Running a 21-50 timekeeper firm, where the risk is what you don't see
The firm has grown past the point where one person can eyeball every matter. That's a good problem. It also means the first sign of trouble is usually the month-end numbers, three or four weeks after the trouble started.
What running a firm this size actually looks like
Somewhere past 20 timekeepers, the firm stops running through one founder's daily attention and starts running through a structure, whether or not anyone designed one on purpose.
Multiple practice groups, each with its own rhythm
A PI group, a family law group, maybe a business group, each billing differently, each with different write-off habits. Rolling those into one honest firm-wide picture by hand takes real time, which is exactly why it usually doesn't happen often.
Billing and intake are delegated, oversight isn't
Practice group leads run day-to-day. Billing staff send invoices. But nobody has been handed the job of noticing when a group's numbers quietly drift, so that job defaults to whoever eventually asks why the deposit was light.
The leak at this size is usually visibility
It's rarely one bad decision. It's a practice group running under margin for two months before the partner in charge of it, or the owner, sees a number that says so.
By the time the month-end report lands, the associate who was under-utilized has been under-utilized for eight weeks. The client who stopped paying on time has been ignored for six. Fixing it after the fact costs more than catching it would have.
What LawKPIs shows you day one
Connect Clio, MyCase, Smokeball, or Lawcus, read-only. Once QuickBooks Online joins, profitability and realization break out by practice group, not just firm-wide.
The plan that fits a firm this size
Firms in this range are usually best served by the 21–50 timekeepers plan, with enough seats for practice group leads and billing staff to have their own view.
See what each practice group's numbers would show tomorrow morning
A live walkthrough with your own data, or take the self-guided tour first if you'd rather look before you talk to anyone.