Effective Debtors Management in a Legal Practice
Legal practices are different
Debtors collection approaches that are borrowed from other industries will typically fail for a legal practice because legal practices are different.
What make them different:
1. Every matter is like a unique journey. Each matter represents a unique combination of lawyer, client, challenges and outcomes;
2. Professionals are naturally inclined to help clients achieve their objectives and naturally disinclined to factor in the financial limitations of clients;
3. Employed lawyers have a tendency to leave debtors issues to others in the firm so that they can get on with their professional work;
4. Every matter has its own, often complex, series of financial transactions that can include third party disbursements, trust accounting and retainers;
5. Legal costs easily get out of control due to the actions of adversarial parties and unavoidable legal processes and
6. Professionals don’t want to lose clients or damage their trusted advisor status over payment issues. Peter Frankl, in conjunction with Legal Practice Intelligence, has written an e-book The Five Principles for Effective Debtors Management in a Legal Practice which is available as a free download for new and existing subscribers to Legal Practice Intelligence news and article updates.
