We had three bar complaints in one month. Clients were furious. Half our team wanted to quit. We were losing money fast—despite rapid growth to eight attorneys in 18 months.
That was us in late 2015.
Today, Sterling Law is a $17M+ firm with 27 attorneys, a Net Promoter Score in the mid-70s, and a 100% fixed-fee family law model. But it almost didn’t happen.
Here are the hard-won lessons that helped us survive and scale, rooted in the story of how we started and the values that shaped our firm.
1. Pick the Right Business Model, Not Just the Industry
Tony Carlson and I were running a satellite TV business. Streaming killed that market.
Tony and his manager pitched starting a roofing company. Logical idea: high-dollar, local, one-time transaction. But I had been thinking about going back into law—and it matched that same business model.
Divorce, like roofing, is local, expensive, and usually a one-time thing. We also had a competitive edge: I was a licensed lawyer.
So we launched a law firm instead.
Key takeaway: Choose your market based on business model fundamentals and your unique strengths.
2. Being Good at Marketing Isn’t Enough
We grew to eight attorneys in 18 months.
That sounds impressive until you hear the rest:
- We accepted any case: family law, estate planning, personal injury, criminal.
- We hired reactively. Our fourth hire was a criminal defense lawyer because we got a call about one.
- We said yes to every client who could pay.
We made money on paper. But it was chaos. No focus. No profitability.
Lesson: Use your growth engine (in our case, digital marketing) to scale—but don’t let it outpace your operations.
3. Get Outside Help When You’re Stuck
Three bar complaints in one month made us realize something had to change.
I reached out to Lee Rosen, a respected family law consultant. His $10,000 fee was a gut punch—but worth every dollar.
Tony and I flew to South Beach for a one-day session. We left with pages of notes and a plan: blow up the firm and rebuild it from scratch.
4. Make Hard Decisions Quickly
Within three weeks:
- We dropped every practice area except family law.
- We moved to 100% fixed-fee pricing.
- We began investing in technology and systems.
We lost half our staff and 40% of our clients.
It hurt. Bad.
But we believed in the plan. And it worked. That commitment to clarity and purpose still defines our firmwide strategy.
5. Fixed Fee Family Law Was Supposed to Be Impossible
Everyone said fixed fees wouldn’t work in family law.
They were wrong.
Clients loved it immediately—especially when we underpriced it early on.
But making it sustainable took years. We had to:
- Shift our mindset from reactive to proactive.
- Figure out how to quote accurately.
- Rebuild how we sold legal services.
Our first attempt used event-based pricing. It failed. So we switched to time-based stages, with clear deliverables at each step. That worked.
We also began documenting and refining our pricing in resources like My Client Book, so other attorneys could learn from our mistakes.
6. If You Can’t Delegate, You Can’t Scale
The biggest limiting factor in any small law firm? The founder’s ego.
Letting others do legal work—and watching them screw it up—is brutal.
But necessary.
Delegation is hard because we’re trained to value perfect work product. But growth means training others and letting go of perfection.
You can stay small. Nothing wrong with that. But you won’t grow without delegation.
7. Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others
Scaling a firm doesn’t start with hiring.
It starts with mastering yourself.
In my early years, I spent hours driving between courthouses. I used that time to listen to leadership books on CD. That commitment to personal development laid the groundwork for everything we built.
The ability to scale only came once I learned to lead myself. This principle shows up repeatedly in our team interviews and case studies from lawyers we’ve mentored.
8. Results Today: What Fixed Fee and Focus Can Do
- 27 attorneys, 100% fixed-fee family law
- $17M+ annual revenue
- Average attorney revenue: $650K+
- Net Promoter Score: mid-70s (Disney is lower)
We only do:
- Divorce
- Paternity
- Post-judgment matters
No PI. No adoption. No criminal.
Just family law. Done better than anyone else. You can see where we operate in Wisconsin and Illinois.
9. There Are No Shortcuts—Just Clear Choices
You will face the pain of:
- Letting people go
- Refunding clients
- Watching revenue dip
But if you want to scale, you must make the hard calls.
Stay broad, reactive, and hourly—and suffer forever.
Or narrow your focus, lead with courage, and build something that works.
Want to Learn More?
We’re documenting the full Sterling Law journey through podcast and video. For deeper dives on what worked and what didn’t, check out our ongoing case studies and curated resources for attorneys scaling firms of their own.
Let us know which part of our story you want to hear more about.
