Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner of a three attorney personal injury plaintiff firm in Indianapolis. We have a total of 600+ open PI files. What are some of the key financial metrics/indicators that we should be using to manage the practice?

A. From your case count it is obvious that you a managing a high volume practice. In addition to selecting the right cases, managing your inventory (case portfolio) is crucial as is managing and monitoring the effectiveness of your marketing investments. Here are a few metrics that you might consider incorporating into a one page report with trend line charts. You can design the report in Excel and pull the numbers from detail reports from your case management system:

Plotted by Month

• Fees Collected by Case Type 
• Number of New Client Appointments Made
• Number of New Client Appointments Kept
• Number of New Cases Conditionally Signed
• Number of New Cases Accepted/Opened
• Number of Later Case Dumps
• Ratio of New Cases to Dumps
• Number of Demands
• Number of Files Closed
• Number of Open Cases - by Case Type
• Total Open Cases
• Number of Open Cases Per Lawyer
• Average Age of Open Cases (Turnover)
• Expected Fees - Value of Case Inventory by Case Type (Expected Value)
• Total Expected Fees - Value of Total Case Inventory/Pipeline
• Average Case Fee
• Marketing/Referral Source - No of cases opened each month by referral source.

This will get you started.

By Wendy Vaughn, Clinical Assistant Professor,
NIU College of Law, Zeke Giorgi Legal Clinic

During its 137th annual meeting, the Illinois State Bar Association awarded John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Awards to attorney Michael McEIvain, the McDonald’s Corporation, and the Clark County Bar Association for performing extraordinary pro bono service in civil legal matters. The John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Awards are awarded each year to individuals, law firm / corporate legal departments, and bar associations who either provide free legal services to residents of Illinois who are unable to afford a private attorney or expand the availability of legal services to income eligible residents of Illinois. The John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Awards are granted each year in memory of attorney John McAndrews who was a champion of pro bono services throughout his career and instrumental in establishing the Illinois Pro Bono Center, as well as implementing the findings of the Illinois Legal Needs Study.  

Mediation is designed to resolve differences both in and out of the court, and requires a very different mindset than courtroom litigation. Join us in Chicago on September 16^th for this week-long mediation training and learn how to resolve conflicts in a non-adversarial, non-confrontational manner, allowing peaceful resolutions between parties.

The program is taught by Richard Calkins and Fred Lane—two nationally recognized mediators, authors and educators. Until 20 years ago, both Mr. Calkins and Mr. Lane were well-known and highly regarded litigators. Since then, however, they have successfully mediated over 5,000 cases.

The program qualifies for 40.0 hours MCLE credit, including 40.0 hour Professional Responsibility MCLE credit (PMCLE subject to approval).

Click here for more information and to register.

The Illinois Supreme Court recently adopted Illinois Rule of Evidence 502 and issued its Center Partners decision. Together, they set important new limits on the doctrine of subject matter waiver of attorney-client privilege, establishing that waiver only happens when there are intentional disclosures designed to give the disclosing party an unfair tactical advantage in litigation. Here's an analysis by Gino DiVito and coauthors from the July IBJ.

Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions in the civil case The Hope Clinic for Women, Ltd., v. Flores and the criminal case People v. Lacy.

CIVIL

The Hope Clinic for Women, Ltd., v. Flores

By Alyssa M. Reiter, Williams, Montgomery & John Ltd.

The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 (generally, but with certain exceptions, prohibiting a physician from performing an abortion upon an unemancipated minor unless notice is given to an adult family member) against challenges that it is facially invalid, violating the privacy, due process, equal protection, and gender equality clauses of the Illinois Constitution of 1970. 

The parties agreed that a right to abortion exists under the Illinois Constitution but disputed whether that right arose from the privacy clause (which is in the state constitution but not the federal constitution) or from the due process clause.

The Court reviewed the history of the privacy clause and determined that any right to abortion in Illinois “is clearly not grounded in the privacy clause of our state constitution.” 

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Juvenile Court Act (Public Act 98-62), Raising the age of juvenile court (Public Act 98-61), Concealed carry (Public Act 98-63) and Real estate documents and thumbprints (Public Act 98-0029). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Juvenile Court Act. Public Act 98-62 (Tracy, R-Quincy; Clayborne, D- E. St. Louis) amends the “continuance under supervision” section (Section 615) to track the procedure followed in adult criminal court. It does the following: (1) Leaves current law so that a case may be continued under supervision before a finding of delinquency with the approval of the state’s attorney. (2) Amends § 615 to allow the court to continue case under supervision after a finding of delinquency. It adds the same criteria from the supervision statute in the Criminal Code that the judge must consider before ordering supervision. Regardless of when this happens, current law is retained that prohibits a case from being continued under supervision for any forcible felony, a Class X felony, and first-degree murder. Effective January 1, 2014.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner for a 16 attorney firm in Miami. I am new in the job and am trying to learn all that I can about law firm financial management. I have recently read several law firm management articles that have referred to "Pipeline Management". What exactly does this mean and what is the implication for law firm management?

A. Pipeline management is a term used in the management consulting profession to refer to the process by which you continually evaluate your active opportunities (prospective clients to booked clients) for their balance of QUALITY and QUANTITY. The goal is to continually stay on top of the overall health which is a full pipeline. Pipeline management allows client relationship managers to more accurately forecast fee revenues, better staff and manage client engagements, and close more client business.

I often also refer to Pipeline management in law firms in the context of using financial dashboards by which the individual charged with financial management responsibilities is continuously aware of significant changes in the firm's Pipeline (from prospects to cash): 

In August of 1893, thirty women lawyers from across the United States met in Chicago for the first-ever national meeting of women lawyers. The meeting was sponsored by the Queen Isabella Association and held in conjunction with the World's Columbian Exposition where the Chicago Legal News billed the event as "30 Female Blackstones Gather in Chicago”.

Paula Hudson Holderman, Illinois State Bar Association President and Julie Bauer, 7th Circuit Bar Association President, together with their host committee invite you to attend an event commemorating the 120th Anniversary of this historic milestone for women. The program and reception will be held from 3-7 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the offices of Winston & Strawn LLP, 35 W. Wacker, Chicago, 47th Floor.

Winston & Strawn LLP will apply for 2 Professional Responsibility Credit Hours from the Illinois MCLE Board.

Additional information will be coming soon.

ISBA President Paula H. Holderman is proud to announce that her primary focus this year is to ensure that the ISBA provides optimal services and programs to its current members while simultaneously attracting new ones. She has appointed a New Lawyer Task Force to identify challenges facing lawyers entering the profession and to determine what ISBA can do to help. Watch below as President Holderman discusses her other plans for the 2013-2014 bar year.