The end of the year is barreling toward us — are you ready? If not, here are a few tips for tidying up your practice and doing a comprehensive financial review. Financial Management for Your Firm For many lawyers, financial management is the business area of practicing law that provides the most heartburn. It’s completely understandable. But it is to your detriment when you don’t understand the financial fundamentals better. Hire financial advisors to aid you in better understanding your business. Too many lawyers delegate responsibility to employees who have not been properly trained. Be aware of potential landmines. A major red flag is having one employee who has all financial responsibility: check writing, bookkeeping, trust accounting and reconciliation, as well as maintaining all communication with your financial partners and bank. Checks and balances are key. Often, there is no ill intent on the part of the employee, just a lack of knowledge. If, as the owner, you do not understand the process, you will have a hard time finding the flaws in your system or properly supervising. nalyze your cash flow. Brenda Barnes, owner of B2 Management & Consulting, has this to say about law firm finance: “A good system of cash flow management can spell the difference between a successful business and a failed one. You need positive future cash flow to meet your debt commitments. Strong cash flow management also provides the ability to invest in growth. Getting to a position of excess cash flow helps your company operate in a strategic, proactive way, and can help keep you from operating on the defensive. Year-end is an excellent time to document your cash flow, prepare a cash flow budget, and look for areas of improvement.” What Should a Law Firm Financial Review Include? A Year-End Checklist Barnes

Does your law firm work allocation model leave too many associates behind? Historically, work allocation in law firms has primarily been driven by partners. When a partner chooses an associate to help them with a matter, their skills are important, but so is the associate’s proximity and the impression they’ve left on that partner. As their working relationship deepens and the associate’s experience widens, they can quickly become the go-to person when that partner needs help. The Problem with the ‘Proximity and Familiarity’ Model On the surface, this seems like a win-win. The partner wants the best person on their matters and has no reason to look elsewhere unless their preferred associate is unavailable or unequipped for the matter at hand. But work allocation based on proximity and familiarity risks conscious and unconscious bias, leading to unfair work distribution among a firm’s associates. If a partner monopolizes an associate, they are also depriving that associate of experience working with other partners and denying other partners the help of that associate. When the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School explored law firm work allocation in 2017, longtime partners confirmed that traditional work allocation has an implicit bias toward associates who can easily develop relationships with partners. “An associate’s talent and abilities are critical and the key selection criteria, but unintentionally, people are sometimes drawn to those they think they can work the easiest with — those who studied in the same university, are into the same sports, have the same kinds of interests,” said Bas Boris Visser, a partner at Clifford Chance. This is just part of the reason why some firms, especially larger ones, have been gradually shifting away from this model. Some have appointed one person to make or approve assignment decisions for a firm or practice

You’re putting out great content but can’t get clicks. How frustrating! Here are three suggestions for online marketing teasers to get people to open that email or click on the social media link. 1. This/These The title of this post could have been “Three Techniques to Tempt Targets,” but for some reason, we can’t resist the pull of “this” or “these.” The viewer of “Every Employer Needs to Know This Law” is more likely to click through than if the title was “An Important Law for Employers.” You will see this gimmick all over the sponsored posts on your social media platforms. It’s ubiquitous because it works. 2. Include a Number “Try These Techniques to Tempt Targets” would have worked. But including a number is better. A post that presents information in the form of a list is known as a listicle. The title makes a promise of a specific number of nuggets of information. The format fulfills that promise. Teasing with a number works even if the number is one. My mediation blog includes posts on “The One Thing You Can Control in Negotiation” and “The One Thing to Do to Maximize Mediation Success.” You want the reader to think, if there’s only one answer to the implied question, it must be crucial; I better find out what it is. 3. Use Alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of a sound at the beginning of successive or nearby words, as in “Techniques to Tempt Targets.” Alliteration makes a phrase catchy and memorable. Alliteration is very common in product names, such as Bed, Bath & Beyond and Dunkin’ Donuts. The 20th Century Fox Film Studio executive who gave Norma Jeane Mortenson her first contract renamed her Marilyn Monroe. There’s a reason all the Kardashians’ names start with “K.” Creative Content Marketing

As one of the newest and most popular social media platforms, TikTok’s user base is growing rapidly. After starting as a place for short-form comedy videos, TikTok has developed into a valuable marketing tool with the potential to reach millions of consumers. Moreover, the virality potential of this platform is unparalleled, so businesses have a greater opportunity than ever to reach vast audiences by leveraging short-form video content. While TikTok presents a great opportunity for law firms to market their services, many attorneys are unsure of how to use the app or whether it is worth the investment. Several attorneys, however, have found success on TikTok, leveraging it to attract traffic to their website and establish a relationship with potential new clients. What Is TikTok? TikTok is a short-form video-sharing app that has reached 1 billion monthly active users since its inception. A major component of its popularity is its ease of use. Most videos are 15 seconds or less and can be crafted easily using a mobile device. Despite being a global app, TikTok emphasizes localized content and in this way is ideal for community building. The app is a hot spot for the millennial and Gen Z audience, with 41% of its users aged 16-24. As the app continues to gain traction, the user demographics are shifting to include older individuals and businesses. With this in mind, it is clear why more and more businesses are turning to TikTok to share their brand and diversify their marketing strategy. The Power of Short-Form Video Content TikTok garnered serious virality in 2020 and 2021, and other social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube have taken note. As more and more platforms continue to shift to quick, short-form content, marketers are beginning to follow suit. It’s clear that short-form video is