Episode 57 How Do I Delegate? Let Me Count the Ways

We’ve talked about what happens when your solo practice starts to grow and you need to add your first associate. In this podcast, the hosts talk about managing the delegation of work. The first step is in analyzing the work you need to be done and how to best handle its distribution. Then you need to get organized to make sure the work you distribute is done on time and in the manner you want it done. A good calendaring program and organization system is critical. When it comes to legal matters, it’s important that the associates have training, oversight and are keeping track of their time. Delegation applies not only to actual legal work but to other parts of your practice that you can pass off to others – employees, interns, third parties – in order to free up your time. If you are a solo and are not delegating legal work to others, then your practice will never grow as you only have so many hours in a day. Your clients will understand that you are delegating minor parts of your practice in order to concentrate on the more important, challenging parts of your practice. But that’s only the case if you plan for it:

- Train the associates in the way you want matters handled

- At the beginning, go over each task to make sure the associate understands the full scope of the task

- Bring the associate into client meetings so the client becomes comfortable with someone else occasionally handling the matter

- Call the client well in advance if you are not going to be at an appearance or meeting and go over what is expected to happen

- Use the extra time for practice development and for concentrating on more lucrative and complicated legal matters