Fail-Safe Administrative Tips for Getting Rid of the Clutter

I mentioned last week that I would be talking about two of my absolute favorite "administrative" tips for making your law firm operate more efficiently last week and this week. If the truth of the matter were to be known, this week I am talking about my favorite administrative concept for using your law office! Yes, I know you think I'm somewhat nuts, but believe me, this suggestion really works!

There is a lawyer in Kansas City who has the absolute cleanest desk of any lawyer's desk I have ever seen. No, it's not me. No matter how hard I try, I simply am unable to get all the things off my desk that I would like to get off my desk. The top of my desk is like an accordion. The files seem to grow and then they shrink and then they grow again. It's a good feeling knowing I have enough legal business to keep myself and my law firm alive and this "accordion effect" is just part of the workflow process in my office.

Just recently I actually got my desk down to one piece of paper for a client matter and a couple of other stacks of paper that had to do with reading, administrative issues and prospective new matter reports on clients. I cannot remember a time it has been in this good of order. Well, that lasted about a day. I honestly believe that if you ever get your desk totally clear, you are out of business. You need to think about the things that come across your desk as being the lifeblood of your law firm. Without client matters coming across your desk, no bills ever get sent, if no bills are ever sent, no money comes in the door.

Last week I introduced you to these two systems and this week I want to talk about the second system which is the utilization of manila folders marked "circulate," "file," "process," and "pull."

I call these four folders, sets. I try every day to get as much off my desk as possible. Often times I will have a staff member work with me to do this because I find that I usually go about two to three times faster through the information on my desk if I can simply hand it to somebody and have them put it in the sets of folders instead of doing it myself.

As I go through the information on my desk, I sort each of the things on my desk into one of the four files. If something needs to be circulated, I put the initials on it as to the person who needs to see it and sometimes make a short note, and then throw it in the "circulate" folder. My staff is sure that it gets to the person it is supposed to go to. If something needs to be filed, I throw it in the "file" folder and the person responsible for doing the filing puts it in the appropriate file. It doesn't matter whether the filing is for a client's matter, or for another type of file you keep in the office, all you have to do is put a checkmark by which file it goes into or write on the piece of paper where it goes and it will be appropriately filed. Anything that needs to be processed by my administrative assistant or secretary I place in the "process" folder. I put every single thing in this process folder that needs any work of any kind to be done by my administrative assistant or secretary. The last folder is the "pull" folder and if something needs to be pulled so that I can look at another part of another file, I put the piece of paper I have on my desk in this "pull" folder and the person who is responsible for pulling files, usually my secretary or administrative assistant, pulls that file and puts it back on my desk with the folder as well as the paper I put in the "pull" folder for the file to be pulled.

Invariably, every single thing on my desk fits in one of these four folders. I do not want my staff to sort these items into the four folders because I need to review each and every one of the pieces of paper that are on my desk so I am familiar with what is happening in my client's matters. Often times you will bump into a client who wants to know what is going on with their case, it is always a great experience to be able to instantaneously tell them exactly what is going on in their case because you saw a piece of paper the day before, the week before, or any other time.

These four folders have become incredibly important with regard to the psychological impact of feeling like you have actually accomplished something by at least putting the piece of paper on your desk in the appropriate folder. If you have trained your staff to deal with what is in the folders in the appropriate way, it is a tremendous psychological boost to be able to get the paper off your desk, get it in the proper folder and have confidence that it will be handled in the proper way by your staff.

Too often, lawyers think that uniquely they are the only people who can do something on a particular matter, and the stacks of paper seem to have a life of their own and just continue to grow and grow.


I hope you have been seeing a theme through all these comments that a certain amount of delegation needs to be done if you are going to be a successful lawyer. Try to minimize the things that uniquely, you as a lawyer, need to do. Try to minimize the tasks that uniquely require your legal diagnosis, prognosis or prescription for treatment. Everything else can be delegated to somebody to perform some part of the task that allows you to then do what you as a lawyer uniquely need to do.

From an administrative point of view, if you did nothing else other than to adopt this technique of utilizing these four sets of folders to get paper off your desk, you have made a quantum leap towards feeling better about what you do.

Remember, these administrative tips are just part of the system for operating your law firm. Next week's administrative tip deals with IOLTA and private trust accounts. I think this is a topic none of you will want to miss out on.

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.