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April 2016
Retreat to Advance Your Law Firm
Worst Meeting You Can have
Leads, Leadership, and Leverage
Bootcamps Continue in April
FREE Webinars
Practice Management Webinars
Henley Contributes to ALA White Paper
April Speaking Engagements
Tabs3 Version 18.1
Affinity Offers Word Related Services
Worldox Newsletter Highlights
Word 2016 Tip of the Month - Real Time Collaboration
Newsworthy - Links of Interest (April Fools Edition)
Visit Our Webinar Archive
We archive our FREE educational webinars for 90 days after they are presented.



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Retreat to Advance Your Law Firm
- Debbie Foster & Alison Lukan

"Have you considered a firm retreat?"

This is a question we discuss with many of our clients. Understandably, while many lawyers value the benefit of time spent on developing a firm's intellectual capital and operational effectiveness in a retreat, in an industry where the commodity is the billable hour, most leaders will decline the chance to plan one for one primary reason: COST.

While there is no question that a firm retreat requires a financial investment as well as an investment of time that would otherwise be billable, there are very real reasons to invest the resources in a firm retreat that will result in tangible benefits for your firm long term.

Learn the strategy of planning and running law firm retreats at our FREE webinar on Thursday, April 7, from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. EDT. Register HERE.

Read this month's Retreat to Advance Your Law Firm feature article. 

To learn more about planning a successful law firm retreat, contact us.
The Worst Meeting You Can Have
- Alison Lukan, Strategic Management Consultant
 
Who doesn't roll their eyes at the thought of "another meeting?" While many of us think it's the sheer number of meetings that negatively impacts our ability to get things done, there's actually something far more dangerous to your productivity, and that's the worst meeting you can have: "The meeting after the meeting."

Want to avoid bad meetings? Contact us.

Visit Our Newsletter Archive
The Affinity Consulting Group Newsletter Archive has our email newsletters going back to January of 2010.
Guest Article - Leads, Leadership, and Leverage 
- How to Get All 3 Using Your Law Firm Blog, Part 1
This guest article by Stephen Fairley, CEO, The Rainmaker Institute, explains why a law firm blog is one of the best ways for attorneys to generate leads, demonstrate leadership, and gain leverage online by improving search engine results. Part 2 of this important article will appear next month in our May newsletter.

Want to meet the Rainmaker? Contact [email protected].

2016 Bootcamps Continue in April
- Tabs3 and PCLaw Bootcamps this month 

Affinity's software-focused Bootcamps provide you with intensive two-day training to increase your skills with popular law office software. 
                   
April 4-5 - Tabs3 Bootcamp, Roanoke, VA    
April 20-21 - PCLaw Bootcamp, Atlanta, GA        
May 16-17 - Worldox BootcampTampa, FL

For more information on our Bootcamps, contact us

If you can't attend one of our Bootcamps, call 877-676-5492 or write [email protected] to set up Private Law Firm Training on any subject/software.
FREE Education and Software Skills Webinars 

This month we have several FREE education and software skills webinars. If you are a PCLaw user, be sure to join us for PCLaw Tips & Tricks on April 8 at Noon EDT. In this session, you will learn shortcuts and tips to help you save time and utilize PCLaw in a more efficient way. We will cover tips on matter management, time entry, billing, reporting and settings.

Here is our full April and May schedule of FREE webinars:


*Part of Affinity's New Beyond the 3Cs Webinar Series

If you have questions about training opportunities, contact us.
Practice Management Webinar Series Continues This Month
-Part 2 on April 27
In February, we presented the first of a three-part webinar series called The Case for Practice Management with Affinity Partner Steve Best and Orion Law Practice Management Systems Project Manager Kevin C. Harris. It was a huge success. (If you missed it, you can see it here.) Remember to mark your calendar and register for the two remaining webinars on April 27 and June 10.

Until then, be sure to read Steve Best's article on why Outlook or any Personal Information Manager (PIM) is not enough for effective practice management.

Have questions about practice management software? Contact us.
ALA
Affinity Partner Contributes to ALA White Paper on Legal Service Pricing
- Barron Henley Participates in ALA Analysis
The Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) recently released a white paper on The Client Cost Conundrum: Legal Service Pricing in a Post-Recession Market. The paper identifies economic factors that influence relationship changes between clients and law firms after the Great Recession. It is a must-read for any lawyer responsible for setting billing rates or improving firm efficiency. Here is an excerpt:

"People feel like they can't raise their rates," says Barron Henley, Partner at Affinity
Consulting Group, a law firm efficiency and software consultancy. "So they're starting to
look at what they can do internally to be more efficient to maintain or increase
profitability."
 
A firm Affinity worked with in Los Angeles, after considerable analysis of its flat fee/transactional practices, had decided it needed to shut down the practice because it wasn't profitable enough. The firm's estate planning department was investing 10 hours
in each plan, which it charged $2,000 to complete, resulting in an effective hourly rate of
$200.
 
However, implementing several process improvements, including utilizing an automated
document assembly tool, allowed the firm to reduce its 10-hour time investment to just
1.5 hours per estate plan, producing an effective hourly rate of more than $1,000 an
hour.
 
"Reductions can be that dramatic," Henley says.


If you have questions about how to be more efficient and productive, contact us.
April Speaking Engagements
In addition to this month's webinars, our Partners and Consultants will be racking up those frequent-flyer miles speaking in Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Virginia, and Kentucky

Tabs3 Version 18.1 Introduced
- Sandy Adams
Attention all Tabs3 and PracticeMaster Firms.  Firms that are currently up-to-date with their annual maintenance plan are eligible to update to version 18.1

Version 18.1 offers many improvements and new features. Read about them now.

Contact Sandy Adams or Britt Lorish with questions about upgrading to Tabs3 Version 18.1. 
Word Logo
Affinity Offers Word Related Services
- Barron K. Henley, Esq.
No matter how much you rely on your practice management or time/billing software, chances are you and your staff spend more than in Microsoft Word than any other software application. Utilizing Word effectively and efficiently is a key to your firm's profitability. 

To help you maximize your use of Word, Affinity now offers a variety of Word related services. These include:
  • Word Template Building and Document Repair
  • WordPerfect to Word Document Conversion
  • Legal User's Microsoft Word Master Class

To arrange for Word training customized for your firm, contact us. 
Highlights from our Worldox Newsletter
Our March 2016 Worldox email newsletter has a great article on how Worldox GX4 automatically builds your Favorite Matters. This makes saving and finding matters easier for everyone.


If you have questions about Worldox or any aspect of document management, contact us.
Word Logo
MS Word 2016 Tip of the Month - Real Time Collaboration Using OneDrive
An Office 365 subscription includes not only the MS Office suite of applications, but also up to 1 TB of OneDrive cloud-based file storage. OneDrive is useful in many ways. When combined with MS Word 2016, it allows you to collaborate on documents in real time with a client, co-counsel, or even opposing counsel. This month we show you how real-time collaboration works in Word 2016.


To arrange for Word training customized for your firm, contact us.
Newsworthy - April Fools Edition
Each month we bring you quick links to a variety of newsworthy items dealing with technology products, services, and other topics of interest to lawyers as they seek to better manage their practices. There are many tech myths and misconceptions circulating around the web. These links will help you avoid being an April Fool.     
Meet the Team - Kathy Powell
Affinity Consulting Group is a team of trusted advisors working together to find tailored solutions to unlock every client's potential. We thought you might enjoy getting to know about the lives of some of our team members who help make that happen. Each month we feature another member of the Affinity Team. Get to know us!

Meet Kathy Powell, Director of Administration, located in our Tampa Bay office. Kathy (re)joined Affinity just over 2 years ago in 2014. She worked for one of Affinity's predecessor companies more than a decade ago and stayed in touch with folks at the Tampa Bay office during the interim. After watching each other's kids grow up together, Kathy joined our Human Resources and Financial Team.
  
Kathy loves to help others. "I am very customer service oriented and I hope that I make it easy for everyone to feel like they can come to me with any questions - big or small," says Kathy.  "Being in HR allows me the opportunity to serve others every day."