Why “Grow Revenue” Isn’t a Law Firm Strategy (And What Actually Is) 

Most lawyers start their annual planning by listing goals like:

• Hit $1M
• Hire an associate
• Add a new practice area
• Improve marketing
• Raise rates

These goals matter. They belong in a plan.
But goals alone don’t give your firm direction.

They tell you what you want—without defining how you’ll get there or what you’re willing to stop doing to make space for growth.

That’s the gap where most firms stall out.

At Lawyerist, our business strategist work with law firm owners in our Lab program to create meaningful strategic plans. These plans connect their goals to the choices, trade-offs, and boundaries that give those goals direction. Below is the simplest way to understand that difference and the decisions every firm must make before their goals actually mean something.

A law firm strategy is the set of deliberate choices that define the business you are building.

It clarifies:

• Who you serve
• What work you do (and don’t do)
• How you deliver value
• What you refuse, even when it’s tempting
• Which trade-offs you’re accepting to move forward

Strategy is direction, not a task list.

It defines the kind of firm you’re becoming and aligns your goals, pricing, systems, team, and decisions around that direction.

When strategy is clear, the entire business pulls in the same direction instead of drifting across competing priorities.

This is where most firms slip.

They set goals—good goals—but never connect them to the decisions that give those goals meaning. So they end up with plans that look ambitious on paper and chaotic in practice.

Here’s the tell: Your goals point one way, but your clients, services, pricing, team structure, and daily decisions are all pulling sideways.

A revenue target doesn’t answer:

• Who are we growing for?

• What work actually fits our future?

• What will we stop taking on to create space?

• What trade-offs are we choosing on purpose?

Without those decisions, a goal is just a number.

Goals set the destination.
Strategy makes the destination possible.

A strategy aligns your goals, team, pricing, systems, and decisions so the entire business is pointed in the same direction.

Once you understand the gap between goals and strategy, the next step is simple:
shift from what you want to what you’re choosing.

Real strategy shows up in the decisions that shape your firm’s direction:

• Which clients define your future
• Which services strengthen your model
• What work you’ll stop accepting, even if it’s profitable
• What boundaries you’ll enforce for intake, pricing, and timelines
• Which trade-offs you’ll make to create clarity and capacity

These choices turn a list of goals into an actual plan.
They create alignment.
And they give your team a clear way to execute.

Most firms never do this work. The ones that do look—and operate—completely differently.

I see this play out every week inside Lawyerist Lab.

A firm comes in with a set of goals—hit a revenue number, expand a practice area, hire someone new. Reasonable goals. Important goals.

But the real shift starts when we dig underneath the goals and uncover the choices the firm hasn’t made yet.

I worked with a small litigation firm owner who joined Lab frustrated that growth felt harder every year. They kept adding: more matters, more people, more marketing. Yet their stress curve never moved.

A few conversations in, it became obvious why.

They had goals.
They had activity.
They had almost no strategic decisions.

Once we clarified who they were actually building the firm for, what work would define their future, and what they needed to stop doing, everything changed. Their hiring plan simplified. Their pricing aligned. Their caseload shrank—while revenue went up.

That’s what happens when goals finally meet strategy.

It’s the kind of work most firms never give themselves space to do alone—and exactly the work we do with owners inside Lab.

A strategic plan built on real choices changes everything.

It narrows your focus.
It strengthens your business model.
It gives your team a clear direction instead of a growing list of tasks.

Goals still matter—but once they’re anchored to the decisions that define your firm’s future, they finally start to work.

So as you plan for 2026, don’t start by asking what you should add.
Start by asking what you’re choosing.

That’s where clarity begins.