header-logo header-logo

Time to be canny about cash flow

19 November 2018 / Norman Kenyon
Categories: Features , Profession , Costs
printer mail-detail
istock-136163689_2.jpg_image_for_vfs

Norman Kenvyn shares some tips on how to avoid stretched billing timescales

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, with festive food clogging up shop shelves and decorations starting to line the streets across the country.

For law firms, the mince pies and festive lights also herald potential interruptions to cash flow. If a law firm settles a case on 14 December, for example, it's unlikely to see any cash until some way into the new year.

If a law firm settles a case on the 21 December, where does that leave them? It’s unlikely to be able to get its hands on the cash until some way into the new year—all the costs draftsman will be wrapping their presents and hanging their stockings rather than stuck at their desks drawing up a bill of costs. It puts back cash flow calculations by a month, and the money they desperately need to bolster their cash reserves is out of reach.

Cash flow is seemingly an intractable problem for law firms,

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Jeremy Lightfoot

Carey Olsen—Jeremy Lightfoot

Dispute resolution partner joins Jersey office from Hong Kong

Constantine Law—Vivien Cochrane

Constantine Law—Vivien Cochrane

Agile employment and regulatory firm welcomes partner

Twenty Essex—four members

Twenty Essex—four members

Chambers welcomes four new tenants following successful pupillage

NEWS
The long-awaited Hillsborough Law—creating a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials—has been introduced in Parliament
The current ‘postcode lottery’ of support for more than half a million disabled children in England could be replaced with clearer rights and national eligibility criteria, under Law Commission proposals
Face-scanning artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance tech is to be used to remotely monitor offenders, under a Home Office pilot
Proposed tax adviser legislation is so broad it would cover ‘conveyancers filling out stamp duty land tax returns’, Law Society president Richard Atkinson has warned
UK legal sector revenue grew 7.86% in July to £4.87bn, outperforming the services sector as a whole, which was only 0.3% higher at £249bn
back-to-top-scroll