PerfectLaw Podcasts

Episode #8 - New Hire, Great Start

Marcelino took over as the Business Manager for Kozloff Stoudt in September of 2020 and PerfectLaw made his transition a great experience. With little business experience and very little law firm experience, he has learned the software and has made several enhancing workflow improvements at the firm.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Anthony Beasley

Good morning everybody.

00:00:01 Anthony Beasley

This is Anthony Beasley, again with perfect law software.

00:00:03 Anthony Beasley

We're in the Lions den.

00:00:04 Anthony Beasley

We have mussolino Cologne.

00:00:06 Anthony Beasley

Who is the new administrator for Kozloff?

00:00:09 Anthony Beasley

Stoudt is a law firm in Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia area and what we wanted to do is talk a little bit about his experience in working with perfect law.

00:00:20 Anthony Beasley

Coming on board as a new administrator so Marcelina just to give us some background on you.

00:00:26 Anthony Beasley

Since you are new to the perfect family of users, won't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

00:00:32 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Ah well.

00:00:34 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Only raised in in Pennsylvania and did my tour of duty for the Air Force.

00:00:40 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Ah.

00:00:41 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And run a few companies in Berks County in about the third quarter last year.

00:00:47 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I was approached by the Board of directors of this firm to consider coming in and being the firm administrator.

00:00:55 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Oh, I don't have a degree in law.

00:00:58 Marcelino Colon Jr.

On my degrees of business, I thought it be a fun and challenging opportunity to help the.

00:01:04 Marcelino Colon Jr.

From

00:01:04 Marcelino Colon Jr.

00:01:06 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Stabilize and grow in the future.

00:01:09 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So I started a September 8th.

00:01:13 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And the the the unique.

00:01:15 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Role was different about this journey was.

00:01:19 Marcelino Colon Jr.

When I got here there was.

00:01:22 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Three full time people in operations alone.

00:01:26 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Ann

00:01:27 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Two out of the three knew about perfect call.

00:01:31 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Actually, your company trained.

00:01:33 Marcelino Colon Jr.

My predecessor

00:01:35 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And when I when I started on.

00:01:39 Marcelino Colon Jr.

On September 8th, she was supposed to spend 30 days with me, then found out that she was only gonna spend 8 days with me.

00:01:48 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And.

00:01:50 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Shortly after that, I found out that there weren't any standard operating procedures and soapies those nonmilitary people.

00:01:58 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So I was in a position where I didn't know perfect law at all.

00:02:03 Marcelino Colon Jr.

That the person that was here.

00:02:06 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Uh.

00:02:08 Marcelino Colon Jr.

The bookkeeper, her knowledge of perfect all was limited.

00:02:12 Marcelino Colon Jr.

There weren't any job descriptions.

00:02:15 Marcelino Colon Jr.

There wasn't any SLPS.

00:02:19 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So I was in Job 2 weeks.

00:02:22 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Another 50 four people in this firm.

00:02:24 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I knew more about perfect long two weeks than they did.

00:02:29 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And unfortunately, I couldn't go away for training, so I relied on the help desk.

00:02:35 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And I got to give those.

00:02:37 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I think they refer to my customer engineers.

00:02:40 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I have to give them credit.

00:02:42 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Because during that time I make it and became very transparent with them said listen, I don't know anything about perfect law.

00:02:46 Anthony Beasley

Listen.

00:02:46 Anthony Beasley

00:02:50 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And I got a stack of 700 in English is out of process. Walk me through the process over the phone.

00:02:58 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And is it challenging?

00:03:00 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Task is to see in the beginning I have to get credit to the customer engineers in Miami.

00:03:07 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Oh, and if I start moving some of them, the rest of me get upset, but there's a lot of good people.

00:03:10 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I get upset.

00:03:10 Marcelino Colon Jr.

00:03:14 Marcelino Colon Jr.

There a lot of people.

00:03:16 Marcelino Colon Jr.

That really walk me through the process and were very supportive and understanding during the thousand month questions I had.

00:03:25 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Even though it was an expensive invoice for the firm, they totally understood.

00:03:32 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So my my hat's off too.

00:03:35 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Help desk on there.

00:03:39 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Contribution to the success of the transition.

00:03:43 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Now we have a full time person.

00:03:46 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Bookkeeper who would now be trained by perfect law.

00:03:51 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And she's been here 4 weeks and she's doing very, very well.

00:03:56 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And we're in the process of interviewing and hiring a second person.

00:04:01 Marcelino Colon Jr.

There also will be chained.

00:04:04 Marcelino Colon Jr.

With little training in perfect law.

00:04:06 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So I understand the value.

00:04:09 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I appreciate the value.

00:04:11 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And I contribute the success of this transition to the perfect law team, the Help Desk.

00:04:19 Marcelino Colon Jr.

OK, great.

00:04:21 Anthony Beasley

Now you you mentioned that you know for you this is a new journey into the law firm environment.

00:04:27 Anthony Beasley

You have a business background but the law firm environment is new to you and I know now I having a better understanding of of your challenge because obviously perfect lobbying, such a robust.

00:04:39 Anthony Beasley

Product you know what's your thoughts on the all in oneness of what? Perfect all offers? Because I can tell you, know, one of the things we've always talked about is affected. You know, a lot of people who purchased perfect law. They may learn 20 percent, 30% of perfect law in their whole career. Working with it because you know, they kind of use what they use.

00:04:59 Anthony Beasley

What's been one of the biggest challenges and one of the biggest pluses that you found in using our software?

00:05:05 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Well, couple things that.

00:05:08 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I found on one it is user friendly.

00:05:12 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Once you learn.

00:05:14 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And understand the system how it works.

00:05:18 Marcelino Colon Jr.

It really is user friendly and works out well.

00:05:21 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And when you have attorneys and attorneys are are trained negotiators or attorneys are trained and programmed to argue a point right or wrong.

00:05:32 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And I really.

00:05:33 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Don't have time to understand perfectly on the inside answer perfect law.

00:05:38 Marcelino Colon Jr.

But it puts the paralegal and the secretary in the position to utilizam effectively.

00:05:46 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And even put the data in for the attorney, which helps the firm capture all the time, the service off and the hours and fees that are being invested in the client.

00:05:58 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So it does a good idea.

00:06:00 Marcelino Colon Jr.

That's a great job.

00:06:03 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Uh, summarizing our costs and explaining it and then the invoice gets sent out to the customer.

00:06:10 Marcelino Colon Jr.

It's easy for the client to read it and understand.

00:06:14 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I think that's one of the benefits of perfect ball.

00:06:20 Anthony Beasley

Now you know, being new and coming from a background that you come from.

00:06:25 Anthony Beasley

There's always that that thing of the future and the expectations of the future.

00:06:29 Anthony Beasley

And obviously this is going to hold in the world.

00:06:32 Anthony Beasley

You know the whole program situation has changed everything for everyone, so you know what some of the things that you can foresee in the future that you could.

00:06:42 Anthony Beasley

You know, kind of lean into just because we have no clients in perspective.

00:06:46 Anthony Beasley

Clients like that will be looking at our system are using our system and.

00:06:49 Anthony Beasley

Coming from your perspective, it would be great to hear your thoughts on what the future may hold.

00:06:55 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Well.

00:06:56 Marcelino Colon Jr.

One way to answer that is the following Anthony.

00:06:59 Marcelino Colon Jr.

You know we're growing here.

00:07:01 Marcelino Colon Jr.

We've hired.

00:07:03 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Four attorneys and three other people in the four months that I've been here.

00:07:08 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And in that process.

00:07:10 Marcelino Colon Jr.

We interviewed a lot of people who.

00:07:12 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Work with other law firms.

00:07:14 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And I was surprised how.

00:07:16 Marcelino Colon Jr.

None of them never.

00:07:17 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Even heard a perfect call whenever he used perfect law.

00:07:21 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And when I was trying to explain to him.

00:07:23 Marcelino Colon Jr.

What we use here all inbound and all and reply favorably.

00:07:28 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Well that would be good that seems easier.

00:07:31 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So I I.

00:07:32 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I really think it's.

00:07:34 Marcelino Colon Jr.

You gotta do you?

00:07:35 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Gotta find a way to get real people to realize the advantages of perfect law and then other law firms will do it.

00:07:42 Marcelino Colon Jr.

A good example.

00:07:44 Marcelino Colon Jr.

I was interviewing this one lady who's worked for a law firm for 20 some years.

00:07:49 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And I was sitting there, stunned there.

00:07:51 Marcelino Colon Jr.

So how do you do your accounts receivable and accounts payable?

00:07:54 Marcelino Colon Jr.

And they're still going the old school way.

00:07:59 Marcelino Colon Jr.

You know when I explain to that to her?

00:08:02 Marcelino Colon Jr.

What we do?

00:08:03 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Here and how it works with perfect law.

00:08:06 Marcelino Colon Jr.

You know this is someone who's been in the law career for 27 years as an office administrator. As an office administrator, she was impressive. That'll be great.

00:08:14 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Awesome ninja.

00:08:14 Marcelino Colon Jr.

00:08:18 Marcelino Colon Jr.

You know, if you're able to do that, so again, I'm just trying to get you to realize if more people.

00:08:25 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Yet to see the benefits of perfect law, and they're going to realize, hey, it's worth the investment is worth the time and effort.

00:08:33 Anthony Beasley

And great, well, I know this was one of our shorter calls and the good thing is, it's always great that we have conversations with people who use our system for a very long time and a lot of times people don't get the perspective of someone who's fresh into the software who comes from a different perspective.

00:08:50 Anthony Beasley

Who can appreciate what we bring to the table as a software and as a company so.

00:08:54 Anthony Beasley

It's it's going great to hear you say the things you're saying because it really means a lot that we are able to.

00:09:02 Anthony Beasley

At least you know, follow up and come back and and be able to do more to help you, especially as you're hire new people and that you're doing more things.

00:09:09 Anthony Beasley

So we really appreciate you.

00:09:11 Anthony Beasley

We appreciate you recognizing the staff here for the work that they do because from time to time you know it's always great for them to hear that they're doing a great job.

00:09:19 Anthony Beasley

So I just want to say thank you on their behalf as well.

00:09:22 Anthony Beasley

And will you know we will continue to be in touch and continue to reach out and get your thoughts and take your suggestions to.

00:09:30 Anthony Beasley

Keep improving, you know what we bring to the table as assault.

00:09:34 Marcelino Colon Jr.

All right?

00:09:34 Marcelino Colon Jr.

All.

00:09:35 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Thank you very much.

00:09:35 Marcelino Colon Jr.

You could look.

00:09:36 Marcelino Colon Jr.

There.

00:09:37 Anthony Beasley

Alright thanks bye.

00:09:39 Anthony Beasley

I had Marcelino real quick just to.

00:09:42 Anthony Beasley

Give you some heads up.

00:09:45 Anthony Beasley

Couple of things is that we you, you're in the Philadelphia area and I'm trying to grow the there's a group of attorneys in New York City and New Jersey that make up the New York New Jersey user group.

00:09:59 Anthony Beasley

They actually have a user group and that's the closest one to your area and then we have a couple of other folks that have.

00:10:06 Anthony Beasley

We have some virtual user group people that if you want to get involved in what the whole the whole idea behind that is is sharing information sharing.

00:10:14 Anthony Beasley

Meaning, you know they may be doing something that you want to do.

00:10:18 Anthony Beasley

Uhm?

00:10:20 Anthony Beasley

That group exists, you know it's it's.

00:10:22 Anthony Beasley

We have a national group and then we have some regional groups.

00:10:25 Anthony Beasley

So I would love to have you involved because I think you know everybody kind of listens to everybody in kind of plug in some different perspective that helps out.

00:10:27 Anthony Beasley

Love to have you.

00:10:27 Anthony Beasley

00:10:37 Anthony Beasley

Uhm?

00:10:38 Anthony Beasley

We have some a whole bunch of of webinars events that will be going on in the next. We already have some scheduled over the next couple of weeks over the next month, month and a half, so just kind of keep your eyes open for the invitations for that. I know the next one is on the 24th of this month. We're doing on the new front office.

00:10:58 Anthony Beasley

It's called the prebuilt 'cause a lot of people are getting into what's going on with having to do the pre building functionality from home.

00:11:05 Anthony Beasley

So that's coming.

00:11:08 Anthony Beasley

And then.

00:11:11 Anthony Beasley

There's some other stuff like we have another one that's going to be an affective time entry.

00:11:16 Anthony Beasley

We're going to be doing a lot more of those things, and we're going to be doing a whole 10 part series on the problem solution series where we're basically saying, hey, you know we have these firms and they.

00:11:30 Anthony Beasley

Had these issues and perfect law had answers and they just didn't realize what the answers were and were actually showing.

00:11:34 Anthony Beasley

Let me show it.

00:11:34 Anthony Beasley

00:11:35 Anthony Beasley

Not just give an answer showing the answers but talking more and doing well from a training aspect that so firms can use the software more.

00:11:43 Marcelino Colon Jr.

All right, right?

00:11:43 Anthony Beasley

So.

00:11:44 Anthony Beasley

That's that's some things that are on the on.

00:11:47 Anthony Beasley

The you know the the whole plan is to keep us busy throughout the summer.

00:11:52 Anthony Beasley

So just to give you kind of some heads up on what's coming.

00:11:57 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Sounds good in theory.

00:11:58 Anthony Beasley

Alright, and I I really do appreciate it.

00:12:01 Anthony Beasley

I really do appreciate you taking the time 'cause you know this does help and you're right.

00:12:04 Anthony Beasley

This is one of the things we're trying to do to help get our name out there.

00:12:07 Anthony Beasley

More I think this it helps when it comes from somebody like you.

00:12:10 Anthony Beasley

It's just that you have a very unique perspective.

00:12:12 Anthony Beasley

I didn't realize you had, you know, you hadn't worked as an administrator for a law firm, which is cool.

00:12:17 Anthony Beasley

I mean, I think that's great because you know, I use the software here in House and some of the stuff I do is is really out of the box sometimes compared to somebody like Debbie who was a paralegal.

00:12:28 Anthony Beasley

All right?

00:12:28 Anthony Beasley

Right?

00:12:29 Anthony Beasley

So it's it's it's great to hear, but we do appreciate you taking the time to share with us today and Anne will will definitely get you on the podcast and will send you a copy of it.

00:12:39 Anthony Beasley

You can always if you want to go and listen to the others.

00:12:41 Anthony Beasley

There's a podcast site on the main site when you go to it, says Lions den.

00:12:46 Anthony Beasley

You just go there and you can hear all the other things from other administrators and other folks that.

00:12:50 Anthony Beasley

That we've had, we have up so far.

00:12:53 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Sounds good.

00:12:54 Anthony Beasley

Alright, and keep some.

00:12:55 Anthony Beasley

Keep the suggestions coming.

00:12:56 Anthony Beasley

I definitely will be will fill them.

00:12:58 Anthony Beasley

We'll get into marketing and development here and you know anything we can do to be better.

00:13:02 Anthony Beasley

We want to help out.

00:13:03 Anthony Beasley

We want to do that.

00:13:04 Marcelino Colon Jr.

You got it.

00:13:05 Anthony Beasley

Alright, thanks a lot, I appreciate you.

00:13:07 Marcelino Colon Jr.

Let's take Care now.

00:13:08 Anthony Beasley

You too.