Reference no: EM133154464

Question 1:
John Doe is a solo lawyer. He has been married for 15 years to a professional helicopter pilot and together they have two children ages 10 and 8 who both play soccer in the local pee-wee league. John's office is on the same floor as two of his closest professional friends, Bob and Mary.

Bob works about 50 hours a week and struggles to take home $75,000 per year "because of the economy". Mary works half as much and grossed $450,000 last year. John's stated goals are to net $150,000 per year, working 45 weeks per year while averaging 45 hours per week. He comes to you with the following situation and asks you for guidance, help, coaching and advice on what to do:
It's July 15th and John's gross revenue year-to-date is $200,000.
He has $15,000 in a/r and his year-to-date weekly average is 55 hours per week.
John's book keeper has just informed him that in about 30 days the firm is going to exhaust cash-on-hand.
John who is normally a very amiable person has seen his prospect-new client conversion ratio drop by 35% in the last 3 months and he's beginning to get scared.

1. What are the three most-likely explanations for John Doe's current predicament?

2. Being as specific as possible please tell John Doe exactly what he should do starting tomorrow morning and explain your reason(s) why?

3. It's now a month later and John Doe's situation still has not improved. Come to find out he did not follow your instructions. How do you feel when he admits this to you and why do you feel this way? (Note: if it makes you feel better when answering this question can also tell us how you think, that we think you "should" feel

4. Imagine you are a fly on the wall in John Doe's home. What was the conversation at the dinner table last night between John and his wife? Between John and his kids?

5. What advice does John likely get from Bob? What advice does John likely get from Mary? What advice does John likely get from his brother-in-law who is a successful lawyer but with a different practice area in a nearby town?

Question 2: What is the significance of the term "earned upon receipt" in a retainer agreement and how might the presence or absence of this language affect how a single check is to be handled in the amount of $1,000 where $250 is for costs and the remaining $750 is either specified as being "earned upon receipt", or not?

Question 3: Pretend you're working with a client, a brilliant lawyer who has won a case before The United States Supreme Court. She is a published author on important legal theories and widely recognized in the legal industry to be a badass brilliant brainiac who you would NOT want to go up against in court. She has also never taken a single course in her life on the financial management of a law firm.
She can recite chapter and verse what the dictionary definitions are for each of the 7 key financial reports her assigned Managing Partner (on whose team you are working) has told her that she must take seriously if she expects to grow her law firm and not wind up having to file for bankruptcy when she drives her business into and through a ditch and over a cliff into a big flaming wreck that lands on her clients who are as blissfully unaware of the financial condition of her law firm as she is. Oh and by the way, she has her family in the car with her too. OK got the picture?
Now explain using your own words what is the practical use for each of the following key financial reports. If it helps, you can imagine that she has just said to you: "Please help me understand why I should give a shit about any of this?" and then poses the following questions

a. "I really want to understand this stuff. I'm embarrassed that I feel so out of control. Everyone thinks I'm such a badass but I am afraid of my numbers. Please help me understand what is the purpose of a budget?"

b. "What is a budget variance report and how will you use it to make my life better?"

c. "I can't control when my clients are going to call me or hire me or pay me. So what's the point of looking at a cash flow projection every month? And what if we're wrong? After all I live most of my professional life on a planet where we never ask questions we don't already know the answer to. No, our knock-knock jokes are not very funny."

d. "My clients pay me because I'm so great. So why do I need an aged A/R report? And besides, what if someone hasn't paid me and I put pressure on them and they sue me for malpractice or file a bar grievance against me or worse...what if they say they don't like me anymore?!?! "

e. "What am I going to do with a report of cash on hand for operating & trust?

f. "WTF is a "WIP report"? I know I'm a brilliant braniac, badass litigator but I don't understand what you're talking about. Please explain each of these concepts to me in plain English!

Question 4: A different lawyer's small law firm that you're working with, has been averaging about $50,000 per month in revenue. Costs are running about $55,000. What is your advice to this lawyer probably going to be and why? Please explain your reasoning behind the advice.

Question 5: All things being equal (age, experience, intelligence, etc.) would you rather be represented in a contentious case by Bob or by Mary from the fact pattern above, and why?

Question 6: Describe what you believe to be a fair and reasonable correlation between the profits, progress and payment status of our clients with our business, and your personal compensation and why?

Question 7: A completely different lawyer you are working with who has a completely different firm than any of the others in any of the other questions, has a $100,000 line of credit. He has $500 in the operating account. Payroll is coming due in 2 weeks. It includes $10,000 for himself. $7,500 for his associate. $5,000 for his secretary. And you can see from his business plan that his assigned MP helped him develop (you're on the MP's team) that this lawyer had planned to spend $2,500 for a marketing campaign to kick-off later this month.
There's $7,000 in the IOLTA account as pre-paid legal fees. There's $3,000 in outstanding A/R between three different clients, Mr. Apple. Ms. Banana & the Cantalope Company ($1,000 each). Ms. Banana's case has been closed. The other two are still open & the associate is actively working on different parts of those cases. What to do?