If the managing partner of your law firm regularly bills 150 hours per month or more, they are not spending enough time managing the firm. This is particularly true for boutique law firms, where the value of many managerial decisions far exceeds even the highest hourly billable rate. Moreover, regardless of its size, if you want to grow your firm, make sure managing partners limit their billable hours. Having an annual billable hour target anywhere near 1800 makes sense for mid-level and senior associates, but it’s a sure way to stagnate a firm if the managing partner is billing that much. 

 

From Billing to Building 

At the beginning of your career, lawyers are told to bill, bill on time, and then bill some more. Billable hours become synonymous with doing a good job so much so that some firms describe managerial and administrative duties as “non-billable” time. Therefore, it’s not surprising that, as lawyers progress through their careers, many continue to believe that consistent billing hours show their value or maintain revenue stability. This mindset is counterproductive.  

 

When you’re spending all your time on client work, who is focusing on the firm’s overall direction? Who is ensuring operations run smoothly, identifying staffing and recruiting needs, or working on business development? Who is thinking about where the firm should be a year from now? These are responsibilities only a managing partner and other firm leaders can handle effectively. 

 

Changing the belief that billing is the most valuable contribution is key. Logically, this means you should think of yourself less as a high-performing attorney and more as a strategist guiding the firm to new heights, but the transition can be very uncomfortable. After all, you’ve spent your career measuring productivity by the hour, so letting go of that metric can feel like losing something. The challenge is psychological as much as it is practical; there’s a constant fear of missing out on revenue or what could happen if you are not being “hands-on” with clients.  

 

To combat this, leaders need to embrace a broader definition of success—one that prioritizes the firm’s profitability, growth, and culture over individual work output. Specifically, many law firm partners undervalue the economic importance of sound managerial decisions, and the time needed for them.  For example, the value-per-hour of deciding whether to hire a new lateral partner or whether to open a new office far exceeds the managing partner’s hourly billable rate. But few lawyers recognize this. Thus, bridging this gap requires dispelling some common misconceptions about what it means to lead an entire firm to success. 

 

How to Break a Bad Habit 

As we mentioned, a major obstacle here is the fear of lost revenue. The idea of reducing your billing hours might sound like a direct hit on the firm’s bottom line, but that’s a short-term perspective. Delegating more client work and spending time on business development, management, and strategy positions can drive profitability beyond what an individual can achieve through $600-an-hour cases alone. 

 

Another obstacle is trust. Many leaders hesitate to delegate client work because they fear that no one else can handle it with the same level of competence. While this concern is valid, it might point to a deeper issue with the talent development pipeline of the company. If you feel like you are the only one capable of doing the work, focus on why that’s the case. The only sustainable way to double revenues and to double them again is to build a strong, capable team that allows you to step back from client work and focus on the bigger picture without the nagging concern that quality will slip. It’s all a matter of leveraging the strengths of the collective, not just your skills. 

 

Finally, another challenge is the fear of losing control. When leaders step back from the day-to-day client work, they might worry that they’re losing touch with the core operations of the firm. However, this can be addressed by implementing effective systems and processes that ensure consistent quality and client satisfaction, which not only helps in retaining control but also empowers your team to contribute more effectively, supporting the firm’s long-term goals and growth. 

 

How to Start Billing Fewer Hours 

As consultants to law firms, we have firsthand experience helping to manage and equity partners take on a managerial approach to their positions. There are proven strategies that help partners use their time more effectively. For example: 

 

1. Start Small: Don’t go cold turkey on billing. One technique is to start your day by devoting 30 to 60 minutes to identifying what other people in the office should be doing. The easiest way to do this is to block off time on your calendar and use that time to communicate with other attorneys. This is a gradual approach to elevating the importance of law firm management.  
2. Delegate More: Trust your team with more work. Delegating doesn’t just free up your time; it can help your associates and junior partners to learn your more complex responsibilities. However, delegation doesn’t mean dumping work and hoping for the best. The most important aspect is to identify tasks that come up repeatedly. Too many lawyers try to delegate tasks that don’t come up often enough for the person to whom the task was delegated to show improvement. It requires clear communication, oversight, and feedback loops to ensure the quality remains consistent.
3. Track Non-Billable Metrics: If you’re used to measuring success through billable hours, replace that metric with new ones. Focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as business development, marketing, staff retention, recruitment, and strategizing. When your time tracking systems include these categories of activities, you can track them. Your accounting team can run a report that shows you only spend 5 hours a month on strategic thinking. Armed with that knowledge you are more likely to do more in the future. 
4. Invest in Systems: Refining the firm’s processes and systems is time well spent. Law firm leaders often underestimate how much impact they can have by improving workflows, technology adoption, and client communication practices. Specifically, law firms tend not to have written standard operating procedures or policies, which contributes to lawyers saying the same thing to their staff over and over. These operational improvements free up time across the firm, enabling you (and your team) to be more productive without over-reliance on personal billable hours.  
5. Prioritize Profitability: Growing your client base and increasing firm profitability aren’t tasks that happen during the spare time between client matters. They need focus and attention. In fact, profitability is the single best measure of managerial success. And once you focus on profitability it becomes obvious that the best way to achieve it is to do something other than having the managing partner bill ten more hours a month. 

 

The Hurdle of Letting Go 

The main thing to have in mind is that this shift isn’t just a matter of logistics; it’s about letting go of the need to feel indispensable. Many law firm leaders have a deep-seated belief that the firm would struggle without their contribution to client work. While this may have been true when you were building your book of business and contributing more directly to revenue, it’s no longer the case. The strength of the firm should not rest on your shoulders alone.  

 

It can be difficult to step back when client work is your comfort zone but remember: your role as a leader is not to maintain the status quo; it’s to ensure the firm’s growth, stability, and longevity. Build a team and systems that you can trust. In the end, billing fewer hours doesn’t mean doing less. It means doing more of the things that make the firm stronger, more profitable, and better positioned for the future.  

 

So, take a step back from the hourly grind and focus on the big picture.