Fast forward to today and I see the same problem in how law firms onboard new clients. The first 90 days of a client relationship are critical, but most firms are still treating contracts as legal documents rather than what they really are: business processes that define the entire client experience.
The Problem with Traditional Client Onboarding
Let’s be honest about what happens at most law firms today. A potential client comes in, you have a consultation and then what? They get bombarded with intake forms (usually on paper), a generic engagement letter (often full of legalese) and then ... silence. Weeks go by with minimal communication while your team manually enters data into disconnected systems.
According to research by Westcotts, law firms are facing increasing competition and higher client expectations, making streamlined onboarding processes essential for operational efficiency and reputation.
This creates three major problems:
Client anxiety and confusion: During the most uncertain time in their relationship with you, clients are left wondering what’s happening and whether they made the right choice.
Administrative inefficiency: Your team wastes countless hours on manual data entry, document creation and follow-up tasks that could be automated.
Missed revenue opportunities: The longer it takes to fully onboard a client, the longer it takes to start billing and the more likely they are to have second thoughts.
But it doesn't have to be this way. By reimagining client contracts as the central business process they really are, you can transform these first 90 days from an administrative burden into a competitive advantage.
The 30-60-90 Day Contract Challenge
There is a different approach: the 30-60-90 day contract challenge. This is a structured program to completely transform how you use contracts in your client onboarding process. Let's break it down:
Days 1-30: Streamline Contract Creation and Execution
The first 30 days are about getting the basics right: creating a smooth, efficient process for turning prospects into clients through better contract management.
What’s broken now: Most law firms use generic templates for their engagement letters that require manual customization for each client. This leads to errors, inconsistencies and significant delays.
The 30-day fix:
Centralize your contract templates in a single contract management software system that allows for easy customization while maintaining consistency.
Implement electronic signatures to eliminate the printing-signing-scanning dance that frustrates clients and delays the process.
Create a welcome package that automatically triggers once the contract is signed, setting clear expectations for what will happen next.
The impact is immediate. As noted by Crisp, a structured onboarding process with clear 30-day goals can improve client retention by up to 82% while increasing productivity by over 70%.
Firms have cut their contract execution time from weeks to hours. One Concord customer, a mid-sized law firm in Chicago, reduced their average client onboarding time from 12 days to just two days by implementing this approach.
Days 31-60: Connect Contracts to Operations
The second 30 days focus on integrating client contracts with operational systems to eliminate manual data entry and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
What’s broken now: Most firms treat the signed engagement letter as the end of the contract process rather than the beginning. The valuable data in these contracts sits isolated from case management, billing and communication systems.
