Legal Back Office Launches Law Firm Leadership Collaboration Circle

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing disruptions to industries across the globe, and the legal field is certainly not immune.With law firms facing a range of challenges from client retention and billing to courthouse closures and limitations on in-person meetings, lawyers have plenty of obstacles to overcome in the weeks ahead. To help address these logistical and practice management difficulties, Legal Back Office has launched a weekly round-table with attorneys and experts in a variety of related fields to discuss the current state of the legal industry.

Law Firm Leadership Collaboration Circle Goals

Every Thursday for the next 90 days, we will be hosting a 1-hour video conference call that has an open registration for anyone who would like to attend.During these meetings, we will discuss specific pain points lawyers and practice managers are facing, as well as solutions to help weather the storm.Our first meeting was held last week (March 26) and included attorneys from across the country discussing how COVID-19 is impacting their daily operations, how they think it will affect them during the remainder of the year and steps they have taken to mitigate the fallout.Future meetings will focus on specific topics, such as financial concerns, mental health, improving employee morale, etc.

March 26 Law Firm Leadership Collaboration Circle Recap

Our first meeting last week focused on the struggles law firms are facing during the COVID-19 crisis. A big theme across all practice areas was concerns over where cashflow will come from in the next 90 days.Due to the rapidly evolving response to the pandemic, it is difficult to reliably predict how events will unfold within the hour – let alone weeks and months down the line.Quarantines are impacting everything from clients’ ability to pay for legal services to courts temporarily shutting down delaying current active cases.However, there are steps being taken by the government to help keep businesses afloat during these turbulent times. All law firm owners who are worried about cashflow issues should talk to their small business banks regarding loan options – many of which may be forgiven.Additionally, there were concerns outside of business such as the mental health and well-being of employees and their families.While there are not going to be any one-size-fits-all solutions to these issues, the group was able to share a variety of strategies and resources they are using to help with many of these issues

Tools & Resources To Help

Based on the combined experience of the group, we will develop a living resource page that will be updated after each meeting to include tools and programs that have helped attorneys and business owners throughout the COVID-19 crisis.This will include practice management programs such as small business loan funding options, a workbook to help project income, revenue & expenses and tools to help conduct business virtually, as well as programs and apps to help keep everyone healthy – both mentally and physically.Since we are all in the same boat, these collaborative meetings will serve to brainstorm creative solutions to problems we are all facing.The video conferences will be recorded and posted on our website along with a post recapping highlights from the meeting, and the growing resources page will also be available to check out as well.If you are interested in attending future Law Firm Leadership Collaboration Circle meetings, simply fill out the registration form. You will receive an invite to a recurring meeting, and you can attend any of the upcoming events over the coming weeks.We hope to create a place law firm owners and attorneys can discuss challenges and solutions they face during this difficult time, and through our shared knowledge and experience, come out stronger and more resilient than ever before.