Blog · Coverage and territory · Law firms
How a law firm measures cross-referral from its own matter data: the originating partner against the working practice, referral share per partner, the norm from the firm's own book, and the list of clients with a single-practice relationship whose profile says they should have three.
A managing partner knows the firm has eleven practices and suspects most clients use one. The matter ledger knows exactly, because every matter carries an originating partner and a working practice. This guide sets out referral share per partner, the norm from the firm's own book, and the client list that comes out of it.
Referral share = fees on the partner's clients' matters worked by other practices ÷ fees on all the partner's clients' matters
Per partner, per year. And per client:
Practices used = count of distinct working practices with fees in the period
Client identifiers only; partner identifiers only.
Matter to client to originating partner to office. Fees sum:
billed fees = Σ partners = Σ clients = Σ matters
A matter with no originating partner fails it and is listed; those are usually inherited clients whose relationship partner was never reassigned.
From the firm's own client master, per sector and size band: the median practices used and the typical fee mix. Not an external benchmark. A regional manufacturer of a given size at this firm typically uses corporate, employment and property; one that uses only property is below norm by two practices.
| Partner | Clients | Fees | Referral share | Clients below norm | Gap value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P-014 | 22 | $3.1m | 41% | 3 | $210,000 |
| P-031 | 18 | $2.7m | 12% | 11 | $940,000 |
| P-052 | 9 | $1.2m | 8% | 2 | $60,000 |
Partner P-031 has a low share and eleven clients below the norm for their kind, with a gap valued at the fees similar clients pay for the missing practices. Partner P-052 has a low share and almost no gap; their clients are specialist work and use one practice, as similar clients do. The list is P-031's eleven clients, not P-031.
Share reported without the gap. Specialist partners look bad for no reason. Report both.
Originating partner stale. A retired partner still originating forty clients. The failed assertion lists them.
Norm from outside. A benchmark of practices per client from a survey does not describe this firm's clients. Use the book.
Working practice recorded as the billing partner's practice. A corporate partner billing an employment matter records it as corporate. Use the practice of the fee earner who worked it, from the time entries, where the matter field is unreliable.
Mapped once, the matter ledger and the client master produce referral share, the norms and the client gap list every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The law firms page describes the setup, and the practice area gaps guide covers the per-partner gap and dormancy measures this sits beside.
The client or matter record in the practice management system carries an originating or relationship partner. Where it is missing, the billing partner on the client's first matter is the fallback, stated as such.
Not by itself. A partner whose clients are single-practice by nature, some specialist work is, will have a low share and no gap. The list is built on the gap against similar clients, not on the share alone.
Same sector and size band, from the firm's own client master. The norm is the median number of practices used and fee mix among those clients. A client well below that norm is the finding.