About

We are business and legal ethics lawyers for California and New York law firms, in-house legal departments, and law-related businesses, providing comprehensive experience and an outside perspective.

Our Firm

Law firm partners and managers are called upon to do a lot: oversee firm operations, run their own practices, meet client demands, manage teams, and support their colleagues.

This means law firm partners rarely have the time they’d like to dedicate to managing their firms. Client work rightly comes first, leaving practice management, risk mitigation, and compliance as a distant second. And even the most sophisticated in-house counsel benefits from independent advice on both long-term strategy and urgent issues.

OUR PRACTICE

Our clients seek our advice and counsel on questions related to law firm risk management and legal ethics, law firm and law-related business advice and planning, and law firm transitions:

Law Firm Formation and Planning

We counsel and advise California and New York law firms on strategic formation, structure, and policy issues, including:

• developing and drafting partnership agreements and other firm organizing documents;
• developing and documenting partner compensation systems, attorney promotion systems, succession planning and partner retirement systems; and
• developing and executing law firm start-up planning and law firm growth planning.

Partner Departure Law

We counsel and advise California and New York law firms, groups, and partners in connection with law firm transitions, including:

• law firms managing attorney transitions and separations, including voluntary departures, dissolutions and mergers, retirement, resignations, ejectments, impairment-related departures, discipline-related events, partner disability, and death;
• partner or group departures;
• acquiring lateral partners or groups; and
• managing and navigating law firm mergers.

Law Firm Dissolution

We counsel and advise California and New York law firms on all phases of the dissolution process, including:

• pre-dissolution considerations, other options, and planning;
• checklists and analysis for winding up the law firm in compliance with legal and ethical obligations, considering key questions around the return of capital and partner compensation; and
• terminating the law firm in a way to best protect law firm partners from unnecessary risk and potential personal liability.

Law-Related Businesses Counsel

We counsel and advise California and New York law-related businesses operating in the legal industry on compliance, regulatory, structure, and operations issues for alternative legal service providers, including:

• compliance with California and New York legal and ethics rules;
• California and New York State Bar regulatory compliance;
• entity structure for lawyer- and non-lawyer owned law-related businesses; and
• fee agreements and fee-sharing issues, legal marketing and sales, advertising and solicitation, and billing and administrative service agreements.

Legal Ethics Counsel

We are independent, confidential counsel who understand how law firms work and know the practical realities of lawyering to guide law firms through these ethical gray areas, providing:

• timely and thoughtful analysis of legal ethics issues, in the context of changing regulations, internal compliance systems, and real-world ethical dilemmas;
• legal ethics compliance and planning as a law firm best practice, developing policies tailored to fit law firm culture and overall business strategy; and
• drafting and revising key law firm documents to ensure compliance with current legal and ethical obligations.

Law Firm General Counsel

We serve as an outside General Counsel to California and New York law firms providing comprehensive counsel designed around the critical functions for law firm risk management:

• managing and resolving real-time legal and ethical issues that arise in law practice;
• managing and resolving partner and firm transitions; and
• identifying and implementing law firm risk management best practices.

California State Bar Defense

We represent California attorneys in all matters related to California Bar admissions, investigations, and discipline. Our firm is committed to protecting legal professionals facing complex regulatory challenges, including:

• defending attorneys through California State Bar investigations, disciplinary proceedings, and appeals to safeguard their professional standing and license;
• providing proactive guidance on ethics compliance, trust accounting, and regulatory matters to help attorneys navigate and mitigate potential issues before they escalate and
• offering strategic counsel for attorneys in moral character evaluations and other admissions-related inquiries, with the goal of enabling and preserving their ability to practice.

Accounting & Reporting

We provide law firm-specific accounting and financial reporting services that ensure accuracy, regulatory compliance, and the financial visibility partners need to lead effectively, including:

• implementing and maintaining IOLTA and client trust accounting systems that satisfy state bar requirements and protect the firm from compliance risks;
• analyzing billing realization rates, write-offs, and collection patterns to ensure revenue is recognized correctly and billing practices yield optimal results;
• developing clear partner and shareholder reporting packages that track individual performance metrics, capital accounts, and distribution calculations; and
• building customized management dashboards that deliver real-time visibility into profitability by practice area, attorney productivity, and key firm performance indicators.

Operations & Efficiency

We help California and New York law firms identify operational waste, streamline workflows, and build the financial and organizational infrastructure needed to grow profitably, including:

• conducting practice economics assessments to reveal true profitability by practice group, matter type, and client, and identifying where resources may be better deployed;
• analyzing staffing leverage ratios and recommending adjustments that improve margins while maintaining service quality;
• benchmarking firm expenditures against industry standards and identifying meaningful savings opportunities across technology, real estate, and overhead; and
• documenting current workflows, identifying bottlenecks, and designing more efficient processes for client intake, billing cycles, matter management, and firm administration.

Tax Planning & Compliance

We provide comprehensive tax planning and compliance services tailored to the unique structure and economics of law firms, addressing both firm-level obligations and partner-level tax outcomes, including:

• analyzing and optimizing entity structure, whether partnership, LLP, PC, or other corporate forms, to minimize tax burden while supporting firm business objectives;
• managing multi-state tax obligations for firms with attorneys or clients in multiple jurisdictions, including state income taxes, sales tax on services, and local business taxes; and
• designing compensation structures that achieve firm goals while optimizing tax outcomes for all stakeholders, including analysis of salary versus distribution ratios, bonus timing, and deferred compensation programs.

Financial Modeling & Planning

We build data-driven financial models that help law firm leadership evaluate major decisions, stress-test assumptions, and plan with confidence, including:

• facilitating comprehensive strategic planning and budgeting processes that align financial resources with firm priorities and incorporate realistic market and growth assumptions;
• modeling the financial case for mergers and acquisitions, analyzing practice overlap, client conflicts, and true value creation potential;
• modeling the economics of lateral hiring, partner promotions, retirements, and compensation system design to help firms align incentives with strategic goals; and
• building cash flow and scenario models that anticipate capital needs, manage partner capital calls, and prepare leadership for a range of business conditions.

WHO WE SERVE

The specific situations in which our clients call upon us are varied and multifaceted, but all involve the legal, ethical, and risk management issues facing law firms, attorneys, and law-related businesses. The types of clients we serve include:

Small to Mid-Sized Law Firms

Many small to mid-sized law firms in California and New York lack a dedicated in-house general counsel and turn to O’Rielly & Roche LLP for ongoing support. We help firms proactively plan and take action to mitigate risks and react to fast-developing events, such as partner departures and legal ethics issues, as they arise.

Large Law Firms

Large law firms based in California and New York or with California and New York offices, which typically have robust in-house general counsel capabilities, engage O’Rielly & Roche LLP for a fresh, independent perspective rooted in our attorneys’ deep experience analyzing and resolving legal and ethical issues that large law firms face routinely, including avoiding and resolving conflicts, avoiding disqualification motions, structuring and documenting fee agreements, common interest agreements, partner separation agreements, and similar critical functions.

In-House Legal Departments and Technology Companies

We provide ongoing advice and counsel to in-house corporate counsel, including technology companies, on a wide-variety of legal ethics and risk management issues. In our capacity as outside general counsel, we work collaboratively with in-house legal teams to ensure that our recommendations are consistent with the particular culture, governance and overall business strategy of the company.

Start-Up Firms

Technology and the changing times have created new opportunities for lawyers to make their law practices nimble but more productive than ever before. This has led many lawyers to consider opening their own law firm or a satellite office in California and New York. We provide advice, counsel, and planning to help lawyers looking to make these transitions, including developing and executing law firm start-up planning, law firm growth planning, partnership compensation systems, developing and drafting partnership agreements, other firm organizing documents and policies for the new firm.

Groups of Attorneys

For partners or groups leaving a law firm, we provide comprehensive solutions and advice to comply with your ethical and legal obligations to your clients and the firm during any transition, including pre-departure considerations, analyzing and negotiating new offers, client and law firm notice, departure logistics, anticipating and resolving existing partnership obligations, and getting paid.

Law-Related Businesses

Technology has ushered in a new age of legal services and the legal marketplace is quickly expanding, offering unconventional avenues for connecting attorneys with consumers. O’Rielly & Roche LLP has been at the forefront of providing legal ethics and risk management consulting to lawyer and non-lawyer owned Alternative Legal Service Providers.