Master the Art of Legal Task Delegation: 8 Steps for Your Law Firm

Authorized job delegation is a compulsory a part of any regulation agency’s development—not an if, however a when. And when you hit that time, it must be a trigger to have fun! In case you have extra work and duties than you’ll be able to deal with by yourself, that’s an indication that you simply’re doing one thing proper.

This course of is value adopting and refining in your regulation agency. That’s why we’ve damaged authorized job delegation down into eight easy steps. No have to deliberate; let’s discover ways to delegate!

The significance of job delegation in regulation corporations

In any regulation agency, strategic job delegation permits groups to spice up their productiveness and profitability by making certain everybody’s time is being spent in essentially the most environment friendly method doable, by way of each time spent on a job, and by way of ROI of time spent general.

Delegation for authorized groups is extra than simply assigning further duties to whoever is on the market. It’s about understanding your crew’s strengths and weaknesses and matching every job to a complementary talent set. It’s not about offloading further work; it’s about giving duties to individuals who can do them higher than you possibly can, whereas nonetheless offering assist and oversight to your crew as an entire.

Job delegation methods for regulation corporations add one other variable to contemplate: Sure duties require oversight from legal professionals for each moral and compliance causes. Balancing all of those facets might be overwhelming, however the advantages of delegating authorized duties successfully really communicate for themselves, from improved crew morale to heightened day-to-day effectivity!

These expertise will empower you to establish which duties to delegate, match them to the suitable crew members, after which set your crew up for fulfillment by offering them with goals, coaching, assist, and suggestions.

Step 1: Determine which authorized duties to delegate

Earlier than you assign duties, you’ll have to categorize and kind them first. By precisely figuring out essentially the most related distinguishing elements between varied duties, you’ll be capable to construct a repeatable workflow that units the desk for the next step. Contemplate clear, binary elements like:

How advanced or easy is it? Does the duty require a selected talent set or authorized experience that requires a lawyer, or is it a recurring job with an current workflow that paralegals, or authorized assistants might deal with?
How pressing is it? Are purchasers or different events ready on its completion? Is there a non-flexible deadline that have to be met, resembling court docket deadlines?
Will it want authorized or moral oversight? Can each a part of this job be achieved by one individual with out breaking your agency’s dedication to compliance and ethics? If another person must vet or oversee components of the undertaking, does it nonetheless save time?

Step 2: Match duties to individuals

Along with your duties sorted and flagged, you’ll be able to take the same method to the crew members in your regulation agency. Delegating duties successfully means discovering the individuals who full them in the simplest method doable. Discover the suitable crew members by contemplating:

Expertise and talent ranges: Has somebody accomplished this actual job earlier than? Have they got related expertise from their careers earlier than becoming a member of your agency? Does this job require the highest-skilled crew members for timeline or complexity causes?

Workloads and context-switching: Does somebody have an excessive amount of or too little on their plate? Is that this job very related or very totally different from the opposite duties they’re presently engaged on? Can any of those steps be streamlined with authorized workflow automation?
Readability and communication: Does everybody in your regulation agency share the identical understanding of how and why duties shall be delegated to them? Are there constant requirements for minimal turnaround time with newly assigned duties?
Development and alternative: Are duties being delegated to crew members with various expertise and seniority ranges? Can deadlines be managed so lower-urgency duties are assigned to crew members desirous to study these expertise?

Step 3: Set clear goals and expectations

You could have your duties to delegate. You could have your crew members to delegate them to. The subsequent step is about outlining your scope and objectives for every job, which is able to get everybody on the identical web page about timelines, success elements, and doable factors for suggestions. Make your authorized job delegation objectives clear by speaking the next:

Measurable objectives inside clear ranges. Ensure that your standards for job completion are clear and trackable. Targets like phrase rely targets, quotas for complete duties accomplished, or examples of comparable completed work may give your crew clear elements to purpose for.
Deadlines for single and multi-stage duties. If a job shall be despatched to a different crew member for evaluation, make that a part of the timeline. If a job is due by EOD, however must be reviewed and permitted first, the precise deadline could be extra like 1pm.
Talk what failure seems to be like, too. Offering your crew members with a hypothetical worst-case state of affairs, or an instance of the way you don’t need the duty to be approached, will help set a ground and a ceiling on your general expectations.

Step 4: Present enough coaching and sources

The distinction between setting your authorized crew up for fulfillment or failure with authorized job delegation comes right down to the quantity of coaching sources and onboarding they obtain forward of beginning a job. Your crew will relish the chance to study new expertise and develop; they are going to resent being thrown into the deep finish and being advised to determine it out for themselves! Whereas onboarding them, ask your self:

Can somebody function their mentor? Has that individual expressed a want to achieve extra management expertise? Would including this job to their schedule create a ripple impact? Do your crew members favor to study from teaching, or on their very own?

The place does your agency preserve its informational sources? Is there an inner wiki or database for crew members to achieve data about workflows and processes? Is it up-to-date? Might you employ authorized collaboration instruments to attach related crew members?

How produce other crew members discovered these expertise? Does this job require expertise that aren’t coated in your agency’s onboarding course of? Ought to this solely be delegated to somebody as soon as they’ve acquired formal coaching?

Step 5: Monitor progress and share suggestions

As soon as a job is delegated, it’s essential to maintain the traces of communication and assist open. By outlining how (and the way typically) you’ll be checking in on a job and offering suggestions, you’ll create a schedule of accountability for all events concerned. Right here’s easy methods to keep constant and clear:

Make a check-in schedule (and keep on with it): Common conferences or updates with crew members assist guarantee each job is on course and encourage transparency and communication. You possibly can present belief in your crew by sticking to the plan—and resisting the urge so as to add shock inspections into the combo.
Pair suggestions with proof factors and plans: When delegating authorized duties successfully, you acknowledge when a job is finished incorrectly, versus being accomplished in another way (does this authorized job must be accomplished a sure approach to keep away from penalties or affecting the result of the case?). Keep away from this pitfall by tying any suggestions to goals, expectations, and related examples. Then, have a productive discuss how the duty can get from Level A to B.
Mannequin open communication strategies: The largest barrier to addressing challenges is acknowledging them within the first place. By exhibiting your means to have wholesome, trustworthy conversations along with your crew members, you’ll encourage them to focus on and personal any components of the duty that don’t meet your shared requirements.

Step 6: Preserve accountability and ethics

Over time, you’ll face new challenges relating to delegating authorized duties successfully. Chief amongst them is an easy truth: The whole lot your regulation agency works on is certain by moral requirements and accountability procedures. And no quantity of strategic authorized job delegation can take away that duty from the legal professionals in your agency. Put together for this actuality by asking your self:

Was a lawyer assigned to oversee this job on the outset? If not, how can that turn out to be a core a part of your course of going ahead? Do your crew members have instruments to flag a job that wants a lawyer examine?

What’s one of the simplest ways to maintain legal professionals concerned with out creating bottlenecks? Identical to in Step 2, work out how every lawyer prefers to offer oversight for duties. Do they wish to have a gathering? Do you have to use authorized calendaring instruments to dam out time of their calendar as a reminder?

Step 7: Leverage authorized expertise and instruments

At this level, all the things is in place. You’ve constructed the muse to develop regulation agency productiveness by way of authorized job delegation. Your aim now’s to make use of the array of expertise and instruments at your disposal to delegate sooner, smarter, and on a wider scale. In case you’re not utilizing authorized software program options and automatic instruments to make your life simpler, take into account these methods to enhance your workflow:

Don’t delegate, automate: Since delegation is about discovering the right marriage between job and crew member, it’s additionally about figuring out the duties which can be time-consuming, however not skill-specific. Repetitive or recurring admin work is an effective way to coach authorized workflow automation instruments to reflect the way you do the duty after which repeat it!
Hold it easy for purchasers: In relation to client-facing duties, it by no means hurts to scale back friction wherever you’ll be able to. By utilizing authorized shopper portal software program, shopper consumption instruments, and authorized shopper questionnaires, your agency shall be much more accessible (and your crew could have fewer duties instantly aiding purchasers with admin).
Schedules, sorted: By utilizing authorized calendaring instruments and job administration software program on a shared platform, you’ll scale back confusion and assist your crew construct workflows that work for them.

Step 8: Evaluate, refine, and evolve

Congratulations! You’ve absorbed some nice finest practices for job delegation in regulation corporations, and also you’ve made them right into a actuality for you and your crew. However the most effective techniques and processes aren’t static; they develop and evolve to satisfy new alternatives and deal with outdated challenges. Future-proof your workflow with these habits:

Set a daily date to audit your entire course of. You realize what works finest on your agency—annually is absolutely the minimal, so go from there. Create a transparent rubric outlining what you’re in search of, and doc your findings.

Create multi-tier objectives for fulfillment. Step one is having a authorized job delegation technique within the first place. However from that time, problem your self (and your agency) to search out sensible milestones by way of productiveness and effectiveness to work in direction of.

By no means cease studying. You constructed this workflow along with your regulation agency in thoughts, however so did all your colleagues throughout the authorized trade! It’s by no means too late to seize a good suggestion (or two) from others, and plan to combine it into your subsequent replace to this technique.

Ultimate ideas on authorized job delegation

A strategic and thorough method to authorized job delegation helps everybody in your crew really feel like there’s a steady system holding them protected and targeted as they proceed to do nice work. It seems that “feeling like my job isn’t in a state of fixed chaos” is nice for crew morale! But not all job delegation methods for regulation corporations are created equal. Which is why you adopted these steps.

Most significantly, you discovered that the suitable instruments could make constructing this course of even simpler. And with Clio’s job administration software program, these instruments (and extra) are accessible and approachable for you and your crew to benefit from. 

We printed this weblog publish in March 2025. Final up to date: March 19, 2025.

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