Un-Billable Hour: Business Management Strategies for the Busy Lawyer Around the Community Table

This episode is sponsored by Smith.ai. ------ The money you pour into your marketing is meaningless if you don’t answer the phone call fast. Prospects have choices. You got their attention with marketing and networking, and then you don’t answer the phone call promptly … and the caller moves on to the next law firm on their list. In 20 seconds, you blew that marketing spend. Guest Maddy Martin is GM of legal at Smith.ai, which provides end-to-end intake services for law firms. It’s all about 24/7 customer engagement powered by a combination of human expertise and AI driven tech, allowing small and medium sized law firms to provide customer engagement that rivals even the biggest firms. Technology changes, but the level of responsiveness clients want, and expect, doesn’t. Calls handled by a combination of trained professions and AI-enabled technology can lead to a higher level of closings, getting clients to hire you and sign the contract. It’s all about building that connection and getting it right the first time. You’ve spent money and time to convince that potential client to call. Don’t give them a reason to hang up and call someone else. Even if you have an intake professional in house, do you even know if you’re losing calls when someone phones and your staff is busy with someone else? Hear how a hybrid AI solution maximizes onboarding from those leads you’ve worked so hard to attract.   Mentioned in This Episode: Clio Legal Trends Report Smith.ai

In this episode of the Un-Billable Hour’s Seat at the Table: Being a great lawyer is important, being able to afford to be a great lawyer also matters. Billing and collections are an important part of your firm. How much time do you spend understanding how you run your business vs. How much time you spend “working.” You’ve got to bill as well as produce results. Take control of how you’re paid and when. Cash crunches happen. But you can navigate them if you plan, prepare, and keep an eye on your bottom line, every day. The money often shows up later than the work does. Nobody told you that. Practicing law and producing results that help real people with real problems are wonderful things. But you are also a business, and people depend on you, and cash flow matters. Here’s where it gets tough. So how do you know from looking at the bottom line, how a firm – your firm – is really doing? Is it making money? What percent of revenue should go to payroll or marketing, where are your leaks?  This episode of Seat at the Table features money experts Amira Hasenbush, Brooke Lively, and Joy Lutz as they share insights with Christopher T. Anderson and get into the nitty gritty of running a law firm that not only produces results for clients but also produces profits for the owners.  Hear how a firm can look profitable on paper but still not produce profits. Taxes, expenses, debt, billing “slippage,” and collection slowdowns all add up. Are you seeing the big picture? Cash flow, payroll, unintended outflows, and bookkeeping are all vital to your bottom line. Learn how to train yourself for profit. Mentioned in This Episode: Clio Legal Trends Report Lawpay ClioCon 2026, Oct. 26-27, 2026 Legal Talk Network Unbillable Hour …And of course Wimpy!

In this episode, a little about production and a little about you. When you sit down at your desk, are you doing billable legal work – the real work – or are you doing administrative tasks? Guest Gina Cotner is the founder and CEO of Athena Executive Services, a virtual assistant firm that frees busy professionals from mundane tasks so they can focus on serving clients, solving problems, and growing their business. If you’ve been told (maybe over and over) that you need to delegate, you’ve probably never been told how. This may be the episode that helps you untangle that problem and finally take that first step.  Cotner shares how she helps attorneys work with assistants and build the trust that opens up space for additional billable hours instead of routine administration. If you’ve been told to delegate but can’t let go, Cotner’s insights learned through years of experience helping busy executives turn over tasks may be what you’ve needed to hear.

 In this episode of the Un-Billable Hour’s Seat at the Table: How do you know when a hire isn’t working out (hint: you already know) and then pull the trigger and let them go?     It happens: you hire someone, and it doesn’t work out. So many firms put off the hard discussion: terminating an employee. It’s not pleasant, but it’s necessary. That’s where planning, preparation, and an established process come into play. Is it a lack of communication? Or a truly bad fit? Establish performance metrics and address issues early on and help avoid surprises. When it’s time for the firing discussion, everyone should already know what’s coming because it’s been out in the open for a long time. Clarity can reduce the risk of labor law tangles after the termination. Don’t let a fired employer create more problems. Reviews, management consultations, and documented steps can both guide your employee to better performance, which is optimal, or protect your firm after the firing.  You saw the signs. You knew it was coming. But now it’s time to take action and let an employee go. And if we all know the mantra “hire slow, fire fast,” we also know lawyers don’t always follow that rule. We can be way, way too slow to fire when an employee just isn’t working out.  So how do you know when the time has come? Our panel of legal management and HR pros digs in. As one panelist says, “If you wake up three mornings in a row thinking about somebody who’s not your spouse, they’ve got to go.” You know when someone is taking up too much time and derailing the office. The problem isn’t recognizing the problem, it’s not recognizing that you’ve already recognized the problem.  Have a plan, specific policies, metrics, management consultations, and a process for firing someone before you reach that point. Without clarity, even experienced HR professionals struggle. Every process should account for your firm’s vulnerability. Labor laws, password management, access to client documents, even physical access to your office with keys or key cards should all be part of the process before the termination discussion. Dig into an episode today that can help your firm prepare for the future!   REFERENCES MENTIONED: ClioCon 2026, Oct. 26-27, 2026 Legal Talk Network Unbillable Hour

Growing your business starts with you, and your front door is your web presence. The beating heart of your business is your technology. Guest Colleen Joyce is the CEO of the lawyer-client matching platform Lawyer.com and the founder of the Lawyer Growth Summit gathering.  Joyce shares how she started working with lawyers who didn’t know a lot about even their own website and expanded to begin helping attorneys and firms build their brand online and make themselves more accessible to potential clients.  Running a law firm requires marketing, it’s letting the world know who you are and how you can solve problems. But how you market online matters. Every dollar counts, and tracking your spend is vital. Know where you are reaching clients, and where you may need guidance. If your firm isn’t growing, it’s stuck. Are you changing things up? Are you reinventing yourself and your presentation? What are you doing right, and what could you do better with just a few small tweaks?  (Oh yes, AI fits into this, too).