How can law firms remotely manage caseloads and deadlines?

Your team can’t always be in the same place working together, but cases still need to be managed properly in order to keep them moving forward and create satisfied clients. If your staff is working remotely, it’s important to have a plan in place to manage caseloads and upcoming deadlines.

Set clear expectations & targets

The massive shift to remote working in the spring of 2020 was a massive cultural experiment across all industries. Many of the pain points that arose have been due to the massive changes in operation everyone experienced at the same time.

To avoid this headache, establish crystal clear operational standards^[1]: when are your office hours? When is your team available? How are they available – i.e., via what platforms or channels?

Internally, make sure your team is all on the same page. Are they going to be logging hours? If so, how many? Have your targets shifted? If so, what are the new targets?

But remember, while overcommunication is important when building up a remote work setup, don’t overcommunicate indefinitely. Trust your staff to do their jobs like the skilled attorneys and support staff you know them to be.

Streamline communication

When you’re relying solely on remote methods of information sharing, it’s easy to spread your communication too thin. An email here, a text message there, a few phone calls. Important points get lost.

That’s why integrating as much of your communication as possible is essential^[2]. Slack channels  and the use of tools like Microsoft Teams have quickly become the new normal for businesses across all industries in our new remote working environment and for good reason. Slack and Teams let you funnel all your communication into one spot, making it easy to track and easy to reference.

Use cloud computing software

Cloud computing software is mission-critical for remote working. It makes collaboration, communication, and sharing easy and secure for attorneys, support staff, and clients. It bypasses the need to rely on server- or desktop-based program (or the troublesome remote logins they require).

Cloud computing software is available for virtually every aspect of law firm life, making it critical to supporting successful remote work case management.

References

1. How to Manage Your Law Firm Remotely During COVID-19
2. The Coronavirus Will Change the Legal Industry’s Approach to Remote Work