Four Effective Ways To Increase Fees

There is a little known secret to increasing billable hours—and more and more lawyers are using it to increase income.

In the past, increasing fees by increasing hourly rates was easy. There was plenty of work to be had. And clients had money to spend. Today, work is harder to find, clients demand more work for less fees, and hourly rates are under pressure as never before. And increasingly clients are negotiating fixed fees, further reducing your available billable hours. Sound familiar?

When the recession hit, firms were generally quick to cut overheads. Unnecessary costs were excised, and most firms retrenched some of their people. While this achieved the initial objective of reducing costs, it also increased the workload for the lawyers that remained with the firm. It also didn't help firms increase fees.

So, what is the secret to increasing billable hours?

Although it sounds cliché, your solution lies in the old saying “work smarter, not harder”, a strapline first used by spreadsheet pioneer VisiCalc over 25 years ago. In the context of law, although there are great tools to “work smarter”, lawyers often seem reluctant to adopt new technology.

However, unrelenting pressure to increase output is forcing lawyers to actively look for even more clever tools to improve billables. One such tool is Document Assembly, where commonly used legal precedents—both simple and complex—are automated.

Here are four effective ways you can continue to increase fees, even in these recessionary times, through effective use of Document Assembly:

1. The first way Document Assembly helps you increase fees is through information re-use. Precedents (or “templates”) are created once and re-used again and again. Because a “fair fee” can be charged for these documents, even though they can be produced in a fraction of the time it would normally take to create such a document from scratch, re-using precedents has the economic effect of increasing fees.

2. It's not only precedents that can be re-used. Data from your practice management system for example, can also be used again and again in documents, minimizing recapture time and eliminating typing errors.

3. And because precedents and other data can be created once and used many times, near-perfect drafts can be produced quickly and easily, requiring less proof-reading by partners, saving time.

4. Document Assembly can be used to attract business to your firm, too. Add standard templates to your web site, like a Last Will and Testament for example, which can be a source of contact information for your firm when web site visitors complete these documents online.

Of course, Document Assembly also reduces costs: All precedents are organized into folders, and so are easy to find. Simple documents such as letterheads, fax cover sheets, etc. are standardized, ensuring they are accurate, up-to-date, and used firm-wide.

It is a well documented fact that Document Assembly will have a major effect on law firms’ profitability in coming years. And it's also very likely your competitors are already using Document Assembly to improve their bottom lines.

One of the most powerful and flexible Document Assembly products on the market today is XpressDox—a full featured system designed for law firms of all sizes. If you would like to find out more about how XpressDox can increase fees, improve productivity, and reduce expenses at your firm, please visit our web site. You can also read a review of XpressDox by Seth Rowland of BashaSys in New York.

Download your trial version of XpressDox.

By Guest Blogger: Chris Pearson