Beyond Chargeable Hours: What Really Drives Law Firm Profitability?

Beyond Chargeable Hours: What Really Drives Law Firm Profitability?

An agenda for transforming financial performance through client focus, people performance, and effective leadership.

Law firms don’t become more profitable simply by recording and billing more time. They succeed when their people adopt the behaviours that create sustainable, high‑margin client relationships and deliver work productively.

This fast‑paced course cuts through the noise to show leaders, partners, and senior managers how actionable changes can massively impact profitability in a legal practice.

During this two hour course, we will discuss why traditional metrics like utilisation and recovery only tell part of the story. We will explore how high‑performing firms build cultures of commercial awareness, client value creation and productive matter management.

Key points covered include:

Part 1: The law firm as a business:

• What really drives financial performance in a law firm
• Understanding different types of legal services and pricing models
• The importance of time: chargeable time, investment time, and wasted time
• Balancing leadership and management to bring about change

Part 2: Profiting from delivering value for clients:

• Focusing on lifetime client relationships, not just one-off matters
• Thinking entrepreneurially to identify ways to add more value for clients
• Focused business development to generate fruitful contacts
• Key conversations you need to have with clients

Part 3: Getting the best from people

• Teamwork and collaboration in a modern law firm
• What it takes to create a high-performance culture
• The importance of delegation to get work done at the right level
• Why ongoing feedback is so important to improve performance and develop people

Expect a punchy, practical session with examples, insights and immediately usable takeaways. If you want your firm to become more profitable, not just by working harder but by working smarter, this webinar will show you where to focus.

The webinar will be led by Phil Gott of Firm Academy. Phil is a business graduate and qualified chartered accountant who moved into marketing and business development for a big accountancy firm, and from there into learning and development. He is therefore ideally placed to lead this webinar.

Phil is also a founder member of the Professional Speakers Association and has been voted Trainer of the Year by the Legal Education & Training Group. He authored Managing People in a Law Firm in The Law Society’s Practice Management Handbook. Phil’s clients range from ‘magic circle’ firms to regional and single-office firms both in the UK and overseas.

How Much Does it Cost?

The price is £199 + VAT per organisation. This covers one delegate plus up to 10 additional colleagues at no extra charge, including colleagues joining from different locations.

If all 11 places are used, the cost is £18.09 + VAT per delegate.

Firms with four or fewer partners can book a single place for £99 + VAT.

Delegates can attend live or watch the recording afterwards. They will receive the recording and course materials.

To book, click the booking link. You can book before all delegate names are confirmed and add colleagues later. Each delegate must be registered to receive joining instructions.

Important Notes about Booking

Payment can be made by credit or debit card or by invoice. The invoice option appears below the card-payment option in the booking form.

Please check colleagues’ email addresses carefully when registering them, as an incorrect address may prevent joining instructions from reaching them.

The Legal Training Consultancy

The Legal Training Consultancy is a full-service training consultancy with a large portfolio of conferences, courses and trainers. Over the years, we have put together law and management conferences, webinars, seminars, videos and e-learning modules—altogether well over 2,200.