Practice News

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am a partner in a small estate planning/administration law firm in Louisville, Kentucky. We are having a hard time getting a handle on determining the productivity of our associates and paralegals. Many of our associates and paralegals work part-time and the typical metrics such as 1500-1700 annual billable hours, etc. don't work for us. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?

A. You might want to consider using a billable/worked ratio which is the ratio of billable hours logged to hours worked. For attorneys and paralegals that are totally focused on providing client services a good benchmark is 70%-73%. If an attorney or paralegal works 30 hours a week - you would hope to see 21-22 hours billable per week. Based on 50 weeks per year this would equate to somewhere around 1050 billable hours per year. For a full-timer working 8 hours a day or 40 hours per week - 50 weeks per year this would work out to around 1400+ hours per year. Most full-time attorneys work closer to 50+ hours a week and are expected to log between 1500-1700+ hours per year. The expectation for full time paralegals is around 1400 hours.

The 70-73% ratio is ambitious - but is achievable. For paralegals this goal will not be possible if they are loaded down with administrative duties. Excellent time management and time keeping skills and practices will need to be in place as well.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers the Mechanics Lien Act, Medical Marijuana and Juvenile homicide offenders. More information on each bill is available below the video.

Mechanics Lien Act. House Bill 3636 (Burke, D-Evergreen Park; Mulroe, D-Chicago) does three things in response to the LaSalle Bank National Association vs. Cypress Creek opinion. (1) Requires that the owner or interested person’s demand for suit to be commenced or answered within 30 days must contain this language in at least 10-point, boldface type: “Failure to respond to this notice within 30 days after receipt, as required by Section 34 of the Mechanics Lien Act, shall result in the forfeiture of the referenced lien.” 

(2) Defines a “lien creditor” as someone who does work or furnishes material under this Act. A lien creditor is preferred over other encumbrances except that previous encumbrances are preferred only to the extent of the value of the land at the time the contract was made for the improvements, and each lien creditor is preferred to the value of all later improvements regardless of whether the lien creditor provided those improvements. 

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the owner of a five attorney firm in Chicago. Including staff we have a total of 13 people working at the firm. As we have grown our approach to handling billing and accounting has been piecemeal. We have a combination of several people handling various tasks including a couple of outsourced vendors as well. Frankly it is a mess. I want to restructure and consolidate all the tasks and responsibilities into one bookkeeper position. Do you have a job description that would help guide me in my search?

A. Here is a job description that might help get your started.

Position Summary

The primary function of this position is to perform the billing, bookkeeping and accounting functions of the firm. This position requires an experienced and accomplished person with a strong bookkeeping and computer background. The position requires skills and experience in bookkeeping, accounting, law firm billing and QuickBooks software as well as Microsoft Office Products. The position requires experience in a law or other professional service firm environment.

Reporting Relationship

This position reports to the firm owner.

By Joseph A. Dailing, Executive Director, Illinois Coalition for Equal Justice