The legal sector has faced significant challenges over the last six months due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Legal firms across all industries have had to adapt to working remotely with both clients and the courts. After weathering perhaps the most challenging months of the pandemic, law firms will be looking at how they can navigate ahead.
Today’s business environment has significantly changed, and there’s no doubt that many are facing operational and financial pressures. Here are some ways law firms can navigate through the uncertainty ahead to ensure recovery.
Assess Your Current Financial Position
Ensure you have a solid understanding of your financial position and how it might change. That underpins any plans you have ahead and is critical in determining your daily operational costs and how much you can afford to put aside for new investments. You need to be ready for any significant financial pressure points to boost your overall resilience.
With the uncertainty in business today, improving cash flow and liquidity should be the focus. Clinch Long Woodbridge in Sydney notes that firms should identify and reduce non-essential overheads, issue invoices as quickly as possible, and follow-up with outstanding payments where appropriate to do so. Knowing where you stand financially should be your top priority.
Review Your Business Operations and Adapt
The legal marketplace has changed, and law firms have to review their business operations and adapt to remain competitive. Identify new opportunities, review current operations to capitalize on them, and plan how your business can be more efficient in operations and achieve maximum cost-effectiveness. Get feedback from clients to see how you can better respond to their needs.
With today’s quickly shifting business conditions, law firms should be ready to adapt on-the-go. It’s wise to review changes regularly, monitor new trends, solidify client relationships, monitor results against the broader business strategy, and not hesitate to make drastic changes to ensure seamless operations while maintaining top-quality service.
Develop a Strong Communication Strategy
Developing a strong communication strategy with clients should have been a critical pointer of your law firm’s business continuity plans over the last few months. Even with hopes for recovery, this communication strategy should remain the cornerstone of your ongoing business. You have to keep clients in the loop about operational changes that could affect them.
If you’re introducing new services, make sure your clients know it and that all your online and offline platforms indicate that. Maintaining a strong communication strategy with your clients ensures that they have confidence in moving ahead with you. It also helps you get valuable insights into how you can continue supporting them and their legal objectives.
Prepare for Protection
With the second half of the year nearing an end, law firms need to renew their professional liability insurance, which is a mandatory operational requirement. That is one of the largest expenses you pay each year, and premiums have been rising. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact is even higher, with the fees going up 50% higher than the previous year.
Being aware of factors that may affect prices and compromise your operations is critical. With the pandemic on course to push on for another few months, insurers will need to know what types of pandemic-related legal services you’re offering to clients, how your business continuity plans have changed, and what solutions you’re implementing to continue serving clients.
Look Into Your Staff’s Well-Being
Don’t forget about your most valuable assets in your law firm – your staff. While most of the focus now is on implementing COVID-19 safety measures in offices and workplaces to protect staff returning to work and clients who visit, you should also think about your staff’s well-being and mental health.
Offer additional support and continue engaging with those working remotely. Get to hear staff insights and implement solutions that enhance collaboration and overall well-being. No one knows what lies ahead, but keeping these tips in mind will help law firms adapt and manage their operations effectively.