Law Firm Profitability: Pricing, P&Ls and Financial Management for Non-Financial Partners

14 October 2026. Presented by Mark Briegal of Bennett Briegal

Partners are expected to run profitable practices, not simply deliver excellent legal advice.

Pricing work appropriately, managing write-offs, controlling lock-up, improving recovery rates and understanding the financial performance of a department are now core management skills for every successful partner.

Yet many partners have never been taught how to read a law firm P&L, interpret the firm's financial reports or understand the numbers that ultimately drive profitability and partner drawings.

Designed specifically for partners and senior lawyers without a financial background, this practical live online course explains—in plain English—how law firm finances really work.

Using worked examples, a realistic law firm profit and loss account and practical exercises, Mark Briegal will explain which financial metrics matter, what they actually mean and, most importantly, what partners can do to improve them.

The emphasis throughout is on practical commercial decision-making rather than accounting theory, enabling delegates to leave with greater confidence in pricing matters, managing teams and improving the financial performance of their practice.

Programme Outline

Audience: Partners in law firms without a financial background

Objective: To enable partners to understand, interpret and act on law firm profit and loss information

PRE-SESSION MATERIALS (Distributed in advance)

A one-page glossary of key financial terms used in law firms (e.g. lock-up, WIP, leverage, PEP). This removes jargon barriers before the programme starts.

MODULE 1 — Why This Matters to You Personally? 

-What does a partner's draw actually depend on?

· How profit per equity partner (PEP) is calculated and why it is the number that matters most to equity partners

· The difference between revenue and profit - turnover is vanity, profit is sanity

· Why non-financial partners are increasingly held accountable for financial performance

· Brief overview of how the session is structured

MODULE 2 — Reading the Law Firm P&L: A Plain English Walkthrough

The anatomy of a law firm profit and loss account

Using a fictional but realistic law firm P&L as a working document, the facilitator walks through each line in plain English.

Topics covered:

Revenue line

· Fee income: what counts and what does not

· The difference between billed fees and collected fees

· Disbursements: why they are usually excluded from revenue

Direct costs / cost of delivery

· Solicitor and fee-earner salaries and on-costs

· What "cost of time" means and how it is calculated

· The concept of leverage: why a partner supervising junior fee-earners generates more profit than one who does all the work themselves

Gross profit / gross margin

· What this tells you at practice group level

· Why two teams with the same revenue can have very different gross margins

Overhead allocation

· Premises, IT, marketing, management, professional indemnity insurance, SRA fees

· How overheads are typically allocated to practice groups or partners

· Why partners must understand their share of the overhead burden

Net profit

· What is left after all costs

· How this is then distributed (equity partners, salaried partners, retained profit)

Exercise: Participants review the fictional P&L and identify which line items they directly influence.

MODULE 3 — The Mechanics of Law Firm Profitability 

The three levers every partner controls

This module introduces a practical framework. Profitability in a law firm is driven by three variables: rates, recovery and utilisation.

Rates

· The difference between standard charge-out rates, agreed rates and effective rates

· Discounting: the hidden cost of a 10% write-off

· How fixed fees and alternative fee arrangements affect the rate equation

· Pricing a matter properly from the outset versus reactive write-offs at the end

Recovery / Realisation

· What realisation rate means (fees billed as a percentage of fees recorded at standard rates)

· Common causes of write-offs: scope creep, poor matter planning, over-resourcing, write-downs to win repeat work

· The financial impact of a realisation rate of 85% versus 95% - illustrated with numbers

Utilisation / Productivity

· Chargeable hours targets: what is realistic and what is expected

· The cost of non-chargeable time

· How recording time accurately (even on fixed fee matters) is critical financial data

Short worked example: A partner with a team of four — what happens to profitability if one person's utilisation drops by 10%?

MODULE 4 — Lock-Up, Cash Flow and the Working Capital Trap 

Why profitable firms can still run out of cash

Many partners are surprised to learn that a firm can be profitable on paper but under severe cash pressure. This module explains why.

Topics covered:

Work in progress (WIP)

· What WIP is and how it accumulates

· The risk of unbilled WIP: time that has been worked but not yet invoiced

· Best practice for billing promptly and on interim bills where appropriate

Debtors / Accounts receivable

· The difference between billing and collecting

· Debtor days: what is normal for law firms and what is a warning sign

· The partner's role in credit control — this is not just the accounts team's job

Lock-up

· Lock-up days = WIP days + debtor days

· Why high lock-up is a silent killer of firm profitability

· Practical steps partners can take to reduce their own lock-up

Cash flow and the firm's finances

· How the firm funds its working capital (overdraft, partner capital, bank facilities)

· The relationship between lock-up and partner drawings

· Partner drawings versus profit: why they are not the same thing

MODULE 5 — Pricing Strategy and Matter Economics

Getting pricing right before the work starts

This module focuses on the front end of the matter lifecycle — where partners have the most influence.

Topics covered:

Matter budgeting

· Why every matter should have a budget, however rough

· How to estimate costs using time and rate: the basic calculation

· Communicating budgets with clients: transparency as a competitive advantage

Pricing models

· Hourly rates: pros, cons and the client perception problem

· Fixed fees: how to price them without losing money

· Capped fees, blended rates, success fees, retainers - a brief overview of each

· When to say no to a matter (or to a client)

Pricing for profit, not just to win

· The danger of pricing to win work without modelling the margin

· How to have a pricing conversation internally before going to the client

· The role of the firm's pricing function (where one exists)

MODULE 6 — Your Dashboard: Using Financial Data to Manage Your Practice 

What to look at, when, and what to do about it

Partners receive financial reports but often do not act on them. This short module is practical and action-orientated.

Topics covered:

· The five key metrics every partner should review monthly: fees billed, fees collected, realisation rate, lock-up days, and utilisation

· How to read a partner performance report

· Red flags: what should prompt an immediate conversation with the finance team or managing partner

· Green flags: what good performance looks like in numbers

MODULE 7 — Putting It Together: Scenarios and Q&A

Three quick scenarios for discussion

Each scenario is described in two or three sentences. Participants are asked what financial issue is present and what they would do.

Scenario A: A partner has strong revenue but low realisation. What is likely happening and what questions should she ask?

Scenario B: A department has high utilisation but is not contributing to firm profit. How is that possible?

Scenario C: A client owes fees from six months ago and keeps asking for more work. What is the financial analysis the partner should do before agreeing?

CLOSE AND TAKEAWAYS

Three things participants should do in the next 30 days:

1. Pull their own realisation report and identify their single biggest source of write-offs.

2. Calculate their current lock-up and set a personal target to reduce it.

3. Budget the next three matters they open before committing to a price.

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

· Fictional law firm P&L (used in Module 2)

· Glossary of financial terms

· Worked examples from Modules 3 and 4

· One-page summary card

· Optional further reading list (e.g. Law Society guidance on financial management)

Price and Booking

Price: £249 + VAT per organisation.

This is a per-organisation price, allowing up to an additional 10 colleagues to attend at no additional charge, wherever they are located

For organisations with four or fewer partners, a single delegate place is available for £99 + VAT.

All delegates receive:

• Full recording of the session
• Downloadable slides
• Full course materials
• Certificate of attendance (on request)

To book, simply click the booking button at the top right of this page.

Presented by

Mark Briegal advises professionals on the corporate aspects of their partnerships and LLPs. Mark came to law following a career in banking and industry. He worked for Chase Manhattan Bank where he ran syndicated lending, loans agency and trade finance operations. He has a degree in Classics from Cambridge University and an MBA from Manchester Business School. He originally trained as a corporate lawyer, and so also deals with company matters and prepares shareholder agreements and commercial contracts. As an experienced and well regarded presenter, Marks regularly speaks on all aspects of partnership law and practice. He has presented at Manchester Business School, the University of Law, the Lexis Nexis Partnership Conference, The Law Society, MBL Seminars, Chester University, and UKTI

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