Why law firm data needs to leave the boardroom

Law firm leaders generally feel well informed. In our research with LPM, Mind the Delivery Gap, 80% say leadership has sufficient visibility into performance, while 79% believe their legal management information supports effective decision-making.

But the research also identifies a different experience elsewhere in the firm. Only 14% say the information people need is always available, and 29% believe providing greater insight to fee earners should be an essential investment priority.

This points to a visibility divide. Information may be reaching senior decision-makers without consistently reaching the people who can act on it during day-to-day delivery.

Reporting is not the same as access to insight

Traditional management reporting has an important role. Leaders need a clear view of firm-wide performance, financial position and emerging issues. But information creates more value when it also helps people make decisions closer to the work.

A fee earner does not necessarily need every measure available to a managing partner or finance director. They need the information relevant to their responsibilities, presented clearly and at the right time. That could mean greater visibility into matter progress, financial position, outstanding actions or the effect of delivery decisions.

The distinction is between receiving more data and receiving more useful insight. A larger volume of reports does not automatically produce better decisions. If information is difficult to find, arrives too late or requires interpretation from several disconnected sources, it remains operationally distant from the people doing the work.

What changes when insight reaches fee earners?

Making relevant information more accessible can change the nature of performance management.

Instead of reviewing outcomes only after a matter closes, teams can identify exceptions while there is still time to respond. Instead of commercial awareness being concentrated within leadership, matter owners can better understand how daily choices connect to wider objectives. Instead of relying on separate spreadsheets or requests to support teams, authorised users can work from a shared and consistent view. Equipping them to manage the aspects of delivery they can influence.

Three principles for useful fee-earner insight

Make it relevant.

Different roles need different views. Information should reflect the decisions a person is expected to make, rather than reproducing a board-level dashboard for everyone.

Make it timely.

Retrospective reporting explains performance. Real-time legal reporting can change it. The closer information is to the work, the more useful it becomes.

Make it part of the workflow.

If users must leave their normal environment, search several systems or request a manually prepared report, access will remain limited. Insight is most valuable when it is available within the process it is intended to improve.

The next stage of management-information maturity

The research suggests that many firms have made progress in leadership reporting. The next opportunity is to widen the circle of informed decision-making. If you can apply the right permissions you can present each user with a meaningful view of connected, informative operational and financial information.

Helping the organisation become more commercially informed, where people can see enough to take the right action at the right time.

Tessaract brings matter, finance and reporting data together, helping firms deliver relevant real-time insight to leaders and fee earners from one connected platform.

That shared visibility is also a foundation for stronger matter profitability. When fee earners understand how their day-to-day decisions affect financial performance, they are better equipped to spot issues early and take action.

For practical ways to build that commercial awareness across your firm, explore the Profitability Playbook, created with The Legal MBA.

Read the Profitability Playbook.