Intake leaks before anyone signs.
Calls come back a day late and nobody owns the follow-up. The cases you paid to attract sign with the firm that answered first.
Operations for law firms
Operations for law firm owners.
The firm brings in cases. Then every matter waits on a partner: the intake call returned a day late, the signed client nobody opened a file for, the deadline someone almost missed. Working Properly fixes the operations behind the practice for owners of small and mid-size law firms, so the firm grows and runs to a clear standard without a partner checking everything.
Written scope and price before any commitment.
Sound familiar?
Bringing in cases isn’t your problem. Everything after the signature is.
Growth doesn’t stall at intake. It stalls right after it, and right now more cases would mostly mean more of this landing on the partners.
Matters stall until a partner steps in.
The file is open, and then it waits: for a document, an approval, a decision only you make. Staff ask instead of act because the standard was never written down.
Deadlines depend on one person’s memory.
The calendar is right when one paralegal is in. When she is out, a near miss is how the firm finds out.
What changes
Grow faster and step back. The same fix does both.
- One owner for each stage of a matter, from first call to closed file.
- An intake standard: every inquiry answered, logged and followed up the same day.
- A weekly review of every matter that has not moved, without a partner chasing it.
- Checklists the team can close on routine work, so partner review goes where judgement is needed.
- The few numbers an owner should see each week: new matters, stalled matters, deadlines ahead and time to close.
Where a step repeats, we use AI only with your written permission and inside the firm’s confidentiality rules. A named person at the firm still reviews anything that reaches a client. See a labelled example →
Which route fits
Fractional COO · from $10,000/month
We lead operations with your team, or beside your firm administrator, until matters move without a partner in the middle.
About Fractional COO →Operating Partner · from $4,000/month
Fix the firm’s operations with your team, one agreed improvement a month, until matters move without a partner pushing them.
About Operating Partner →Operating Advisory · from $2,500/month
Four sessions a month on hiring, capacity, priorities and stalled matters. You and your team execute.
About Advisory →Workflow Sprint · $3,000 fixed
Fix intake-to-signed or one matter handoff, built in the tools the firm already uses and taught to the team. Target: ten business days from written start.
About the Sprint →Proof
Where Jacob has done this before.
Jacob’s background
16 yearsbrought in by investors as operating partner or fractional COO for companies they had bought or were about to buyOperating leadership
Lawwork with small law firms and with the legal teams of larger organisationsIn Jacob’s history
~20 yearsinside operations, fixing how work gets doneCareer
Regulated and professional work in Jacob’s history
Field Mouse Investments, Genesis Financial Solutions, Deloitte, Wells Fargo, Truist and others. Full list, labelled →
About this section. These lines describe Jacob’s background. They are not results from a law firm, and this page does not borrow results from other industries. What changes for you depends on where you start and on follow-through. We agree it in writing before you pay.
Before you write
Questions law firm owners ask
Will you make us change our practice-management software?
No. We set up what the firm already uses around the way matters actually move. Migrations are scoped separately.
Do you need access to client files?
Usually not. Most of the work is in how intake, staff and partners hand work to each other. If a project needs access to client information, that is agreed in writing first, under the firm’s confidentiality terms.
We are a small firm. Is this for us?
If work waits on you, yes. The Sprint fixes one process at a fixed price, and you can start there. Larger changes are scoped in writing before any commitment.
How fast will we see change?
A Sprint targets ten business days after written start and readiness. In a Partner engagement, the first agreed improvement is worked in the first month. Speed depends on inputs and approvals, and we will tell you when it does.
Which matter would stall first if you took a week off?
Bring that one to the call. You’ll get a straight answer on what to fix first and which route fits.
Written scope and price before any commitment.