From Billable Hours to Client Impact

The billable-hour model that has defined legal practice for decades is showing its age. Clients now expect transparency, speed, and measurable value. Alternative fee arrangements, data-driven reporting, and outcome-based pricing are changing what it means to deliver excellence in law. Coaching is emerging as a strategic enabler of this shift.

The Law Society of England and Wales notes that client expectations for responsiveness and commercial awareness are rising faster than most firms can adapt. Lawyers trained for precision and risk avoidance often find it difficult to balance this with the agility and entrepreneurial mindset now required. Coaching bridges that gap by helping professionals reframe success from hours billed to impact achieved.

Through structured reflection, lawyers learn to think like partners in their clients’ success. Coaching develops confidence in business development, collaboration across departments, and authentic client relationships built on understanding rather than transaction. It also equips partners to lead change internally, aligning firm culture around value creation rather than time capture.

In my work with firms navigating this transition, coaching has proven instrumental in helping lawyers embrace commerciality without compromising integrity. The firms that thrive in the next decade will be those that combine legal excellence with adaptive thinking. Coaching turns that aspiration into practice by humanising the business of law and redefining what real value looks like.