Lawyers tend to have very busy and problematic lives. Going to courts, answering inquiries from clients, and managing loads of paperwork are only some of the jobs that lawyers have to partake in every day. However, there are more reoccurring problems that they have to handle.
Here are some of them:
Document Management
Document management is one of the reoccurring nightmares of every lawyer, especially lawyers that work with wills and estate. There are just too many important documents for these kinds of lawyers to keep, track, and secure. Some of which are bound to get lost or damaged over time. However, if you can’t manage your documents, you’re going to have big problems in the future. Thankfully, some legal documents can be stored online.
There are many legal document apps accessible to lawyers nowadays. Not investing in one can only make your life miserable. An American Bar Association survey has shown that 58% of lawyers use document apps such as Dropbox. Some even stated that they are using cloud computing to manage their documents.
As a new lawyer, you can always start with an app that’s free and simple to use, such as Dropbox. Start scanning your documents and arranging them into digital folders so that you can always have a copy of them wherever you are. It’s also good when you’re presenting them in a case, as more courts are going digital when representing legal documents.
Phone Calls
As a lawyer, you will be receiving phone calls hourly, and that can cut most of your time with your daily clients. Some of these calls might just be even about simple inquiries, which are a complete waste of time. New lawyers might think that phone calls are a good way to start getting clients and potentially networking new ones.
However, they aren’t aware that some people are just getting free consultations out of them, which would cost them a couple of hundred dollars in the long run. Remember that running a law firm isn’t free.
Some lawyers would hire a secretary for this crisis. But that could cost a decent chunk of money, especially when you’re paying the bills by yourself. Additionally, hiring the wrong secretary can only mean disaster for you. So what do you do? Learn time management and get yourself an answering machine.
A good tip from an experienced lawyer is that you give yourself a couple of hours to return and answer calls. Doing this can help clients synchronize their times into when you’re open to inquiries. But don’t spend so much time answering back to these calls, remember you have other important things to attend to, and you can’t spend your time chatting with someone on the phone.
Digital Integration
This is one particular problem that only sprouted this year. Many lawyers didn’t expect that online streaming, conferences, and calls would be the norm. Many settled for standard face-to-face meetings. But the pandemic changed all that. The entire industry has taken a big hit because no one was prepared for this problem, with industry-wide revenues dropping by two-thousand dollars per lawyer.
Today, lawyers spend more time online than actually being in their office, and you should too. Investing in an online service that can help you connect with your clients wherever you are is now essential. A study has even found that many clients feel more at ease when connecting to their lawyers digitally.
Learning how to use Zoom, Meets, and other online streaming apps should be a part of your listed skills. Additionally, if you’re managing a law firm, management apps such as Clio can help you schedule work and manage workload for everyone from the safety of your home.