Tips for Helping Your Staff Use Things to do and Caselist Meetings

We have recently launched into the third category of the five things that it takes to make up every business in the world. The first thing is "clients or customers," the second part is "administration," and the third part is "getting the work done." The last of the five items that make up part of every business are "billing," and "collecting."

A constant theme of all of these "tips," is each and every one is interconnected and you really cannot have a successful business unless you do all five of these parts well. There are multiple subsections to each part, so if you don't do each of the sub-parts well, you will probably not do the main part well; therefore your business will be deficient in at least one area.

If you look at each of these five parts and apply it to your practice, you will quickly see which of the things you do well, and which ones you do not. I have commented previously that lawyers seem to be pretty focused on "getting the job done," but they do not seem to be very good at the other four parts. Most readers of this column will probably have their own systems for "getting the work done." My attempt is to either reinforce the methods you are already using, or to give you some new ideas that you might implement to make it easier to "get the work done."

This week we are going to talk about the use of "things to do/caselist meetings." You are probably wondering how I can devote a whole column to this subject, but I think you will see why we need to talk about this in some detail in light of last week's column talking about "caselists."

Last week we discussed how every individual in your firm who has an obligation to do any of the substantive work on any of the client's legal matter needs to keep a caselist. What we did not discuss in any great detail was what you do with those caselists other than have the individual monitor their caselist for their own benefit. Since a caselist is again an organizational tool to keep the law firm on top of all of the legal matters that have been entrusted to it, it is very important that these lists be periodically reviewed to see if you are actually accomplishing what the client has asked you to do for them.

In my office, I have a sufficient number of people who are keeping their own caselists, so I find it very beneficial to review their caselist on a weekly basis.

I have found that the best way to have caselist review meetings is to not do them during the hustle and bustle of the workday. Often I will have caselist meetings at breakfast, lunch or after work in the evening. In fact, I have recently been going to a local breakfast restaurant and going over staff caselists. The atmosphere is relaxing, the food is good and the distractions are nearly nonexistent.

Another thing I have used these meetings for is what I call "things to do" meetings. Another way of describing this would be to have what I call "let's talk" meetings. You may remember that I have a nonverbal communication system in my office and that I quite often will put a note on a copy of something that has come across my desk to communicate something to another person in my office. Often one of the things I put on the piece of paper is the person's initials and then "let's talk" signed with my initials. If it is very important, I will say "let's talk ASAP" and if it's urgent I sometimes say "let's talk ASAP x 10,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000." A convenient way to do "things to do" meetings, is to utilize one of the sections of the "trial outline" I previously discussed in the section on "administration." You will remember Form 2 is a "things to do list" in every outline. Every time you think of something that needs to be done in order to get your case ready for trial, you put it on the "things to do list" and periodically you can review that "things to do list" with the people who have been assigned to accomplish the work and preparing the trial outline.

Even if you are the only person who has been assigned to do that work, reviewing your own list often reminds you about things you need to do in order to move your preparation forward.

One of the things I hate the most is to hear somebody say "I don't have anything to do." How can you have a set of circumstances where someone in your office makes this type of a comment when everybody else is running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to get everything done?

I like to give people short-term, medium-term and long-term assignments, so if they ever run out of something that needs to be done immediately, there is always something that needs to be done long term. If you take the time to have these "things to do/caselist" meetings, you will find everybody's platter is always full and all of the matters you are handling in the office seem to be moving forward in a reasonable way.

I recently had a conversation with a new employee about the angle of her learning curve in our firm. I made the comment to her that I though her learning curve was vertical. I additionally told her that she would feel a lot better in about ninety days after she had gone through a matter with me from the very beginning to the end. And once she had done something once, she would feel very comfortable about doing each time thereafter. It is very difficult when someone is dropped in the middle of a case. It is also difficult when no one has seen a case from start to finish. You need to become a prodigious delegater. I am always amazed at how much people can accomplish if you will just give them a clear idea of what it is you want, the tools to do the job and then get out of the way. I think that is the definition of a good manager.

I previously commented that staff members who are non-lawyers cannot exercise independent legal diagnosis, prognosis and prescription for legal treatment, but they certainly can help you in an unlimited number of ways to achieve all of these things for your clients without using independent judgement. You need to figure out ways non-lawyers can help you get your legal work done for your clients. Even if it is just giving you a letter addressed to the client with the correct "RE" line and with an introductory paragraph it helps you fill in the blanks and keep the work flow in your office constantly moving forward. As you give people an increasing number of tasks and things to do, help them be organized by keeping a caselist and constantly review their progress on matters that they have been assigned; you will be amazed at how people will take on more and more and lighten your load.

Any kind of system that you can implement that will help you get organized and handle your client matters more efficiently and timely, will reap great benefits both for the client and for yourself. You will become known as a "can do" lawyer which is not a bad badge to wear. Again, the secret is to get started, make a caselist, make a "things to do list," periodically review it and meet with other people to review their list to find out how they are doing and point them in the right direction and give them additional tasks. Try it, believe me, you will like it.

Next week we are going to talk about "task assignment, priority assignment, due date assignment." Yes, I even have a system for these kinds of activities. Some of these same activities were used in my trial outline I spoke about under "administration." I am going to elaborate on this and describe some ways that you can really give great direction to people on the type of assignments you give them on a daily basis and how to make the assignment make sense to them, tell them what kind of a priority it has, and give them a due date so they know exactly what to do, how important it is, and by when they are supposed to have it accomplished. Again, there is absolutely no excuse not to have great organization. Great organization turns out great work product. Great work product makes your clients happy. Happy clients make your life more enjoyable. So, get organized!

Talk to you next week!

Jim Wirken is a civil trial attorney and the Chairman of the Board of The Wirken Law Group in Kansas City.