AI for insights and analytics
A client the relationship partner calls solid paid 410,000 last year for one practice area, opened four matters instead of eleven, and has drifted from 91 to 78 percent realisation. AI analytics reads the practice management export and answers the managing partner's question: which relationships are fading, and where is the firm leaving fees.
These are the questions law firms ask. Each one maps to a measure our tools compute from your files. The AI model chooses the measure and explains the result; the arithmetic is done by our code, and every total is checked.
| The question | The measure behind it | What comes back |
|---|---|---|
| Which clients are going quiet? | Dormant clients, by prior fees | Clients past their own matter-opening gap, by prior-year fees, with the relationship partner. |
| Which clients use one practice group where similar clients use four? | Practice areas per client against norm | Practice groups per client against the norm for its size and sector, with the fee gap. |
| Where is realisation falling, and on whose matters? | Realisation by client | Fees billed over standard value by client and matter, with the write-offs listed. |
| Who owes us the most, for the longest? | Lock-up by client | Work in progress and debtor days by client, with the ones above threshold and their trend. |
| How dependent are we on a few partners' books? | Partner book concentration | Fees by originating partner, top-five share and the effective number of partners. |
| Which clients came through a referral from another group? | Cross-referral | Matters opened by referral between practice groups, by referring and receiving group. |
Every figure below was computed by a tool from the rows and checked before it was shown. The lines sum; the percentages match; each line opens to the rows that make it.
Where is fee income going quiet?
Prior-year fees from clients now past their own matter-opening gap total $4.9m across 3 practice groups. Employment group accounts for $2.1m, 43% of it.
| Employment group | $2.1m | 43% of the total |
| Corporate group | $1.7m | 35% of the total |
| Real estate group | $1.1m | 22% of the total |
| The 3 lines sum to | $4.9m | 0 unexplained |
Which employment clients?
3 clients hold $1.1m of the $2.1m in the Employment group, 51% of it. Each opened fewer matters this year than last, and two have realisation below 80 percent after write-offs.
| Halden Manufacturing | $410k | 4 matters against 11; realisation 78% |
| Brightwater Retail | $380k | no matter in 7 months; lock-up 164 days |
| Ashworth Logistics | $290k | one practice group; peers use four |
| These 3 are | $1.1m | 51% of Employment group |
What should the partners do?
A relationship conversation with each, owned by the relationship partner and joined by a partner from a group the client does not use. Finance chases the lock-up separately. The dormant list is reviewed monthly by the managing partner.
| Relationship partners | Meet Halden, Brightwater and Ashworth with a second practice group | This quarter |
| Finance | Chase Brightwater's 164-day lock-up | This month |
| Managing partner | Review dormant clients by prior fees monthly | Monthly |
Each measure has one formula, one source and one meaning. They are computed per partner and practice group and in total, and every one carries an identity that must hold before it is shown.
| Measure | Formula | From | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice areas per client against norm | Practice groups with fees in 24 months ÷ median for clients of the same type and size | Practice management system | The cross-selling list, by client and practice |
| Dormant clients, by prior fees | Prior-year fees of clients with no new matter in k × their own typical interval ÷ prior-year fees | Matter intake records; billing | Clients who have begun instructing another firm |
| Realisation by client | Billed ÷ time at a fixed standard rate; collected ÷ billed; trend per client | Time and billing; cash | Discounts that grew without a decision |
| Lock-up by client | (Unbilled work in progress + unpaid bills) ÷ average daily fees, per client | Work in progress and receivables ledgers | Clients the firm is financing |
| Partner book concentration | Share of each partner's fees from their largest client and top three | Billing by originating and responsible partner | Books that depend on one client |
| Cross-referral | Matters opened for a client by a partner other than the relationship partner, sent and received, per partner | Matter intake records | Who shares clients and who keeps them |
| Matter profitability by leverage | Margin per matter; hours by grade delivered against hours by grade priced | Time records; matter budgets | Partner time on work priced for associates |
| Client fee concentration | Top ten clients' share of fees; largest client share; effective number of clients | Billing | Dependence at firm level |
| Share of client legal spend | Fees from the client ÷ estimated external legal spend, by source grade | Billing; client disclosures and estimates | How much of the panel spend the firm holds |
| New matter origination | New matters and first-year fees by source: existing client, referral, pitch, directory | Matter intake records | Where growth actually comes from |
Each measure is worked through, with the export it comes from and what to drop, in Client and business development KPIs for law firms.
From your question and the measures declared for law firms, the model picks the one that answers it, and the period and comparison the question implies.
Deterministic code reads the rows, computes the measure, and checks the identities below. The same question on the same data gives the same answer, every time.
The AI model writes the sentence around the result, naming the partner or account behind it. It states no figure that is not in the result, and every figure links to its rows.
| Realisation | Time at standard = billed + written off + written down + open work in progress |
| Lock-up | Client work in progress and debtors sum to the ledgers |
| Practice areas | Client fees by practice sum to client total; client totals sum to firm fees |
| Cross-referral | Referrals sent across all partners = referrals received |
The exports law firms already produce. Column names are mapped once and the mapping is reused. A file is the way in; scheduled delivery and connections to your systems come with the plan, and every source is listed here.
An answer is a list with an owner and a cadence, or it is a chart nobody works.
| Measures | Owner | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Dormant clients; lock-up by client | Relationship partners; finance | Monthly |
| Practice area gaps; cross-referral | Managing partner; practice heads | Quarterly |
| Realisation by client; matter profitability | Practice heads; finance | Quarterly |
| Concentration; share of client spend; origination | Managing partner | Twice a year |
A client past its own typical gap between new matters, not a fixed period. A client that opens a matter a month is dormant after three months of silence; one that opens two a year is not. The gap is computed per client from the practice management export, and the list is ranked by prior-year fees.
It needs standard value and billed value by matter, which the practice management system exports without narrative. Realisation is billed over standard, by client and matter, with write-offs as their own line. Fee-earner names can be replaced with identifiers before upload.
From your own clients: the median number of practice groups used by clients of similar size and sector. A client using one group where similar clients use four is a gap worth the fees those groups earn from the peers, and the peer set is shown so the partner can judge it.
It tests it. A partner who calls a client solid is shown the matter count, the realisation trend and the lock-up, and decides what they mean. The figures come from tools; the conversation with the client is still the partner's.
Dormant account · Realisation · Lock-up · Norm penetration · Concentration · Write-off
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Bring a few thousand rows. The data map opens next, every column mapped once, and the first question is answered in minutes. Free, in your browser, no account.