Why Law Firm Goals Conflict (And How to Set Goals That Work Together) 

Law firm goals often conflict because they require incompatible resources—time, money, or focus—without clear prioritization or sequencing. Common conflicts include “grow revenue AND work less” or “hire an associate AND can’t afford one yet.” To set goals that work together, you need to map the inputs each goal requires, identify trade-offs explicitly, and sequence goals instead of pursuing them simultaneously. 

If you’re a law firm owner who set goals in January and you’re already feeling behind, overwhelmed, or like you’re failing at all of them simultaneously—you’re not alone. And you’re probably not the problem. 

The problem is that most law firm goals actively conflict with each other. 

“Increase revenue by 30% AND work fewer hours AND take Fridays off AND hire an associate AND improve work-life balance” aren’t goals. They’re contradictions. 

I’m Stephanie Everett, founder of Lawyerist Lab. After helping hundreds of small law firm owners set goals, I can tell you: you can’t optimize for everything at once. But most firm owners try—and then spend the year feeling guilty that they can’t make it all work. 

Examples of Conflicting Law Firm Goals 

Here are the most common goal conflicts we see in small law firms: 

“Grow revenue AND work less” Revenue growth usually requires one of two things: more of your time (taking on more clients, doing more business development) or significant delegation (which requires hiring, training, building systems, and managing people—all of which take time to set up). You can grow revenue while working less, but not immediately, and not without trade-offs. 

“Launch a new practice area AND grow the existing one” New practice areas require significant time investment: learning the law, building systems, developing marketing, finding the first few clients. That’s time you’re not spending on your established practice area. Both goals require focus—but you only have one calendar. 

“Improve client experience AND increase caseload” Better client experience usually means more touch points, more communication, more attention per client. More clients means less time per client. These goals pull in opposite directions unless you’re also building systems and delegating—which brings us back to time and money trade-offs. 

“Delegate more AND maintain quality control” You want to get work off your plate, but you’re terrified of lowering quality. So you delegate, then micromanage, which takes as much time as doing it yourself. The goal to delegate conflicts with your need for control—and you haven’t built the systems that would let you do both. 

Most firm owners don’t realize their goals conflict until they’re several weeks or months into the year, exhausted, and wondering why they can’t seem to make progress on anything. 

How Do You Know If Your Business Goals Conflict?

Before you spend months working toward incompatible goals, test for conflict: 

Do your goals compete for the same resources? 

• Time: Can you realistically do both with your current schedule? 

• Money: Can your current revenue support both investments? 

• Focus: Do both require your strategic attention simultaneously? 

If yes to any of these, your goals conflict. 

Do your goals pull in opposite directions? 

Compare your goals against these common tensions: 

Can you realistically achieve all goals within your current business model? 

Ask yourself: 

• What would it actually take to achieve each goal? (Be specific: hours per week, dollars invested, systems built, people hired) 

• Do I have those resources available right now? 

• If I pursue this goal, what am I NOT doing? 

If the answers reveal impossible trade-offs, your goals conflict. 

Why Law Firm Owners Set Conflicting Goals 

You’re smart. You’re detail-oriented. You passed the bar exam. So why do you keep setting goals that work against each other? 

You’re thinking about outcomes, not inputs. “Grow revenue” is an outcome. “Work less” is an outcome. But you haven’t thought about the inputs required to produce those outcomes—and whether those inputs are compatible. Revenue growth might require more business development time, more client delivery time, or significant upfront investment in hiring and systems. Working less requires delegation, systems, or saying no to opportunities. When you map the inputs, you see the conflict. 

You’re setting goals in isolation. You write down “increase revenue” without thinking about your capacity constraints. You write down “launch a new practice area” without thinking about where the time will come from. Each goal sounds reasonable on its own. Together, they’re impossible. 

You haven’t defined your constraints. Goals without constraints are just wishes. How many hours are you willing to work? What’s your current capacity? What’s your pricing model? What can you actually afford to spend? If you don’t know your constraints, you can’t tell whether your goals fit within them. 

You think you should be able to do it all. Most lawyers are high achievers. You’re used to getting As. You graduated law school, passed the bar, built a practice from nothing. So when you set conflicting goals and can’t make them all work, you assume you’re the problem. You’re not working hard enough. You’re not smart enough. You’re failing. 

But you’re not failing. Your goals are incompatible. That’s a design problem, not a you problem. 

The Real Cost of Conflicting Business Goals 

When your goals work against each other, here’s what actually happens: 

You feel constantly behind. You’re making progress on one goal, which means you’re not making progress on another. So you always feel like you’re failing at something. The guilt is constant. 

You scatter your focus. You try to make incremental progress on everything, which means you don’t make meaningful progress on anything. You’re busy, but nothing’s really moving. 

You burn out. You’re working hard, staying busy, checking boxes—but the business isn’t getting easier and your life isn’t getting better. Eventually, something breaks. 

You blame yourself. You assume other firm owners have figured this out. You assume you’re the problem. So you work harder, which makes the burnout worse. 

You waste time and money. You invest in tactics that don’t fit your model. You hire before you’re ready. You launch marketing campaigns for practice areas you don’t have capacity for. Because your goals aren’t aligned, your actions don’t compound—they cancel each other out. 

How Many Goals Should a Law Firm Have?

Two to three goals that work together will always outperform ten goals that conflict. 

Here’s why: 

Fewer goals mean clearer priorities. When you have ten goals, everything feels urgent and nothing gets the focus it needs. With two to three goals, you know exactly what matters most. 

Fewer goals allow for deeper execution. You can actually build the systems, make the investments, and do the work required to achieve meaningful progress—instead of making shallow progress on everything. 

Fewer goals create compounding effects. When your goals align, progress on one supports progress on another. When your goals conflict, progress on one undermines progress on another. 

Your objective isn’t to do less. It’s to choose goals that don’t cancel each other out. 

How to Set Law Firm Goals That Actually Work Together

Here’s how to fix conflicting business goals: 

1. Map the inputs, not just the outcomes

For every goal, ask: What will it actually take to achieve this? 

• “Grow revenue by 30%” might require: 15 more clients, or raising prices by 40%, or hiring an associate and delegating 50% of your caseload. 

• “Work less” might require: saying no to 20% of inquiries, delegating client communication, or building intake systems. 

• “Hire an associate” requires: $80K+ in salary and overhead, systems for delegation, management time, and a caseload that can support their salary. 

When you map the inputs—time, money, focus, systems—you start to see where goals conflict. 

2. Identify the trade-offs explicitly

Ask: If I pursue this goal, what am I NOT doing? 

• If you launch a new practice area, you’re not growing your existing one. 

• If you take Fridays off, you’re either delegating, reducing volume, or raising prices to maintain revenue with less time. 

• If you hire before your pricing supports it, you’re accepting lower profit margins (or working more to generate the revenue to cover their salary). 

Trade-offs aren’t bad. But pretending they don’t exist is how you end up with conflicting goals. 

3. Sequence your goals instead of pursuing them simultaneously

Some goals need to happen before others. 

• You can’t delegate effectively until you have systems. 

• You can’t work less until you’ve hired and trained someone to take work off your plate. 

• You can’t launch a new practice area until you’ve stabilized your current one. 

Ask: What needs to be true before this goal is possible? 

Then build a sequence: First this, then that. Not everything at once. 

4. Choose your constraint

You can’t optimize for everything. What’s the one constraint you’re unwilling to compromise on? 

• If it’s “I will not work more than 40 hours per week,” then revenue growth has to happen through pricing, positioning, or delegation—not volume. 

• If it’s “I will not compromise on quality,” then growth has to be slower and more controlled. 

• If it’s “I need to hit $X in revenue this year,” then work-life balance might have to wait until you’ve built the systems and team to support that revenue without burning out. 

This isn’t about giving up on goals. It’s about being honest about what you’re optimizing for right now—so your other goals can align with that constraint instead of fighting it. 

5. Test for alignment before you commit

Before you finalize your goals for the year, run this test: 

? Do these goals require the same resources (time, money, focus)? If yes, they may conflict. 

? Do these goals pull in opposite directions? (More revenue vs. less time, more clients vs. better experience, growth vs. stability) 

? Can I realistically achieve all of these within my current business model constraints? If no, something has to give. 

If your goals conflict, you have three options: 

1. Sequence them. Do one first, then the other. 

1. Choose one. Prioritize the goal that matters most right now. 

1. Change your model. If you want both goals, what has to change about your business model to make them compatible? (Usually: pricing, positioning, systems, or team.) 

What Setting Aligned Goals Actually Looks Like 

Here’s what happens when you set goals that actually work together: 

You make real progress. Instead of scattered incremental movement on ten things, you make meaningful progress on the two or three things that actually move your business forward. 

You stop feeling guilty. You’re not failing at seven goals. You’re focused on the two that matter most right now—and you know exactly why you’re not pursuing the others yet. 

Your actions compound. Because your goals align, the work you do on one goal supports the others. Raising your prices gives you capacity to improve client experience. Building systems makes delegation possible. Everything reinforces everything else. 

You can actually see if you’re on track. When your goals don’t conflict, you can measure progress clearly. You’re not constantly adjusting for trade-offs you didn’t anticipate. 

Most Firm Owners Are Trying to Solve a Design Problem with Effort

If your goals keep conflicting, the answer isn’t to work harder or be more disciplined. 

The answer is to redesign your goals so they fit your actual business model constraints and work together instead of against each other. 

That requires: 

• Understanding your business model (pricing, capacity, positioning) 

• Knowing your constraints (time, money, systems, team) 

• Being honest about trade-offs 

• Sequencing goals instead of pursuing them all at once 

• Choosing what you’re optimizing for right now 

Most firm owners skip this work. They set goals that sound good, then spend the year feeling guilty that they can’t make them all happen. 

You don’t have to do that.