WHAT
WE DO FOR LAW FIRMS
"Catalyst
brings sanity to the insane world of
trying to practice law in the 21st
Century. The combined knowledge that
Cheryl, Dave and Beth bring to the table gives
any law firm an edge towards
profitability. More importantly, they also
provide the insight to allow the lawyer to
have a quality life with a quality
practice."
Tim
Morris
Attorney at Law
WHAT
WE OFFER LAW FIRMS
Our goal is to
act in concert with lawyers to assist with
any problem within a law firm. Sometimes
we are called upon to address one or two
issues. Sometimes we are asked to do a
complete reengineering of the law firm.
Our
goal simply is to address that which seems
the most important to you!
Our services are
customized to meet the needs of the
owners. We are not telling you how to run
your firm - we are merely offering you
other alternatives that can smooth out
situational problems that will have long
lasting positive effects. We are a behind
the scene team of experienced legal
professionals who can guide you as you
begin to define what you and your firm
should be.
In the past year,
we have had calls on many facets of the
practice. The following are in order of
importance to lawyers who have called us
with number one as receiving the most
calls.
- Employee
problems
- Partners/Owner
unhappy with firm and life in general
- Associate
retention and training
- Lack of return
on investment for the hours worked
- Generation of
new clients and how to attract new
clients
- Financial
stability - getting rid of feast and
famine theory
- Desire to
change direction of the firm so it can
survive in the 21st Century
- Technology
over-load and help designing and
working with vendors to get the right
product to support the firm.
The following are just a few of the
many things we do:
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
Strategic
planning is not a mystery. A good
strategic plan is nothing but a roadmap
showing you how to get where you want to
go. Out of your strategic plan comes a
business plan, a marketing plan, and other
achievable goals that will occur over a
period of time. The only limits in
planning are those you place on yourself.
Planning and
accountability is the key to turning a
firm around and bringing it into alignment
with your personal and professional goals.
Dave Favor's approach to strategic
planning has been the cornerstone of
success for professional practices.
His experience as a former ISO auditor
and Baldridge examiner has allowed him
to assist professionals in developing
accountable benchmarks that guarantee
the success of a plan. Dave's
plans are working, living, breathing
plans and are not put on shelves to
gather dust. Catalyst clients see
positive on-going growth.
We
don't consult we act!
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ASSESSMENTS
We have found
most of our clients simply do not know
what the problem is but rather a vague
idea that the firm is "not
working." We have developed our own
"Catalyst Way Law Assessment
Guide" which allows us to come into
your firm and view it from top to bottom.
One or more of
our principals visits with your firm and
for two or three days meeting privately
with attorneys and staff, viewing
technology, examining financial
information, auditing processes,
procedures, and statistical information to
get an over-view of how your firm works.
We find out what everyone truly believes,
what they would like to see, and how your
firm works.
We then meet with
the owner or partners and find out what is
their vision for the firm. With this
information, we make recommendations for
the firm and even assist in the
re-engineering of the firm if necessary.
We do not simply
write reports; we make an honest
assessment and appraisal of your firm,
meet with you on the results, make some
recommendations and then allow you to
decide what else Catalyst can do for you.
Because we
have been there, done that we have the
ability to talk on your level and tell the
truth as we see it.
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MANAGEMENT
CONTROL
Consultants tell
people what to do. Catalyst teaches people
what to do. We believe our role is to
teach you and share our knowledge with
you.
We are actively
involved in the leadership of the firm and
even hold positions within a firm on a
part time basis from a seat on the Board
of Directors to acting General Manager. We
provide the support either on-site or
on-line. We start first with the
leadership of the firm to determine how
you want your firm managed. .We then
translate this to training your people how
to manage an office the way you want to
see it run.
We believe in the
training of your most valuable resources,
your firm members. We help define
processes and procedures so you are not
dependent upon individuals but rather a
methodology of how you want something
done.
We work with the
Catalyst Way Management Philosophy that
develops a team environment with a
positive work culture.
What do large
firms have that small to medium size law
firms cannot afford? The answer is simple
- a good General Manager that keeps the
firm smoothly running. The partners or
lawyer/owners find themselves being
General Managers rather than partners or
owners who are out generating business.
A General Manager
is a high level CEO for a law firm,
oversees, and handles every aspect of
operations and management. The GM acts
with the authority of the leadership of
the firm.
We take your
in-house management people and train them
to act as a management team and we audit
and make sure that your firm is being run
efficiently. We believe that
"management by Catalyst"
provides you strong management of your
firm and allows you to concentrate on the
practice of law. We build you a management
team that works.
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EMPLOYEE
MANAGEMENT
Without a doubt
the management of employees is the number
one area we receive the most requests for
and is the most costly and time-consuming
areas for the lawyer owner to handle.
"Employees
today are better educated and are more
savvy. They are no longer the long time
employee who will do anything at all
costs. They are demanding more and
delivering less. This trend has to
stop."
Cheryl
Leone, CEO
Catalyst believes
that law firm employees are caged eagles
who want to soar but no one is opening the
cage door. Managing employees is very
simple. We give you this free:
- Employees
want to know your expectations.
- Employees
want the tools to accomplish
the job.
- Employees
want feedback.
- Employees
should have accountability.
Behind these four
simple management philosophies is a great
deal of information and understanding that
will develop your employees into loyal,
pro-active employees who want to come to
work and want to take ownership in helping
the firm go forward.
If
you want the best of the best
Then you must create a positive work
culture
And invest in the right training
We create
employee manuals to govern conduct. We
train employees to be professional. We
train the lawyers to treat the non-lawyers
professionally, with dignity and respect.
We teach the leadership how to conduct
evaluations that promote growth and not
for the purposes of a raise. We create a
dynamic team of employees who want to be
the power behind the throne.
We take away the
fear that someone will leave and you will
not be able to work. We put you in control
by putting your employees in control of
their own destiny in working for you.
Associate
training is a product of Catalyst. Most
lawyer owners fear the loss of an
associate. The trick is making it
impossible for the associate to leave
because of the atmosphere of the firm
coupled with an ability for the associate
to increase his or her earnings. Catalyst
believes in profit center structures for
associates where there are no limits on
growth and earning potential and where the
associate delivers a profit for the owner.
"No
one lawyer or non-lawyer is indispensable.
The process and procedures by which they
work coupled with a positive work culture
is a requirement to making a firm
successful and profitable."
Ken
Hardison
Senior Partner
Hardison & Leone, L.L.P.
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FINANCIAL
& BUDGET DEVELOPMENT
There isn't a
lawyer in the world who does not
understand the financial description of a
law firm as "Feast or Famine".
Because of the uncertainty of cases,
settlements, billing and unexpected
overhead the majority of owners simply
live financially by feast or famine with
no idea of what will pay the bills down
the road or even if they can get paid on a
regular basis.
Living
with feast and famine income takes energy
away from your ability to grow your firm
We make no
apologies for the way we believe the
practice should run:
- Sound fiscal
management of its resources
- Living by a
budget philosophy
- Knowing in
advance what is needed to earn a
profit for the owner
If you are tired
of living from month to month (feast or
famine), then take a step in the right
direction by developing a good strategic
plan. You will have a stream of income
that meets the cost of the firm and
delivers to the owner a steady profit.
"Financial
stress will certainly kill you quicker
than over-working yourself. If you can get
both under control you will find out what
it means to have a quality of life that
impacts you and your family."
Cheryl
Leone CEO
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VENDOR
REVIEWS
When lawyers go
to purchase case management systems,
computers, or equipment they are
overwhelmed with the information and bids
given by vendors. Catalyst provides third
party reviews of the bids as well as makes
recommendations if the needed purchase
will work in your firm. We are not tied to
any one vendor nor do we recommend vendors
unless we have worked with them and know
they meet our standards of client service,
quality work product, and quality product.
We take a great
deal of our time talking to vendors,
testing products, and implementing
products and we have found out who
delivers the goods and who will stand
behind their product. We can then give the
lawyer owner the information so that an
informed decision can be made. More
importantly, we can tell the lawyer owner
if the investment is worth the cost based
upon the goals for the firm's growth and
development.
Technology is
changing faster than we can keep up with
it. Getting bigger or faster is not
necessarily better. Case management
systems come and go. Making these
investments need to fit within your plan
and your budget.
"If I
could just get lawyers to quit looking at
the bells and whistles of a product and
start looking at how it interacts with the
plans for the firm, I could save lawyers
mega-bucks. All vendors have one goal in
mind - to sell their product to you and
they will tell you what you want to hear
rather than what you need to hear."
Cheryl
Leone, CEO
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TRAINING
One of our
biggest requests is concerning employee
training and management. We provide firm
teaching seminars as well as restructuring
of staff. We help implement employee
manuals and provide management and
leadership training to attorneys so they
get optimum response from their staff. We
believe that most employees in law firms
are "caged eagles" and we have
manuals, processes, and programs designed
to allow your eagles to soar. Imagine a
law firm where employees take
responsibility for their work and are
pro-active for the firm. Think of a firm
where associates take ownership for their
performance and increase their
productivity. Catalyst training
accomplishes this.
We believe that
most lawyers are unprepared to assume the
role of leadership and management in law
firms. By education and by experience,
there is limited training done to prepare
the lawyer owner or associate lawyers who
supervise staff to meet the high demand
for strong leadership in successful law
firms. We provide services that include
training classes in house, mentoring and
coaching from our principals, all designed
to put in place strong leaders with solid
management to allow a firm to grow and
survive
Lawyers
fail to invest in their most valuable
resource -
The men and women who
work within the
practice!
We teach lawyers
how to hire people and how to train them
so that they hit the ground running and
they continue to grow so the investment of
time and money pays off.
360 Catalyst High
Performance Training is available to all
professionals and is customized for each
professional practice area. We provide a
change in the way of thinking for all firm
members from secretaries to paralegals to
associates to the leadership of the firm.
All of our 360 programs are customized to
fit the professional practice area
involved.
Click
here to visit our 360 Catalyst High
Performance Training Division.
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PROCESS
& PROCEDURE DEVELOPMENT
Quit
reinventing the wheel!
No matter how
many times lawyers say they are going to
do it they never do. Taking time-tested
procedures in your practice are and
converting them into "How to"
Manuals is just simply good sense. How
many times have you had to dig through a
file just to find a form and then have to
give instructions on how to accomplish a
task? This is a waste of time and a waste
of money and resources.
Catalyst firmly
believes in defined processes and
procedures. We help you develop them for
your practice area and we can even put
them on CD's so that you can train new
people.
Some of the many
systems we have designed include:
- How to handle
a non-trial personal injury claim
- How to handle
a workers' compensation claim
- How to go to
Court (Litigation from start to
finished)
- Welcome to the
Firm - information for new employees
- Employee
Manual (interactive manual on disc)
Each system gives
specific instructions for staff and
attorneys along with your forms. You are
no longer dependent on one particular
person and new people learning quickly
because they have a source of reference.
Our systems are customized to your firm
and have accountability (Quality
Assurance) measures so that the work is
done right the first time.
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PERSONAL
AND PROFESSIONAL MENTORING
Leaving law
school with dreams that did not
materialize is the most frustrating part
of being a lawyer. Our experience has told
us that quality of life is not necessarily
about making the most money but having
personal satisfaction coupled with
professional success. Catalyst
"Dreams to Reality" program
allows a lawyer to start making sense of
what he or she truly wants to do, brings
it into alignment with professional
satisfaction, and provides a path to
follow while practicing law or even going
into other business ventures. It allows
you to see a future when all is said and
done.
In 2002, Catalyst
added to its list of services personal and
professional mentoring. This added service
came about because we found that many
lawyers we worked with were enthused at
the on-set but as they moved back into the
day-to-day routine of practicing law and
making money to pay the bills they lost
their focus.
Each of our
principals have worked with lawyers in the
past on a personal and professional basis.
A good mentor knows the client's dreams,
defines the roadmap to get there, and
keeps the client on track. Weekly and
monthly meetings ensure that the goal is
always kept in sight.
Having a
professional mentor that understands the
law, understands the pressures of being a
lawyer, and wants to invest time and
energy with the lawyer in being successful
makes sense.
Catalyst has a
strict privacy rule with personal
mentoring and at all times you and your
dreams are protected.
Law firms that
want to truly bring their people into
alignment should consider having an annual
"Dream, Believe, Dare, Do"
program where firm members are required to
set out personal and professional goals.
Only by understanding your firm members
can you make the firm grow.
"In my
42 years of asking lawyers are you happy,
I have found out that all but three
lawyers said no. What I have found is that
lawyers generally love law but are very
unhappy in how they have to practice. This
is simply unacceptable. I think if I could
do one thing in life, it would be to get
all lawyers to understand that they can do
what they love and still make a profit
without working themselves to death.
"
Cheryl
Leone, CEO
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RETREATS
We prepare and
facilitate retreats for partners who wish
to start strategic planning and put issues
out on the table to be resolved. Partners
must act in concert. We take information
and concerns of the partners and put the
information in a format that allows a
productive meeting over a period of one to
three days that allows decisions to be
made. We do not recommend a partners'
retreat without a "Needs &
Assessment" visit in advance. This is
the time to do strategic planning for the
firm. Good firms do this annually.
Our experience
tells us that when firms want to make
changes that everyone must be involved in
the process. We have held one to two day
retreats for the entire firm that wish to
have "new beginnings". This
allows the leadership of the firm to
involve all firm members in moving
forward.
We also have done
one day "fun retreats" that
promotes team play or provides new
enthusiasm for the firm.
Contact Cheryl
Leone at
cjleone@catalystgroupinc.com to
schedule a free consultation.
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