Despite Earlier Collections Efforts, Pa. Firms Feel Clients' Payment Delays - The Legal Intelligencer

Joseph Dougherty, Buchanan's CEO and Managing Director, comments on the year-end rush to collect clients' payments in The Legal Intelligencer's article "Despite Earlier Collections Efforts, Pa. Firms Feel Clients' Payment Delays."

Joseph Dougherty, the Philadelphia-based CEO of Pittsburgh-headquartered Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, said he, too, has noticed a longer collections cycle across the board.

Dougherty said December remains "a really important collections month" for Buchanan Ingersoll. He declined to quantify how much revenue is collected in the last month of the year, but he said it's "substantial."

He said the firm has "a significant amount" of accounts receivable, but that's more a reflection of its lawyers' busy year. The firm has been striving to improve its collections cycle over the years, he added.

"We every year have an internal effort where we have a team of lawyers that we task with staying in touch with other lawyers and their collections. We started that earlier this year, in November," Dougherty said. "I've really been impressing on people that it's really important to get in touch early instead of waiting until mid-December and hoping they're there."