Insights and updates
from MinuteBox
As a business, every law firm is fundamentally trying to accomplish two goals:
- Service the needs of existing clients to achieve satisfactory results
- Attract new business to the firm and scale growth to new heights
Seems fairly straightforward, right? While most firms are very successful at goal #1, not as many are as consistently fortunate with goal #2. Part of that is simply due to the nature of the business; it’s simply not guaranteed that a new client case is available every single week that a firm can try to represent.
However, one of the main challenges to achieve scalable growth is that most firms have a limited amount of staff. There are only so many professional attorneys with trained clerks or paralegals to do all of the necessary tasks that will help grow the firm. In fact, employment statistics suggest the average firm in the United States has only 3 employees.
On top of that, most of these professionals must spend a sizable amount of time managing, storing, or updating minute book records and corporate documents. All of that work is necessary, but it does little to directly influence Legal Recurring Revenue for the firm.
Time is a luxury that law firms have little to spare
Given the fact that only a handful of professionals work in an average firm, time really is the great enemy for scalable ROI. There are only so many working hours in a day that can be used to prospect for new business, undergo introductory meetings with new clients, and arrange to review cases in greater detail.
All of those business acquisition tasks are compounded by the amount of time that’s necessary to properly manage minute books and corporate records. Due to each of these tasks and other priorities for legal professionals, the average legal professional bills clients just 2.5 hours out of an 8 hour working day.
When you break it down, it means only 31 percent of a working day is considered billable to boost Legal Recurring Revenue. That means 69 percent of any day in a firm is being spent on non-billable tasks that limit a firm’s potential for growth and prosperity.
Financial and labor costs of minute book recordkeeping
Before you can really take account of how much minute book recordkeeping can stretch your resources thin, it helps to break down the actual costs in crisp and clear terms. As they say, numbers don’t lie.
Let’s say your firm still keeps physical records of all minute book documents on location at the office. First of all, this is an expensive way to operate in 2022 since it costs firms up to $2,000 to store one single 5 drawer filing cabinet at the office. More importantly, physical documents are difficult to store and very time consuming to maintain.
With a limited number of clerks or paralegals in the office, it’s an inefficient use of time to physically review, store, or update records page by page. Companies spend up to $350 per record to file or source individual documents as well as reproduce any files that might be lost. That’s just the direct financial burden; it takes up to 5 minutes to scan, tag, and file individual documents within a corporate record. That’s 5 minutes for every file in each client minute book.
Implement innovative and efficient solutions to cut costs
So how do you reduce the number of non-billable daily hours so that you can grow the amount of time that can be billed towards clients? One of the best ways to do that is to reduce the amount of time and human resources devoted to minute book recordkeeping.
Technology has come a long way, and new breakthroughs provide law firms with cloud-based entity management platforms to digitize their minute book recordkeeping processes. Not only is this a faster and more efficient way to manage client minute books, but it also follows the trends that are shaping the industry.
In the 2020 Legal Trends Report, 89 percent of participating legal professionals cited technology as a resource to improve how legal firms operate. In the following year’s report, 79 percent of participating clients said they want the option to work remotely with their lawyers while still having the ability to access their minute books and corporate records.
Cloud-based entity management solutions offer that freedom and flexibility on both sides of the legal relationship. Firms can easily upload files into their platforms with speed and convenience, taking a significant chunk out of the time spent on recordkeeping. It also provides clients with the ability to do as they please and access records from a convenient location of their choosing.
Growth and ROI are important for any firm (any business, for that matter), and there are ways to increase opportunities to achieve those goals. All it takes is a little innovative spirit and an embrace of modern technology to help revolutionize the way your firm gets things done.
Is your firm ready to generate more ROI? Join the MinuteBox revolution so that you can modernize your minute book recordkeeping processes with cloud-based solutions that will cut costs, save valuable working capital, and help you reinvest those time savings into more billable hours charged to clients.
Let’s face facts; it’s very difficult for law firms to keep track of ledgers, records, and minute books for each one of their clients. With up to 77 percent of business owners preferring remote access to their corporate records, law firms must embrace innovative technology to provide the support that clients say they need.
One of the challenges facing many law firms is the lack of a cohesive, modern, and digital entity management strategy. Many firms strive to create a brand image as an innovative and efficient company. Relying on physical documents and outdated ledgers to manage client accounts reduces a firm’s brand perception as an innovative company.
Why physical ledgers and registers are so outdated
So what’s the underlying reason why physical ledgers and registers are so outdated? It all goes back to when the first printing press was invented in the 1400s, allowing European companies to document their receipts and expenses. When the typewriter was invented in the 1800s, it allowed some of that documentation to be delegated to the machine.
Unfortunately, progress on modernizing corporate ledgers and registers peaked with the invention of the typewriter. Since then, many firms continue to create ledgers that follow the designs created with the typewriter. At the time, this was very innovative; today, not so much.
For one thing, typewriters can’t do things like justify text. For example, on corporate records, it’s common practice to right justify numbers in columns. If typewriters are used to create those records, they don’t have the ability to make those adjustments to the text. This requires paralegals to either:
- Manually write out the documentation OR
- Sacrifice a professional looking document
The true cost of maintaining outdated recordkeeping
A paralegal’s time is very valuable for the firm. You can use your paralegals to increase billing hours to clients and contribute to sustainable Legal Recurring Revenue, provided they’re not losing time due to outdated recordkeeping. Manually managing all physical records is a time consuming process, eliminating time that could be spent on growing business for the firm.
It’s said that the average paralegal spends up to 5 minutes scanning, tagging, and filing a single document within a corporate record. Multiply that single document by the number of pages in that minute book. Time really adds up, doesn’t it.
At a time when innovation and efficiency are expected from clients, it casts a pall over a firm’s reputation to rely on outdated ledgers and physical recordkeeping. Firms limit their ability to increase Legal Recurring Revenue by sticking to these processes. On top of that, legal professionals who may be interested in joining the firm could be turned off by the idea upon learning of non-digitized record keeping processes.
The innovative approach to corporate record keeping
Your firm’s objective should be to establish a reputation as an innovative, efficient, and capable company that can provide a secure storage space for corporate records. To fulfill all of those client expectations, you need a modernized approach to maintaining those records.
That’s why successful law firms are embracing technology and utilizing entity management software to make record keeping more efficient. Using these types of solutions, all records can be stored in the cloud, eliminating the need for physical records drafted on typewriters and other outdated sources. Clients can also access their records using secure login information from any location, which is a growing trend in the post COVID-19 world.
The benefits of these types of solutions are also felt internally at the firm. You’ll be able to:
- Give your paralegal team more of their time to focus on driving revenue for the firm
- No longer wait for signatures from stakeholders; everyone can sign within the platform
- Attract new and quality legal talent to join your firm and help fuel growth
Modernization is the innovative, efficient, and smart way to manage corporate records and boost client satisfaction. Why continue to follow outdated processes?
Are you ready to make an innovative leap into the digital entity management space? Join the MinuteBox revolution so that you can increase efficiencies and attract new blood that will help grow your firm to greater success.
Law firms everywhere rely on their ability to charge billable hours in order to boost profits for the business. Between certified legal professionals, paralegals, and private investigators; firms have an abundance of human resources to manage and profit from client relationships.
One expectation for a number of firms is the need to increase Legal Recurring Revenue. By measuring Legal Recurring Revenue as a performance benchmark for all associates of the firm, your business can:
- Plan growth forecasts for an entire calendar year
- Ensure the business remains financially stable with no gaps in revenue
- Find the perfect time to raise funds from investors in order to support growth
- Reinvest earnings into professional growth and development, making your firm an attractive business for newer legal professionals
Firms lose Legal Recurring Revenue to recordkeeping
Managing client expectations and ensuring all paperwork is properly documented for an upcoming case is a timely affair. It’s said that firms spend approximately $20k per year per legal professional to manage documentation and minute books for clients. That’s a lot of salary to invest in recordkeeping that, in addition to direct financial costs, also eats up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent growing revenue opportunities for the firm.
It makes sense that minute book recordkeeping cuts into your firm’s bottom line. Everything that’s included in these tasks, such as printing, copying, filing, and searching for lost documents all requires time and resources to complete. While the tasks themselves may appear tedious, they’re all necessary to protect client privacy and increase the chances you’ll win your case.
What if there was a faster way to complete these tasks?
Rather than stick with the old ways of doing things, your firm could modernize how you maintain minute books with modern technology. Using cloud-based entity management solutions, you no longer need to store physical binders and documents at your office. Instead, all minute books and important records can be uploaded into a safe and secure cloud-based environment.
The best part of these solutions is that they allow your firm to store, scan, sort, and share important records within minutes. Rather than physically sort through each individual record, your team of paralegals can transform those physical records into secure digital documents.
All of that time spent on managing records can instead be used to complete tasks that directly contribute to the growth of the firm. With cloud-based entity management technology, your paralegal team looks like a group of rockstars in the legal community!
No coding or development experience required
Not every law firm has an IT department; even in those rare firms that do have in-house technical support, there are still few experienced developers to spare. Relying on coders with limited time to access, upload, manage, or share digital documents costs nearly as many working hours as physical minute book recordkeeping.
That’s why cloud-based entity management solutions are so valuable for growing firms. Enterprise grade scanning services are built directly into the platform’s capabilities, which means you can transition your record book collection to the cloud efficiently, securely, and with the highest commitment to quality standards for your clients.
All scanning can be completed within the four walls of your office to maintain client security. This ensures that all private data is fully protected throughout the transition to digital documentation. Once uploaded to the platform, cloud-based security parameters protect all client records and minute books from public exposure. Access is strictly limited to the very few professionals who have been given permission to view the account.
Earn back more time to grow Legal Recurring Revenue
No code entity management solutions make it faster and easier to complete the tasks that help maintain client relationships. By giving more time back to your paralegal professionals, your firm can dedicate more time and manpower to servicing growth and managing Legal Recurring Revenue that will ultimately improve the firm’s bottom line.
Solutions like these have helped both large and small firms take the next step in their own respective journeys towards growth. We have a great Q&A style story with the founder of the multidisciplinary firm Hub6, who successfully focused on delivering growth thanks to the technological solutions implemented that streamlined the day to day management of the firm.
Is your firm ready to be the next Hub6? Join the MinuteBox revolution so that you can implement no code entity management solutions across your law firm’s operations and earn back more time that you can devote towards boosting revenue for the business.
Let’s say you manage a law firm. Business is booming so much that the needs of the legal team outpace the amount of resources your existing team can provide. That means it’s time to expand the size of your office with new lawyers and paralegals.
The skills and job description of a law clerk are fairly consistent from firm to firm, and lawyers are on the job to analyze, administer, and utilize legal files on behalf of their clients. Experienced lawyers and law clerks are motivated to work for firms where they can make the most effective use of their time. One of the ways your firm can stand out is through the technology used by your team of paralegals to simplify their day to day tasks. Young, upstart professionals eager to take on the world are far more attracted to modernized firms that utilize digital, centralized solutions.
What do high quality legal professionals want in a firm?
Trained lawyers and clerks are motivated, go-getting and they want to make a difference for their firms. They recognize the value in spending more time on tasks that can help grow the firm and generate fresh revenue to expand the business.
Since this is the mindset of passionate professionals, what will make your company attractive to eager hires? Firms that believe in and practice innovative solutions are in prime positions to recruit the next generation of quality legal talent. Young upstarts are familiar with how technology automates many rudimentary tasks, and they’re eager to manage more of their own tasks with the assistance of platforms like cloud-based entity management solutions.
Make it easier to share minute books
Motivated lawyers and paralegals all understand that time is money. They want to execute tasks as efficiently as possible. This includes the process of sharing minute books and chasing down the appropriate party for a signature to help move files along.
Show the next recruit of talent that your firm is a leading innovator when it comes to entity management technology. Use a platform that makes it easy to share entire minute books or gives you the ability to restrict access to particular pages. You’ll have faster, better organized and more secure legal transactions that will help your team complete their tasks more efficiently. They can rededicate more of their own time towards the tasks that are most likely to boost revenue for the firm.
Solve the “single key holder problem”
One of the biggest struggles for any firm is finding the right information at the appropriate times. In many cases, one person is designated as the single key holder or the gatekeeper to many of the firm’s records.
For an upstart legal professional, this way of doing things is not efficient and is deemed unproductive. Using cloud-based entity management platforms, you can solve this problem by hosting all minute books and company recordsin a secure cloud-based database. Anyone with access to the platform can simply go in and pull out the appropriate files to send off on an as needed basis. This helps your team make better use of their own time, which is a very attractive selling point if you want to hire the next generation of talent to your team.
Dedicate more of your team’s time towards billable hours
A 2018 poll of Canadian law firms found that 40 percent of respondents believe that blended or hybrid law clerk/legal assistant positions had become “somewhat more common” in the two preceding years. Another 12 percent of participants anticipated those types of jobs would become even more important over the following two years.
Why is this an important trend? Paralegals have the skills and training to perform many of the tasks that might otherwise be assigned to a legal professional. You can assign billable hours for any work the respective clerk completes for your client’s case, but at a lower rate than a lawyer’s time would be billed, creating benefits for your clients.
It means law clerks can perform valuable work and earn money for your firm. At the same time, you’re not overloading expensive billable hours to your client for fixed fee or routine work. This means you can get the tasks done, earn some money for the effort, and still provide more value-added services to help your clients’ needs.
Are you ready to bring the highest quality talent to your business? Join the MinuteBox revolution so that you can create an environment that is guaranteed to attract the best and brightest law clerks to your firm.
Cloud-Based Tech Helped Many Industries. It’s Legal’s Turn
Cloud-based technology has made an impact and, in many ways, revolutionized how people share both personal and professional information. Think of platforms like Slack, Okta, or Box that allow users to send and receive files within secure password-protected environments.
Similarly, platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn have made it very easy for any individual with an account to share updates with friends or followers. Plus, with one direct message to a specific point of contact, you can pass along important files relevant to the conversation.
Modern technology has made connectivity easier than ever before. Yet in some industries, such as the legal professional community, innovation has not been so openly embraced. The question is: why are so many law firms still relying on clunky old software or, even worse, binders to store, manage and share important documents?
Some law firms worry about security and cybersecurity
Some of the reluctance by law firms to embrace cloud-based entity management solutions is the fear of being hacked. To be honest, those concerns are not without some merit. In a recent survey of 450 UK-based companies, two thirds of respondents admitted they were the victims of a cyber attack in the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, cyber hacking isn’t exclusive to cloud-based servers. Large organizations with on-premise servers are still the victims of cyber attacks. While on-prem and cloud-based servers are both targets for malicious acts, cloud services like Google, AWS and others have thousands of PHd-level security teams working to keep those servers as secure as possible. Most law firms are limited to a small team of cybersecurity experts, making resource allocation at law firms a very real challenge to protect those on-prem servers from potential hacking.
Additionally, physical binders stored in the office itself are susceptible to fire, theft, unintentional misplacement, and other causes of loss or damage. Any of these misfortunes, accidental or otherwise, could compromise the security of those files and potentially risk exposing secure client information.
Finally, cloud-based security is more vital than ever as coronavirus forces more firms to embrace remote work as an acceptable norm. Cloud-based entity management platforms allow colleagues and clients to share confidential information without the risk of exposure.
Why law firms should embrace cloud-based solutions
Aging technology has made on-premise servers more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Cloud-based solutions use more sophisticated technology that includes additional layers of security to protect your clients’ rights to privacy. Nevertheless, we can acknowledge that there are no foolproof solutions when it comes to security, so let’s focus on value. The irrefutable fact is this: firms that use cloud-based entity management platforms can improve their bottom line, streamline their operations and create economies of scale to facilitate faster growth.
Cloud-based servers are cost-efficient
On-premise servers are expensive to maintain and, as previously noted, most law firms only have a limited number of professionals who can keep those servers secure. Not only are you paying for the server hardware, but you have to factor in salaries, maintenance, and other capital costs to keep them functional.
By migrating your files into the cloud, you can scale down or, if you choose, eliminate those on-prem servers from your office. All of those operational costs to maintain the servers can be reinvested back into the business in favour of growth-based strategies.
Cloud-based technology makes it easy to access all relevant documents
The day to day tasks for law clerks, paralegals and other professionals are often repetitive and time consuming. This is all the more challenging when clerks are required to manually input data or other relevant information into minute books and other documentation from both online and offline sources.
Using cloud-based solutions, you can make this entire process more efficient. All minute books, contracts, and noteworthy records are stored in one secure and convenient cloud-based database. Any clerk with access to the platform can go into the account and pull all relevant files to a particular case within moments. This is a highly efficient way to make a clerk’s time more productive so that they too can get back more time to contribute to the growth of the firm.
Lower costs and more efficient operations create economies of scale
This is the key reason why you should embrace forward-thinking solutions. Lower fixed and operational costs mean you’re spending less money to maintain your business. More efficient productivity from clerks and other professionals on your team make your firm more structured, streamlined, and well run.
Add all of those benefits up and it amounts to the economies of scale that enable any law firm to set the foundation for high growth results. You can devote more time (and billable hours) towards providing true value to your clients, and spend less time on the day to day tasks of storing, securing, sharing, and updating minute books. In the end, that’s your ROI to make an investment in cloud-based solutions worthwhile.
Ready to make your firm more productive and more efficient? Join the MinuteBox revolution so that you can create an environment that is guaranteed to create the optimal conditions to scale the growth of your business.
