Hire Data Analyst for Law Firms
Senior, direct, no layers

A law firm can be busy and unprofitable at the same time, and its own reports often hide why. Time recorded is not time billed, time billed is not time paid, and a matter that has been open for a year is not necessarily a matter that is progressing. A practice area can generate the most hours in the firm while writing off the most fees, and a fee earner group can look productive while carrying the oldest unbilled work.

The analyst work joins the matter journey on matter codes, without touching client documents or advice. Enquiries are followed through conflict check to instruction. Matters are followed through their stages to billing and payment, with work in progress grouped by age and last activity. Bills are compared with payments and write-offs by matter type, so a billing practice problem is separated from a client payment problem.

That joined view answers the questions a managing partner actually asks: which practice areas earn their time, which matters have stalled, where instructions are being lost, and which fee earner groups are overloaded in a way that threatens deadlines. Book a free discovery call to check whether your matter, time and billing records can support that view before scoping the work.

Law firms typically run a practice management system for matters and documents, a time recording tool that may sit inside it, and a billing and accounts system for invoices and payments. The engagement reads exports from those systems, and the matter code is the joining key. Narrative fields, document contents and advice are not taken, and any export field beyond the agreed questions is dropped at import.

Confidentiality is a method requirement, not a promise added at the end. Work is done on coded matter summaries, the cleaned file returned to the firm contains no client narrative, and the definitions note records exactly which fields were used. General information only: this page is not legal advice.

A firm that completes this work should be able to say, for each practice area, what margin its matters produce after write-offs, which matters have genuinely stalled, and where prospective clients are lost between enquiry and instruction. Workload becomes visible per fee earner group, so overload can be addressed before it becomes a deadline risk.

Analysis cannot make clients pay faster or turn a weak practice area into a strong one. It can show whether the problem is pricing, billing practice, matter selection or workload, which are four different fixes, and it can stop the firm applying the wrong one. Browse all hire engagements or discuss reporting for your firm directly.