Guide to Law Firm Process and Procedure

First, hiring is simplified when you know what tasks must be completed and the order and frequency in which to complete them. Defining your processes allows you to better understand job duties and set appropriate expectations and benchmarks for performance.

When it comes to training, documented processes simplify learning and help new employees get up to speed in a shorter amount of time. As a result, you earn a quicker ROI on each new hire.

When there’s one source of truth for all processes and procedures, consistency ensues which boosts overall efficiency, even when your team is full of new hires still in training.

What happens when you perform a task in the same way, every single day? That task soon becomes a habit. The same thing occurs within your law firm. When tasks are rinsed and repeated with documented instructions to follow, your team will learn processes quickly and become more efficient in how they complete them.

What does more efficiency mean for your firm? Efficiency increases your firm’s opportunity to take on more clients and bill more hours. Plus, it enables you to give more attention and time to building your firm instead of spending hours on inconsistent tasks.

Also, when processes are clear and documented, it enhances collaboration among team members. They can work together more seamlessly, knowing exactly what needs to be done and who is responsible for each step.

This collective understanding and streamlined workflow lead to a more productive and harmonious work environment.

Note: We know your law firm is your baby. But, you can’t handle every single process as you grow. You’ll need to get those procedures out of your head and down on paper for others to use. Otherwise, you’ll develop a funnel that ends with you. And as a busy attorney and firm owner, this is far from ideal.

Documenting and standardizing processes not only streamlines operations but also significantly reduces business risks. It ensures compliance with legal standards and enhances security by establishing clear guidelines for handling sensitive information.

Many regulatory agencies such as HIPAA don’t have a clear list of do’s and don’ts. Having documented policies that are followed, enforced, and routinely reviewed and audited, however, is expected.

This proactive approach to risk management can protect your firm from potential legal challenges and security breaches, safeguarding your reputation and your clients' trust.

For example, it enables you to better manage critical information such as protected health information (PHI). Documentation helps you protect your business and your clients from risk. Plus, it will simplify the process of a HIPAA or other compliance audit should one occur.

A well-organized firm delivers consistent, high-quality service to its clients.

When processes are standardized, clients receive the same level of attention and care, regardless of whom they interact with. This consistency builds trust and satisfaction, making clients more likely to return and recommend your services to others.

In the competitive legal market, client satisfaction is a key differentiator that can drive growth and success.

For law firms aiming to expand, the scalability afforded by documented processes and procedures is invaluable.

A well-documented framework facilitates the efficient management of increased workloads and the integration of new team members, ensuring that the firm's growth does not compromise service quality.

Also, the financial savings realized through improved efficiency and reduced errors can be reinvested into the firm, supporting further expansion and innovation.

This strategic approach to growth ensures that the firm can scale sustainably, building a strong foundation for future success.

We recommend starting with those processes that are specific to your employees, including recruiting, hiring, training, management, reviews, etc. After all, your team is the driving force behind your firm so it’s critical to get this right.

Here’s a sampling of things to consider when thinking about documenting your employee processes:

• How do you create and post job ads?
• How and where do you post open positions?
• What is your interview process?
• What are your hiring policies and standards?
• What is your orientation and training process?
• What is your management process and what are your expectations for managers?
• How often do you conduct performance reviews and what steps are involved?
• What are your HR processes, including payroll, mitigating employee concerns, etc.?

This is far from a complete list of procedures you should document. But, it should get the ball rolling.

It might be best to consider the full lifecycle of an employee from the moment you discover you need to add to your team to the moment an employee leaves your firm.

Then, document each step and define the processes involved.

You’ll also want to document all of the processes that relate to doing the work inside of your business. These workflows consist of everything from client intake to taking depositions. Your documented procedures should include all of your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks.

To simplify this process, start by going through an average day in your practice. Outline all of your tasks and those that your team completes. Then, do the same thing for weekly tasks, monthly tasks, and so on.

Remember, no procedure is too small to document. Even something as simple as processing incoming mail is different between firms. These simple procedures may also include more steps and touchpoints than you realize.

Don’t forget to consider workflows you may not use very often such as disaster (fire, hurricane, etc.) processes. And if the past couple of years has taught us anything, it’s a great idea to outline remote work procedures in the event they’re required.

Finally, we recommend documenting all of your law firm policies or your firm’s stance on how specific processes should be handled. Some of the most common policies include:

• Client Communication Policy: This is the policy used to document how you communicate with your clients. For example, you may call first and then follow up with an email.
• Confidentiality Policy: The Confidentiality Policy outlines the critical information you keep and how it’s kept. It also outlines the specific procedures for dealing with this information that your employees must follow.
• Client Response Policy: In this policy, you’ll outline who can respond to clients and how to respond to client requests.
• Acceptable Use Policy: An Acceptable Use policy outlines what’s acceptable and not acceptable for using technology within your firm.

You can only realistically hold employees accountable to policies when they’re documented and communicated with your team.

With these policies documented, you can then couple them with the specific processes that pertain to each. For example, you can house your client response policy with your client response process outline. This way, everything you and your team needs is in one place.

Your first step should be to develop a law firm handbook that houses all of your processes, procedures, and policies in one place. This handbook can then be shared with your team and used as a quick reference.

There are many ways to do this. First, you can do the traditional route and create a printable paper manual. If you are trying to go paperless (more on that below), you’ll want another solution.

For example, you can create an internal wiki that’s only accessible by your team. This is a great way to store all of your firm information.

Or, you can store all of your documentation inside a Document Management System (DMS). We’ll dive into the benefits of a DMS a bit later.

Each process or procedure should be documented separately.

This ensures they’re easy to find, reference and update. It’s also helpful because different employees will need easy access to different documents.

They shouldn’t have to thumb through pages and pages of policies to find the one they’re looking for.

When I make or revise documentation for our team at Uptime Legal, I make sure each document is visually digestible.  

This means ensuring your procedures aren’t written like a big, boring book. Instead:

• Keep it simple.
• Break things down into specific sections.
• Use color text boxes or other graphics to call out key items.
• Use bullet points and numbers.
• Use checklists as an abbreviated way to explain detailed procedures.
• Keep sentences and paragraphs short.

Policies can be incredibly boring to write and read. Regardless, they’re important for your firm. Use some care when creating your documents so your employees don’t fall asleep at their desks.

Documents should be kept simple.

This can be difficult when procedures are highly detailed such as those that require technology. The key is to stay as broad as possible. Don’t go through click-by-click instructions that may become outdated as your processes change.

Yes, detail the specific steps, but there’s no need to talk about button clicks, as these often change when your software is updated (or changed entirely).

As a rule of thumb, document what steps should be taken, but necessarily how, as the “how” is more likely to change.

Now that you have all of these documents, what do you do with them? You could slap them in a binder and call it a day. Or, you can store them more efficiently.

We recommend storing your documentation inside a cloud-based storage tool or document management system (DMS). This ensures everyone on your team can quickly access the documents they need to do their jobs. It’s all stored in one place.

Save your documents by department or even by role with a separate place for firmwide policies. Saving in this way enables you to restrict access to what certain individuals don’t need access to. Plus, this method ensures everything is easy to find.