(director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program.)

THE FUTURE OF PRIVATE LAW PRACTICE has been a  subject of much speculation the last several years. While some law firm partners  behave as if they believe things will go back to business as usual, most of  those who are paying attention believe we are headed to a “new normal” in our  future. Among the factors cited to support this proposition are business clients  more engaged in negotiating legal fees, an overexpansion of law schools that has  led to more attorneys entering an already packed job market, the continuing  impact of technological advances on law firms and the proliferation of legal  services offered online by people or entities that are not lawyers.

So, it’s a basic fact: Planning is critical for lawyers and law firms. But it  remains far too easy for firms to get mired in important short-term planning  issues such as budgeting and managing large projects at the expense of  investment in the firm.

As that great philosopher Yogi Berra noted about the future, “If you don’t  know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” So here are some  areas to think about for your future.

BEHAVE AS IF IT WERE ALL ABOUT THE CLIENTS, BECAUSE IT  IS.

For a lawyer to have a practice, he or she must have paying  clients. We are in a service profession. But it is often easy to focus on the  quality of legal services provided at the expense of customer service. Yet your  clients pay as much attention to how they are treated as to the work product.  (In fact, they may pay more attention to that.) Thus, we must build systems  where clients receive timely updates on the status of their matters without  having to ask for them or being charged extra for them. Discuss the expectations  of clients for each new matter. Set reasonable, appropriate deadlines for  projects and then meet them.

Remember that clients pay attention to both  your communications and work product. Failing to return a phone call, allowing a  typographical error in a document or completing projects later than promised all  contribute to the client’s overall view of the law firm’s competency and  service.

IGNORE TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES AT YOUR PERIL.

Information  technology is becoming more interwoven into our lives and business operations  every day. A few years ago it might have been appropriate to have a simple  feature phone and not a smartphone. But today, not being able to set an  appointment on your smartphone does not inspire confidence about your legal  ability. Technology purchases and training are and will remain a critical part  of law firm operations for long into the future. Out-of-date technology slows  down business. It is increasingly dangerous to use an antiquated billing system  or to not have a good document management system.

Simply put, you cannot  take 10 or 15 minutes to do something that other lawyers can do in a minute,  whether you bill that time or not.

HAVE A BETTER ANSWER FOR “WHAT WILL THE TOTAL COST BE?” 

We all like predictable costs. Anytime you can quote a potential  client a fixed fee, you increase the chance that a client will hire your firm.  But even where a range of total fees and costs is based on many factors, you  should be able to outline those factors and show how they impact  cost.

The billable hour hangs on, despite many calls for its demise. But  its hold slips more each year. There will be more discussions with your clients  about fixed fees and attorney fee caps in your future. Be prepared for them with  your firm’s historical information.

KNOW YOUR WORD PROCESSOR.

Love your word processor.  Lawyers are wordsmiths. We draft lots of correspondence and contracts and  pleadings and memoranda. Every law firm should have regular, short training  sessions highlighting word processing tips and techniques. Everyone should be  forced to attend. The lawyer who does not want to attend because he already  knows it all should be assigned to teach a class.

While it may be a good  business model for legal assistants to format a federal court brief for filing,  all lawyers should also know what to do. Today’s lawyer should understand word  processing tools such as Microsoft Word Quick Parts, macros and templates. If  needed, ask your staff for some training help.

The traditional lawyer met  with a client, took the client’s relevant information in handwritten form on a  legal pad and then used that information. Most law firms are now past the point  where basic client information, such as the mailing address, is typed multiple  times to open a file and set up billing. Now law firms need to learn to enter  all client information into a system where it can generate documents as the need  arises. We live in the age of data. Getting the client’s data input into your  system so it can be easily reused is key for today’s law firm. There are a wide  range of document assembly tools available now. Is your firm using document  assembly well?

PAY ATTENTION!

We live in a world of rapid-fire change.  Lawyers have always grumbled about changes in laws or regulations, but now  business practices and tools are evolving rapidly. Read publications such as  Law Practice magazine, Law Practice Today, the Law Practice  Management Section blog (lawtechnologytoday.org) and the New Normal column in  the ABA Journal to stay on top of our changing  environment.

BE BOTH EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE.

Management guru Peter  F. Drucker’s often-quoted statement on this topic is: “Efficiency is doing the  thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.”

Recently, Ron Baker  of the VeraSage Institute posted on LinkedIn an essay titled “Big Idea 2013:  Stop Worrying About Efficiency.” This was supplemented by a follow-up piece with  numerous comments from a diverse group. Both are recommended  reading.

Baker’s primary point is that improving efficiency today in  business is often too focused on cost cutting. He quotes from Drucker’s  People and Performance: “Effectiveness focuses on opportunities to  produce revenue, to create markets, and to change the economic characteristics  of existing products and markets. It asks not, How do we do this or that better?  It asks, Which of the products really produce extraordinary economic results or  are capable of producing them?”

Setting up new tools to capture every  stray tenth of an hour so that it can be billed may be efficient, but it is not  very effective if the client is already pressuring the firm to reduce the fees  it pays.

GROWTH CANNOT BE INFINITE.

One thing that appears to be  certain is that the legal profession cannot look to continued growth to solve  its systemic issues. Yes, we can all look back on several decades of impressive  growth in law firm revenues. Yet there is little evidence today that the future  will look like the past where revenues are concerned. Bruce MacEwen recently  completed a 12-part series entitled “Growth Is Dead” on his blog  (adamsmithesq.com) and has also compiled all of the posts into an $8.49 Kindle  e-book you can purchase from Amazon. This is more required reading—at least for  the law firm management team.

IMAGE ISN’T EVERYTHING, BUT IT IS SOMETHING.

Your  future success is based on the number of people who believe your advice and  services are valuable commodities—something worth paying for. While referrals  are still the very best way to obtain new business, an increasing number of  people learn about their potential lawyer from information garnered online.  Every law firm—even a solo practice—needs a website with biographical  information and a photograph of each lawyer. Your email address should reflect  your website domain. Writing for publications that publish articles online is a  good way to demonstrate your expertise.

Your best  marketing tool remains what it always has been. Do great work for clients and  build a reputation that causes others to refer your legal  work.

We do not know everything the future holds, nor  can we guarantee future success. “Future-proofing” your law firm is really an  exercise in improving your business practices and determining your priorities.  That is something every professional practice should be doing for today and for  tomorrow.