For law firms
Managing people at a law firm without an HR department
You are the office administrator or the managing partner of a firm with between two and forty attorneys. Around them are paralegals, legal assistants, a receptionist and someone on billing. Nobody has an HR title. The administrator handles hiring, time off and the handbook. The managing partner handles the conversations nobody else will have.
The moments where people work goes wrong
The associate who hears nothing until review season
A second-year associate turns in drafts and gets them back marked up, with no word on whether the work is getting better. The first real conversation about her progress is the annual review. By then she has already taken a call from a recruiter.
The partner nobody will give upward feedback to
One partner rewrites everything late at night and copies the whole team on the corrections. Every associate and paralegal knows it. Nobody says it, because the person who would hear it also has a say in their bonus.
Another legal assistant gives notice
Each partner wants filings prepared, calendars kept and calls handled a particular way. When a legal assistant leaves, that knowledge leaves with her. The replacement learns it one correction at a time.
Bar renewals and notary commissions on separate calendars
Each attorney's bar registration renews on the state's schedule. The notary commissions held by staff run on their own terms. The reminders go to personal inboxes, and the administrator finds out a commission lapsed when a document needs notarizing that afternoon.
Deciding who makes senior paralegal
Two paralegals want the senior title. One is fast and the partners ask for her by name. The other trains every new hire. The decision gets made in a partners' meeting from memory, and the one who did not get it asks what she should have done differently.
What it costs the firm
Associates leave before anyone knew they were unhappy
Without regular feedback, a good associate assumes the worst and a struggling one assumes all is well. The firm loses the first to another firm and keeps the second a year too long.
One partner's habits set the turnover rate
When feedback cannot travel upward, the same partner goes through assistant after assistant. The firm treats each departure as bad luck. The pattern is visible only to the people who left.
Promotions look like favoritism
With nothing written down about the year, a title or a raise goes to whoever the partners remember best. The people passed over cannot see a reason, so they make one up.
How LVL Up helps
1:1s and feedback between reviews
A supervising attorney and an associate keep a monthly 1:1 with a shared agenda, notes and action items, and anything not covered carries to the next meeting. Feedback can be given the day a draft comes back, so the annual review summarizes a year of conversations instead of starting one.
Upward reviews and anonymous feedback
A review cycle can include upward reviews, so the people who work for a partner are asked how it goes. Anonymous feedback is there for what people will not sign. In a small firm, anonymity is thinner than the word suggests, and a partner may still guess who wrote what.
Bar, notary and other dated credentials, with a reminder
Each attorney's bar registration and each notary commission sits on the person's record with its expiry date and a copy of the document. You choose how far ahead the reminder goes. The holder and the admins are emailed, and one view lists what is expiring next across the firm.
A record to decide promotions from
Each person has a timeline of goals, feedback, recognition and reviews. When two paralegals want one title, the partners read the year instead of remembering it. Clients can respond through the external feedback link, so what a client said about someone can sit on that record too.
Where we are the wrong answer
LVL Up does not track billable hours, utilization or realization, and it does not connect to your timekeeping or practice-management software. It can hold a bar renewal or a CLE certificate as a dated credential, but it does not count CLE hours or tell you whether an attorney has met a reporting period. Client feedback through the external link is attached to a person, not to a matter or an engagement. It does not check bar status with the state, run payroll, or touch conflicts or trust accounting. It holds employment records for your staff, not client or customer records, and it does not replace your practice-management, matter-management or job-management software. Your firm may know employment law better than any software does; LVL Up keeps the record and does not give advice.
Which plan, and what it costs
Team — Up to 25 people
$29/month, or $278/year
A firm with a handful of attorneys and their staff is usually under 25 people, and Team includes staff records, credential alerts, time off, documents, reviews with upward and 360 feedback, 1:1s and recognition. A larger firm picks Growth for the same core with room for more people, plus career paths for the paralegal and associate ladders and API access.
- • Performance reviews & 360° feedback
- • Goals & progress tracking
- • Structured 1:1 meetings
- • Pulse surveys & eNPS
- • Recognition & team directory
- • Standard reporting
- • Included people records, PTO & documents
- • License and certification expiry alerts
- • AI coaching (100 requests a month)
- • Founder-led email support
No credit card. The trial runs on Growth so you can see everything; pick Team when it ends.
Getting set up
- Start the trial and import the firm from a spreadsheet: name, email, role, supervising attorney and start date.
- Add each attorney's bar registration and each notary commission with its expiry date and a copy, and choose how far ahead the reminder goes.
- Put a monthly 1:1 on the calendar between each associate and the supervising attorney, with a shared agenda both can add to.
- Open a review cycle that includes upward reviews, and send the external feedback link to one or two clients who know an associate's work.
Common questions
Can LVL Up track CLE hours?
No. It tracks credentials that have an expiry date, such as a bar registration or a notary commission, with a reminder before the date. It does not add up CLE hours or track reporting periods. Keep your CLE records where they are today, and attach completion certificates to the attorney's record if you want them in one place.
Does it track billable hours or utilization?
No. LVL Up is not timekeeping software and does not connect to it. If you agree an hours target with an associate as a goal, the progress figure is one someone updates by hand.
How do clients give feedback on an associate?
Through the external feedback link. You send a client a link for a named person, and the client answers a short form and picks the relationship: customer, vendor, business partner or other. The answers sit on that person's record. They are not tied to a matter, and there is no matter or engagement field.
How do we get honest feedback about a partner?
Include upward reviews in the review cycle, so the associates and staff who work for that partner are asked directly, and keep anonymous feedback open between cycles. Be honest about anonymity: in a firm of twelve, a partner may guess who wrote a comment. It is still more than most small firms have today, which is nothing written down.
Does LVL Up connect to Clio or our practice-management system?
No. LVL Up is a staff-side system and does not read from or write to practice-management, document-management or billing software. Matters, time and client files stay where they are. It has CSV import for staff data and a read-only API on Growth.
What happens after the free trial?
The trial is 14 days, no credit card, then read-only until a plan is chosen. Nothing you entered is deleted while it is read-only.
Related:
Start with your own staff list
Import your team, put one associate's next 1:1 on the calendar, and add the bar and notary dates you would least like to miss. Team fits a firm of up to 25 people.