The very instinct that keeps legal work watertight can also prevent a firm from reaching its full potential. When senior fee-earners insist on checking every clause and tracking every email, nothing slips...but nothing scales either.

This article explores how leading firms can redefine “control” and embrace delegation. It draws on insights from Dan Warburton, leading law firm growth consultant and author of Delegate now to supercharge your profits, and from Chris Wilson, the Head of Business Development and a Senior Associate Solicitor at Myerson Solicitors. Myerson, and several law firms that are part of their Myerson Connections group, embraced smart delegation to successfully grow their firms – showing how other practices can do the same.

Why is delegation so hard for lawyers?

It’s 11pm. A partner is still proof-reading a bundle that the firm could have handed off at 5pm. The draft will be flawless, but the cost is steep: no time for strategy today, and no energy tomorrow. 

Why didn’t she delegate?

Perfectionism vs performance

Solicitors are perfectionists at heart. Therefore, many lawyers will only consider something “good to go” if it’s been personally checked by them. 

That instinct is natural for detail-orientated legal professionals. However, from a business standpoint, it kills leverage. 

Dan Warburton suggests that heavy drafting work should be delegated to associates who are capable of crafting an 80% finished product, while firms should also provide regular one-on-one support to ensure that associates are effectively moving forward. Doing so not only enables an associate to improve their drafting skills but, over time, they become an increasingly valuable asset to the firm.

The problem is that most law firm owners think: "It’s quicker if I do this myself.” While this is true initially, when associates receive regular, weekly one-on-one training, they can learn, adapt, and improve their fee-earning skills much faster than assumed. 

The art is to request and agree on a deadline for nearly finished work to be delivered to a senior member or partner - one that leaves plenty of time for it to be finalised. This quickly starts to decrease the demands on the law firm partner. What’s more, it increases the firm's profitability, as the partners can use this freed-up time to help coach team members and further improve their skills. 

Risk aversion and the fear of getting it wrong

Clients trust law firms to do vital work, and they pay them to be 100% right. Fee-earners can’t afford to make a slip-up or silly error. Doing so would jeopardise their clients’ cases and could even lead to the client filing a professional negligence claim. 

However, one study showed that almost a quarter of professional-negligence claims stem from administrative errors; missed deadlines, lost documents, diary errors.

In some cases, these errors might have happened precisely because busy seniors juggle work they should have delegated. Fee-earners stay on top of everything because they want to reduce risk. In some cases, however, this increases it.

So how can law firms overcome this fear of delegating? According to Dan Warburton, it’s about delegating the right tasks and in the correct order. Only delegate a task to a junior associate when you are relatively confident they can handle it, and ensure that nothing gets released to a client before someone senior has checked the work.

With one-on-one time, it’s possible to go over pieces of work together and ask the associate to suggest what improvements they can make (instead of telling them). This speeds up the learning process. Then, week by week, you can give associates more and more responsibility.

From the partner’s perspective, they should start to see themselves as the safety net, rather than being the bottleneck.

Billable-hour incentives

When every hour equals revenue, partners naturally hold onto tasks, even low-value ones, to fill their timesheets. Completing another timesheet might feel immediately productive. However, building systems to delegate effectively delivers much greater growth and profitability in the long run.

Consider that the average utilisation rate across UK firms is just 37%, under three billable hours a day. In many cases, this is likely because senior fee-earners are clinging to low-value tasks they could easily delegate to junior colleagues or automate with technology. 

Effective delegation helps firms reclaim these lost margins. Firms that delegate routine work and effectively hold team members accountable, with either fixed-fee or value-based pricing, see profits rise. This is because this approach enables partners to focus on delivering high-value advice, nurturing client relationships, and securing new business.

The three secrets of profitable delegation

Delegation might sound like a vague concept, but it can be boiled down into three simple steps: measure what matters so you know what to delegate, coach juniors on how to handle tasks usually reserved for senior partners, and use technology to lighten the load where possible. 

1. Measure key metrics 

Profitable delegation begins by measuring how your team uses their time. For example, a solicitor who spends 30 minutes daily on basic client onboarding could waste more than 120 billable hours each year. This is equivalent to tens of thousands in revenue. 

Metrics reveal these hidden inefficiencies, allowing your firm to delegate strategically. What’s more, by measuring these metrics on an ongoing basis, you can assess if your approach is delivering the desired results – and if not, tweak your strategy accordingly. 

Dan adds, “Regarding performance, metrics mean nothing if they're not agreed upon, such as billing targets or metrics. Knowing what you want your associates to achieve and ensuring they have everything they need to achieve it is vital. You can’t track progress if you don’t set individual and firm-wide targets to benchmark against.”

2. Coach juniors to create a high-performing team 

Building a team of proactive, capable juniors doesn’t happen by accident. It requires targeted coaching and clear communication.

Coaching juniors to confidently tackle tasks frees senior lawyers for strategic, high-value work, boosts morale, and accelerates career progression throughout the firm – but only when done in the right order.

Dan Warburton says, “A mistake that many of my clients have made was hiring juniors to try and save money when their firms' partners didn’t have the time to train them. When a law firm is in a growth phase, it’s much more effective to hire associates who have more experience so that more demanding work can be delegated to them from the start, while directly freeing up the partners' time. This is something that juniors can’t do as they need so much hand-holding.”

“When my clients invest in recruiting more experienced new team members, this has an extraordinary effect on increasing their firms' profits while reducing their workload. Hiring juniors is only an asset if firms have enough senior associates who can dedicate regular time to training them,” he continues. 

3. Delegate to technology where possible 

Smart law firms use technology to eliminate repetitive, low-value tasks and focus their energy on high-impact client work.

Time is a scarce resource for law firms. Despite this, many still waste hours manually handling processes that they could delegate to technology: document management, onboarding, payments, and more.

This is where tools like Legl can help. With Legl, law firms can:

• Streamline the client onboarding process: 85% of clients at firms using Legl complete onboarding in a day.
• Automate AML and KYC checks: Conduct critical compliance checks in the background without needing to lift a finger. 
• Streamline payments: On average, firms using Legl get paid within 16.3 hours of sending over the payment request. 

By delegating repeatable tasks to technology, your firm can focus on what matters most: delivering excellent client service. 

Myerson Solicitors: A case study in smart delegation

Myerson Solicitors is a 100% employee-owned independent law firm based in Altrincham, South Manchester, with over 160 employees and an annual turnover in 2024 of £17.5 million. Myerson is ranked as Tier 1 in the Legal 500 directory in many sectors.

Founded in 1982 by Neil Myerson, Myerson has evolved from a small boutique practice into a leading independent law firm. Myerson’s growth has been entirely organic, with revenue rising by 84% in the last four years, including a 15% increase in the latest financial year.

Myerson’s strategy is built on five key pillars:

1. Fiercely maintaining its independence
2. Only growing organically
3. Attracting and retaining the best talent
4. Fostering a culture prioritising work-life balance
5. Delivering high-quality legal services to compete with the best

In September 2024, Myerson became Manchester’s first 100% employee-owned law firm – a commitment to independence and collaboration in a market increasingly dominated by private equity takeovers.

Myerson has adopted a unique growth strategy in recent years. The firm fosters a collaborative environment without individual billing targets, empowering lawyers to prioritise client relationships, networking, and strategic business development. Over a decade ago, Myerson adopted Gino Wickman’s ‘Entrepreneurial Operating System’ (EOS), emphasising key metrics, clear monthly goals, structured meetings, and ensuring team members are in roles that play to their strengths. Myerson has also brought in a Financial Director and created an Operations and Data team, which provides real-time data that fuels precise forecasting and strategic decision-making.

Employee training and mentoring are also fundamental to Myerson’s success, ranging from its Pathways to Partnership programme to the market-leading Solicitor Apprentice scheme. Under this scheme, apprentices spend their initial year within business services teams, gaining deep insights into the firm’s operations and equipping them with crucial commercial skills as they begin their career journeys.

Technology is another cornerstone of Myerson’s strategy, helping its team operate as efficiently as possible. For example, Legl plays a key role in simplifying Myerson’s client onboarding process – helping the firm reduce manual workload while providing a first-class level of service. What’s more, Myerson has also invested heavily into cloud platforms, IT equipment for the office and for home use, as well as for mobile working.

Myerson and its independent organic growth ethos is a fantastic example of how combining effective delegation, employee training and technology (such as Legl), can lead to continued success. This year, Myerson is set to surpass £20 million in turnover.

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6 actionable steps for law-firm leaders

Law firm leaders might be understandably hesitant about changing how their firm operates. That’s why it helps to break it down into a manageable process.

Follow the steps below to delegate smartly and effectively. 

1. Set-up regular, weekly one-on-one calls. When everyone across a firm has someone they are accountable to, and who supports them, you’ll get the best out of your people.
2. Map out tasks by levels of responsibility. Clearly define roles and responsibilities for junior and senior team members. This creates clarity over who owns each task. 
3. Don’t employ, mentor. Find out what each of your team members wants to succeed at within their role. Then, use one-on-one time to ensure they’re progressing towards these goals. Investing in helping individuals grow not only increases their performance but also their loyalty to the firm.
4. Introduce regular delegation reviews. Regularly assess what is and isn’t working in your delegation strategy. Ensure that everyone receives the support they need so they don’t keep repeating the same mistakes
5. Standardise your systems. Ask your team members to document their processes and procedures and share them in their one-on-one session. This will allow you to create refined workflows and approval processes to maintain quality control. It will also give juniors clear processes to follow and learn.
6. Deploy technology strategically. Use tools like Legl to automate repeatable and manual compliance, onboarding, and admin tasks.

Final thoughts 

Delegation might feel uncomfortable initially, but it’s essential for any law firm serious about growth. By tracking key metrics, investing in the right team member development, and automating administrative tasks with tools like Legl, firms can serve more clients and scale their business. 

Keen to learn more about how to delegate within your firm? Come chat to us at The Legal Geek Growth event on the 5th June in London, where you’ll have the chance to grab a free and signed copy of Dan’s book, Delegate now to supercharge your profits.

Hope to see you there!

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