Free self-assessment

Where Is Your Firm Stuck?

Sixteen questions across the eight places growing law firms get stuck. About ten minutes. Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you choose to email me.

10 minutesAnonymousNo sign-up Printable version (PDF)
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Four signs you’re stuck. How many sound like your firm?

Check any that sound familiar.

The assessment

Sixteen questions, two for each area.

Score each statement honestly. If you’re torn between two answers, take the lower one; it’s the more useful result.

More than one of youThe owner or a partner, and whoever runs operations day to day. Up to three people is ideal.
SeparatelyEach person scores on their own, without comparing answers until everyone is done.
Then compareWhere your scores are far apart, that gap is the first conversation worth having. The printable version has a comparison sheet.
I’m the:
2Yes, solidly true1Sort of, on a good day0No

People

1I can name the one person who owns each key function (payroll, intake, vendors, the calendar), and our staff would name the same people.
2Everyone here gets structured feedback at least twice a year, on a scale that means the same thing no matter who’s doing the rating.

Pay

3If our payroll person were out for a month, payroll would still go out correctly and on time.
4I could explain, in one sentence per role, how pay is set and how raises happen, and nobody hearing it would call it arbitrary.

Vendors

5I could produce a one-page list today of every recurring vendor: its annual cost, what it delivers, when it renews, and who here owns the relationship.
6Our vendor accounts and admin rights are in the firm’s name, and if we left our case management system, we know how we’d get our data out.

The Work Itself

7Pick the process that annoys everyone most. A written version of it exists: the steps in order, with an owner on each.
8Someone who has never done that process could run it correctly from the write-up alone.

Technology & AI

9For every major tool we pay for, I can name the one-sentence workflow problem it solves.
10We use AI on the business side of the firm, with a person reviewing the output, and we can point to where it has saved us real time.

The Money

11I can say whether the firm made money last month, and my answer doesn’t come from the bank balance.
12I know which dollars in our accounts are actually ours to spend, and trust funds never mix with operating funds. No exceptions.

Compliance

13Someone who knows current employment law has read our handbook and leave policies in the last two years.
14Everyone here is classified correctly (exempt or non-exempt, employee or contractor) by their actual duties, not their job title.

Decisions

15I know our most valuable referral source by what its cases earn, not by how many it sends.
16I watch new matters opened each month against the same month last year, not just what’s settling.
0 of 16 answered