Paralegal Career For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 18

Law Office Management 101

IN THIS CHAPTER

Making the most of your time

Acting as rainmaker with orderly billing procedures

Finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place

How much time you spend engaged in law office management depends on the type and size of firm you work for. Most large firms employ a separate staff to take care of the majority of the daily organization activities. But no matter what size firm you work for, as a paralegal you’ll probably end up doing some managing and organizing of the law office. If you work for a small firm, you could be responsible for the management of the entire office. In a larger firm, you’ll probably be responsible for just your own schedule and maybe that of your supervising attorney. Although it may seem pretty mundane, proper office management is crucial to the productivity of any law environment, so this chapter focuses on proper management of time, files, and monthly billings.

Buying Time: Management Systems

When you think about it, law firms sell their time to their clients, so the value of managing minutes, hours, and days is absolutely crucial. The legal process consists of a series of deadlines ...