Firm Launch & Operator Advisory
Build the Firm Before
You Take the First Client
Most attorneys launch the way they were taught to practice — with technical skill and no operating infrastructure. The ceiling that arrives around $500K usually isn’t a talent ceiling. It’s a systems ceiling, built in during month one.
Fit
Who This Is For
- Attorneys leaving a firm, government or in-house to go independent
- Lawyers relaunching after a practice that didn’t scale
- Solos ready to hire a first staff member
- Small firms rebuilding after operational chaos
The Plan
The 90-Day Roadmap
Every Firm Launch engagement runs against a written roadmap. The shape:
Days 1–30 — Foundation
- Business infrastructure coordination — entity, banking, trust account, malpractice coverage, accounting setup. You and your advisors make these decisions; we run the operational sequence so nothing blocks anything else.
- Tech stack selection — practice management, intake, payments, document handling, chosen for your practice area and expected volume rather than defaulted to the market leader. Platform comparisons →
- Practice management configured — matter architecture, custom fields designed backwards from what you’ll want to report on, templates, task sequences. Clio Implementation →
- Billing infrastructure — rate structure, invoice templates, billing cycle, payment processing, collections sequence. Built now, because retrofitting billing discipline after a year of ad hoc invoicing is considerably harder.
- Trust accounting structure, configured to support your obligations.
Days 31–60 — Client-Ready
- Intake pipeline live — capture across every channel, automated first response, qualification, scheduling, engagement letters. Lawmatics Implementation →
- Web presence — site, practice-area pages, schema, intake forms. Website Build →
- Google Business Profile created and optimized — owned by you. Detail →
- Core SOPs for the workflows you’ll repeat: intake, matter opening, billing, closing.
- First matters run through the system rather than around it, which is the habit that determines everything afterwards.
Days 61–90 — Operating
- A complete billing cycle executed end to end, with collections following.
- KPI dashboard live, with the numbers you’ll actually watch.
- Reconciliation rhythm established, including trust.
- Hiring readiness assessed — whether you need someone, what the role is, and whether the structure can support them. Staffing →
- A written operating plan for months four through twelve.
Order of Operations
Why the Sequence Matters
The order isn’t arbitrary. Billing configured after six months of invoicing means retrofitting discipline onto established habits. Intake built after marketing starts means leads arriving before there’s anywhere to put them. A first hire before documented process means paying someone to guess.
Firms that scale fastest aren’t the ones that hire first. They’re the ones whose infrastructure was in place before the first case file opened.
Common Questions
About Firm Launch
Operationally: practice management configured, a trust account structured correctly, billing infrastructure and a defined cycle, an intake path that captures and responds to inquiries, and basic SOPs for the work you’ll repeat. Separately — and these are your professional calls — entity formation, bar registration, malpractice coverage and any jurisdiction-specific requirements.
The core build runs six to eight weeks, with the roadmap extending across the first 90 days of operation. Most attorneys start it before their departure date so systems are live when they open.
We coordinate the operational sequence and make sure nothing stalls. We don’t give legal advice on formation, professional responsibility or bar requirements — you’re a lawyer, and those decisions are yours, alongside your accountant and malpractice carrier where relevant.
It varies widely by practice area, jurisdiction and how you approach premises and staffing. The software stack for a solo is typically a few hundred dollars monthly; the larger variables are insurance, premises and whether you hire early. We build a specific budget as part of the roadmap rather than quoting an average that fits nobody.
Yes, and it’s common. Firms in their first year usually have some of this and not the rest. The Strategy Review identifies what’s missing and what’s worth rebuilding.