how to read attorney productivity numbers

by Miss Ena Hoppe 8 min read

How do law firms measure productivity?

Measuring a lawyer's utilization rate is instrumental in understanding his or her productivity. It is a measure of how much time is spent on work that is billable to clients. Utilization is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by dividing a lawyer's billable hours by the total hours worked.

How do lawyers measure performance?

Depending on an in-house attorney's job responsibilities, metrics to measure job performance may include:The number of litigation matters opened.The number of litigation matters closed.The total number of pending litigation matters managed.The number of transactions handled.The number of contracts reviewed.More items...

How do you calculate profitability of a lawyer?

To calculate contribution, costs are subtracted from fees collected, and then divided by partner hours billed, which yields a “gross profit” of $450 per partner hour for this engagement. That “gross profit” is then multiplied by the average billable hours per partner to total $733,500, which is 73.4% of the PPEP goal.Apr 12, 2017

How do lawyers keep track of billable hours?

1) The legal software stopwatch The stopwatch is a tried and true means to track time. Most modern legal software systems provide this time-tracking feature. For example, if a lawyer opens a case file, there's usually a digital stopwatch they can click to begin tracking the time spent on a task.Aug 30, 2021

What are KPIs in law?

KPI is a measurable value that indicates how effectively your law firm is achieving its goals. Other synonyms for KPIs would be metrics and business intelligence.

How do you measure the performance of a legal department?

Other metrics to measure how the law department uses outside counsel include:Number of law firms used.Type and number of legal matters handled by each law firm.Annual fees paid to each law firm.Number of law firms offering alternative fee arrangements.Number of law firm evaluations conducted.Feb 24, 2021

What is lawyer productivity?

No matter what happens regarding billing methods, the management of junior attorneys and the law firm, and the measurement of lawyer productivity, the lawyer's own best self-defense mechanism is a contemporaneous diary of the time devoted to each client and matter every day you are working.Jun 30, 2009

What is a good profit margin for a law firm?

thirty-five to forty-five percentFor law firms, the profit margin is essentially the firm partners' earnings. So, after you've covered all your expenses, how much are the firm partners walking away with? A good profit margin for a law firm is thirty-five to forty-five percent.Feb 7, 2021

What is WIP in a law firm?

The amount of cash tied up in either work in progress (WIP) or debtors directly impacts the ability of partners to draw profits and can threaten the very existence of firms.May 13, 2019

How do you bill in 15 minutes increments?

The standard increments used by most firms are as follows.1/10 of an hour (6 min)1/6 of an hour (10 min)1/4 of an hour (15 min)Oct 22, 2018

Is time tracking legal?

Is employee time tracking required by any law? Yes, employee time tracking is a part of record-keeping requirements under FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) and many states' laws.Feb 12, 2019

What is block billing?

Block billing is the practice of listing a group of tasks in a block summary under a single time entry. For example: “Draft interrogatory requests; telephone conference with Dr. Brown re: expert report; summarize deposition of Mr. Smith; review and revise correspondence to opposing counsel.Jan 3, 2020

So, What’s Personal Productivity, Anyway?

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We can tell you what it isn’t: Personal productivity is not case management. Law practice management softwareand project management software are great for keeping track of appointments and deadlines, but not so great for figuring out what you need to do right now. What you need is a personal product...
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Lists, Lists, Lists

  • We know a business owner who had 430,000 emails in her email inbox. Her inbox washer list. This is where she kept her ideas, projects, meeting invites, and tasks. She would swear she knew exactly where everything was and that she never dropped an email — but she often missed meetings, project deadlines, and more. She was frustrated and her team was frustrated. This mi…
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Get Those Ideas Out of Your Head

  • Once you’ve cleared out that inbox and gotten your immediate tasks into a list, you might wonder what you’re missing. We’ll tell you: All those ideas and nebulous tasks floating around in your head. Ideas and tasks that are stuck in your head are like stress baggage you carry with you everywhere you go. They’re more likely to get lost or keep you up at night. So, get everything out …
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Goals: The Reason For Everything You Do

  • Last, the big picture. Appointments and deadlines mean nothing without context. Your client meeting on Tuesday has an obvious connection to your client’s goals, but does it connect to your own goals for your firm, your career, or your life? Whatever your goals are, write them down. We think it makes sense to think in terms of what you want to accomplish this month, quarter, next …
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Setting The Day-To-Day

  • You’ll note that we haven’t actually gotten anything done yet. That’s a common complaint about productivity systems like GTD—they seem to focus more on organizing lists of tasks than actually completing tasks. It’s not an entirely fair complaint, but it’s good to remember that your productivity system isn’t any good if you spend all your time maintaining it and no time actually …
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Great, But…

  • OK, we’ll add on more thing. That third step? Get shit done? We know it isn’t that easy. One of our team members at Lawyerist has struggled with a life-long procrastinating issue. She’s dragged her feet on everything from her dissertation to tasks she knows would take 30 seconds or less. It’s not that she doesn’t know how to do it. It’s not that she doesn’t wantto do it. She just can’t seem to …
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You’Re Not Alone

  • This is a lot to take in – and we’ve all been there. Get some extra help. We go over this – and more – in our law firm survival guide, The Small Firm Roadmap. Click here to join Insider and download the first chapter. Originally published in 2019. Updated 2020-01-20.
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