Often, a large hidden expense for law firms is the indirect cost of administrative/nonbillable time. For example, in-house administrative staff, law firm marketers/business development professionals, and lawyers spend valuable time identifying, analyzing, and compiling relevant experience for requests for proposals (RFPs), other proposals, and directory and award submissions.

This very time-consuming yet essential business development task is referred to as producing relevant experience (PRE). PRE is an essential business development task because most clients want to know whether the firm or lawyer they are thinking about hiring has done this type of work before.

For clients, asking for references and prior relevant experience is one of the first steps in their vetting and screening process before they select a lawyer or law firm to hire. Clients (especially brand-new potential clients) often ask for references from other, nonconflicting clients. They are particularly interested in the firm’s clients in similar businesses or industries or those facing similar situations. Clients (and directory and award submissions) often ask for generic yet similar matters, transactions or cases the lawyer/firm has handled.

So PRE is often required to put the firm’s best foot forward to write winning RFPs or proposals, secure new business, and to earn desired rankings and awards. Yet getting the optimal PRE completed for each deliverable is a strategic, detail-oriented, and time-consuming task for administrative and marketing staff, and for lawyers.

Law firms without robust experience in management technology spend hundreds — if not thousands — of nonbillable hours generating PRE. For example, a LexisNexis survey found that approximately 54% of RFP responses take law firms an average of more than 20 hours of administrative and nonbillable time to complete, with much of that time spent on producing relevant PRE.

If a law firm responds to 50 RFPs in a year, the total amount of administrative/nonbillable time spent is approximately 1,000 hours. At an average hourly rate of $300, this amounts to $300,000 [LL7] in administrative/nonbillable time.

Completing firmwide PRE for relevant directory and award submissions eats up even more administrative and nonbillable time. The total amount of law firm time PRE takes is considerable and has only increased with more employees working from –home.

The good news is that this time-consuming PRE process can now be streamlined by using proven and secure technology, and without increasing internal or administrative head count.

If you are interested in learning more about how law firms can leverage existing experience and data to increase the efficiency of developing new business, please contact Jason Noble, President of ikaun, jason@ikaun.com.

P.S. If you are a member of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA), you can get a lot more useful and valuable information about ways to optimize law firm business development without hiring additional staff by watching this webinar (free to LMA members), “How Law Firms Are Leveraging Data for Business Development and Marketing,” featuring guest speaker Kalisha Crawford, Director of Marketing & Business Development at Ropers Majeski.

P.P.S. If you plan to attend The 28^th Annual Marketing Partner Forum, August 18-20, 2021, or the 2021 LMA Annual Conference, October 22-24, 2021, please reach out to or contact Jason Noble, because ikaun is sponsoring both!