Advisory Services

Today more than ever, law firms must carefully control operations. You need to continually identify ways to operate more profitably, yet the insight you need to make strategic decisions is often hidden in your operational data. Our team of business of law experts can help you make decisions based on your firm’s operational data.

Designed specifically to meet the unique needs of high-level decision-makers, our strategic services help you manage your business for profitable growth.

We deploy our team to help answer questions such as:

• What analysis is performed on current client growth patterns?
• Where are you seeing drops or gains in revenue? What about profitability?
• What is the firm doing to address succession planning?
• How is cross-selling encouraged throughout the firm?
• Are partners versed in alternative fee arrangements? How does the firm address RFPs? Is tracking established and adhered to?
• What would your clients say differentiates your firm?
• How consistent are you in discussing client satisfaction with your firm?

The Managed Consulting Program allows firms to outsource analytic, reporting, and consultative needs to Wilson Legal Solutions on an as-needed basis. An experienced consultant will work with you to learn about your needs, perform analyses and reporting, present findings to the firm, and make recommendations to management as requested.

Any business of law areas of focus such as profitability, compensation, and business development for example, can be addressed using this service.

We help answer questions such as:

• Is your firm’s finance or IT team at full capacity?
• Do you need resource skillsets for analysis and reporting not easily found at the firm?
• Would your firm benefit from an outside experienced point of view?
• Is there a long list of tasks that you just can’t seem to get to?

Law firms need to provide value to clients by delivering satisfactory services at a price point and quality level that yields acceptable returns to the firm. Partner compensation models factor into how much profit these services yield. The Compensation Modeling and Balanced Scorecard service can help you identify gaps and opportunities in your compensation model to drive firm profitability.

We can also work with management to create a balanced system that addresses quantitative and qualitative characteristics of a timekeeper. Our goal is to align your compensation with the strategic vision and culture of the firm.

We help answer questions such as:

• Does your firm’s current compensation system reward the right behavioral patterns for your timekeepers?
• Do you have partners who are unhappy about the compensation system or are looking for more transparency?
• If you asked the majority of the partners how they are compensated, would there be a consistent reply?
• How are you rewarding associates? Are compensation and bonuses in line with expectations?

Alternative fee arrangements (AFA) have been the impetus for many changes in the legal profession. But all engagements, alternative or not, have areas in need of improvement. From matter intake through post mortems, the Alternative Fee and Legal Project Management service offers a wide array of options to help you analyze, improve, and share information about your legal matter management process.

Our consultants can survey the needs of firm management, analyze the current setup for planning and tracking engagements, and dive into your data so we can develop detailed recommendations to improve structure and processes. Our team can also train your partners on the nuances of legal matter management.

We help answer questions such as:

• Alternative fee usage has risen across the globe, but do your partners really understand various AFA options?
• From intake to matter conclusion, how are your partners budgeting, monitoring, and adjusting their engagements?
• What processes are in place to analyze and track key engagement (alternative or not)?
• Does your firm have a well-established internal task code system that is vetted and used by your partnership?
• Are you feeling additional pressures from your clients with respect to pricing and transparency?

How can you improve what you don’t measure? The Operational 360 Assessment service deploys a seasoned legal industry consultant to perform a full operational review of law firm operations during a three-day on-site visit. The business of law consultant will use available firm technology, management input, and industry knowledge to develop a comprehensive review of your firm’s activities, points of excellence, and opportunity areas. The goal is to create a steady stream of action items with accountability and deadlines.

Many firms engage in this practice quarterly and encourage significant interaction with practice group leaders and executive management.

We help answer questions such as:

• Do your current reports unearth opportunities for improvement? Does your firm act upon them?
• Are there reports that are generated that don’t seem to grab partners' attention?
• Does your financial team find itself in a reactive mode more than a proactive one?
• Do you want to know how your firm can improve operationally?