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There are a lot of annoyances that come with running your own firm, but for most attorneys, if they were to list their top five pet peeves, unpaid bills would be at or near the top. At the same time, if you were to poll dissatisfied clients, one of their pet peeves would be legal billing.

Clients skip the check for a number of reasons. Some are broke. Some are simply cheap. For many, however, they refuse to pay because they feel that the bill is inflated or otherwise unfair. The easiest way to quell these concerns is with proper billing practices. Here are a few to consider:

Anyone who has ever dealt with a client knows how difficult it can be to actually get paid. You do the work, log the billable hours, and send out the bills. After that … you wait. And wait. If you’re lucky, the funds in your trust account will cover the balance. Otherwise, you’re stuck waiting for the client’s next payday, or the next time they have a babysitter and can stop by the office, or [insert excuse here].

Google’s newest Gmail feature, which integrates the oft-ignored Google Wallet payment service, could greatly simplify things — if your clients are at least moderately tech-savvy (and use Gmail). At yesterday’s Google I/O 2013 Conference, the search-turned-everything provider announced that Gmail users can now attach money to outgoing emails, the same way they’d attach a photo or document.

Law students are finishing up their finals and gearing up for their summer jobs. But is your firm ready for your summer associates?

What are you going to do when they show up on their first day? After introducing them around the office, what are they going to work on?

A few simple considerations will ensure that your law firm benefits from the summer associates you've hired, and vice-versa. Here are three tips to keep in mind:

DUI defense lawyers: do you need more clients? Cross your fingers, because they could be coming in droves.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a number of recommendations on Tuesday that could change DUI law completely, including the recommendation that states adopt a drunk driving threshold of 0.05. The implications are obvious: more "drunk" drivers, presumably fewer accidents, and of course, more business for lawyers.

Two months ago, we asked a not-so-simple question: Should you accept bitcoin for your services? The answer, for at least two firms, was a resounding yes.

Two firms, a Houston DUI and drug defense firm and an Illinois and New Mexico small business law firm, recently announced that they will accept Bitcoin for services. While the move may pay dividends in the short-term as a publicity stunt (they got our attention, after all), we can't help questioning the wisdom of the move long-term.

It’s the American Dream, baby! No, not the unreleased Mike Jones (Who?) album, but the actual dream. Put your work in. Do it better, and cheaper, than the next guy. Grow your business. Reap rewards in proportion to effort expended.

Yesterday, we brought you the take of Bryan Johnson, a manager at Sears turned millionaire start-up credit card processor to the cyber-stars (such as AirBnB, OpenTable, and Uber). He made the change in two years, and author, investor, and entrepreneur James Altucher devised a number of rules based off his interview of the money-processing mogul.

I'm a sucker for articles that tell you how to make bold, hard-working moves and get rich quickly. Though it rarely happens this way, part of the "American Dream" is that a person's reward should be proportional to the work expended.

These entrepreneurial articles became even more appealing when I graduated law school with an immense debt load and no job prospects whatsoever. And though FindLaw saved me from despair (and keeps me filled with granola bars!), I'm still inclined to click on any title on a reputable blog that promises riches for the bold and brazen.

A few years back, when I was a wee intern for a family law firm in Sacramento, we noticed a growing body of potential clients: the in pro pers. As the economy worsened, the numbers of self-represented parties in family law cases increased. People couldn’t afford the high price of a decent attorney so they went to the Family Law Facilitator’s office or an online document mill to process their own uncontested divorces. That almost certainly meant less business for lawyers.

It’s not a great situation for us. It’s even worse for the clients, however. How many of them unknowingly gave up valuable property or retirement accounts because they simply didn’t know about community property and QDROs? It’s a lose-lose situation. We don’t get hired and clients don’t get proper legal advice.

A possible, if provocative fix here: lower your prices.

Once you get a client through the door, how do you kick him out?

Time, after all, is money. The longer a chatty client sits in your office shooting the breeze, the less time you can spend actually working and making money. Or getting new clients.

You’re seen Jerry Maguire, right?

If your taxes haven't been processed yet, you are either (a) slacking or (b) using H&R Block (zing!). If you haven't yet filed, this discussion of possible deductions could save you money or prevent an audit. If your tax season is over and done with, this will help with tracking deductions for next year.