FFICE MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES - …

1 SUMMARY OF KEY CONCEPTSS ection 1. The Successful Law OfficeA successful law office: serves its clients effectively and efficiently; upholds ethical standards and brings creditto the legal profession; and, provides professional satisfaction and areasonable economic reward for its owners,managers, and attorneys and paralegals work in law firmsthat represent a variety of outside clients. In addi-tion to meeting the three criteria above, a law firmusually seeks professional prestige in the legal com-munity. A stellar av rating by professional peersin the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directoryis a prizedachievement. A socially responsible firm will divertsome portion of its profits into pro bonolegal serv-ices for the community and the less a corporate law office, there is only oneclient the corporation.

2 Corporate legal depart-ments must justify their existence, so the quality oftheir services is equally important in that environ-ment. Often, the in-house counsel is able to mini-mize outside legal costs by providing legal adviceat less cost, but also by managing the use of out-side firms and carefully reviewing their to a corporation, the law office in mostpublic agencies has a single client. It, too, will con-centrate upon the three essential traits of a suc-cessful practice. However, because it is supportedby tax dollars and is established to serve the pub-lic well-being, it should not confine its efforts tothe narrow parochial interests of the agency. Somepublic agencies are, in effect, public law firms: of-fices of the attorney general, county counsel, cityattorney, district attorney, public defender, etc.

3 Aunique office is that of the public defender. Unlikeother government attorneys, they have a singleclient and duty to vigorously represent the de-fendant in a criminal of the setting, a successful lawpractice almost always rests upon the followingkey factors: dedicated and qualified professionals; effective law office organization; sound attorney-client relationships; and, efficient law office , hard-working individuals who performtheir tasks in a professional manner are the most im-portant single factor in the successful law that reason, it is vital that they be treated withrespect and that they have the support they need toperform well. A reputation for high professionalstandards and enlightened MANAGEMENT will, byLAWOFFICEMANAGEMENTANDPROCEDURES11 CHAPTER word-of-mouth, draw outstanding candidates forlaw firm speaking, paralegals are at-will em-ployees of the firm or corporation.

4 That meansthat they may be dismissed at any time withoutcause or explanation. Also, they are free to leave atany time. Unless state law requires otherwise, anat-will employment relationship may be termi-nated by either party without any advance are four circumstances when employmentwill not be at-will: when a statute prohibits some form ofdiscriminatory dismissal; when public policy does not permit arbitrarydismissal; when the employee and the employer haveagreed upon an indefinite period ofemployment, with termination to be forcause only; or, when the employee and the employer haveagreed upon a fixed period of employment,with termination to be for cause state and federal statutes forbid employersfrom discharging employees for discriminatoryreasons ( , race, gender, disability, etc.)

5 Thesestatutes modify the at-will employment. Even with-out a statutory protection, the state s common lawpublic policy might not permit an employer to dis-charge an employee for some reasons ( , awhistleblower who reports his employer s illegalconduct).The employer might establish an implied con-tract that modifies the at-will relationship. This canhappen when the employer establishes a fixed pe-riod of probationary employment, during whichthe employee may be let go without explanation. Byimplication, satisfactory completion of the proba-tion period means that the employee is no longer aprobationary employee. The same effect can resultif the employer publishes a personnel policy whichprovides that employees will be dismissed for spec-ified causes ( , dishonesty, unsatisfactory per-formance, excessive absenteeism, etc.)

6 Many employers are advised by their attor-neys to publish a comprehensive personnel man-ual, which governs the working conditions, bene-fits, and employment relationship. This is advisedso that their personnel actions cannot be chal-lenged as arbitrary. A consequential effect, how-ever, is to create an implied employment contractthat can limit their personnel law firm should carry professional liabil-ity insurance, also known as an errors and omis-sions policy. These policies usually cover all em-ployees of the firm, including paralegals. The basicpurpose of such policies is to protect the attorneyfrom claims of legal malpractice, but they mightcover other claims that arise in the course of prac-ticing ability of a law office to provide the high-est quality of professional services, and its abilityto function within a budget, are both impacted bythe way that the office is organized and corporate and government law offices mustoperate within a budget.

7 In the past, small lawfirms tended to be legal general stores for indi-viduals and small businesses. In recent years, how-ever, they have tended to specialize in one or twoareas of practitioners are thought of as individualattorneys who practice alone in a small office, sup-ported perhaps by two or three employees. Manysole practitioners, however, share a suite of officeswith other attorneys, so that a single receptionist,law library, and word processor can serve them share these overhead costs, but not their prac-tices or profits. In this arrangement, a legal assistantmight be employed by the attorney-landlord, butperform work on a contract basis for the other at-torneys, as attorney can be a sole proprietor of hispractice without being a sole practitioner.

8 This ismade possible by employing associate attorneysto work under his general supervision. Theattorney/proprietor must pay all overhead costs,as well as the salaries of the associates, but he willkeep all profits to law partnership can exist with as few as twoor three partners. In small partnerships, thedecision-making process tends to be receive a share of the firm profits, but em-ployed associate attorneys do not. Partnership in-terests need not be equal. Any combination of eq-uity interests which adds up to 100% is partnerships of a dozen or so, one partner isusually designated as the managing partner. Mostoften, this is one of the senior partners who has paid his dues in building the partnership s prac-tice. The managing partner is responsible for theday-to-day operations of the office and might alsosupervise the associate the size of the firm grows, the role of themanaging partner may become more may have some responsibility for managingthe law practice of the firm by assigning juniorpartners and associates to handle various clientmatters.

9 An alternative arrangement is the execu-tive committee composed of a small number ofSTUDY GUIDE 241senior partners. In very large firms, there might bea variety of committees handling specific aspectsof the business and law sole practitioners and partnerships canincorporate their practice as a professional lawcorporation (PC). As mentioned in Chapter 2, a pro-fessional corporation can have individual attor-neys, attorney partnerships, and even smallerprofessional law corporations among its stock-holders. The primary advantage of the professionalcorporation is to limit the personal liability of thestockholders for the debts of the corporation. Acreditor can only claim assets of the corporation,not of its individual attorney-stockholders. In somestates, alternatives to the professional corporationare the limited liability partnership (LLP) and thelimited liability company (LLC).

10 These two latterforms combine the tax advantages of a partnershipwith the liability limitations of a corporate legal department is completelydifferent from the professional law corporation de-scribed previously. It is simply one of many de-partments in a non-legal corporation. Severaltypes of enterprises are especially likely to main-tain their own corporate legal departments thosefrequently sued, and those which require a sub-stantial amount of legal services in the ordinarycourse of business. Corporations involved in liti-gation generally retain outside legal counsel to rep-resent them in court, but often use their corporatelegal department for: responding to discovery requests; coordinating litigation matters with outsidecounsel; reviewing (and questioning) bills presentedby the outside counsel; and, advising MANAGEMENT on ways to avoid attorney from the corporate legal departmentmight also sit second chair during the generally designate one attor-ney to serve as general counsel.