5 Ways To Help Your Family Law Firm Work Together
Though working independently has long been celebrated and encouraged in law firms, collaboration has now taken center stage.
Independent work will always remain an important aspect of a lawyer's role. But adding collaboration into the mix can support and enhance that work.
Collaboration within a firm can lead to:
- More consistent firm performance
- An increase in creative solutions
- A sense of belonging for firm members
- Less exhaustion, especially for young lawyers
- Clients feeling like they are getting more attention and value for their money
To encourage your family law firm to work together where possible, try the following approaches.
Foster a collaborative culture
For collaboration to be embraced long-term, it needs to be part of your firm's culture.
Encourage a team mindset from the start. Emphasize cooperation when training new lawyers or other employees. Explain how it's rewarded at your firm — perhaps monetarily, perhaps not. For example, you might simply call attention at team meetings to firm members who have worked together well.
Other ways to foster a team-focused culture include:
- Having a quick morning huddle where anyone can share important updates
- Attending CLE and networking events together
- Be accountable to each other for your rapport with custody evaluators and judges and other professionals outside your firm
- Organizing occasional retreats or social events, like happy hours
- Providing lunch from time to time (in the office or at a restaurant)
As a leader at the firm, you have the ability to increase interactions among staff so that collaboration happens naturally. You should also set an example, and there are countless ways to do this — by bringing junior staff in to help with your cases, rotating who you have lunch with and more.
Implement collaboration training
Don't hesitate to turn to experts for help. Consultancy groups offer collaboration training that may last several days. For a more affordable, less intensive approach, turn to webinars or online courses.
If you decide to use formal training, don't think of it as a one-time event. Have your firm take an updated course at least every few years so collaboration remains top of mind and new hires don't miss out.
Take a team approach to cases or projects
You can also build cooperation directly into your firm's work.
Organize teams that don't ordinarily work together to tackle complex cases, attract new clients, etc. Devise a way to measure team success, not just individual performance.
Whenever you have multiple people working on a case, make sure to designate a point person for client interaction. While clients may be happy that they're receiving attention from multiple professionals, they should never feel confused about what is happening or whom they should talk to.
If your firm doesn't have a mentorship system in place for junior hires, now is the time to start one. If you do use mentorship, see how you can enhance it — for example, by having the formal mentor-mentee relationship continue longer or having the duos work together more instead of just checking in with each other.
Make updates to your office layout
How you set up your office can also encourage or inhibit collaboration. If everyone spends their day in individual, walled-off spaces (or working remotely), face-to-face interactions can't happen freely. Plus, your staff may end up feeling confined, restless or solitary.
See if you can create informal communal spaces in your office: by the front entry or the lunch room or on the balcony. Some spaces might have comfortable chairs for a conversation focus, while others may have desks to focus on getting tasks done.
If your communal room only has space for one chair or workstation, put it there anyway. Even allowing one person to move into the open occasionally can improve collaboration, and the effects will multiply if various people rotate through the space.
Take advantage of collaboration software
Legal software has improved immensely in recent years and become critical to staying organized as a family lawyer and as a collaborative family law firm.
The top family law software tools allow colleagues to work together from afar and easily manage large caseloads.
For example, Custody X Change helps law professionals make visual custody schedules, calculate parenting time and create detailed parenting plans. If clients subscribe, you can link with them to see when they mark missed visits, add expenses, journal about custody developments and more.
Family Law Software is another popular tool. It does complex divorce math for you, including property division, 401K distribution calculation so you can prepare a QDRO, and spousal and child support calculation.
While workflow management systems and law-practice management tools (like Clio) don't tend to be family-law specific, they are as important for family practices as for any modern law practice, so don't forget them.
Once you've considered your options, choose a few digital tools to invest in, and you'll see the difference in collaboration at your firm.