The Business Behind the Verdict:

Why Winning Cases Isn’t the Same as Running a Healthy Plaintiff Firm

For more than 20 years, The Forge Companies have worked alongside plaintiff attorneys and their clients through the settlement planning process. What began in 2003 as Forge Consulting, a national insurance agency specializing in structured settlements and annuities, has grown as we have identified additional gaps facing attorneys, their clients, and their firms.

One of those gaps had little to do with the settlement itself.

Plaintiff attorneys are trained to advocate, negotiate, litigate, and win cases. But attorneys who own or lead a firm are also responsible for running a business, often while managing unpredictable cash flow, increasing case costs, payroll, trust accounting, hiring, and the operational demands that come with growth.

That need spurred the creation of Forge Capital, which provides financial and business support services tailored to attorneys and law firms, including insurance services, attorney fee deferral solutions, lien solutions, and other resources designed around the way contingency-fee firms operate. Through its subsidiary, Abacus Advisors, Forge Capital also helps firms handle the day-to-day business functions that can pull attorneys away from practicing law — including bookkeeping and IOLTA accounting, bill pay, settlement support, payroll, and HR administration.

The philosophy behind these services is simple: a successful law practice needs to be a well-run business.

Treat the Firm Like a Business

One of the most important mindset shifts for any solo, small-firm, or growing-firm attorney is recognizing that owning a law firm means owning a business.

That means thinking beyond the next case or the next settlement.

Where does the firm want to be in three or five years? What types of cases do its lawyers want to handle? What does the ideal team look like? Which functions should remain with attorneys, and which can be delegated or outsourced?

A written growth plan does not need to predict every future decision. The process itself creates value by requiring partners to establish priorities, reach consensus, and communicate those goals to the rest of the firm. It also helps to build the infrastructure for the firm you want to become before you desperately need it.

Good systems around case management, accounting, reporting, and operations may feel unnecessary when a firm is small. As the business grows, however, informal processes become harder to manage. Organization creates visibility, and visibility enables better decision-making.

Look Beyond the Money That Came In

Revenue is obviously important. But revenue alone does not tell the full story of a law firm’s financial health.

Many businesses are managed primarily by lagging indicators, which tell leaders what has already happened. For plaintiff firms, those measures may include the number of matters settled and the amount of legal fees collected.

Those numbers matter, but they are backward-looking.

 Leading indicators, such as new matters signed and forecasted fees from open cases, can offer insight into what's likely to come next. This distinction matters for contingency-fee firms because cash flow can be uneven. One large resolution may make a month or quarter look exceptionally strong, even though the timing of the next significant fee remains uncertain.

The goal is to understand more than the current bank balance.

Tracking information such as case type, marketing source, expected fees, expected completion dates, and actual results can help a firm begin to understand its pipeline and anticipate future cash flow.

Over time, that information can help leadership answer more valuable questions:

Which referral sources are generating the right cases? Which types of cases are most valuable to the firm? How closely do projected fees match actual results? How much expected revenue is currently tied up in open matters?

Knowing what happened last month is useful. Knowing what may happen six months from now is powerful to helping a firm plan.

Do Not Let Strong Collections Hide Weak Systems

A significant fee can make almost any month look good.

It can also make underlying problems easier to overlook.

Strong collections may temporarily hide weak reporting, inefficient processes, accounting errors, or missed opportunities. The purpose of good financial reporting is not simply to document how much money came in and where it went. Accurate financial statements can help firm leaders identify trends, spot potential problems, and make more informed business decisions.

Regular reconciliation is part of that process. Comparing the firm’s records against actual bank activity each month can help identify discrepancies while transactions are still recent and easier to investigate.

The same discipline applies to IOLTA accounts.

Client funds must be carefully tracked, with transactions associated with the appropriate client and balances regularly reconciled. Specific trust-account requirements vary by jurisdiction, but the underlying principle does not: as a firm grows, its financial controls should strengthen rather than become more informal.

Remember That Growth Costs Money

A growing plaintiff firm may want to hire another attorney, expand its support staff, invest in advertising, adopt new technology, open another location, or take on cases requiring greater upfront costs.

Each opportunity may ultimately produce additional revenue, but most require investment before that revenue arrives.

That makes cash management particularly important.

Because law-firm cash flow can be inconsistent, partners should consider setting a target cash balance to retain in the business rather than treating every strong collection period as an opportunity to distribute available funds. Growth itself requires capital.

Good financial visibility allows leadership to make those investments more intentionally.

Can the firm afford another hire? Is the marketing budget producing the right cases? How much capital is already committed to open matters? What happens if a significant settlement expected this quarter doesn't arrive until next quarter?

Those are business questions, not legal questions. But for firm ownership, they can be just as important.

Focus Your Time Where It Matters Most

Running a law firm does not mean the attorney needs to personally handle every business function.

In fact, one of the most important decisions a growing firm can make is determining the highest and best use of the owner’s time. Accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, HR, marketing, technology, and other administrative responsibilities may all be necessary, but they do not necessarily need to live on an attorney’s

desk.

Outsourcing appropriate functions can free both time and internal resources, allowing attorneys and staff to focus more attention on clients, cases, and growth. That is central to the Abacus approach. By taking repetitive, specialized administrative functions off the firm’s plate, Abacus helps attorneys focus on their core business while gaining access to professionals focused on bookkeeping, payroll, HR, and financial operations.

The Business Behind the Verdict

Winning cases will always be at the heart of a successful plaintiff practice. But winning cases does not automatically create a healthy business.

The firms best positioned for sustainable growth understand both sides.

They know their cases, but they also know their numbers. They pay attention to today’s collections while planning for tomorrow’s expenses. They build systems before growth forces them to scramble, and they recognize when their time is better spent practicing law than managing an administrative function that someone else can handle more efficiently.

That same philosophy has shaped The Forge Companies' growth.

We began by helping attorneys and their clients navigate structured settlements and annuities. As additional needs emerged, we expanded our platform to address them. Advocacy Wealth Management was established to provide financial planning services. Advocacy Trust was developed to provide trust planning and administration. Forge Capital was created to provide financial and business support tailored to attorneys and their firms.

Abacus Advisors is an important part of that effort.

Whether a law firm is just getting started, cleaning up outdated processes, or preparing for its next stage of growth, Abacus provides practical support including IOLTA accounting, bill pay, settlement support, payroll processing, HR administration, and bookkeeping or IOLTA clean-up projects.

For more than two decades, Forge has focused on identifying the gaps that make attorneys’ work more complicated and building services designed to help fill them.

Because sometimes the best way to help a law firm succeed is not in the courtroom.

It is helping strengthen the business behind the verdict.

About Charlie Feehan

Charlie spent the first 18 years of his career in sales, brand management, and sales leadership for a global pharmaceutical firm. After leaving the pharmaceutical industry, Charlie opened and operated numerous small businesses throughout the Atlanta area. In 2014, Charlie's career pivoted again when he joined Abacus to meet a need in the legal industry. At the time, Abacus had 20 clients. Charlie has helped grow and scale Abacus into the company it is today, serving almost 300 clients.