Chapter 2
Legal Administration and Technology
KEY POINTS
Practice management relates to decisions about how a law office practices law and how it handles its cases.
Administrative management relates to decisions about how a law office operates or manages a law office, including financial and personnel matters.
Major functions of legal administration or law office management include: practice management, leadership, controlling, financial management, human resources management, planning, marketing, organization/policies/systems, facilities management, office services management, and technology management.
Ensuring that clients receive quality legal services is one of the most important aspects of law office management.
Human resources management refers to hiring, evaluating, compensating, training, and directing law office personnel.
Important federal employment laws include the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Civil Rights Acts, Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Equal Pay Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
A staff manual is an important way to set policies and procedures for any law office.
Law office security, and maintaining the safety of employees, is paramount for law firms.
Technology has profoundly affected how law offices provide legal services to clients and how law offices are operated. There is virtually no aspect of a law office that has not been affected by technology.
CHAPTER OUTLINE/NOTES
I.Legal Administration Principles
A.Dispelling a Myth—Many people assume that attorneys automatically make good managers. In truth, this is not necessarily so. Although lawyers have gone to school to learn about practicing law, many have no training or experience in management. One adage is “the best system for law office management is the system that involves the lawyers the least.”
B.Practice Management v. Administrative Management
i.Practice management refers to management decisions about how a law office will practice law and handle its cases.
ii.Administrative management refers to management decisions relating to managing a law office, such as financial or personnel matters.
II.Functions of Legal Administration
C.Management—Management is the administration of people and other resources to accomplish objectives.
D.The functions of legal administration include (see Exhibit 2–2):
i.Practice management
ii.Leadership
iii.Controlling
iv.Financial management
v.Human resources management
vi.Planning
vii.Marketing management
viii.Organization, policies, and systems
ix.Facilities management
x.Office services management
xi.Technology management
III.Practice Management
A.Defining the Law Firm’s Practice—Every law firm makes decisions regarding who their primary clientele will be (see Exhibit 2–3).
B.Defining the Law Firm’s Services—Once the firm has decided who their clients will be, the next step is to decide exactly what services will be provided to the clients.
C.Defining the Law Firm’s Practice Systems—Once it has been decided what legal services will be provided to clients, the next step is to decide what practice systems and resources are needed to deliver those services (hardware, software, library, personnel, etc.). Exhibit 2–4 in the text covers some possible alternatives.
D.Total Quality Management (TQM)—Total quality management is a management philosophy based upon knowing the needs of each client and allowing those needs to drive the legal organization at all levels of activity (see Exhibit 2–5).
1.TQM Philosophies:
a.Management has an overriding duty to ensure that the firm provides quality legal services.
b.Quality service involves every person in the firm, and everyone must be involved and committed.
c.Quality service is based not on management’s or our own perception of quality, but on the perceptions of the client.
d.Quality service depends on the individual’s, the team’s, and ultimately the organization’s performance.
e.Improve systems constantly.
IV.Leadership
Leadership is the act of motivating or causing others to perform and achieve objectives. Effective leaders inspire others, set a clear mission, vision, and goals for an organization, and give it direction and guidance. See Exhibit 2–6.
V.Controlling
Controlling is the process of determining whether the law practice is achieving its objectives, holding stakeholders accountable for their goals, and making strategy adjustments as necessary so the firm achieves its objectives.
VI.Financial Management
Financial management is the oversight of a firm’s financial assets and profitability to ensure overall financial health.
VII.Human Resources Management
Human resources management refers to hiring, evaluating, compensating, training, and directing law office personnel.
A.Hiring Process
a.Writing a job description
b.Advertising and recruiting
c.Employment applications/resumes
d.Interviewing
e.Reference checks
B.Performance Evaluations
C.Compensation and Benefits
D.Training and Development
E.Personnel Policies
F.Current Personnel law Issues (See Exhibit 2–12)
a.Employment-at-Will—States that an employer and employee freely enter into an employment relationship, and that either party has the right to sever the relationship at any time without reason.
b.Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
i.Applies to employers with 50 or more employees.
ii.Applies to employees with at least one year of service and 1,250 hours in the last year.
iii.Employee is entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave within a 12-month period for:
1.The birth or adoption of a child
2.Care of a child, spouse, or parent with a serious health condition
3.Employee’s own health condition
iv.Employee is entitled to return to his or her same position or one that is equivalent.
c.Fair Labor Standards Act—Sets minimum wage and maximum hours of work for employees. It also requires employers to pay overtime for time worked over 40 hours per week to nonexempt staff.
d.Civil Rights Act of 1964—Prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established to enforce this law.
e.Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967—Prohibits employers from discriminating against persons age 40 or older on the basis of their age, unless age is a bona fide occupational qualification.
f.American with Disabilities Act of 1990—Prohibits employers from discriminating against persons with disabilities in several different areas. The ADA required that employers “reasonably accommodate” persons with disabilities.
g.Equal Pay Act of 1993—Prohibits employers from basing arbitrary wage differences on gender.
h.Sexual Harassment—Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
VIII.Planning
A.Planning is the process of setting objectives, assessing the future, and developing courses of action to achieve these objectives.
B.A mission statement is a general, enduring statement of the purpose or intent of the law practice.
C.Strategic planning includes determining the major goals of a firm and then adopting the courses of action necessary to achieve those goals. See Exhibits 2–15 and 2–16.
IX.Marketing Management
Marketing is the process of educating consumers on the quality legal services that a law office provides.
X.Organizing, Policies, and Systems
A.Organizing is the process of arranging people and physical resources to carry out plans and accomplish objectives.
B.A system is a consistent or organized way of doing something.
C.A policy is a specific statement that sets out what is or is not acceptable.
D.A procedure is a series of steps that must be followed to accomplish a task.
E.A law office staff manual sets out the policies and procedures of the law office. See Exhibit 2–18 for a partial law office staff manual table of contents.
XI.Facilities Management
Facilities management encompasses planning, designing, controlling, and managing a law office’s building or office space. Facilities management includes a variety of subject areas.
A.Property Acquisition—Property acquisition refers to acquiring space in which the law office will be housed, including purchasing a building/property or leasing office space.
B.Moves/Construction/Remodeling—Facilities management also includes moving from one location to another, constructing a whole new office from scratch, or constructing/remodeling existing office space to meet new needs or demands.
C.Parking—Adequate parking for both employees and clients should be taken into consideration when choosing office space.
D.Cleaning/Maintenance/Grounds—Facilities management also includes being responsible for having the facility cleaned, typically through a cleaning service; maintenance and upkeep when things break or need to be replaced or repaired; and being responsible for the grounds of the office, including lawn care and snow removal, among other things.
E.Common Areas—Facilities management may also include being responsible for common areas in the office, such as the waiting room, kitchen areas, conference rooms, bathrooms, and storage rooms, to name a few.
F.Environmental Considerations—Environmental considerations include a variety of important topics, such as lighting, electrical, climate, and plumbing in the law office.
G.Security/Workplace Violence—Law office security is a major concern for all law offices. Exhibit
2–19 shows a list of things a law office can do to strengthen its security.
H.Safety—Safety issues include ensuring the building has a sprinkler system, fire alarms, emergency power/lighting, fire escapes, and other features that enhance safety.
I.Disaster Recovery Planning—A disaster recovery plan includes information on how the office will rebuild and recover from a total disaster.
XII.Office Services
Office services management refers to a number of internal systems and services in law offices.
A.Mail room
B.Copy machines
C.File/records management
D.Telecommunications
a.Telephone equipment
b.Voice mail
c.Fax machines
d.Video conferencing
XIII.Technology and Information Systems Management
A.Legal Assistant Use of Technology at Work—See Exhibit 2–21.
B.Hardware—Exhibit 2–20 shows a typical list of technology in law offices.
C.Software
i.E-mail
1.Business e-mail etiquette and tips
2.Problems with e-mail
3.E-mail errors
4.E-mail confidentiality issues
ii.Word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation software
iii.Docket control/calendaring/case management
iv.Time and billing
v.Document management
vi.Document assembly
vii.Litigation support
viii.Electronic discovery
ix.Legal specific software
x.Trial software
D.Telecommunications
i.Law office Web sites
ii.Internet access
iii.Intranet
iv.Extranet
v.Legal blogs
WEB LINKS
American Bar Association site devoted to law practice management.
American Bar Association site devoted to legal technology.
Alabama State Bar Association site.
Association of Legal Administrators site.
Home page for Law Office Computing magazine.
Home page for Law Technology News magazine.
White papers on technology from Law Technology News.
Maryland State Bar Association site.
New Jersey State Bar Association site.
Management.htm
New York State Bar Association site devoted to practice management.
South Carolina State Bar Association site.
Georgia State Bar Association site devoted to practice management.
New Mexico State Bar Association site devoted to law office management.
KEY TERMS
Administrative management
administrative task
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
Americans with Disabilities Act
bona fide occupational qualification
Civil Rights Act of 1964
coaching technique
controlling
disaster recovery plan
document assembly software
employment-at-will
doctrine
document management software
equal employment opportunity
Equal Pay Act of 1963
extranet
facilities management
Fair Credit Reporting Act
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
financial management
Gannt chart
human resources management
intranet
leadership
management
management by objectives
marketing
mission statement
negligent hiring
office services management
organizing
personnel handbook
planning
policy
practice management
procedure
reasonable
accommodation
sexual harassment
strategic planning
substantive task
system
total quality management