Ask most attorneys which of their matters are the most profitable and you will get a confident answer. Ask them how they know, and the confidence usually fades. The truth is that firm-wide revenue tells you almost nothing about profit. You can have a busy, high-revenue year and still be quietly subsidizing work that costs you more than it brings in. The only way to know the difference is to look one level down, at the profitability of individual matters and practice areas. Th

Here is what realization rate is, why it matters more than your billing rate, and how to start plugging the leak.