Category: Profitability

Managing a Legal Team With Ease: The Surprising Path to Higher Profit

Managing teams well is one of the most powerful and underrated profit levers in a law firm.

On June 25, Sandra Bekhor and I will co-host a live Zoom conversation on:

·     Why managing a team feels harder than it should

·     Why feedback and delegation are such sticking points, even for litigators

·     How everyday management habits can either unlock or undermine your firm’s profit

Sandra Bekhor is a practice management coach who helps lawyers and other professionals build thriving practices. She coaches lawyers and other professionals on marketing, management, and mindset, so they can pursue their real goals for their practice.

I will bring my law firm management and profitability expertise: how leverage, write‑offs and partner bottlenecks show up in the numbers. I’ll bring a practical lens on how lawyers lead, give feedback and delegate so their teams work at the right level and the firm can grow.

I am the founder of Profits for Partners and the Law Firm Profitability Group on LinkedIn. I will act as moderator, and this will be a guided discussion between the two of us, followed by a dedicated Q&A segment.

Live on Zoom – Tuesday, June 25 – 11 am PT / 2 pm ET – Hosted by the Law Firm Profitability Group on LinkedIn.

Interactive meeting, limited to 100 participants. Advance registration is required to receive the Zoom link. Register here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with details on joining the meeting.

The Unseen Cost of Partner Misalignment

Law firms don’t often fail because their lawyers aren’t good enough. They fail because the partners aren’t on the same page.

Firms may look strong on paper if they are profitable and have good clients. But underneath, conflicting partner priorities and misaligned incentives slowly eat away at profits and stall innovation.

People often don’t notice this misalignment until it’s too late.

How to Tell if Your Partners Aren’t on the Same Page

When partners aren’t aligned, it shows up in small ways that affect both the way things work and the way people act. One partner is building long-term relationships with clients, while the other is maximizing billable hours. The result is that clients have different experiences and there is tension over how files are staffed.

Incentives that reward only billings or originations put partners in competition with each other, which makes it less likely that they will work as a team or share information. Leadership agrees on growth goals, but without support from all partners, strategic plans stay on hold.

The issue is not a deficiency of talent. It’s that the partnership is going in different directions.

The True Cost of Misalignment

Misalignment has a cost that can be measured in dollars. High-value clients go to competitors because the service is inconsistent. Associates leave because the partner they work for decides not to mentor and delegate. Partners don’t want to make changes that could hurt their pay, so investments in AI or changes to pricing models get put on hold.

Even small cracks in alignment can lead to lost revenue and a weaker market position.

Making Things Fit Together

To get everyone on the same page, firms need to deal with the things that really change how partners act. Compensation systems influence what partners should focus on, and they should reward working together and building client relationships. Plans must be directly linked to partner interests in order to be successful. If a strategy doesn’t make it clear how it helps each partner, it won’t get off the ground.

Firms need effective management that ensures decisions are made promptly and carried out. Without accountability, alignment quickly disappears. When these levers work together, partners start to pull in the same direction.

The Chance to Align

Aligned partnerships lead to huge benefits. Clients get the same level of service from every practice group and matter. Associates are less likely to leave because they get better training and mentoring. Partners see innovation projects as shared goals, not threats, which helps them move forward.

Alignment does more than just stop problems. It speeds up growth and profit.

The Bottom Line

The biggest threat to a law firm isn’t other law firms. It’s not being aligned inside.

When partners put their own goals ahead of the firm’s goals, strategies don’t work and innovation stalls. But when pay, strategy, and governance are all in line, the firm has a big advantage over its competitors.

The cost of being out of alignment is high. The benefits of alignment are even greater.

Pricing the Client, Not the Work: A More Flexible, Value-Driven Approach to Legal Billing

I often see lawyers debating on LinkedIn about the merits and disadvantages of hourly billing versus value-based pricing. I don’t see it as a question of doing it one way vs. the other. Each client will have their own unique needs regarding how they prefer to be billed. And it doesn’t have to be just one way. The right way to price/bill is the one that best meets your client’s needs.

We need to start offering options: that could mean two or three different options, including hourly billing or value-based pricing, or a hybrid billing option, which includes a monthly retainer plus hourly billing, etc. This is my twist on “Price the client, not the work”, as Ron Baker recommends.

Clients Have Different Needs, So Give Them Different Options

Some clients still prefer hourly billing. Others want predictability through flat fees or monthly retainers. Some are open to value-based pricing or outcome-contingent models. A few are even willing to pay a premium for guarantees or guaranteed availability.

All of these models can coexist. Your job is not to convince every client to fit your preferred pricing/billing method. Your job is to understand what the client values, then design a fee structure that reflects that.

In Implementing Value Pricing, Ron Baker lays out a clear, eight-step process for moving firms toward value-based pricing models. But even Baker doesn’t argue that it’s all or nothing. Instead, it’s about moving along a continuum, away from pricing based on effort, toward pricing based on value.

Hourly Billing Isn’t Going Anywhere, But It Shouldn’t Be the Only Option

Let’s be realistic: hourly billing isn’t disappearing anytime soon. And that’s okay. What we can do is evolve from relying on it as our only pricing model.

Hybrid models are often more practical and better aligned with both firm and client interests. A client might be on a monthly flat fee for routine advisory work, with defined scope projects priced at a fixed fee, and a litigation file on a success-based arrangement.

The point is flexibility. And when you build tailored fee structures, you change the conversation from “what’s your hourly rate?” to “how can we work together in a way that makes sense for both of us?”

Unique Pricing Drives Unique Value and Breaks the Race to the Bottom

If your pricing model looks like everyone else’s, then you’re just another commodity. That’s when clients start comparison shopping based on price alone.

But if you’re structuring your pricing based on deep knowledge of the client’s goals and preferred ways of working, you’re no longer interchangeable. You’re delivering something tailored and valuable. You’re a legal professional, not a plumber.

And most importantly, you’re helping the client win, which means you’ll win too.

Track Your Time Even When You’re Not Billing It

One more essential point: I believe you should still record time, even when using non-hourly billing models.

Time tracking isn’t just for billing. It’s how you understand your internal costs, opportunity costs, and profitability. If you abandon time tracking altogether, you lose visibility into whether a fixed fee or value-based arrangement is actually working for your business.

Think of it as managing a portfolio. You need data to know what’s sustainable and where the value really lies.

Value Pricing Doesn’t Mean Taking All the Risk

A lot of firms resist alternative billing because they think it means giving up control or taking on all the risk. But that’s not the point.

A good pricing model finds a win-win. The client gets predictability or performance incentives, whatever they need most. The firm gets fair compensation aligned with results and client satisfaction.

Bartlit Beck LLP, the original poster child for alternative billing, still did 50% of its work on an hourly basis in the early years. Why? Because not every client was ready to make the shift. Some simply weren’t comfortable. And even the most visionary firms need to meet clients where they are.

Stop Arguing. Start Listening.

We don’t need to keep arguing about which model is superior. Hourly billing is not the villain. Value pricing isn’t a panacea. What matters is what your client wants and needs.

If you build pricing options around that, you’ll build trust and long-term success for both you and your clients.

References and Further Reading:

  • Ron Baker, Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms
  • The American Lawyer (1995), Diamonds Are This Firm’s Best Friend – Profile of Bartlit Beck and its hybrid approach to alternative fees