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On Risk Management: Risk Management for Office and
Support Staff Usually, it’s a firm’s lawyers who are sued for legal malpractice and must answer for all that goes on in the practice. However, the support staff plays a vital role in doing the work that prevents conditions from arising that may lead to claims. In a smoothly run firm, risk management is everyone’s job and there is plenty of work to go around. Claims based on lawyers’ mistakes may be few, but individually cost the most money — those involving failures to know and apply the law. The staff is your secret weapon against most claims: those that good office procedures and good staff management will help avoid. This column looks at a number of these issues, including: working with staff, staff professionalism, meeting deadlines and ensuring confidentiality of client material. Working with staff Proper hiring, training and management of support staff is an extremely effective risk management tool and should be a top priority in law firms. When it’s not, a high price is paid in frequent employee turnover, poor work-product, below-par customer (client) service and a greater potential for legal malpractice. Lawyers in the firm need to be “trained” to show respect to their staff, treat and reward them fairly, train them adequately and talk with instead of at them. Effective communication with staff members offers tremendous rewards for the entire firm and improves office moral, ensuring that everyone in the office is on the same page. Receptionists, especially, provide the first and last impression of your firm. A highly trained professional is an invaluable employee, who will market the law firm simply by doing his or her job at the highest level. Reminders: Staff professionalism Support staff play a critical role in the firm’s success, particularly in its perception by the public. The staff must always be mindful of their roles as “managers of first and last impression.” Their client-relations and marketing hats are enormous. Clients expect and deserve to receive professional and courteous treatment, and firms should never expect less from their employees. Unprofessional behavior has no place in the law office as a firm’s reputation and marketing efforts suffer when unprofessional conduct is allowed to exist. The ultimate risk management tool is client satisfaction with your firm, and client satisfaction is enhanced when employees exhibit professional conduct and positive attitudes. A firm pays dearly if employees are only interested in getting a weekly paycheck and have no genuine interest in the firm’s or the client’s overall welfare. Positive office morale, productivity, good work quality and positive relations mark the staff as a team of professionals and help reduce the chances of legal malpractice. Reminders: Meeting deadlines Although meeting deadlines may seem simple compared to all the other important tasks accomplished in a law office, every year 20 to 30 percent of all claims do arise from missed deadlines. The vast majority of these occur because of the failure to use and maintain a good calendaring system. Keeping an effective calendar is the staff’s job, and it starts with handling the mail. Your intake procedures should include time-sensitive documentation and ensure that every crucial deadline, with reminders, is placed on the calendar. Specifically, staff should review the mail, date stamp it, make the necessary calendar entries with notations as to dates and ensure that dates and reminders will be placed on the calendar at the first opportunity. This way mail will not get lost in an undifferentiated pile on the attorney’s desk. The notations also provide for a secondary check, by allowing the attorney to see which dates have been calendared. Each office needs a master calendar and a duplicate, or back-up system. Attorneys must be trained to compare and synchronize their individual desk and pocket calendars with the master calendar. The calendar should be checked for deadlines regularly. The point of the entire system is to provide options and alternatives if an attorney is unavailable to keep a scheduled appointment. Ensuring client confidentiality Some simple steps can go a long way in ensuring confidentiality. For example, staffers should be trained to keep the reception area and other public areas clear of file material and, in all areas, make sure computer screens cannot be read by passers by. Second, meet clients in clutter-free conference rooms and make sure these meetings are scheduled so that sensitive material is not left in view from one meeting to the next. Third, staff must be made to understand that everything said in a law firm which deals in any way with the firm or its clients is confidential. All requests for information from other than recognized clients should be referred to the attorney handling the case. This goes beyond what they say to how they say it: employees must be aware that their voice inflections, comments and body language must remain as neutral as possible. Conclusion The positive efforts of support staff make a law office run like a well-oiled machine and can go a long way toward preventing claims. Staff members should have good work habits, regular office attendance, and be organized “team players” with upbeat attitudes who add positive vibes to the office atmosphere. Employees should dress professionally and not play lawyer without a license. (The ABA offers Easy Self-Audits for the Busy Law Office in its publication, Law Practice Management, which help serve both as a guide and as risk management tools.) It is not always easy to remind the boss about deadlines, especially when many arise in a short period. A great calendaring system does no good if deadlines are noted but not met. Lawyers should be trained not to “blame the messenger,” and staff should be trained to err on the side of caution — that is, when in doubt, bite the bullet and remind the boss. A brief uncomfortable encounter is far superior to the discomfort, and potential malpractice claim, if an important deadline is missed and a case is lost as a result. Finally, confidentiality begins when a law office first hires an employee. Stressing the importance that “whatever is heard here...stays here” helps ensure that everyone understands the importance of confidentiality. Resources The Alps Risk Management Report - “Risk Management
for Office Staff” by Robert D. Reis, Risk Manager. November 1999. Kay G. Kenny is Assistant General Manager of the Legal Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland. This is the eleventh in a series of articles that includes claim prevention techniques, designed to minimize the likelihood of being sued for legal malpractice. The material presented does not establish, report or create the standard of care for attorneys, is not legal advice and does not represent a complete analysis of the topics. Readers should conduct their own appropriate research. |
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© 1998-2007 Legal Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland. All Rights Reserved. |
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