Regardless of how large or small your firm is, it requires a certain amount of administration. Administrative tasks are all those “musts” that don’t directly help you land or keep a client or contribute to the bottom line. Every minute spent on those tasks takes time away from landing or keeping a new client or doing something that contributes to the bottom line. So, to the extent that someone else can do it, the more successful and profitable you should be. Such help comes at a cost, but it might be more reasonable than you think.
Law firms realized many years ago that it wasn’t enough for staff to be limited to lawyers, legal assistants, and paralegals.
While firms have long had bookkeepers, the administrative demands in today’s world require a broader range of skills. The position of managing partner was born. However, only firms of a certain size can afford to take a partner offline and dedicate their efforts entirely to administration. So all of the other firms, who nevertheless need a managing partner, are left with subpar alternatives – a managing partner trying to both manage the firm and their own practice (both of which suffer), a managing committee (spreading the suffering to additional practices and suffering the inefficiencies of management by committee), or delegating the administrative tasks to staff who don’t have the education, training, or experience to make the necessary decisions.
But there is another option – a part-time firm administrator, CEO, COO, coach, or manager.
If you cannot afford to hire someone full-time with the knowledge, education, training, or experience to entrust with your firm management, you can buy part of their time. These part-time administrators can do what they do because they spend the remainder of their time helping other firms. It’s like fractional jet ownership. You can share the costs with others to have the skills and performance you need when you need them.
And this includes all those administrative tasks that you probably try to avoid, such as:
Personnel (hiring, firing, coaching, recruiting, compensation)
Strategic Planning
Workflow Streamline and Management
Financial Planning and Budgeting
Real Estate/Lease Negotiations and Management
Facilities
Operations
Marketing