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.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am one of the founding partners in a 27 attorney law firm in San Antonio, Texas. We have four equity partners, six non-equity partners and seventeen associates working in the firm. We focus totally on litigation. Each of us four equity partners have equal ownership percentages and since day one (20 years) have divided firm profits equally along those lines (25%, 25%, 25%, 25%). We each put in the same amount of effort and work - but since I am managing partner - my fee collections are much lower than those of the other three equity partners and I am concerned that they may feel that I am not carrying my weight since my fee collections are lower. How should this be handled in our compensation system?

A. This is a common question that we hear often. It sounds like you are still allocating income in the same manner that you did when the firm first started. Often when a firm grows the partner compensation system needs to be reexamined when and if partner roles or contributions change. As the firm has grown I suspect that your time spent on management activities has grown as well. I, as well as many other legal management consultants, believe that firm management (running the business) is as important as generating client fees and should be so considered in partner compensation systems.

We have numerous law firm clients where at least one or more of the equity partners "run the business" and do not provide billable client services at all.

The ISBA/JTBF Law and Leadership Institute (LLI) wrapped up its residential program last week at the Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale. The downstate program is a one week residential program that ran from Sunday, June 23 through Saturday, June 29.

The LLI is a statewide initiative to assist students from minority, ethnic, and other groups who are currently underrepresented in the legal professions achieve academic success and aspire to a career in the law.

The two current programs in Illinois were spearheaded by the ISBA Diversity Pipeline committee. The Chicago commuter program will be held from Monday, July 22 through Friday, August 9 and hosted by the John Marshall Law School.

The Illinois State Bar Association had its mobile billboard in the lineup of Sunday's Gay Pride Parade in Chicago – one of more than 200 entries. The parade entry was a collaborative effort between the ISBA, CBA, and LAGBAC (the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago).

The Illinois Supreme Court announced Monday that it has amended rules that would expand mediation for child custody cases to include requests by a custodial parent to move a minor child to another state.

Mediation programs for child custody and visitation cases have been a requirement for each judicial circuit in Illinois through Supreme Court Rule 905.

The Judicial Conference of the United States has authorized the appointment of a full-time United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The official location for the position will be Peoria, Illinois. Full-time magistrate judges are appointed to eight-year terms of office by the judges of each respective United States district court.