Who Should Your Law Firm Hire Next?

Someone you know is looking for a job. You like her, she’s good at what she does, and your firm is busy. You could definitely use some help.

So you start thinking about how to bring her on.

I see this happen a lot. An owner hires because someone great is available, and then tries to figure out where that person fits. Sometimes it works out. But it can also become an expensive way to discover that you never really needed that position—or that you needed something else entirely.

Being overwhelmed can lead to the same decision. You know you can’t keep doing everything, so hiring feels like the obvious next step.

And it might be! But first, I want to know what you need that person to help you do.

To decide who to hire next, start with the firm you want to build and the problem you’re trying to solve. Then look at what work actually needs another person, whether you need full-time help, and what the firm can afford. You should have a clear idea of what will change because of this hire, including what you’ll do with any time you get back.

Start with the end in mind

Before we talk about your next hire, I want to know where you want the firm to go.

What do you want it to look like in three to five years? What do you want your role to be? And what kind of life do you want the firm to support?

Maybe you love practicing law and want to spend most of your time doing that. Maybe you want to do less legal work and spend more time leading the firm and developing business. Maybe you want a small practice where you can make a good living, work fewer hours, and take a vacation without checking your phone the entire time.

There isn’t one right answer. But your answer matters when you’re deciding who to hire.

Your vision for the firm and yourself has to be the foundation. And as I discussed in Your Ideal Client Isn’t Just About Marketing, the clients you serve affect your staffing, technology, systems, and schedule. Those decisions all need to fit together.

I like to think about the future org chart. If you were building the firm you want to have in three to five years, what positions would be there? What would those people be responsible for? Where would you fit?

Then we can look at the person you’re thinking about hiring now. Does that position belong in the firm you’re building? How does it help you get there?

You don’t need to fill every position on that future org chart today. The firm may not be ready for all of them, and it may not be able to afford them yet.

And while you may not be able to offload every task you don’t love right now, thinking about which ones you can and should delegate first is critical. Those choices help you build the firm you want, avoid burnout, and ultimately live your best life.

What does your firm need help doing?

Once you know where you want to go, look at what’s getting in the way—or what you’re ready to do next.

Are you turning away good work because you don’t have enough attorney capacity? Are potential clients waiting days for someone to follow up? Are you spending so much time managing the day-to-day that you never get to the business development you know the firm needs?

Those are all reasons to consider getting help. But they may point to very different positions.

“I’m overwhelmed” is a starting point. We need to understand what’s behind it.

Look at the work you’re holding. What gets delayed? What doesn’t happen at all? Where does the firm depend on you when it may not need to? You might enjoy doing something someone else could handle, while the work that really needs your attention keeps getting pushed to next week.

Before you turn that list into a job description, consider what could be automated. Scheduling, reminders, and routine follow-up may take less human time with a different process. Someone still needs to own that process and make sure it works for your clients.

An executive assistant is a good example of how support can contribute to revenue. That person may not bill clients, but suppose they could eventually take 15 hours of administrative work off your plate each week. What would you do with those hours?

If the firm needs more business, you might commit that time to developing referral relationships or marketing. If there’s already demand for your legal work, you might use it to handle higher-value matters. The financial benefit depends on what you actually do with the time you get back.

Before deciding on a position, be able to explain the need it addresses, the work it will own, and what you expect to change as a result.

Then define success. What should this person accomplish? What will you and the rest of the team need to do differently? When will you evaluate whether it’s working? That sets expectations for everyone affected by the role and gives you something concrete to assess later.

You may find that the help you need looks very different from the hire you first had in mind.

Do you need a full-time hire right away?

A position on your future org chart may eventually require a full-time employee. That doesn’t mean you have a full-time job for that person today.

Could part-time help address the immediate need? Could a contract arrangement make sense for a defined project or appropriate legal work? Could you start with fewer hours and expand as the workload grows?

Those options are worth considering when the firm needs help but has limited room for more overhead. The arrangement needs to fit the work; calling someone a contractor doesn’t by itself make that classification appropriate.

Be realistic about availability, too. If clients need responses throughout the week, someone working a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays may not solve the problem—even if the total hours look right.

And fewer hours won’t necessarily mean less work for you at the beginning. Someone still needs to explain the duties, provide training, answer questions, and supervise.

You may be ready for a full-time hire. Or you may make meaningful progress with a smaller initial commitment. Either way, you need to understand what it will cost.

Can your firm support the full cost of the hire?

Before adding a position, I want to look at what the firm is already spending relative to its revenue.

A firm can be busy and still have very little room for more overhead. If you’re struggling with profitability, what do you expect this hire to change, and how will that help the firm become more profitable?

I use Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First allocation framework as a rough guide for thinking about spending at different revenue levels. You can use his Profit First Instant Assessment (PDF). It’s a starting point for the conversation, with the firm’s circumstances shaping how we apply it.

Then I want to see the numbers before and after the proposed hire.

Start with fully loaded compensation: salary or wages, employer payroll taxes, benefits, and other employment costs. Add payroll processing and expenses the position creates, such as software, equipment, recruiting, or outside training.

Account for the transition. Someone will spend time training and supervising this person. If that someone is you, you may initially have less time for billable work or business development. The expense starts before the benefit necessarily shows up.

Your rainy-day fund needs to reflect the overhead you’re adding. What happens if collections slow down or the person takes longer than expected to become productive? The financial KPI article explains why reserves and owner compensation belong in this conversation.

Look at what current revenue can support and separately consider what you expect the hire to help generate. If the plan depends on growth, be specific about where that growth will come from and when the money should arrive.

If the firm isn’t profitable, you need a clear explanation of how the added position will help, targets to work toward, and a point when you’ll reassess. You also need enough cash to give the plan a reasonable chance to work.

How long should you give a new hire to succeed?

Once someone starts, it’s natural to want relief right away. You’ve added the expense. You’d like to see the benefit.

But hiring usually takes some of your time before it gives you time back.

I generally give a change about 90 days before fully evaluating it. We can make adjustments along the way, but in most cases we need time to understand whether it’s working. With a new hire, it may take six months before you’re freed up enough to see the results you expected, depending on the role and how training and supervision are structured.

Set review points around the expectations you defined earlier. Is the person taking ownership of the work? Are you getting time back? Are you using that time for what you committed to doing? Is the firm seeing progress toward the intended result?

Those questions also require an honest look at your part. I often see owners conclude that someone isn’t working out when duties, training, supervision, and expectations were never clearly established and reinforced. I also see owners keep someone far too long because they feel bad, even when the arrangement is hurting the firm.

Both deserve a fuller conversation. For this decision, make sure you have a plan to support the hire and evaluate the result.

Think back to the firm you pictured at the beginning. The right hire should move you closer to that vision, whether that means more capacity, more income, or more time for the work and life you want. You don’t have to build the whole thing today. You do want to understand how this next step gets you there.