Compensation, billing, and the business behind legal work.
12 articles
Before you hang out a shingle, run the numbers. Here are the money questions that decide whether a solo practice survives its first eighteen months.
An hourly rate is not a random number, and a client's bill is not just your time. Here is what actually sits behind the figure, from a former principal who signed the invoices.
Tuition is only the headline. Here is an honest accounting of what qualifying to practise law in Canada actually costs, including the bills nobody warns you about.
The money habits you build in your first few years quietly decide how much freedom you have later. Here is what compounds, and what to start now.
Base salary is only half the story. Here is how the variable parts of legal pay actually work, from articling bonuses to partner draws, and what to ask before you sign.
Access-to-justice work is often framed as charity. Look closer and it is one of the smarter investments a society makes, and a real career worth taking seriously.
Legal pay is shaped by more than your firm's letterhead. Here is an honest look at the levers that move a lawyer's income across thirty years of practice.
Articling pay rarely matches your loan balance, and that is normal. Here is a grounded, no-shame plan for handling law school debt through the lean early years.
Flat fees, caps, contingency and subscriptions are quietly reshaping how legal work gets priced. Here is how each model works and where it actually fits.
What it actually costs to run a small firm, where the money really comes from, and the quiet financial habits that keep the doors open past year three.
Your first articling paycheque will be smaller than the number on your offer letter. Here is how to read a pay stub, plan around take-home pay, and avoid a nasty April surprise.
A law firm looks like a place that sells legal advice. Underneath, it is a business that rents out hours and lives on the gap between what it pays and what it bills.