Do you know how many billable hours you can devote to a new case? Or whether you need to add another attorney to your firm? Can you afford to take time off from your practice, and if so, how much? If you're one of the lawyers who is kept up at night with worries about your firm's finances, you are not alone.
Financial analyst Brooke Lively, the president and founder of Cathedral Capital, says law school does not prepare most people for the business side of the practice of law.
Through her work with attorneys and firms, she’s identified six key numbers that can tell the health of a law practice and identify what next steps a firm needs to take:
1. Cash
2. Ideal ratios
3. Production
4. Budget vs. actual
5. Marketing and sales
6. Case management
They are compiled in her book From Panic to Profit: How 6 Key Numbers Can Make a 6 Figure Difference in Your Law Firm, and she walks through what all six categories mean and how to analyze them with the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles.