Most firms write off receivables that were never really uncollectable, whether the balance is frozen behind one disputed line item, the invoice was rejected by a client's e-billing system, or nobody had time to follow up. We find that money and recover it in your firm's name, confidentially, on a read-only basis, and only with your approval.
The average law firm carries about 93 days of work that is either unbilled or unpaid, and that figure keeps getting worse even as firms bill faster.
The reasons are usually mundane. Nobody has time to work the aging report, a call never quite gets made, an invoice is rejected by a client's portal and forgotten, or one disputed line item freezes the whole balance. Very little of it has to do with clients refusing to pay.
Recorded as billable, then written down or never billed.
Invoiced to a client and never paid.
Revenue sitting in invoices already sent, a figure that keeps rising even as firms bill faster.
At a firm billing $25M a year, the gap between recorded work and invoiced work is worth several million dollars annually. Some of it is deliberate, in the form of discounts a partner chose to give. Much of it is not, and shows up as invoices rejected by a client's system and never resubmitted, work that was never billed, and balances frozen behind one disputed line.
Of what does get invoiced, roughly $1.75M a year is never collected, and much of that was still recoverable when it was written off.
Utilization, realization, collection and lockup figures from the Clio Legal Trends Report, 2025. Firm-level figures are illustrative, based on typical mid-market economics. Actual results vary by practice area, client mix and account age.
We work with firms of roughly 20 to 200 attorneys, large enough to have real money in aged receivables and busy enough that the oldest accounts never reach the top of anyone's list.
Some of these firms have nobody dedicated to collections. Others have a very good billing coordinator already at capacity keeping current accounts moving. Either way, the accounts needing the most work are the ones getting the least.
If your firm also bills corporate clients through portals such as Legal Tracker, TyMetrix, Collaborati or Brightflag, there is usually a second pool of recoverable money in your rejected-invoice history. Most firms have never looked at it.
We work inside your billing process rather than around it, either from an address on your domain or as a named extension of your billing team. Nothing is handed off to an outside party and nothing we send is a demand.
Most of what we recover involves no difficult conversation at all. It comes from finding out why an invoice was rejected, fixing it, and resubmitting it correctly.
Outreach is sent in your firm's voice, either from your domain or as a named extension of your billing team.
Every account is scored for relationship sensitivity before anyone is contacted, and you approve the approach.
Every touch is logged, so you can see exactly what was said, to whom, and what came back.
Any account you would rather handle internally, or leave alone entirely, is handled that way.
Aged AR is not one problem but four different ones, and each needs a different response. Most firms treat all of it the same way, with a reminder, a second reminder, then a write-off, which is why most of it never moves.
Recovery probability falls the longer an account goes unworked.
The invoice was rejected over a task code error, an unapproved timekeeper, a rate mismatch or a formatting problem. The client never disputed the work, but nobody reworked and resubmitted it. This money is already approved and recoverable once the paperwork is fixed.
The client questioned one line item and the entire invoice stopped moving. The undisputed balance, usually the large majority, can be collected now, with the contested portion handled separately.
There is no dispute and no complaint. The invoice is unpaid because nobody asked a second time.
The client cannot pay in full right now. A structured payment plan recovers more than an all-or-nothing demand, and preserves a relationship worth keeping.
Enter your aging balances in our free 90-day AR exposure check to see how much of your ledger has slipped past 90 days, benchmarked against the law-firm guideline. No exact figures needed.
We go through your aging report, write-off history and e-billing rejection record, then give you a written analysis of what is recoverable, why each account is stuck, and what it is worth going after.
We work the backlog the audit identified, reworking and resubmitting rejected invoices, unbundling frozen balances and following up on neglected accounts. Scoped from the audit findings.
Once the backlog is clear we keep it clear, catching rejections as they happen, working the aging before it turns into a write-off, and reporting monthly on where the firm stands.
We charge flat fees rather than a share of what we collect, so you know what this costs before we start. The audit fee is credited against recovery work if you go ahead.
Not sure what you're carrying? Check your ledger first with our free 90-day AR exposure check.
| Under 50 attorneys | 50–200 attorneys | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue Recovery Audit | $8,000 | $12,000 |
| Backlog Recovery Project | From $15,000 | From $25,000 |
| Ongoing Recovery | $6,000 / month | $10,000 / month |
A written analysis of your aged AR and e-billing rejection history, covering what is recoverable, why each account is stuck, and what it is worth pursuing. The starting point for every engagement, credited in full against a recovery project.
A one-time engagement to work the recoverable backlog the audit identified, scoped from those findings with a defined end date. Larger backlogs are priced higher, and you will have the number before the audit is delivered.
A monthly retainer. Rejections are caught and fixed as they happen, aging is worked before it becomes a write-off, and you receive monthly reporting on where the firm stands.
We start by asking why each balance is sitting there, because the answer determines everything that follows.
An invoice rejected by a portal needs a formatting fix, not a reminder. A balance frozen behind one disputed line needs unbundling so the other 90% can be collected. A client who cannot pay this quarter needs a payment plan, not pressure. Sorting those apart before anyone is contacted is why every engagement starts with an audit.
Confidentiality is treated as the top priority of every engagement. Access to your systems is read-only and limited to the specific billing and receivables data needed for the work, set up during onboarding and removed the moment the engagement ends. We never hold client funds, never take assignment of accounts, and never contact anyone without the firm's approval. All work can be conducted within your own systems and under your firm's name, and we are glad to sign a confidentiality agreement. For firms with heightened confidentiality requirements, we scope the engagement around your specific protocols before any work begins.
Read access to your billing and matter data, which usually means your practice management system and your general ledger, whether that is QuickBooks, Xero or something else. Where you bill through client portals we need access to those as well. Access is read-only, we never move or hold funds, and the user is set up during onboarding and removed when the engagement ends.
This would depend on how you want it set up. Where the firm provides an address on your domain, everything goes out under your firm's name and the arrangement is invisible to clients. Where a firm would rather not, we are introduced by your firm as part of your billing team. Either way, you approve the approach on every account before anyone is contacted.
Some practice management systems send reminders on a schedule, which works on clients who intend to pay and have not got round to it. It does nothing for an invoice rejected by a client's portal, a balance frozen behind one disputed line, or an account that needs someone to work out why it has not moved in four months. Those are the accounts we deal with, and they are where most of the write-offs come from.
Nothing. You mark them and they stay untouched. Some firms exclude particular clients entirely, some exclude anything above a certain balance, and some want every account routed to a partner before contact. All of that is set at the start and can change at any point.
Our work is strongest on hourly and e-billed matters, where the gap between work performed and cash collected is widest. Contingency practices have a different shape, though there is often recoverable money in advanced costs and undistributed fees. A firm with a mixed practice is usually a good fit for the hourly side of its book, and worth a conversation either way.
The audit is priced as a standalone piece of work, so you get the analysis whether or not it leads to anything further. If there is nothing worth pursuing, it will say so.
Most firms are surprised by what the audit turns up, not because the money was hidden but because nobody had ever looked at all of it in one place.
Prefer a lower-commitment first step? The free 90-day AR exposure check gives you the headline number in a couple of minutes. You can also send a message below if you have a question first.
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