Proper client intake and credit cards can boost your profitability.

Do you want to be a more professional, profitable, and popular lawyer? Begin with proper client intake procedures and consider offering clients the option to pay for your services by credit card.

Every week I speak with attorneys who have paid the price for not following this advice. They call me on the telephone and they invite me into their offices for on-site consultations. They tell me of their troubles and ask me for help. I am a practice management advisor with The Florida Bar's Law Office Management Assistance Service and these are my stories:

"John" called to ask me how soon I could visit his office in Jacksonville. He was about to throw in the towel and quit the practice of law. After years of study and countless billable hours (literally), John found himself unable to get ahead financially. His staff was unhappy, his clients were unhappy, and his family was unhappy.

John's staff was unhappy because of the treatment they received from certain of John's clients. The clients would yell. The clients would demean. One client had the particularly unpleasant habit of telling a lie from time to time. John's staff was fed up and John was fed up. It seemed like there was nothing they could do to satisfy some of their clients.

John's clients were unhappy because of the service they received from John and his staff. Their calls were returned sometimes a whole day after the messages left. Their cases were not given enough attention. One time John and his staff managed to win a case the client would have preferred to have lost in order to maintain an important strategic relationship with a key vendor. Sometimes, it seemed, John and his staff were doing nothing to satisfy some of their clients.

John's family was unhappy because John was a miserable stressed-out wretch. They did not get to spend enough quality time with John, and they were always short of money. John's daughter even calculated that she "realized" almost as much per hour as her father.

It was an unhappy situation for one and all. Upon closer inspection, however, it was clear that John had only two main problems: He had some bad clients, and they did not pay their bills.

Screen Out Miserable Clients

John's solution for the first problem was an easy one. First he had to identify what constituted a "good" client and learn how to distinguish them from "bad" clients. To do this, John developed a grading scale just like in school. He came up with his own personal definition of an "A" client. John had a few of these. He took away one or two desirable characteristics from an "A" client and had his definition of a "B" client. John kept taking away desirable characteristics until he had a definition for "A-F" clients.

John recognized the danger of letting "D" and "F" clients into his firm. "D" and "F" clients are the people who have unrealistic expectations of what a lawyer can do for them. "D" and "F" clients balk when you tell them about your firm's policies. "D" and F clients disrespect your staff and cannot or will not pay their bills. "D" and "F" clients were the ones who caused the hair on the back of John's neck to stand up the first time he interviewed them. "D" and "F" clients are the ones who make you and your staff miserable because there is nothing you can do to make them happy.

Despite John's impressive skills as an attorney, he was untrained in the skills of a business manager. John's law school never taught him...