Bringing in business, either from new or existing clients, is obviously a good thing for a firm’s bottom line. However, the time and labor intensive processes that firms are required to undergo to open new business can actually be a drain on profits. From the numerous forms that must be completed, routed and approved, to the management of that process, it can take days or sometimes weeks before an attorney can officially begin billable work. To circumvent that delay, precautionary measures designed for firm and client protection are often unintentionally forgotten or intentionally skipped. When you consider the typical opening process that most firms undertake, it’s easy to see how process inefficiencies can negatively affect profitability and increase exposure to risk.

Typically, the process begins when an attorney decides to take on a client and sends a memo to his or her secretary with the names relevant to the matter that they think may pose a conflict. The secretary then fills out a form for conflicts and sends it to the conflicts department, who then must rekey that same information in order to run a conflicts search. Depending on the firm, additional searches may be run in systems such as Dunn and Bradstreet to identify subsidiaries that may pose additional conflicts. If relevant, this information must also be keyed into the conflict search criteria as well. Once a conflicts report is run, it’s usually hand-carried back to the attorney for review. If there is a conflict, a waiver letter explaining the potential conflict must be sent to the current client for signed approval. Or, if the attorney reviews the conflicts report and it’s clear to proceed, the attorney must then fill out various forms to open the matter in billing. These forms, ranging from five to 15 pages long, gather all sorts of business information including addresses, attorneys assigned to the matter and expected billing, or the accounts receivable status for existing clients, etc. There may also be questions pertaining to ethics, such as whether or not the attorney has a financial interest in the client. Once completed, the forms are routed to the intake department for processing. Because these forms are usually filled out by hand, illegibility is often an issue as is incompleteness and the inclusion of unrecognized terminology. This process requires back and forth communication until all of the necessary information is acquired. Many firms have a final review process that could include the approval of various partners and committees. If the business is approved, an engagement letter detailing the scope of the work is sent out to the client, who then must sign and return it before billable work can begin. Lastly, the information gathered in the intake process must be rekeyed into other relevant systems such as accounting, marketing, conflicts, records, etc.

New business intake is usually a manual process that may not be so difficult to manage for one attorney, but when you multiply it by 100 or 500 attorneys in multiple offices worldwide, it’s easy to see how necessary steps can fall through the cracks. Did the waiver letter ever get signed and returned? Did any new conflicts arise in the 30 days it took for the engagement letter to be returned? Did the ethics committee review and approve the business? Where are we in the intake process for a particular client? Who is holding things up?

Striking a Balance
As you can see, the intake process requires a lot of manpower, coordination and oversight, which can impede profitability and protection. Incorporating technology to replace the manual nature of the new business intake process can provide numerous benefits: 

~          Integration of the data entry form with existing firm wide systems enables the automatic completion of information for responsible attorneys (department, and bill format preferences) and existing clients (billing address, and outstanding WIP and A/R), which saves time, eliminates rekeying and reduces errors.

~          Automating workflow based on specific business rules eliminates manual oversight and ensures that all stages in the process have been completed according to firm policies.

~          Tracking of each step in the process ensures that the complete history and documentation of how a matter was opened is all in one place, providing an added layer of protection if challenges ever arise.

It is noteworthy that in some firms automating this process has decreased the time it takes to open new business from five days to 24 hours.

Making it Work in Your Firm 

Select a workflow technology. In determining which technology to use, you need to consider the expertise of your in-house IT staff as well as your firm’s additional workflow needs, if any. Third-party development tools such as Metastorm work well if you have additional workflow requirements, as well as the staff to develop those applications. If you don’t have additional workflow needs, or have a limited budget or IT staff, then you should probably look at writing an application using another development tool such as Active Server Pages (ASP). Though you could consider developing workflow using your firm’s e-mail system, in actuality it would not be much more efficient than a manual process because it does not allow for the validation and automatic completion of information, elimination of rekeying or verification of when a document was actually reviewed.

Decide who will write the application.Your IT department will most likely want to seek outside expertise in developing a new business intake system, either from consultants or vendors who have developed similar systems for other clients. When working with a third party, be sure to understand what you’re buying. Are you only licensing the development tool from them, or will they actually write the application for you? What does the price include? Are there hidden costs associated?

Chart your firm’s existing process. Before you can map it electronically, you must first document your firm’s new business process on paper. Bring to the table representatives from the different departments in your firm that can benefit from capturing information during intake. The core members of this team should include representatives from your intake, conflicts, IT, accounting, and records departments, as well as a risk management partner. Don’t get discouraged when attempting to diagram your workflow. Most firms that undergo this exercise quickly realize that they have no official process, that it’s extremely labor intensive, or that their process is broken.

Develop the forms and workflow. After you’ve mapped and reviewed your existing process, identify the changes that you’d like to see. In designing your intake forms, evaluate your existing forms and eliminate outdated or unnecessary questions. Add new questions to capture client information needed by various departments (mailing list information for the marketing department). Determine which questions will be mandatory, if any. Identify in which cases the response to a question will trigger further form modification or additional workflow, such as routing to a committee for approval. For questions that include a drop down menu with required table entries, decide the source of those tables. Also, determine other firm systems that your new business intake should feed (time entry, records, marketing).

Testing, Rollout and Training
Once your forms and workflow have been developed and approved, select a finite testing group to evaluate the system before it goes firm-wide. Be sure to build time into your project plan to account for any changes or corrections that must be made based on test feedback. Before going live, make sure you’ve developed a rollout schedule and an aggressive training plan. Because attorneys and secretaries don’t open new matters every day, make sure you provide just-in-time reference materials.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t take the skill of an Olympic gymnast to balance the three P’s of new business intake. With a little planning as outlined above, firms of all sizes can improve their new business-related processes, profitability and protection.

About our authors . . .

Michael Levin is Chief Technology Officer for LegalKEY Technologies, Inc., which develops New Business Intake, Enterprise Records Management, Conflicts Management, Critical Dates Management and Relationship Management systems. 

Meg Block is a Shareholder with Baker Robbins & Company specializing in the design and implementation of enterprise-wide information systems.

.