It’s early 2006. Where do you want your firm to be by the end of the year? Consider these tips for getting off to a better year.

Bill clients regularly and improve your collections.

Asking clients for money is one of the most difficult tasks. However, consider the alternative: Doing the work and not getting paid. Billing often is a low priority in busy practices. The attitude seems to be “as long as some money is coming in, we don’t have to worry about collecting money regularly from our other clients.” This cavalier attitude can lead to problems when the money stops coming in as regularly. Another common situation is separate billing arrangements and rates instead of a firm wide policy.

Establishing a uniform billing date with no exceptions is the first step. A predictable schedule is easier for lawyers since it involves looking at one month’s work rather than a stack of aging pre-bills. Clients prefer regular billing since the amount is smaller and is presented closer to the time the work was done. Consider monthly bills an additional way to stay in touch with clients and apprise them of the status of your work.

Improve your response to client requests.

Your firm’s technology should support staffers’ ability to promptly respond to clients. Are you still using pink phone pads or the bound multipart tear-off sheets? Firms with a case management program that includes either phone records or the ability to create note records should consider automating phone messaging and answering systems. The ability to have notes from case related phone calls at your fingertips can be invaluable. Potential clients are impressed when I can readily recall details from our previous discussion.

Firms should have an easy phone system and trained personnel to make it easy for clients and potential clients to obtain information in a timely fashion. And make sure new clients know the best way to reach you and best time of day.

BlackBerrys and Treo cell phones allow you to stay in touch with clients by e-mail and telephone. Depending on your practice and technology comfort zone, you could consider one of these to more efficiently use your time away from the office.

Review how office documents are prepared. I often encounter firms that never invested in learning how to convert routine documents into merges or document assembly templates. The typical pattern is to duplicate and copy a document for one client and edit it for the next. This is problematic for several reasons. First, it’s much too easy to miss a reference to the previous client. Second, even if the document is for the same client, the address may have changed. Third, you run the risk of inadvertently saving the new document over the earlier one. Finally, it’s probably more time consuming to locate the earlier document, save the new copy and edit it than merge a fill in the blank form using data from your firm’s practice management system.

Implement a firm-wide case- or practice-management program if you don’t already have one.

Case- or practice-management software has been slowly making inroads into law firms. Those that have just struggled to collect names and addresses of clients to send holiday cards may be good candidates for a case management program. One benefit is a firm wide contact list and many programs allow custom fields to track which mailings each contact should receive.

Tracking how clients came to your firm enables better evaluation of referral sources. Are most new clients referred by existing clients or other attorneys? Are they the result of programs you did for a local business group? A newspaper advertisement? This knowledge lets you spend your marketing time and dollars more wisely. Using source information from a case management program along with financial analysis from your billing or accounting program will let you fine-tune efforts to focus on the most lucrative work.

Consider purchasing a practice management program such as Time Matters from LexisNexis, ProLaw from West, Amicus Attorney from Gavel and Gown or one of many others. If you don’t have a program to manage appointments, contacts, tasks and other aspects of cases, get one! While they may be a big upfront investment, they pay off quickly in allowing you to better manage cases.

Implement at least one new function from your firm’s practice management program.

If you already have a practice management system, consider how it’s being used and if there are functions or changes that would be more efficient. Many firms that purchase upgrades to existing products often fail to incorporate the new functions into their procedures. Over time, firms lose out on improvements that could streamline their work.

Upgrade very old versions of software.

I’m often amazed at how far behind the technology curve lawyers seem to be. In the past month, I’ve worked with firms that are using billing systems more than 10 years old and word processors nearly 15 years old! Imagine going to a doctor and getting an X-ray on a machine that old instead of a CT scan, MRI or sonogram. I’ve found that the total cost of software is less when a firm upgrades one or two versions beyond the current one. That adds some new functions to the basic ones. Staying on unsupported versions can lead to expensive, emergency based upgrades rather than planned and budgeted ones. Hiring office staff familiar with the older versions also becomes problematic since they have little incentive to downgrade their skills. Additionally, the cost of training and customization can be higher since there are more changes to address. Finally, an older version means missing new options. At least once a month, I hear from a firm that no longer can synchronize its older case management program with its new palm based cell phone.

Invest in your infrastructure.

Running an office on older technology costs money every minute it’s in use. You’re due for an upgrade if it takes longer to save a file because of an older network router, you avoid legal research on the internet because it’s too time-consuming to use a dialup modem or your system crashes frequently because you’re running an older Windows version.

While you needn’t purchase the latest and greatest or replace your computers annually, you should plan for at least a three- or four-year cycle. Whether we like it or not, Microsoft has announced a three-year life cycle for each version of Windows. From the time it first ships, Microsoft ends the ability to purchase the current version of its operating system on new computers within three years. The domino effect is that legal software developers must write their new versions for the current Windows, often requiring their own customers to upgrade or lose access to service releases or telephone support.

Use the internet better.

Are you using msn.com to do legal research? Have you ever compared the results of your search to Google? You might be surprised to discover that search engines have different ways to index and locate information and often give different results. Did you know there is a huge amount of information on the internet that isn’t free? For lawyers in small firms, there are low cost subscriptions from Lexis and West that allow case research as well as an extensive news service. Make this the year of more effective internet research. Check your adversary’s website and your client’s adversary. Look for news items about them. You’ll be surprised what you can find

Update your website and get your own domain name.

If you don’t have a website, it’s overdue. Potential clients want to learn about you and your firm’s services. LexisNexis and West both offer website design services. Look at some of their client sites and note which you like and don’t like, and see who designed it. That’s usually noted at the bottom of the home page. Depending on your practice and how your potential clients find you, it may be advantageous to hire a professional web designer. A designer knows how to make it easy for surfers to find information and navigate your site. Professionals also know how to get the site proper placement so it can be found by Google, MSN and Yahoo.

If you already have a website, it’s probably time for refreshing and updating. Ask some clients what information they’d like on your site. Look at other sites for ideas as well. See how potential clients can find you based on the words on your site and your placement in various search engines.

Think about the impression you make on potential clients when your e-mail address is something like johnesq@aol.com. While you can continue to use AOL to send and receive e-mail, you also should have your own web presence. Specifically, you should purchase a domain name (the part of the e-mail address that comes after @) and use it for your website. Domain names cost as little as $10 per year from companies like registerfly.com.

Prepare for disasters of all kinds.

Make sure you’re up-to-date with antivirus, anti spyware and firewall software. Also highly recommended is an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for the server and workstations to protect against power surges and dips, and to allow a safe shutdown in the event of a power outage.

Consider the kinds of disasters that can occur and develop strategies for each. The goal is to be able to restore data to its original form. In addition to natural disasters like flood and fire, there’s sabotage by fired or disgruntled employees, or the simple act of accidentally deleting something critical. These are statistically the most important reasons for having regular, reliable offsite backups.

Improve conditions for your staff.

Take a look at your partners, associates and staff. Are they happy? Do you provide a comfortable environment where they want to be productive and contribute to the benefit of the firm and its clients? Are you offering competitive salaries and benefits? Are there intangibles, such as the option to work from home, that compensate for a slightly lower salary? Have staff received sufficient training on the tasks incorporated in their jobs? Are those procedures well documented?

It’s a new year. Get off to a good start!

Carol L. Schlein is president of Law Office Systems in Montclair, a training and consulting firm specializing in law firm automation. Copies of previous columns are on her company website, www.losinc.com. For information about her quarterly meetings for Time Matters users, check the website or e-mail info@losinc.com. Schlein formerly chaired the Computer and Technology Division of the ABA Law Practice Management Section.

Questions for Carol L. Schlein on law office technology may be faxed to New Jersey Lawyer at (732) 650-7010, e-mailed to news@njlnews.com or mailed to “Law Technology Questions,” New Jersey Lawyer, Edison Square, 2035 Lincoln Highway, Suite 3005, Edison, N.J. 08817.