You’re at capacity. You’ve maxed out what you can do. Every hour is spoken for, every case is consuming your time…and yet you still want the firm to grow.
Maybe you need to be out there building relationships and bringing in more cases. Maybe you’re the rainmaker, the one driving business through networking, marketing, and strategic partnerships.
But right now, you can’t do any of that because you’re so overworked that you’ve become the bottleneck of your own company.
Your firm cannot grow because you are stretched too thin.
So if you want to grow, you need to recruit some help.
Too many firm owners hesitate when it comes to hiring. They see salaries as expenses rather than investments. But an expense is money you spend without expectation of return. An investment is something you put resources into to generate future growth. Would you ever invest in marketing expecting no return? Would you lease office space with no intention of bringing in clients? So why do so many law firm owners hesitate when it comes to investing in the most critical driver of growth: people?
Hiring isn’t about losing money; it’s about expanding your capacity and capabilities.
When you hire the right person, your firm can take on more cases, provide better service, and ultimately increase revenue and profit.
The right hire doesn’t cost you money. They make you money.
Let’s say you decide to hire an attorney at a $120,000 salary. The number might feel daunting, but you’re not cutting a $120,000 check upfront. You’re paying said employee biweekly, roughly $5,000 every two weeks. How long will it take for this person to start contributing value to your firm? If you’ve structured your onboarding correctly, they should be trained, functional, and adding value within 90 days. That means your real investment — the amount of money you’re risking before seeing a return — is $30,000, not $120,000.
And if you don’t hire them? You’ll stay maxed out, turning away cases and stagnating your growth.
So while hiring may be a calculated risk, staying exactly where you are is an even bigger one. You pay the price with lost revenue, missed opportunities, and burnout.
Growth requires stepping into the unknown.
That’s where many law firm owners get stuck. They fear spending money, they fear hiring the wrong person, and they fear making a mistake. But doing nothing is the biggest mistake of all.
If your firm needs to hire another lawyer and you don’t, you’re choosing to cap your firm’s potential. You’re actively deciding that your firm will stay where it is — and you’re setting yourself up for burnout because you can’t sustain the level of work long-term.
Hiring is a calculated risk, but it’s one that, when done correctly, leads to exponential growth. The only way to expand your firm’s reach, take on more cases, and increase your profits is by increasing your capacity.
So if your firm isn’t growing, don’t blame the market or the competition. Look in the mirror. The problem isn’t a lack of opportunity; it’s your reluctance to take the next step.
So stop hesitating, start hiring, expand your capacity, and watch your firm grow.
