Practicing law and experiencing stress go together like pineapple on pizza: some people really dig it, but most of us could do without it. Stress is an unavoidable part of being an attorney. While stress isn’t inherently bad, unchecked it can lead to devastating consequences. As a managing partner at a law firm, your responsibility isn’t limited to your clients but to your team of partners, associates, and support staff. If you learn how to manage your firm in a way that leads to good mental health among your team, you will find yourself operating smoothly, productively, and profitably. 

Create a clear procedures and operations manual

Managing expectations for your team is key. Clearly communicate how you prefer, or need, things to be done at your firm. Everything from client intake, billing, filing, time tracking, and day-to-day operations matters in ensuring that your firm is properly run. These expectations, in writing, allow everyone to be on the same page. So, if at any point something comes up, you can point to these expectations, and there’s your path forward. If everyone is on the same page, communication is easier and more effective. 

Develop your team and help them succeed

Help your team help you. The more they have to succeed, the more they will perform for you to the best of their ability. If you hire attorneys expecting them to be perfect, you’re going to be let down every single time. If you hire attorneys with the intention of working with them to be the best they can be, you will have an effective, manageable firm. Consider mentorship for your younger lawyers. They tend to work longer hours than more seasoned attorneys. Lend them your expertise and guidance so they don’t run ragged trying to impress the higher-ups. 

Giving your team the tools and support they need to do well in their role is far healthier than being a hardass, expecting them to do more with less. That creates an unnecessarily stressful environment, and that kind of stress can lead to mistakes – the kind of mistakes that can harm your firm. And we want a healthy, productive firm. 

Give your team the resources they need

Some managers want their team to do more with less. The idea being that a scarcity mindset inspires the creative/resourceful part of their brain. The truth is that it’s an unsustainable practice that builds stress where there needn’t be. Instead, you should give your staff everything they need and more. The more resources they have, the more independent they will operate and the better they will perform. Some examples include:

• Qualified content writers. Having support from writers that have passed the bar exam to write the content for your blog will be well worth the cost. Yes, you should have a blog. Even if the post is about a famous case, that post can drive traffic to your site. These blog posts can create authoritative content that Google’s all-powerful algorithm rewards, which, in turn, will raise your firm’s site’s online visibility. You could build your own in-house marketing team, or you could hire an agency as they have qualified writers on their teams.
• Bi- or multilingual intake service. Non-English speakers need legal services too. Having bilingual or multilingual people on your team means more clients. Many firms are turning to LEX Reception, while Answering Legal is a reputable service as well. You will need to write an intake script and make sure the intake folks have your address and service radius information on hand; otherwise your might lose cases because of incomplete intake. Increasing that kind of access will increase your revenue, which is the ultimate goal, after all.
• Call intake management. Having a call recording and management platform is essential to your processes. Something like CallRail is one option firms tend to enjoy. The reason is twofold. Firstly, you’ll want to give your staff the tools they need to view call history, acquisition sources, and respond to leads in a unified dashboard on their computer. Second, your team needs to be able to vet intake calls for quality. As long as you have a disclaimer on the call, you can record intake calls – and if you have an intake service like LEX Reception, you’ll need to hold them accountable for the quality of their intake calls.

Be adaptable

If Covid taught us anything, it’s that we need to be ready to adapt to ever-changing situations. Thanks to technology, we’re able to work from home as productively as we are in the office. This kind of freedom to work from anywhere should be your sign to allow your team to work from anywhere. 

Life gets in the way sometimes, and there isn’t always a neat, organised way to fit it into your schedule. Your team will experience these moments. The more prepared you are to adapt to these unexpected moments, the healthier your team will be. Someone needs to pick up their kid? Let them handle it. Sudden plumbing accident? No worries, go deal with it. If anything comes up that is inconvenient, let your team do what they need to do. Trust that they will manage the time you need from them, and they will earn it. 

Respect work-life boundaries

One way to guarantee unnecessary stress among your team is to call or text them off-hours. More hours means more billable time, but at what cost? Burnout and turnover? Who needs that? The more rested your attorneys are, the better they can serve your clients. Working into the late late hours is not sustainable. You want sustainable practices in your management, don’t you? Allow your team to maintain their personal lives on their own time. Respect their space, and they will respect the firm’s. 

Review and revise for healthy growth

Always take note of the current office culture and notice what is and isn’t working. Maybe a weekly check-in works with some but not others. Perhaps you need a once-a-month team-building exercise or a simple weekly happy hour. Maybe you’re too relaxed and need to tighten things up. Being mentally healthy doesn’t always mean being chill; it just means being reasonable when situations arise. 

It’s not easy being a lawyer. It will be stressful and exhausting. But there are steps you can take to make the lives of your team of attorneys easier, and that can make a world of difference as you develop your firm into a well-oiled machine. Showing patience and flexibility isn’t a sign of weakness or an opportunity for people to take advantage of you; it’s a reliably healthy way to operate a group of people who count on you for their livelihood. It’s easy to manage your firm in a way that respects the mental health of your staff; all you have to do is do it.

Tim Williamson, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.