Written By: Dan Safran of Unbiased Consulting, LLC
Featured in Law Journal Newsletters
The legal industry has long relied on the strength of its relationships, the quality of its legal work, and the predictability of its billable hour. But when it comes to financial operations—specifically billing and collections—many firms are still functioning on outdated assumptions, fragmented tools, and reactive processes that no longer meet the demands of the market. If the goal is to grow, improve profitability, and serve clients better, then firms must look at their revenue cycle as a strategic asset—not just a back-office function.
At Unbiased Consulting, we’ve worked with more than a thousand law firms across the globe, from Am Law 10 giants to agile mid-sized firms. What we’re seeing now is a distinct shift in mindset: law firm finance leaders are recognizing that the traditional approaches to billing and collections are falling short. They’re asking harder questions about DSO, realization rates, and write-offs. They’re seeing the cracks in legacy workflows. And they’re ready to take action.
This shift isn’t being driven by hype. It’s being driven by pressure. The pressure to reduce the time it takes to get paid. The pressure to retain talent in finance roles that are often under-resourced and overwhelmed. And perhaps most importantly, the pressure to provide a seamless, modern experience for clients who are no longer willing to tolerate opaque invoices and outdated payment processes.
Let’s be clear: this is not just a technology challenge. Yes, the tools have gotten better—dramatically so. But what’s really required is a coordinated transformation of process, people, and platforms.
Firms are beginning to move away from fragmented point solutions that create more complexity than clarity. In their place, they are adopting integrated revenue cycle strategies that unify billing, collections, payments, and analytics into a single operational approach. This shift to a true invoice-to-cash (i2C) mindset is allowing firms to not only improve efficiency but also to gain much-needed visibility into where revenue is getting stuck—and what can be done about it.
A major driver of this transformation is the evolving nature of client demands and billing requirements. Firms are dealing with increasingly complex outside counsel guidelines, constant waves of rejections and reductions, and a dizzying array of client-specific “to-do” lists that make standardization nearly impossible without the right systems in place. Add to that the high turnover in billing and collections roles, and you begin to understand why the status quo is simply not sustainable.
AI is also beginning to play a valuable role—but only when it’s applied with a clear understanding of the user and the process. When done right, AI acts as a co-pilot for billers and collectors, helping them identify issues before they become problems, prioritize outreach, and even generate smart communications with clients and attorneys. That’s not science fiction. That’s operational intelligence in action. And it’s helping firms reduce DSO by double digits and significantly lower write-offs—often by 20% or more.
But again, these results don’t come from tools alone. They come from rethinking the entire financial lifecycle.
That means centralizing billing and collections—not just for efficiency, but to allow attorneys to stay focused on their clients and legal work. It means standardizing processes so that teams aren’t reinventing the wheel every time they generate an invoice or track a receivable. It means training and cross-training your staff so that institutional knowledge doesn’t disappear with a single resignation. And it means adopting meaningful KPIs and performance metrics so that finance leaders can manage by data, not by guesswork.
Another area where we’re seeing strong movement is in rate and intake strategy. Many firms continue to suffer downstream from poor decisions made at the intake stage. Gathering the right information at the outset, capturing special billing arrangements, and validating client requirements up front can drastically reduce delays and rework later in the cycle.
Firms are also starting to get serious about the client experience. Today’s clients expect more than just accurate legal advice—they expect clarity, transparency, and convenience. That means invoices need to be timely, readable, and accessible. Payment needs to be simple. And communications need to be clear, automated where possible, and proactive. Firms that improve this aspect of the experience often find that collections improve not just in speed—but in tone and in trust.
Looking across the firms we advise, the ones achieving the greatest results are those who are willing to align operational improvements with strategic goals. They don’t treat billing and collections as a “necessary evil”—they treat it as a core business function deserving of investment, innovation, and executive attention.
This is the future of financial operations in law firms. And it’s not a matter of if—but when—most firms will have to evolve. The traditional models simply aren’t built for the complexity, scale, or pace of today’s legal and client environments. And as the gap widens between firms that modernize and those that don’t, the risks become existential—not just operational.
The good news? This transformation is achievable. It doesn’t require a five-year roadmap or a wholesale rip-and-replace. What it requires is a willingness to reexamine long-held assumptions about how revenue flows through the firm. It requires leadership that’s willing to treat finance operations with the same strategic importance as talent, client service, or business development.
For many firms, the first step is a diagnostic—understanding where bottlenecks are occurring, what manual workarounds are costing in terms of time and revenue, and where technology and process redesign can offer the biggest return. From there, it becomes a matter of aligning people, process, and platforms around a single goal: accelerating the revenue cycle while improving the client experience.
This isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about resilience. Firms that modernize their revenue cycle are better equipped to weather economic slowdowns, respond to client pricing pressure, and compete for top talent. They’re more data-driven, more client-focused, and more future-ready.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: managing your revenue cycle by design—intentionally, proactively, and intelligently—is one of the highest-leverage changes a law firm can make. It doesn’t just impact finance. It touches the entire organization.
The firms that recognize this—and act—will define what operational excellence looks like in the next era of legal services.