What if your firm isn’t as profitable as you think it is?
Many SME law firms under £7 million turnover believe they are doing fine. The files are moving. Cash is coming in. The accounts are compliant. Year end shows a profit. On the surface, nothing looks broken. But surface level reassurance is not the same as strategic understanding.
In the opening episode of Season 3, Lara sits down with Tom Blandford, CFO at SurSum Advisory, to explore a question that rarely gets asked directly: are law firms too comfortable with the way they have always handled finance?
Most firms have strong transactional processes. They reconcile daily. They comply with SRA rules. They produce year-end accounts. The machinery works. Strategic finance, however, is something different. It asks harder questions like…
- Where is profit actually made?
- Which departments are pulling their weight?
- Which matter types quietly erode margin?
- Has pricing kept pace with cost increases?
Tom explains that many leadership teams rely heavily on experience and instinct. “We’re profitable at year end.” “We’ve always done it this way.” “We’re busy.” But busy does not automatically mean optimised.
Firm-level profit can mask underperformance within individual departments. A healthy overall number may be concealing cross-subsidy, where one team’s strong margin is compensating for another’s weaker performance. Without detailed analysis, partners can make significant decisions about growth, hiring or investment based on partial information.
What Does Good Profit Actually Look Like?
One of the most useful parts of the conversation centres on how firms define success.
- Is good profit simply higher revenue?
- Is it maintaining current drawings?
- Or is it protecting margin while reducing pressure on partners and teams?
Strategic finance reframes the discussion. It moves the focus from turnover to margin. From activity to value. From comfort to insight.
Tom shares examples of firms that appeared healthy at a headline level, but once departmental performance was examined more closely, a different story emerged. Certain teams were underpricing. Others were over-servicing. In some cases, pricing models had not been reviewed for years.
When leadership teams understand where margin is genuinely generated, they are in a stronger position to decide whether to expand, restructure, reposition or reprice. Financial data becomes a tool for direction rather than a record of the past.
The Role of Fractional Support
The episode also examines why many smaller firms struggle to embed this kind of thinking. Hiring a full-time Finance Director at board level is a significant commitment. For firms under £7 million turnover, it is often unrealistic. This is where fractional support becomes relevant.
Fractional does not mean junior or temporary. It means access to senior strategic expertise without the cost of a full-time appointment. The focus is on outcomes, not hours.
As automation improves across legal finance systems, the technical processing of transactions is no longer the core challenge. Interpretation is.
- Strategic forecasting.
- Margin analysis.
- Commercial challenge.
- Cross-firm benchmarking.
These are the capabilities that help leadership teams move from reactive to intentional.
Importantly, financial insight does not sit in isolation. Clearer visibility on margin and performance supports stronger marketing decisions, sharper pricing strategy and more confident growth plans.
Why This Conversation Matters Today
As 2026 unfolds, law firms face rising costs, recruitment pressure and increasing competition. In that environment, “good enough” can quietly become risky.
This episode opens our Q1 focus on Audit, Strategy and Action. It is about examining where you really are before deciding where to go next.
If you lead a law firm and have ever thought, “We’re doing fine,” this conversation invites you to look beneath the headline numbers and ask a more precise question.
Are you truly optimised, or simply comfortable?