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| Fractional COO for Lawyers | Published Author | Fixing operational chaos, improving cash flow & building sustainable processes | Established or those planning to start their own law firm |

09/11/2026

Thinking about hiring your first employee? Don't start with the job posting.

Start with your own calendar.

For one week, track:

• administrative work
• client communication
• legal work
• business development
• financial/admin tasks
• things only you can do

Then look at the first five categories and ask:

What could someone else own?

Your first hire should solve a real capacity problem.

Not simply give you “some help.”

I recently taught an entire webinar for solo lawyers who have reached this stage and are trying to figure out how to grow beyond themselves.

It covers what to consider before hiring and the structure that needs to be in place to make growth work.

If that's where your firm is right now, let's talk.

09/10/2026

One of the most dangerous phrases in a growing law firm is:

"We've always done it this way."

When I was running a firm, some of the biggest improvements came from questioning things that had simply become normal.

Why does this require approval?
Why are we entering this twice?
Why does the lawyer have to do this?
Why are we waiting until month-end?
Why does this person need to be involved?

Sometimes there was a perfectly good answer.
Sometimes nobody knew.
And that's the interesting part.

Processes accumulate.
Workarounds accumulate.
Extra steps accumulate.

Then one day, a 3-step process has quietly become a 12-step process.

Every so often, don't ask how to improve the process.

Ask:

“Why are we doing this step at all?”

You might eliminate it instead.

09/09/2026

Revenue is not the number I would look at first if a law firm told me, “We're doing well.”

I'd want to know:

How much is actually being collected?
How old are the receivables?
How quickly is time being entered?
How quickly does completed work become an invoice?
How much of the owner's time is billable versus administrative?
What is payroll as a percentage of revenue?
Is revenue increasing because the business is healthier, or because everyone is working more?

$1M in revenue can describe two completely different businesses.

One can be profitable, organized, and sustainable.

The other can have cash-flow issues, exhausted owners, and very little margin.

Revenue tells me how much came in.
Operations tell me what it took to produce it.

You need both sides of the story.

09/08/2026

I'm learning that I don't need to turn every free hour into a productive one.

This has probably taken me longer to learn than it should have.

There is always something I could be doing.

Another email.
Another idea.
Another piece of content.
Another improvement to the business.

But some of my favourite days have absolutely nothing to do with productivity.

Going birdwatching.
Getting outside.
Spending time with friends.
Playing a board game.
Planning the next trip.
Or doing absolutely nothing particularly impressive.

I still have goals.

I still want to grow my business.

But I don't think a full life is measured by how efficiently every hour was used.

Sometimes an afternoon that accomplishes nothing is exactly what I needed it to accomplish.

09/07/2026

One sentence tells me a lot about how a law firm operates: "Just ask me if you're not sure."

It sounds helpful.

And sometimes it absolutely is.

But if the same questions keep coming back to the owner, I start looking deeper.

Is the process documented?
Are decision-making boundaries clear?
Does the team know what they can decide independently?
Is there a defined escalation point?

Because the goal isn't to eliminate questions.

The goal is to eliminate unnecessary repeated questions.

A strong team still asks questions.

They just don't need the owner to make every routine decision.

That distinction matters enormously as a firm grows.

09/04/2026

Law firm owners: which task would you happily NEVER do again?

Not the thing you think you should delegate.

The thing you would genuinely celebrate never having to touch again.

Billing?
Scheduling?
Following up for documents?
Managing the inbox?
Intake?
Chasing people for time entries?
Something else entirely?

I'm curious because one of the first things I look at when helping a lawyer delegate is not just:

“What CAN someone else do?”

It's also:

“What should the lawyer stop doing?”

Those are not always the same question.

Tell me yours.

09/03/2026

Find ONE process in your law firm that regularly goes wrong.

Now ask:

Where does it actually break?
Not “Why isn't the team following the process?”
Where specifically does it break?

For example:

Client documents aren't being collected on time.

Look deeper.

Maybe:

→ Nobody tells the client exactly what is required.
→ Nobody owns the follow-up.
→ There is no follow-up schedule.
→ Nobody knows when to escalate it.

Now you have something useful to fix.

A process problem becomes much easier to solve when you stop describing the symptom and identify the actual breakdown.

Don't document a broken process. Fix it first.

09/02/2026

I never set out to become someone who speaks about running law firms.

I set out to make one work.

I wasn't the lawyer.

I was the person behind the scenes figuring out the people, processes, finances, workflows, and day-to-day problems that come with actually running the business.

Eventually, those lessons became something other people wanted to hear about.

I've now had opportunities to speak on webinars, podcasts, summits, and to groups of lawyers about what I learned and what I see working inside firms today.

And I still find that a little surreal.

Because none of this started with:

“I want to become a speaker.”

It started with being curious enough to keep asking:

There has to be a better way to do this. What is it?

Then testing it.
Then learning from it.
Then sharing it.

Sometimes expertise isn't something you deliberately set out to build.

It's what accumulates when you spend years solving the same kinds of problems.

09/01/2026

The lawyer should not be the firm's reminder system.

Remember to follow up with that lead.
Remember to send that invoice.
Remember to request those documents.
Remember to check whether the client responded.
Remember to remind the team.

That's not a system.

That's a very expensive human notification app.

A growing law firm needs somewhere for those responsibilities to live other than inside the owner's head.

Start with one recurring reminder you personally give every week.

Then ask:

Could a process, task, automation, or another person own this instead?

Do that repeatedly, and you start getting your time back.

08/31/2026

A prospective client should never have to wonder: “What happens next?”

Yet this is one of the easiest places for a law firm to lose a good lead.

Someone fills out the form.

Someone calls them back.

Maybe they book a consultation.

And somewhere between those steps, responsibility gets fuzzy.

Try this:

Pull up your last 10 inquiries and answer four questions:

How quickly did they receive a response?
Who owned the follow-up?
Was there a defined next step?
If they didn't respond, how many times did the firm follow up?

If the answers are different for every lead, there is your problem.

A good intake process shouldn't depend on who happens to see the email first.

Consistency builds trust before the lawyer ever speaks to the prospective client.

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Calgary, AB

Website

https://yourfcoo.com/, https://www.facebook.com/groups/lawfirmownercollective

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