Free game · about 6 minutes · your logo on a demo firm
Profit simulation game for law firms
The Profit Game is a free simulation that lets a managing partner test the decisions behind a year of profit. Type your work email and the game reads your firm's public website, then runs four quarters under your firm's name, logo and color.
Play The Profit Game as your firm Free · about 6 min · work email required · your name and logo on a demo firm
- 4board meetings, one per quarter
- ×2the profit of the quarter before, each time
- 100futures played before each decision
- ≈ 6 minin Boardroom mode, free
On this page
What decides a law firm's profit in a year?
A law firm's profit depends less on the hours recorded than on the hours collected, the leverage under each partner and how much of the year rests on a few clients.
Fixed fees without the write-offs
Clients push for fixed fees and monthly retainers, and partners worry about writing off the overrun. The game makes the trade-off explicit: a higher monthly fee wins fewer mandates, and how many fewer depends on your clients’ price sensitivity, which stays hidden until you test it.
Associate hours are the stock
Every retainer draws on the same associate hours. A scope that is too wide shows up as write-offs and late nights; the game counts every week over capacity and raises churn when clients feel it.
Lateral, junior or contract lawyer?
A lateral senior associate produces from the first month at a high cost, a junior needs a long ramp and partner supervision, and a contract lawyer sits in between. The game reveals each hire's real speed only after the ramp, as practice does.
Drafts, research, review
First-draft contracts, clause comparison, due diligence summaries and legal research are where agents carry real hours, with a lawyer reviewing every output. The game keeps that review cost in: agents need supervision hours before they pay.
One anchor client
A boutique often lives on one anchor client and one referral source. When that client asks for 20% off at renewal, the game asks you to price the chance it leaves against the certain loss of the discount.
How do the game’s levers map to a law firm?
The game simulates a small retainer firm. Every lever above has a setting in it, plus scope, overhead and cash; the table shows its numbers and where to read each one in your own firm.
See the demo firm’s numbers, lever by lever
The demo book is a six-person firm on monthly retainers worth $68,000 a month: read it as a boutique serving outside general counsel or advisory clients on fixed monthly fees, and read the board as your partners. At each board meeting you set the fee and scope of new retainers, hiring, AI agents and the answer to your largest client's discount request, after the twin plays 100 futures of each option.
In the game every fee earner is called a consultant. Every number under “In the game's model” belongs to its model, not to a benchmark; “In a law firm” is where to read each lever in your own year.
| Lever | In the game's model | In a law firm |
|---|---|---|
| Retainer price | A standard retainer sells at $12,000 a month; your six current ones run from $9,000 to $14,000, $68,000 in all. New retainers at $9,000, $12,000, $15,000 or $18,000. Buyers' price sensitivity is hidden and learned from the proposals you win and lose. Existing clients keep their fee. | Monthly retainer or fixed fee per client, and the rate it implies. |
| Scope | Lite 16 h, standard 24 h or premium 32 h of consultant time a week per client. A wider scope is worth more and churns less: 4.5%, 3.5% and 2.8% a month. | Matters, hours or response times included in the retainer. |
| Capacity | Five consultants at 34 h a week plus you. Every week over capacity raises the odds that clients leave. | Associate and paralegal hours, partner review time. |
| Hiring | Senior at $13,000 a month, 4-week ramp; junior at $6,500, 10-week ramp; contractor at $4,500, 6-week ramp. Real speed shows after the ramp. | Lateral senior associate, junior or contract lawyer. |
| AI agents | Pilot: about 24 h a week for $2,500 a month. Full rollout: about 60 h for $7,500. Ramp of 6 to 8 weeks; the share of promised hours really delivered is hidden, from 35% to 110% depending on the world. | First drafts, research memos, document review, due diligence summaries. |
| Client concentration | Largest client at $14,000 a month, a fifth of retainers, asks 20% off at renewal. A refusal loses it in half the worlds, a 10% counter-offer in a quarter of them. | Your anchor client and the referrers behind new matters. |
| Overhead | $16,000 a month. Trim it by $2,500 (about 15%) and the team works 3% slower; cut $5,000 (about 30%) and it works 15% slower. | Rent, research databases, insurance, business development you do not bill. |
| Cash | Invoices paid 30 to 60 days after they are sent; the bank starts at $45,000. | Billing cycles, collection delays, retainers paid in advance or in arrears. |
Can your firm double its profit next quarter? Check the arithmetic
Before you play, put your own numbers in. This runs in your browser and nothing is sent. The prefilled values are examples, not benchmarks: replace them with yours.
What will you learn in four quarters?
One board meeting per quarter, one module per meeting. The season takes about 6 minutes in Boardroom mode and about 20 in the MBA season, which adds a graded case per quarter.
- Q1, pricing: whether a higher monthly fee with a clear scope beats a discounted retainer that overruns.
- Q2, capacity: lateral hire, junior or agents for the extra hours, and whether to match a rival's offer to your best associate.
- Q3, growth: your largest client's renewal discount, and whether business development or a referral partner fills the pipeline.
- Q4, strategy: the fee and team you present at year end, and how much of the firm's profit still rests on you.
Questions law firm partners ask about the game
Is there a business simulation for law firm partners?
Yes. The Profit Game is a free four-quarter simulation of a small professional firm on monthly retainers, with the decisions a managing partner faces: fee level, scope, capacity, hiring, AI agents and a dominant client. It takes about 6 minutes.
Does the game fit a firm that bills by the hour?
Partly. The firm in the game sells monthly retainers, so it fits best the firms moving clients to fixed or monthly fees. If you bill by the hour, read the retainer price as your effective rate and the scope as the hours a client consumes; the capacity, hiring and concentration decisions are the same.
Does the game read any client data?
No. It reads only your firm's public website, for the name, logo and main color. No matter, client or fee of yours enters the game, and the book of business is fictional. If you add your monthly recurring revenue, the money on screen scales to your size; the engine still plays the demo firm.
How can a law firm double its profit?
Effort alone does not do it, because associate hours run out. The arithmetic routes are a higher effective rate on new work, more matters within the hours you have, leverage through juniors or agents, and lower costs, and each one carries a risk the game makes you price.
The game for other professions
How the game works, its modes and its rules: The Profit Game.
Then play your own firm.
The game plays a demo firm. A digital twin of your own firm runs the same engine on your CRM, time and invoice data, so the buyers, pipeline and capacity it plays are yours. Before it advises anything, it replays your last 12 months and shows you which figures land inside its error bands and which do not yet.
Play The Profit Game Book a scoping call
A twin of your own firm, built on your CRM, time and invoice data: from $55,555; your exact scope is set on a call. Want to try your own numbers in a flow model now? Twin Lite runs them in your browser.
- Play the game: four quarters, 100 futures per decision.
- Book 30 minutes: we pick the one decision your twin should answer first.
- Get your twin: same engine, your data, and a replay of your last 12 months you read before any scenario.