explained, clients are stretching all their vendors out 30 days or so, lawyers included.  Collecting is not easy.  “There’s no magic to it,” said Frazen. “It’s a relationship.

If you want to keep the client, you better get on the phone yourself and make the call or go out and see them.”

Russ Jones believes that lawyers who are perceived as vendors are less likely to be paid than those who have developed a bond with their clients. “They are going to want to pay us,” said Jones, “and we try to get our lawyers to make sure to work on those kinds of relationships.”

Given the economy, Joe Hiersteiner explained, Seigfreid Bingham has done to some of its vendors what some of its clients have done to them, that is go to bid and/or start getting an in-depth analysis of what the firm is receiving and whether the service can be done more efficiently.

 

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