Time Is Our Greatest Resource sits in the strange space between technique and judgment. A junior attorney with good technique and no judgment will miss it; a senior attorney with great judgment and rusty technique will get half of it right. The best practitioners keep both sharp.
Intended for family-law attorneys comparing their current approach to Time Is Our Greatest Resource with what experienced practitioners in the area actually do.
For family-law attorneys, Time Is Our Greatest Resource usually shows up in active matters with specific procedural deadlines. The work has to integrate with discovery timelines, motion calendars, and (in litigated matters) trial preparation. Practitioners who carve out time for Time Is Our Greatest Resource analysis outside the immediate procedural pressure produce better work than those who squeeze it between filings.
What practitioners actually do
There’s a quiet asymmetry in Time Is Our Greatest Resource work: the bad engagements take twice as much time as the good ones and pay the same. Practitioners who can identify the bad ones at intake — and either reshape them with the client or refer them out — make significantly better hourly economics than those who accept everything that comes through the door.
The first three or four Time Is Our Greatest Resource matters you handle as a focus area will feel slower than your other work, because you’re building the templates and patterns. By the seventh or eighth, the per-case effort drops below your general-practice average. That inflection point is when Time Is Our Greatest Resource starts to feel like leverage rather than work.
Where the cases come from
A specific tactic that consistently produces Time Is Our Greatest Resource referrals: pick three or four professionals in adjacent fields (a family-law attorney, a financial advisor with divorcing clients, a therapist who works with high-conflict families) and have one substantive conversation per quarter with each. Not coffee. A real conversation about a case they’re stuck on, even if you’re not getting paid for it. Practitioners report this produces more high-quality referrals than any other single tactic.
Referrals from former clients are underrated for Time Is Our Greatest Resource. A client who had a good experience with you in a complex matter tells five to ten people over the following years. The compound effect across a decade of consistent quality is substantial, but it requires that you handle the closing of each engagement carefully — the goodbye matters as much as the work.
The economics that actually work
Many family-law attorneys undercharge by failing to bill for the work that happens between formal engagements — the quick clarification call, the follow-up email exchange, the unplanned third-party document chase. Track these consistently. Either they’re billable or they’re informal additional scope you should be charging for; ignoring them just reduces your effective hourly rate.
Retainer structure matters more in Time Is Our Greatest Resource than in general practice because the front-loaded work is significant. Many practitioners use a sizable initial retainer that covers the intake, scoping, and first batch of analytical work, then bill hourly against subsequent retainer refreshes as the matter unfolds. This structure handles the cash-flow timing problem and signals seriousness to the client.
The mistakes that keep recurring
The ‘I’ll figure it out as I go’ approach to ethics in Time Is Our Greatest Resource catches practitioners who didn’t fully think through the conflict-of-interest, scope, and confidentiality implications of the area. Read your state ethics opinions on the relevant topics before your first case, not during your third one.
Underpricing is endemic in Time Is Our Greatest Resource for the first few years a practitioner focuses on it. The instinct to charge generalist rates while doing specialist work is hard to break. The clearest signal is exhausted hours with okay revenue; if your hours-to-revenue ratio looks worse than your general-practice colleagues, you’re underpricing your work. For deeper reference, see ABA Family Law Section resources.
Where to start this week
Block time on your calendar for the analytical work Time Is Our Greatest Resource requires. Trying to fit it between general-practice matters produces shallow work. A morning per week, protected from other matters, is enough for most practitioners to start building real depth.
Join the state-bar section that covers Time Is Our Greatest Resource, if there is one. Volunteer for a small committee task — reviewing CLE proposals, writing for the newsletter, helping organize an event. The visibility this produces over two or three years is worth more than the hours it costs.
If you’re considering Time Is Our Greatest Resource as a focus area and you want one concrete commitment to make: pick the upcoming family-law conference closest to you and commit to attending every year for the next five years.
How VennBoard fits in
Practitioners who handle Time Is Our Greatest Resource repeatedly find that the back-office infrastructure is the difference between a practice that scales and one that absorbs the practitioner. VennBoard provides the structured workspace that lets you focus on the substantive work — the part that actually compounds.
For family-law attorneys ready to see how VennBoard supports Time Is Our Greatest Resource engagements, visit VennBoard.com.
Further reading
IRS Publication 504 (Divorced or Separated Individuals)
Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement