Your firm outgrew its back office. I fix that.
Project-based operations help for law firms — HR, payroll, vendors, technology, and the numbers. Defined scope, a fixed fee, and a finished deliverable you own.
Three places a growing firm’s back office breaks.
Data, dashboards & fee tracking
Where your fees really come from, how revenue is trending, and which attorneys, referral sources and case types actually drive results — in a view the firm keeps running after I leave.
Typical project: a fee-and-revenue dashboard, or a referral-source and case-type analysis.HR, payroll, benefits & vendors
Handbooks and leave policies that hold up, benefits that are competitive and economical, a payroll and 401(k) setup that nearly runs itself, and vendor contracts that are actually on file.
Typical project: a benefits review with vendor options, a 401(k) migration, or a full contract audit delivered as one repository.Case management, legal tech & process
Right-size what you pay for and get the team using it. Map the processes that live in people’s heads, standardize them, and automate the ones that can be.
Typical project: a case-management audit and right-sizing, or mapping and optimizing intake, case handling or settlement end to end.Recognize two of these?
If two land, you’re not failing. You’re stuck, and that’s what success looks like from the inside. Sixteen questions show you where.
Every engagement is a fixed-fee project.
No hourly billing, no retainers. Start with a diagnostic; every larger project is quoted in writing before any work begins.
Operational Diagnostic
One focused area, one to two weeks. Interviews with the people who run the process, a map of how the work moves through your firm today, and a written findings memo with a prioritized action list — specific enough to hand to your office manager and start Monday, with or without me.
Credited in full toward any project booked within 60 days.
Focused Project
- Best for
- One clear, contained problem with a defined fix.
- You get
- A single finished deliverable — a PTO policy rewrite, a vendor contract audit and repository, or a fee-and-revenue dashboard.
- Timeline
- 2–4 weeks
Standard Project
- Best for
- A larger build or migration across systems or people.
- You get
- A managed project from scoping to handoff — a payroll or 401(k) migration, a case-management right-sizing and rollout, or a core-process mapping and redesign.
- Timeline
- 4–8 weeks
Comprehensive Engagement
- Best for
- A full operational reset across several connected areas.
- You get
- A phased program — assessment, prioritized roadmap, and execution on the highest-value projects, in stages you approve.
- Timeline
- 8–16 weeks
What every engagement includes
- A written statement of work before any money changes hands.
- A single point of contact — me, doing the work, not a junior associate.
- A finished deliverable you own outright.
- A walkthrough so your team can run it without me.
- A defined support window after handoff.
What’s not included
- Third-party costs — software, vendor fees, subscriptions — are yours and quoted separately, so there are no surprises buried in my fee.
- Scope changes are agreed in writing before I do the work. You’ll never get an invoice you didn’t see coming.
A good fit if
You own or run a firm that is big enough to feel real operational strain — processes in one person’s head, benefits and vendor contracts nobody has revisited, data you pay for but don’t use — but not big enough to justify a full-time COO. You want a finished system, not a deck of recommendations.
Not a fit if
You want an hourly consultant on call, an open-ended retainer, or someone to take over your legal work. And if your firm is a plaintiff PI or workers’ comp practice competing directly with mine, I’ll say so on the first call and point you elsewhere.
What audits like this actually find.
A routine vendor audit uncovered a $78,000-a-year “lead generation” contract — signed at a conference two years earlier, never vetted, never monitored. The “featured firm” placement it promised turned out to be a broken link pointing back at the firm’s own abandoned website. Terminated within the week.
A weekly fee-tracking report, sent to every attorney rather than just the partners, replaced a bank statement and an occasionally-updated spreadsheet as the firm’s only view into its own performance. The simple act of visibility drove an 18% increase in fee revenue — a little over $1 million — in a single year.
A client-expense process that once ate 90-plus minutes per run — manually reformatting an export, then attaching every expense to the right client by hand — had forced check runs down to twice a week. Automating it in two phases, the last one built entirely on tools already in the firm’s existing software licensing, cut that to next to nothing: by the time the bookkeeper logs in each morning, the checks are already sitting there ready to print.
What firms say after the handoff.
“[Placeholder — one to three sentences in the client’s own words about the result, not the process.]”
[Name][Title], [Firm] · [City, State]
“[Placeholder — a second voice. Ideally a different service area from the first.]”
[Name][Title], [Firm] · [City, State]
“[Placeholder — a third voice. A vendor, opposing counsel, or a former colleague is fine if the point is character and follow-through.]”
[Name][Title], [Firm] · [City, State]
Before the first call.
What if you don’t finish the project?
The fee is tied to a finished deliverable, not to my time, so the risk sits with me. The statement of work spells out exactly what “done” means before I start, and I deliver in milestones. If I don’t deliver what we agreed to, you don’t pay for what wasn’t delivered.
How is this different from hiring a consultant by the hour?
An hourly consultant is incentivized to take longer; I’m incentivized to be efficient. You approve one fixed number up front and that’s what you pay — no meter running, no quarter-end surprise. When the deliverable is done, billing stops.
Do you sign an NDA?
Yes, without hesitation. I work with sensitive firm information every day — payroll, personnel files, financials, case data. I’m happy to sign your NDA or put a mutual confidentiality agreement in place before you share anything.
Will you do the work, or will it get handed to a junior associate?
Me. This is a solo practice by design. When you hire me, I’m the person scoping the project, doing the work, and walking your team through the result.
What size and type of firm do you work with?
Small to mid-sized law firms — large enough to feel real operational strain, but not large enough to justify a full-time COO. If your firm isn’t a fit, I’ll tell you on the first call rather than take the work.
Do you work remotely or on-site?
Most of the work happens remotely, which keeps engagements efficient and your costs down. When a project genuinely benefits from time in the office, I can arrange on-site time and I’ll account for it in the scope up front.
You’re a sitting COO at another firm — is that a conflict?
For most firms, it isn’t. My own firm is a plaintiff personal injury and workers’ compensation practice, so a real conflict would only arise with a direct competitor — another plaintiff PI/WC firm in the same market — which rules out very few of the firms I work with. I screen for it before taking on any engagement, decline anything that competes with my firm’s interests, and talk it through honestly if there’s ever a question. My day-to-day operating role is also exactly why the work stays grounded in current practice rather than theory.
I need ongoing help, not a one-time project. Can you do that?
I don’t sell retainers, but ongoing needs usually break down into a series of defined projects, and many firms come back for the next one. I can also map a phased program where you approve each stage as it comes.
Where should we start?
Wherever you are. If you’re not sure what’s wrong, take the ten-minute self-assessment: it shows which of eight areas is costing you most, and if you email me your results I’ll send back a free worksheet for it. If you already know what’s broken, book a 30-minute call.
How do I get started, and what does the first call cost?
Nothing. The first call is 30 minutes, free, and low-pressure — you describe what’s slowing your firm down and I give you a straight read on whether a project makes sense and roughly what it would take. If it’s a fit, a written proposal follows.
Score your firm, or just talk.
Ten minutes on your own will show you where the firm is stuck. Or tell me what’s slowing you down: the first call is 30 minutes, costs nothing, and you’ll leave knowing whether a project makes sense — and roughly what it would cost.