Making time for the business side crucial for small firms.

Byline: Matt Chaney

George Daniel is a small town attorney working in Yanceyville. His four-attorney firm, Daniel Thomas, is typical of many firms its size in that a large part of Daniel's time, as managing partner, goes toward administrative tasks. He said this is just part of what small firm attorneys sign up for.

"I still cut my own grass," he said. "You do what you got to do. It has nothing to do with law substance, but it has to do with the law business."

While small firm lawyers understand the dangers of failing to adopt new technologies and practice models, a recently published national survey found that many are too busy keeping their lights on to try new techniques to help them survive and compete.

While Daniel may be ahead of the curve in his use of digital marketing, cloud computing, and case management software, many small firm attorneys who participated in the Thomson Reuters survey said they are hesitant to slow down long enough to make their businesses run more efficiently. The report listed acquiring new clients, time spent on administrative tasks, and the increasing complexity of technology as the biggest challenges small firm attorneys face.

While a lawyer's job is to practice law, the survey found that the smaller the firm, the more time attorneys spend on administrative worklike bookkeeping and case managementwhich does not generate legal fees. The report found that, on average, 40 percent of a small firm lawyer's day goes to such tasks.

"And most lawyers will tell you that it is highly unlikely that they will actually collect money from clients for each of those potentially billable hours," the report said. "By the time we account for leakage due to poor timekeeping practices, discounts and write-downs offered by the lawyer to address perceived client concerns, and client pushback on the final invoice, the proportion of each working day for which a lawyer will ultimately be paid dwindles quickly."

Many lawyers and small firms are "pennywise and pound foolish," said Matthew Van Sickle, a solo practitioner in Raleigh who co-chairs the North Carolina Bar Association's Small Firm and Technology Committee.

"Attorneys are reluctant to spend money on new technologies, or they'll spend the money and not allocate the time required to become proficient at using them," Van Sickle said. "You have to set aside the time to understand the technology and when you do, it will streamline your administrative work and make it easier to do...