If you are serious about developing your practice and/or growing your business, you must be data-driven. The data is there, ask for it – it is yours. We need reliable information to steer our practices and grow our business. Chambers’ diary management system (DMS) holds a substantial amount of data about your practice. When used strategically, your data can provide deep insight into the health, direction and resilience of your practice.

Every month, use the standard reports

The standard DMS reports are: payments received, work done, and aged debt. You should review the standard reports monthly and use them to actively manage both your income and debt.

  • Does the money you received match what Chambers says you received?
  • Did you earn enough to be on track for the year?
  • Have you put aside the right amount for tax, overheads, pension and VAT?
  • What fees are outstanding, and how old are they?

If your aged debt is becoming alarmingly high, ask for the debt management logs. The logs should detail which automated chasers have been sent and when. Make sure you know what Chambers’ debt management policy says the next steps should be.

Bi-annually use the opportunity report as a barometer

Depending on your DMS, the opportunity report may be named differently. But whatever the name of the report, you need to obtain a report(s) that lets you see:

  • who instructs you most frequently;
  • which solicitors have dropped off in the last year;
  • which firms generate the highest value work;
  • what types of cases are increasing (or decreasing); and
  • which events, seminars, or marketing efforts resulted in increased instructions.

Analyse the data for patterns. Is your work drifting toward a niche you had not consciously developed, or has a once‑reliable source of instructions quietly tapered off? Understanding your data will enable you to work with your clerks to build deliberate marketing and practice strategies.

Marketing is not the holy grail for increased instruction; sometimes, we need to look closer to home. If you have concerns, you should ask the clerks for any feedback they have on you. Asking for feedback is awkward. If it is easier, ask the clerks to gather feedback for you, or you could include a link to a feedback form in your email footer or attendance note.

Alongside the opportunity report, use a benchmarking/fair access to work report

You can also get a report that shows where you stand compared to others.

If your chambers is not financially transparent, it is hard to assess how your practice compares with others of equivalent call/experience. You can get anonymised data from across all members of chambers. A comparison report might include:

  • total fees billed/received per member;
  • number of cases per member;
  • practice areas;
  • average £ per case per member.

Seeing where you sit relative to comparable barristers is invaluable. It can highlight opportunities to adjust fee levels or pursue higher-value work. Or it may evidence that fluctuations in your practice are not personal anomalies but broader market trends. It could also flag up any fair allocation issues – the sooner these are spotted, the easier they are to tackle.

The data in any report is far more reliable and powerful than anecdotal impressions. It is also a far better way to hold both yourself and your clerks to account. If the data means you want to effect change (or at least start a conversation), set up a meeting with the right person and go armed with the data, let the data do the talking.