I was sitting in our backyard this morning, looking at the house we’ve lived in for the last twenty years. We’ve had to replace appliances, make repairs, and do regular maintenance inside and out, of course, and because we have, the house is still in very good shape.
A law practice also needs upkeep. Periodically, you need to take inventory, make repairs and upgrades, and improve your processes.
I jotted down some of the areas to consider in this partial checklist:
PEOPLE
- Hire? Fire?
- Training/certification
- Updated info for HR
- Build culture (retreats, days off, recognition)
- CLE/Personal development
OFFICE/INFRASTRUCTURE
- Furniture/fixtures (repair, replace, clean)
- Computers/software (upgrade, backup, replace, new)
- Re-negotiate/extend lease?
- More space? Less? New location? Second office?
- Off site/Cloud storage
- Insurance
- Supplies
PROCESS
- Greeting clients
- Intake (forms, procedure)
- Closing files
- Litigation
- Archiving documents
- Forms/checklists (update, new, purge, digitize)
MARKETING
- Client relations/stay-in-touch
- Professional relations/joint ventures
- Website(s)/traffic
- Reaching out methods (speaking, networking, advertising, social media, blogging, etc.)
- Content marketing (blog, newsletter, articles, seminars, etc.)
Every practice is different. Use this as a starting point to create your own checklist. Then, calendar once or twice a year to review it and see what you might need to do. Some items, like office space, will need attention every few years. Others, like supplies and CLE and marketing, more often.
