FRED THURMAN HAMLET

February 28, 1947 – February 18, 2021

Fred Thurman Hamlet grew up in Pittsboro, North Carolina and was a 1965 graduate of Pittsboro High School. He received his undergraduate degree with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, participating in  Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa, and went on to obtain his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1973. He was admitted to the bar in 1973, Georgia, 1973; 1977, North Carolina, 1977; and 1978, U. S. Supreme Court, 1978.

Fred practiced law for more than 45 years. Beginning his legal career in Atlanta with Fisher Phillips, he soon returned to North Carolina where he worked with firm Nichols, Caffrey, Hill, Evans & Murrelle. In 1994, he opened his own practice where he remained devoted to his work until his final days. Fred provided advice to businesses and individuals on a broad range of labor and employment matters. A special interest in labor unions led to his involvement in matters that required him to enter into strike areas at the risk of physical violence. He also litigated matters that created employment law precedent in North Carolina and in the Fourth Circuit. His most notable trial involved representation of the City of Greensboro in the November 1979 Communists and Klansman clash known as the Greensboro Massacre.

Fred participated in the Boy Scouts in his youth, earning his Eagle Scout award, and served as a Scout Leader at the 16th World Scout Jamboree in Australia in 1987. He enjoyed the camping trips and outdoor adventures associated with the Boy Scouts and lived up to their motto, “Be prepared.” He was an avid college basketball fan and attended annually the ACC tournament for many years.

He was a frequent seminar speaker on labor and employment law topics and took pride in being a guest speaker at Elon Law School, UNC Law School, and Wake Forest Law School. He was a preceptor at Elon Law and employed over 30 law clerks from Elon in his practice. He was a mentor to countless young attorneys who would seek his advice on a range of topics, from negotiating a salary to selecting a jury and discussing ethic issues. Throughout his career, he exercised prudence and demonstrated the highest standards of professional ethics.

Fred was predeceased by his parents, Curtis T. Hamlet and Blanche Justice Hamlet of Pittsboro, NC.  Family members who survive him are his two children, Fred Thurman Hamlet, Jr. of Durham, NC and Alice Hamlet of New York City, NY, and his twin sister Margaret and her husband Bill Bingham of Garner, NC.  He is also survived by his significant other of 20 years, Sheila Dorsett of High Point, NC; and his longtime associate attorney, Nicole Patino of Asheboro, NC.

Camille Stell is President and CEO of Lawyers Mutual Consulting & Services. Continue this conversation by contacting Camille at camille@lawyersmutualnc.com or 800.662.8843.

If you are operating the fees, billing, and collections component of your practice as you did twenty years ago, chances are you are missing opportunities for work.

Legal Trends Report

Clio is a cloud-based legal practice management solution designed for solo and small law firms. Clio serves 150,000 customers spanning 90 countries.

The Clio Legal Trends Report provides information on the most important issues facing the legal profession. By analyzing aggregated and anonymized data from tens of thousands of legal professionals, supported by extensive survey research, the report offers unique insights into law firm efficiencies, hourly rates, and other key metrics for success.

The Clio 2019 Legal Trends Report showing law firm production numbers are disappointing, but not surprising based on my conversations with solo and small firm owners.

• Average daily utilization rate – 2.5 hours of billable time
• Average daily realization rate – 2.0 hours billed to clients
• Average daily collection rate – 1.7 hours collected from clients

The average law firm bills clients for work roughly within 30 days of performance and gets paid approximately 90 days later presenting a four-to-six month gap in cashflow.

Law firms can speed up the process by which payments are received and simplify the process by focusing on the essentials.

Jordan Furlong, lawyer and legal consultant with Law21, suggests offering your clients a “crisis billing arrangement” for any matters arising out of the pandemic and recession, rather than billable hours. Your client will pay a monthly “pandemic flat rate” on the lower end of your billing scale, with a unique billing code that all timekeepers in the firm will use for simplicity and with automatic payments to ensure financial stability.

Voice of the Client

From your client’s perspective, nothing annoys them more than surprises when it comes to billing. Here are the excuses or delaying tactics often used, are you guilty?

• “The case was more complicated that we expected”
• “I’ve already written off some of my time and had an associate do a lot of the work to keep your bill low”
• “I’ll check with the managing partner and get back with you”

Your client would say:

• “You’re the lawyer, you should know what this case is going to cost”
• “How many of these cases have you tried before? The data is in your billing records, use it”
• “Before we start a matter, give me a worst-case scenario in terms of cost so I can decide if I really want to pursue it”
• “If there is a wrinkle in the case that may cost me more money, pick up the phone and call me”

Use the Data

Review your financial reports for the prior 18-24 months for clues, data, insights, and trends and talk this over with your accountant or CPA. What is your most profitable work? Your least profitable work? Are you staying in touch with clients? Referral sources? Networking from six feet is not only possible but necessary. Do you know where your work comes from? Use this time to be strategic about building your referral network and thanking them for their efforts.

Look for opportunities for additional work. What work have you been doing that should be expanded? What are new practice areas to explore? What new regulations might impact your client in an unexpected way?

Make Billing a Priority

Put processes in place to ensure you are adequately capturing your time which should be billed to clients

• Document your billing process in order to improve billing workflow
• Timely billing results in greater collections – is it necessary to only bill once a month? Is it time to change the process? Rather than hold all bills to the end of the month, do you want to process bills throughout the month?
• Does your process involve multiple layers of time keeping, review, editing, and processing?
• Streamline the process and you’ll collect more money and have happier clients

Conclusion

Billing is a work in progress. As with many aspects of your practice, this is an evergreen component, meaning that there is always work to be done, always knowledge to collect to make sure you are on top of trends, and constant communications with clients as to how they are responding to your fees, billing practices, and collections processes. Check in next month for our next installment on collections best practices.

Camille Stell is the President of Lawyers Mutual Consulting & Services and works with law firms to modernize their law practices through strategic planning and succession planning. Continue this conversation by contacting Camille at camille@lawyersmutualconsulting.com or 919.677.8900.

April 14  – GBA Board Meeting, 4:00 PM, Zoom

April 14 – GBA Foundation Member Meeting, Zoom

April 14 – GBA Foundation Annual Board Meeting, Zoom

April 15 – Annual Joint Meeting of 24th Judicial District Bar & GBA, 12:30 PM, Zoom

April 20 – Submission Deadline for May Newsletter

April 21 – YLS Board Meeting, 12:00pm, Zoom

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Lisa W. Arthur, President of the Greensboro Bar Association

GBA Members,

We’ve finally made it to spring! I hope that the month of March has brought you sunshine and maybe even a dose (or two) of the COVID vaccine.

This past month, we hosted another social opportunity with NailedIt DYI. We painted signs for our homes and connected with each other over a fun craft. Thank you to those of you who participated.

At our membership meeting, we hosted Andrea Harrell and Sergeant Ryan Todd from the Greensboro Police Department.  They shared the Department’s diversity hiring initiatives and discussed the recruitment process for new police officers. Our Nominating Committee also announced our slate for the next cycle of GBA leadership as follows:

GBA President Elect (24th JD VP): Judge Marcus A. Shields

GBA/24th JD Secretary: Molly A. Hilburn-Holte

GBA/24th JD Treasurer: Davis McDonald

Directors: Judge K. Michelle Fletcher, Manisha P. Patel, L. Nicole Patino, and Jennifer Gibert Mencarini

We are grateful for these devoted GBA leaders and are excited to see what the future of our organization has in store under their leadership.

In April, we will welcome the Guilford Education Alliance as our featured speaker at our membership meeting.  We hope to see you there! Stay safe everyone.

Lisa Arthur