Connecticut Logistics Jobs in… Legal Ops?

“According to Stamford-based job placement company Indeed.com, there are hundreds of logistics-related jobs available in Connecticut right now, some paying up to $80,000.” (1)

Law firms do not traditionally employ logistics professionals. But they could.

Logistics in legal ops

Logistics professionals manage supply and demand so businesses deliver and make a profit. (2) For example, “just-in-time inventory” systems prevent inventory from sitting on shelves. This kind of process management started at Toyota in the 1960s-70s and operates on a simple premise: use your resources quickly for faster return on investment. (3)

The same principle improves legal ops.

This form of process management can improve employee management and cashflow. (4) Employees are the largest line item on any law firm budget, so getting the most out of this investment is key. And businesses that get paid faster—including law firms—make more money.

Therefore, if Connecticut law firm employee productivity increases, and the time it takes to get paid decreases, then Connecticut law firms will experience faster return on investment.

Productivity increases with Legal Software

Law firm productivity increases when more work is completed in the same or less time. Increases are a result of employee training or better technology. Law firm rates of training have not changed much in the past few years, but technology spending has increased, especially for law firms with 2-9 attorneys. (5) This suggests legal software is providing what law firms need.

Employee productivity increases when they have legal software specifically designed for their work:

• Cloud software simplifies IT, reduces overhead, flattens pricing, and puts everything you need to run your practice under a single login accessible anywhere, anytime.

• Email management saves time when replies automatically save to the matter.

• Billing and invoice management is quicker when it is built right into the same system where you track time on computers, web browsers, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, or with Apple Watch and Amazon Alexa when your hands are full.

• Virtual collaboration via Zoom and Microsoft Teams is seamless when you can start client meetings and message colleagues working remotely right from a client’s matter.

• Document automation saves time and avoids the errors (and boredom!) of duplicate data entry when client information prepopulates automated legal forms.

• Online client portals move cases forward and protect client privacy with instant document sharing, reviewing, and commenting from secure logins on personal mobile devices.

Legal software makes employees more efficient, but fast return on investment also requires fast payments.

Fast Payments with RapidPay

Waiting for payments is the same as making less money because money always exists in time.

For example, taxes are paid on income during a tax year. Even if you bill at the same rate and do exactly the same amount of work, you will earn more during a tax year by decreasing the time it takes to get paid, because you will receive more payments during the same amount of time.

Law firms get paid faster when they email bills and receive online payments because:

• Paper bills take longer than emailed bills to get to clients; and

• Physical checks take longer than online payments to get into the firm’s bank account.

Online payments also preserve valuable and costly employee time that would have been spent:

• Printing bills

• Stuffing envelopes

• Preparing and applying postage

• Opening incoming checks

• Manually reconciling checks with bills, and

• Taking checks to banks for cashing.

Finally, firms also avoid overhead costs on paper, envelopes, postage, and mileage.

RapidPay is an online payment platform that works with case information in LEAP. RapidPay gets lawyers paid faster because it provides specialized legal financial services by offering automatic retainer replenishment, digital links for clients to pay invoices via email or text message, and automated receipts. Every RapidPay transaction is recorded in LEAP, allowing for easy and accurate account reconciliations.

When lawyers make it easier for their clients to pay, they get paid faster and more often, saving time on collections, and making the firm more money.

Legal Ops with LEAP is the Future of Work

We work hard at LEAP to provide the best legal practice management software in the world so your employee productivity remains high and your law firm gets paid quickly for a fast return on investment.

Improve your legal operations with LEAP

(1) Jim Cameron, “How the pandemic has upset the ‘Just In Time’ supply chain.” CT Viewpoints (December 16, 2020). Accessed March 7 at https://ctmirror.org/category/ct-viewpoints/how-the-pandemic-has-upset-the-just-in-time-supply-chain/.

(2) Ibid.

(3) Devra Gartenstein, “The Advantages of Just-In-Time Inventory Systems.” The Houston Chronicle (March 4, 2019). https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-justintime-inventory-systems-20997.html. Accessed February 22, 2021.

(4) Ibid.

(5) Catherine Sanders Reach. “2019 Budgeting & Planning” ABA TECHREPORT 2019. (November 20, 2019). https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_practice/publications/techreport/abatechreport2019/budgeting19/. Accessed February 22, 2021; and Catherine Sanders Reach. “2020 Budgeting & Planning.” ABA TECHREPORT 2020 (December 7, 2020). https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_practice/publications/techreport/2020/bp/. Accessed February 22, 2021.