When to Hire Your First Operations Lead (And When Not To)

Most law firms wait too long to hire an operations lead. They tell themselves:

“We can handle it for now.”
“Let’s wait until things settle down.”
“We’re not big enough yet.”

But by the time you’re seeing consistent breakdowns in HR, billing, finance, or marketing — you’re already late.

The Right Time to Hire Ops Leadership

Here’s your cue:
When there’s enough recurring work in HR, finance, billing, admin, and marketing to justify someone focusing on it full time — it’s time.

That doesn’t mean every area is on fire. It means you need dedicated leadership so the firm can keep growing without relying on you for everything.

What Happens When You Wait Too Long

• You become the de facto COO

• Staff burns out managing unclear responsibilities

• Processes degrade from lack of ownership

• Projects stall out or get halfway done

• Growth plateaus because you can’t take on more

What You Don’t Need (Yet)

• A full-time $200K+ hire with a big team

• A brand-new org chart that overwhelms the team

• A 12-month roadmap before you make a move

Start lean. Start fractional. Start now.

How a COO Bridges the Gap

A fractional COO:

• Creates immediate structure and clarity

• Oversees the key operational buckets

• Helps assess when to build out your internal team

• Prevents the slow chaos that happens without ownership

Waiting for systems to break is too late. Hire for operations before it becomes an emergency.

If you’re doing the work of five departments and wondering when to hire ops help — the answer is now. Let’s build that structure together.