Craig Bennett (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP), Andrew Charwat (Jackson Lewis), Tripp O’Connor (Alston & Bird) and Lisa LaMarche (Verrill Dana LLP), each took the time to sign off with a top tip when navigating profitability in the legal industry. Their insights not only exemplified what a commercial mindset looks like in practice but also provided a framework for empowering legal professionals to act with profitability in mind. 

Craig Bennett’s tip cut to the core of sustaining trust: consistency. “I think it’s consistency of the message and consistency of the system that you use,” he noted. Changing your profitability calculations simply because the results are not what you want to see undermines confidence. 

In an industry where many professionals are more attuned to the impact on compensation than to the intricacies of the math, maintaining a consistent system is critical. It reinforces the notion that profitability isn’t an end-all, but a consistent narrative that requires both rigor and transparency.  

A steady, reliable system allows firms to track progress over time and have meaningful conversations about performance without the confusion of shifting benchmarks. 

Andrew Charwat emphasized that data should be accessible and easy to understand: “The key is just to make the data easy for our leaders and our attorneys and others to really understand, to access and to review." 

By using flexible business intelligence tools, law firms can present data in formats tailored for individual stakeholders - ensuring that whether you’re in the executive suite or on the front lines, you can quickly grasp the numbers. This streamlined approach empowers teams to monitor their own performance, and when expectations aren’t met, one-on-one reviews can clarify insights and guide improvements.  

In a fast-moving legal industry, simplifying data reduces friction and fosters a culture of accountability and proactive decision-making. 

Tripp O’Connor offered a final, strategic tip: “Being intentional on the data that you serve up to people is key”. In an era when everyone’s curious and can easily get lost in a sea of numbers, it’s crucial to provide only the most actionable and relevant information. 

In line with this approach, Lisa LaMarche stressed the point, “It is about managing who has access to the data [...] and talking productively about the results.” By curating clean, focused dashboards that highlight key metrics such as client acquisition, rate-setting, and write-off decisions - and by carefully managing data access - leaders prevent endless “rabbit holes” and ensure that the information drives smarter, faster decision-making.

Final Thoughts

We embed ourselves in the finance leadership community to ensure that we understand the challenges across the globe, and by doing this, we benefit from leaders willing to share their knowledge and expertise with others to make the legal finance community stronger.

The tips presented here offer a powerful framework for building a commercial mindset in today’s legal landscape. Whether it’s managing the audience for data, maintaining consistency in how profitability is measured, simplifying access to essential metrics, or being intentional with the information provided, each approach serves as a building block for a more data-driven, transparent, and profitable law firm. 

By adopting these practices, legal professionals can move beyond simply reporting numbers to truly leveraging data as a strategic asset. In doing so, they empower themselves and their teams to make informed decisions, foster accountability, and ultimately drive growth and client value. 

For a deeper dive into these strategies and to hear more from our panel of CFOs, watch the full session here. Discover how a commercial mindset can revolutionize your firm’s approach to profitability and set you on the path to sustainable growth.