01
Foundations & Vision
Decide what firm you are building and why, then put the numbers and positioning under it.
- Practice model
- Positioning
- Target economics
- Business plan
The Program
The Spine: a twelve-month course in the business of law.
A structured, faculty-led curriculum that teaches solo and small-firm attorneys to build and run a firm as seven connected systems, in the order they actually depend on each other.
Law school taught you the law. It did not teach you the firm.
Every attorney who opens a practice discovers the same gap on the same week. The work you were trained for is only part of the job. The rest, finding clients, pricing work, hiring, cash flow, systems, is the business of law, and no one taught it in sequence.
The Spine is that missing education. Twelve months, seven systems, taught by faculty who have each built the thing they teach. You finish with a firm that runs on structure, not on your personal stamina.
The curriculum
Seven systems, in order.
Each module builds the system the next one depends on. You work through them in sequence and leave each with something built, not just understood.
02
Intake & Conversion
Build an intake system that answers, qualifies, and follows up so good matters stop slipping away.
- Intake workflow
- Qualification
- Follow-up cadence
- Conversion tracking
03
Operations & Technology
Standardize how the work gets done so the firm runs the same way whether or not you are in the room.
- Matter workflows
- Tech stack
- SOPs
- File standards
04
People & Hiring
Hire, delegate, and lead so the practice stops depending on your personal capacity.
- First hires
- Delegation
- Roles & comp
- Team rhythm
05
Marketing & Reputation
Build a referable reputation and a marketing plan sized for a law practice, not a startup.
- Marketing plan
- Referral engine
- Online presence
- Reputation
06
Finance & Profitability
Read your own numbers and manage pricing, billing, and cash so the firm is profitable by design.
- Pricing
- Billing & trust
- Cash flow
- KPIs
07
Growth & Scale
Add capacity and lines of work, and put a succession plan in place, without breaking what works.
- Capacity
- New practice areas
- Succession
- Exit options
How it works
A cohort, not a course library.
The Spine runs as a live, twelve-month cohort with the curriculum, the faculty, and the people around you all in one place.
Each month
Faculty-led sessions
One system at a time, taught by the faculty member who built it, with the workbook and templates to build your own.
Live
Monthly Q&A
Bring the real problem in front of your firm this month and work it through with faculty on the call.
Keep it
The Resource Library
Eleven companion volumes of checklists, templates, and worked examples, mapped to the systems, yours to keep.
Around you
A peer community
Firm owners at your stage solving the same problems, without the noise of a public forum.
On your time
Recordings
Every session recorded and indexed, so a busy practice week never means falling behind the cohort.
In sequence
A real path
The modules run in the order the systems depend on each other, so the work compounds instead of scattering.
Who it is for
Built for owners, not spectators.
A fit if you are
- A solo or small-firm attorney (roughly 2 to 30 people) who owns the outcome.
- Past the question of whether to have a firm and into how to run one well.
- Ready to build systems, not collect more tactics.
- Willing to do the monthly work between sessions.
Probably not yet if you are
- Looking for a single marketing trick or a quick lead source.
- Not the person who can decide and change how the firm operates.
- Unable to give the cohort consistent monthly time this year.
- Hoping for a course to watch rather than a firm to build.
The faculty
Taught by people who built the thing.
No single attorney has built every kind of practice. The Institute assembles faculty who have each solved a different part of the problem, and asks them to teach the system they actually built.
§
Founding Faculty
Firm foundations and practice model, from a board-certified attorney who built a firm from the ground up.
›
Founding Faculty
Client acquisition and reputation, taught by a practitioner who built a referable, marketing-led practice.
∑
Founding Faculty
Finance, pricing, and profitability, from an operator who runs a firm by its numbers.
Founding Faculty profiles are published as each member’s participation is confirmed.
Questions
Before you apply.
The Spine is a business-of-law education, not a legal-subject CLE. Continuing-education credit varies by jurisdiction, and any credit status is confirmed in writing before a cohort begins rather than assumed here.
Plan for one live session, one Q&A, and the month’s build work on your own firm. It is designed to fit a working practice, and every session is recorded so a heavy week does not set you back.
Tuition and payment options are discussed during the application conversation, once we understand your firm and confirm the cohort is a fit. The Institute makes no earnings or results promises; what you build depends on the work you put in.
The cohort works because the people in it are a fit for it. The application is a short conversation about your firm and your goals, so both sides can decide the timing is right before you commit.
The Founding Cohort
Build the firm you meant to build, one system at a time.
We open a limited founding cohort and review each application for fit. Not sure yet? Score your firm across the seven systems first.