Law Times

Page 12 February 5, 2018 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com confidential interviews. The consultant then organizes all the information and delivers the result. McAree says that, even though a third party is involved, taking on a survey project can be a lot of work so they ensure the parameters are clearly defined and that there is followup. In its last annual survey, a specific element the firm wanted to address was added into the questionnaire. The firm's lawyers are in- volved in many articles and re- search projects conducted in its specialty area of environmen- tal law, and the firm wanted to know how much of that infor- mation clients wanted to receive. Through the survey, McAree says, the firm learned that clients were not interested in receiving additional information through email. "The answer we got, almost unequivocally, was, 'Please do not send me anymore informa- tion because my proverbial in- box is full . . .,'" he says. The finding was "a little sur- prising," he says, but valuable. The firm has since limited its email communications to short articles, instead of full news- letters, and it posts other infor- mation in the business-friendly LinkedIn platform. Following Canada's anti-spam legislation, those emails are dispatched only to those clients who have re- quested them. "What we found is that the survey reinforced that we were doing many, many, many good things. But, over the years, there were a couple of occasions when followup was required . . . and we were able to learn and make change," says McAree. "If the followup is not there, don't spend the time and the re- sources, in my respectful view, to carry out the survey. It's a lot of work and a lot of organization, and it needs to be a meaningful tool." The followup, he adds, in- volves understanding in a mean- ingful way the message that the client is sending to the law firm. That could include going back to the client to ensure client service and satisfaction is improved. LT Either you should never be at $500 or clients aren't prepared to pay it," says Mabey. "We might be better off tak- ing you off that client and giving you client work that you can get the full $500 for." Measuring that rate from month to month can also pro- vide some early indication of any problems or issues, says Marc McAree, managing part- ner at Willms & Shier Environ- mental Lawyers LLP. "You create more revenue by either billing more hours and/or doing so at a higher or lower ef- fective hourly rate," he says. "If it's falling off, then we have to ask ourselves the ques- tion, 'Why is that? Does it mean that we are writing down and writing off client accounts more so than we normally do?'" Bruce Baron likes to keep a close eye on how the firm is do- ing. As founding and managing partner of Gaertner Baron PC in Toronto, he uses some key metrics regularly. "I know exactly what my monthly cash f low is," he says. "I know what my cash f low out every month is and I know what it is in every month. So I try to bill out about 150 per cent of what I know my expenses out every month is." Keeping an eye on the real earnings of the firm helps him keep it on solid financial foot- ing. Instead of reacting to that, keeping a close eye on that per- formance indicator confirms that the firm with five lawyers and three support staff are heading in the right direction. The firm's overall approach to the business of law allows for efficient service through the maximum use of support staff, keeping client costs down, re- sulting in a higher collection ratio, he says. LT Continued from page 10 Use key metrics Third-party evaluation can work Continued from page 11 Marc McAree says measuring the realiza- tion rate from month to month can provide some early indication of any problems or issues. Medico/Legal Your case is too important. 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