Ensuring lawyers are kept up-to-date on the latest details of their clients and matters is a vital aspect of any law firm’s financial success. There are three key components to keeping your lawyers updated: timely information, technology, and user-friendly data visualization to encourage high levels of adoption. Iridium, not part of BigHand BI can support your firm in this endeavour and help you to keep your lawyers informed in a variety of ways.
The Overview
The Overview dashboard is designed to provide each Working Attorney (or Fee Earner) in your firm with instant access to the information they need to meet or exceed their targets and comply with firm policies. It also provides them with relevant information in order to respond to client queries.
Empower Lawyers with Contribution Insights
The dashboard allows each lawyer to quickly understand the contribution they are making towards the firm. This can include billable hours, fees generated billing and collections, and how this compares to targets they have agreed.
Don’t Lose Time: Ensure Best Practice & Compliance
We also support lawyers in meeting firm-defined policies. In this example, notice that, on average, this person enters her time late 14% of the time. She can also see how this compares to her peers, giving her positive encouragement to rise up the ranks.
Remain Vigilant on Billing & Collection Opportunities
Visibility of Work in Progress (WIP) and Accounts Receivable (AR) values for their time provides each lawyer with insight into opportunities to bill or collect.
Look Ahead and Project Future Performance
In certain situations, it may make sense to show projected figures. In this case, we are displaying an annualized number for Billable Hours, letting the lawyer know she is on track to meet her annual target.
Understanding Where Time Is Spent
When switching between clients and matters throughout the day, it can be difficult to assess exactly how time is spent. Using the Top 5 Clients view, this assessment becomes much more straightforward; each lawyer understands where they are spending most of their time.
Drill Down to Detail
Top-level information provides insight, but when answering client queries its vital that each lawyer has access to detailed information. In this example, we have drilled-down to a list of clients, allowing the lawyer to instantly identify the amounts for each client she has worked on. To aid her further, she can drill-down into matter-level detail, bills, time entries, and trust (or client account) transactions.
Ensuring That All Time Is Captured
A quick glance at the calendar allows each lawyer to identify potential days where time entries are missing. This helps to ensure that all time is captured, leading to higher levels of recovery and a full picture of the cost to service each client and matter. Lawyers can even select a day to see related time entries in the grid below, making identification of potential missed entries a simple process.
We Can Help
At Iridium Technology, now part of BigHand, we have considerable experience deploying our business intelligence solutions to law firms around the world. We understand that each firm is different and adapt our solutions to meet the specific requirements and cultural background of your firm.
We will work closely with you to adapt the dashboards used within this article, which act as the baseline for each new client project. Our software will ensure your lawyers are on track to meet their targets, able to respond to client queries promptly, and kept informed of key information needed for success.
