Retainer engagement · ongoing
Operational leadership for firms where everything flows back to the owner. I take ownership of the business side of your firm so you can go back to practicing law.
Verbatim from the firm owners I work with. Not paraphrased. Not softened.
"Our operations are kind of haphazard because I have a hard time systematizing."
, Jose de Wit, attorney, on Maximum Lawyer
"I'm doing all of my own intake, drafting, research, file management, client meetings, court filing, marketing, and general admin work, it feels unsustainable."
, Reddit attorney, r/LawFirm
"There is a moment in most growing law firms where everything starts flowing back to one person."
, Scalable Law industry research
"Every time someone left, knowledge left with them."
, Owner of a multi-attorney firm Liz worked with
"I want to concentrate on the business part and someone else to do the litigation."
, Reddit attorney, r/LawFirm
A Fractional COO engagement with me is operational ownership, not coaching, not consulting at arm's length. I'm in the firm with you, weekly. Below is the scope of what that ownership covers.
Review of daily operations. Workflow and system design. SOP development. Accountability ownership across departments.
Staffing structure. Input on hiring, onboarding, and retention. Performance review structure that holds without being heavy-handed.
Firm financial review. Law-firm-specific KPI development. Cash flow and budget oversight. Billing, collections, and AR review.
Process improvement. Timekeeping accountability. Collections and replenishment systems that actually run on their own once installed.
Practice management software optimization (Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther). Workflow improvement across your existing stack, not a forced migration.
Operational scaling strategy. The transition from "working in the firm" to "managing the business."
Regular meetings with ownership and management. Staff meetings as needed. Ongoing availability by phone and email during business hours, you don't wait a week to talk through a decision.
If you need any of these, you need a different professional. I'll often help you find one.
A Fractional COO retainer is ongoing, there is no fixed end date. We meet on a regular cadence with you and key staff. I'm available by phone and email between meetings; you don't need a calendar invite to talk through an urgent operational call.
I coordinate directly with everyone the business side touches, bookkeeper, CPA, office manager, paralegals, marketing vendors. I don't replace any of them. I structure the work so each role is doing what it's actually supposed to be doing.
Engagements are scoped per-firm based on size, stage, and the depth of work needed. We define the scope and cadence on our first call.
Both anonymized. Numbers are theirs. (Per Liz's primary-source case study record, 2026.)
There is a moment in most growing law firms where everything starts flowing back to one person.
The COO seat is the seat I've lived in for decades. Inside firms, watching them work and watching them fail, the same pattern shows up. The owner is talented. The work is good. The staff is mostly competent. And yet everything still ends up on the owner's desk.
I'm not in this work to flatter you or hype you up. I'm in this work because I know exactly what happens to a firm when there is no one whose job it is to own the business. I take that seat. I run it.
When you call, you get me.
Different cost, different commitment. A full-time COO is typically a high-six-figure all-in cost for a small firm, salary, benefits, equity, severance exposure. A Fractional COO is a fraction of that, scoped to the hours your firm actually needs. You get senior operational ownership without the full-time payroll line.
Yes. I coordinate with them and elevate their work. I don't replace operational staff, I structure them. Most engagements actually make the existing team more effective because they finally have someone above them setting the operational direction.
Typically firms with at least one staff member and revenue in the small-firm band, enough that the owner is being pulled in too many directions. Smaller firms may be better served by an Operations Audit plus Strategic Partner combination first.
Yes, remotely. I'm Tampa-based but the framework doesn't depend on location. Most of my engagements run on phone, video, and email between visits.
Always. I sign NDAs as part of every engagement. The firms in the case studies on this site are real prior clients with anonymized identities, that discretion is part of the work.
Schedule a thirty-minute call. We'll talk about what's actually broken in your firm and whether the COO engagement is the right fit.
Not sure you're ready for the full COO commitment?
Start lower-commitment with an Operations Audit →