LAW PRACTICE TIPS

Summer Break for Law Firms
By Jim Calloway, Director OBA Management Assistance Program

Well, it is June. The flowers are blooming and the temperature is rising. The end of the school year brings abrupt changes for those of us with school age children. For some with older kids, there are summer jobs to be considered. For others it is a matter of scheduling activities. In families where both parents work, child care for the summer must be arranged. Summertime brings warm temperatures, baseball, yard work, family vacations and many other activities.

But whether you have school age children or not, it is easy to feel one emotion about the end of the school year - envy. Who among us would not enjoy the idea of breaking out of our current routine for the next three months? Can you imagine looking ahead to strings of several unscheduled days in a row to catch up on things or just relax? Wouldn't it be nice to walk out of your law office in late May, enjoy the same lifestyle and income you have presently throughout the summer and return refreshed in August or September to the same place, all caught up and with nothing having fallen behind? Those kids have it made, don't they-- with summer recess, Christmas Break and Spring Break?

Some lawyers can remember back to the days when the courthouses had a much lighter schedule for the entire summer, but for most courthouses, that now only applies to August, if at all. Most of us do try and take one or more planned vacation breaks during the summer. We just hope none of them resemble the outings of the Griswold family in the movie "National Lampoon's Vacation."

Well, if you are one of the majority of lawyers who will find themselves working most all of the summer, you may still have the opportunity to lighten up a few days in your law firm this summer.

Many law firms have some planned summer social event, but law firm social events are tricky. Some staff members really enjoy an office party but others may secretly feel like it is another time they have to show up but not get paid for it.

But you can still break the monotony of the day-to-day office grind once in a while this summer. We suggest you make plans to utilize a couple of working days to get some long term office projects done and have a little bit of fun in the process.

Let me start with an example told by my friend Bruce Dorner, a solo practitioner and law office technology consultant from Londonderry, N.H.

The day of reckoning had arrived for this medium-sized law firm. Their new case management software had been installed the weekend before. It was now time for training, trouble shooting and getting acquainted with an entirely new computer system. Management had decreed that the staff was not expected to do legal work today. Today was for learning. Needless to say, it was a day that some staff members had anticipated with more than a little trepidation.

All of the non-lawyer staff members found a paper sack and a note on their desk when they arrived that morning. The note explained the contents of the paper bag. It read:

"Good morning. We know that you are going to have a challenging day today. Inside the paper bag you will find a squirt gun, a long straw and a small bottle of champagne. Please go to the break room and fill the squirt gun with water. Put your name on the champagne bottle and put it in the refrigerator. The squirt gun is to keep the lawyers away today. If they try to assign you some legal work, just squirt 'em. At the end of the day, when you have hopefully mastered the new software, then go to the refrigerator, take out the bottle of champagne, open it and stick the straw in. Have a nice relaxing sip and congratulate yourself on a good day's work."

Now whoever designed this little exercise was a shrewd judge of human nature. This helped start a potentially stressful day on a lighter note. It sent several messages. Management understands this day will be tough on you, but there will be rewards at the end of this process. It reminded everyone that legal work was out of bounds on that day. Since we all understand the single-mindedness of lawyers, we bet that more than one lawyer probably got squirted that day.

As the hot days of an Oklahoma summer approach, maybe your firm should consider whether a day of two of "recess"- a break from the usual office activities might allow your firm to get a long term project done.
Maybe the system for closing files is badly in need of repair or the closed files areas are full and some older files need to be reviewed and destroyed. Maybe the furniture needs to be re-arranged or maybe you have terrible disorganization about where and how files are organized on the office server. If you have some long-term projects that are not being done, then set aside a day of recess to get them done.

Here are some ideas for setting up your recess:

1) Have a theme and dress code. If the office will be "closed" to clients that day, relaxing the dress code is a must. But you might even go one step further by having a fun theme for your recess day including a theme for office attire. A day devoted to implementing disaster recovery preparations and planning might be entitled "Are We Cruising on the Titanic?" Everyone could be encouraged to wear cruise attire. A day devoted to office procedures organization could be called "Wild Wild West" and western attire would be the order of the day.

The theme has two purposes. It makes the day more fun, and it points out that there are goals to be accomplished that day.

2) Don't let the lawyers goof it up. At least one lawyer will have a major crisis the week that this recess is scheduled. Plan for dealing with real emergencies, but stress to the lawyers that only one lawyer can dampen the mood and decrease the effectiveness of the project. If there is a dress theme, it may be optional for the associates, but the partners will all dress accordingly.

3) Warn your clients that the office will be closed for the day. Post a professional sign in the lobby in advance that the office will be closed on a certain day or days for "Staff Training." Docket the day well in advance. Determine whether the receptionist will be answering the phone and taking messages or whether the phones will be forwarded to an answering service. If things are such that a lawyer cannot be incommunicado all day, then give that client a cell phone number good for that day only or let the lawyers take a couple of half hour "breaks" to return phone calls.

4) Plan, plan, plan. Put someone in charge. This is not a day or two "off work." It is a day to get some long term projects done and to have a break in the routine. Articles from OBA-MAP about file closing procedures or implementing a disaster plan are online.  Feel free to call us at 416-7008 to discuss ideas. Have a realistic goal. And, if everyone works hard and the goal is accomplished by 4 p.m., maybe you should let everyone off early. Printed instructions, assignments and outlines will facilitate the project, but feel free to lighten them up a bit with some cute pictures and clip art.

5) Feed everyone. Everyone should know in advance that one of the additional benefits of this day is the firm buying them all lunch. Having pizza delivered is the easiest way, but you may have other ideas.

6) Have fun. Play is good. Lawyers and law firm staff deal with lots of pressure-packed situations. You can have fun without everyone goofing off all day. Making a few silly announcements over the office intercom in line with the theme is one method. The senior partner might be a great "cruise director" rotating through the office at break time serving everyone drinks.

Oh yes, and don't forget the squirt guns!

Tip Of The Month
Review of Legal Math-Pac Software
This month we decided to review a specific software product that many Oklahoma lawyers have used for a long time - Legal Math-Pac. More lawyers should be aware of it.

Many legal matters involve a bit of math. If you are a spreadsheet maven, you may not need this product. We are sure that spreadsheets and other financial calculators may be configured to accomplish the same results as Legal Math-Pac if you are willing to invest the time. For the rest of us, however, being able to purchase a $129 software program that is so easy to set up and use may be a true bargain.

Legal Math-Pac is a financial calculator for lawyers. It does a few simple things quickly and easily. You can use the program to calculate the interest on past due child support or judgments that you are collecting or create a loan amortization schedule. You can also compute present value and future value, such as the effect of monthly contributions to a college fund.

A typical scenario for its use would involve a client who has retained a lawyer to collect past due child support over the last five years. She has maintained meticulous records of the partial payments and missed payments over the years. When the lawyer examines these records to compute the arrearage and interest on the past due amount, the calculation of interest is not simple. While the monthly obligation for child support is always the same, the payment history is erratic. Some months the child support was paid in full, but very late. Other months were skipped entirely. Many months reflect two or more partial payments. The client is entitled to recover interest, but manually calculating the interest might cost more in attorney's fees than the interest itself. A similar situation might occur when garnishment is generating credits against a judgment that is bearing interest.

With Legal Math-Pac, calculating the interest and generating a report to attach to a court filing is simple and easy. You enter the monthly obligation as a positive number and the date of the first child support payment. You then quickly repeat all of the obligations by mouse clicks or keystrokes. For example, in a five-year arrearage for a monthly obligation you would hit the key 60 times. The program gives you the options entering debts due by the month, the week, two weeks or even the 1st and the 15th. Then you enter the amount and date of each payment made as a negative number. There are a few other options relating to interest rate, compounding and application of payments. Click on the Calculate/Print button and you have a nice little nine column chart, suitable for filing with the court, reflecting the total obligation, every payment, the amount due after each payment, and the accrued interest. You can print this and also use File-Save to save the data file under your client's name in case some revisions are needed later.

As with any new piece of software, it will take some time to become familiar with the program and how it works, but this will usually be less than an hour. The drop-down menu for Key Equivalents gives a list of the keystrokes that can take the place of repeated mouse clicks. Simple and handy are the two words that come to mind when evaluating this product. More information and a download of the product can be obtained by visiting the company's Web site at www.legalmath.com. Interested parties are encouraged to visit the site to view a screen shot of the simple user interface. If you download the program, a password is required for activation.

Legal Math-Pac - Single User Price: $129 ($85 for each additional copy, user or station) Call or write the company for pricing for more than three total.

Company contact info:
Custom Legal Software
1919 14th Street #580
P.O. Box 7070
Boulder, CO 80306
(303) 443-2634
www.legalmath.com