For those of you with lawns and gardens, it’s spring time.  Each year, if you take pride in your lawn or garden, it’s important to pull and spray for weeds.  Otherwise, things can quickly spin out of control.  Once the weeds spread and take over, it takes lots of time, energy and effort to take control back.  It might even require the efforts of a professional lawn care service to remedy the situation.

If you have a law firm, it can feel a lot like having a lawn or garden.  One day, you can have a law firm that seems to be running seamlessly.  The employees are happy.  They are performing excellent legal work for satisfied clients.  They can be productive and profitable.  All seems like it is going well in law firm world.

But all of a sudden, one day a weed can find its way into the law firm.  You might be busy.  You might have others matters in which to attend.  So, you put off pulling that figurative weed for another day.  Days or weeks can then pass.  All of a sudden, you look at the law firm and things have quickly taken a turn for the worse.  Sometimes, it can become so bad that it requires more serious intervention.

This is why it is important to regularly attend to your law firm like you would your lawn or garden.  Below are some examples of where the weeds might be forming:

Are your once optimistic and hard-working employees starting to become less optimistic and hard-working?

Is your once clean file room starting to accumulate some disorganization?  Are files not put back where they should be?  Is there paper all of a sudden lying around?

Are the once jovial receptionists and intake crew less enthusiastic with potential clients on the phone?  Are they letting calls hit voice mail that they would have immediately taken before?

Are the people in your firm who were once being productive with billable hours and accounts receivables starting to slack all of a sudden?

Are the happy faces you used to see in meetings turning to folks who looks disengaged, uninterested and inattentive?

Are retentions dropping for no apparent reason because the phones are still ringing off the hook?

Are the happy clients who were thrilled with the legal services they were receiving all of a sudden becoming disgruntled?

The reality is this is a never-ending process just like it is with your lawn or garden.  It’s important not to wait when you see weeds starting to form, just like you shouldn’t wait when its forming in your lawn or garden.  You simply have to stop what you are doing and pull that weed before it’s too late.

If you have any comments, feel free to share them below.