A recent survey by Harbor has found that deadlines for logging billable time in law firms are becoming more stringent. Nearly half (45.7%) of participating firms enforce weekly deadlines, while 31.4% enforce two- to three-day deadlines, and 5.7% enforce daily deadlines.
Law firms are increasingly using "rewards and repercussions" to ensure that attorneys meet prebilling and pro forma deadlines. The percentage of firms using this approach has risen significantly from 32% in 2017 to 89% in 2023.
“We used to see firms experimenting with carrots to give some kind of reward, maybe they give to a charity or something like that on behalf of legal admin assistants or something like that. But I think most firms are saying this is a stick, not a carrot,” Ryan said. “More firms are bringing it into their performance reviews and withholding pay to get it in a more timely manner.”
Law firms are realizing that clients want billing to be efficient and accurate, so they are concentrating on enhancing their billing practices to improve the overall client experience.
“More and more firms are realizing [billing] is part of the client experience,” Ryan said. “You hear more clients saying all things being equal, they’ve rather had a much better efficiency experience, where there are no surprises and it’s accurate. That’s a factor and it’s part of the client experience.”
Many law firms are adopting a "client assignment staffing model" in response to clients' legal operations functions and increased scrutiny of outside counsel guidelines. This model assigns billing staff to specific, often lucrative, client relationships rather than to specific offices or attorneys.
The proportion of law firms employing the client assignment staffing model has increased by 20 percentage points since 2022, reaching 63% in 2023.
This article was originally published on The American Lawyer.
- Time & billing
- Revenue Cycle Survey
- Business operations
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