WHAT I DO: I help entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small business owners protect their brands and businesses, allowing them to protect their business, grow their customer base, and do what they do best. . . run their business. 

HOW I DO IT: I do this by advising my clients on legal structuring, and tax planning and helping my clients form business entities to protect their assets. 

WHY IT WORKS: When a business owner forms their legal entity and has lawyer-approved contracts with their employees, contractors, and vendors, the business can operate with confidence and purpose. In turn, this positions the business as a legitimate company ready to serve its customer base. Separation of personal and business provides authority and legitimacy. 

WHO I WORK WITH: I’ve worked with businesses of all sizes, new start-ups, companies with 5-50 employees, and Fortune 1000 Corporations. I provide clear, actionable ideas using my relatable approach to business formations and tax planning.

READY TO TALK? Reach out to me directly here on LinkedIn or visit my website www.joshualowenthal.com

 Areas of Practice: Business Formations / Tax Controversy / Tax Planning / Tax Structuring / Corporate Governance / Mergers & Acquisitions 

Social Links
•	Website: www.joshualowenthal.com
•	X: www.x.com/joshualowenthal

Josh Lowenthal

The challenge that I come across when working with searchers is highlighting the risk associated with taxes. 

Most sellers have some issue with their business. They misclassified an employee, didn’t pay use tax, or (gasp) their S Corp election is invalid. 

As a buyer, the question that you need to be asking yourself isn’t whether or not these issues kill the deal. Instead ask yourself, “how likely is it that this issue will come up during the 18-24 months post close.”

Lawyer ⚖️ | 💰Tax Planning | 🚀M&A | Helping you build your business empire by acquiring your next SMB.

I am a retired lawyer and legal tech founder who is passionate about helping law firms become better businesses.

Just two years into my practice, the law firm I was working for imploded. A few years later, it happened again at a different firm. 

One Saturday, the lead partner called me and told me there had been a dispute over overhead, and the office was closing. Our first child was 6 months old, and I didn't have a job. So much for that Stanford Law degree!

Fortunately I landed at a firm that understood the business of law.

All the BS I had experienced in my other law firms disappeared on Day 1.

Our managing partner Ken helped me understand how to build a great practice.

I built a million-dollar practice and all the accolades that go with that: Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, Super Lawyers, Martindale Hubbell AV. 

I was inspired to help other lawyers experience the benefits of working for a great business.

From early on, I understood that clunky, disconnected software was holding law firms back. Later, I learned three secrets to lead any small to midsize law firm to become a better business:

      –Build on the shoulders of giants: Integrate tightly with market-leading platforms like QBO, MS365 and/or Google

       –Create a seamless & customized core financial workflow to make it easy to get paid and produce the insights you need to run your business

       –Tie in niche applications for all your specialized needs e.g. NetDocuments

This is how LeanLaw was born. Now hundreds of law firms have joined us on a mission to transform law from a 19th century cottage industry into a modern 21st century profession. What is holding your firm back?

Gary Allen

While doing genealogical research recently, I learned something that surprised me.

My 12th great grandfather, Ralph Allen, came to America in 1635 as part of the Puritan Great Migration.

Two decades later, he converted to Quakerism.

That decision cost him dearly.

He—and members of his family—were persecuted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony for refusing to conform to the colony's required form of worship. Fines. Jail. Exile. Some Quakers were even hanged.

That is remarkable history, but it was Ralph Allen's choice that really struck me.
✅ He valued conscience over safety.
✅ Principle over approval.
✅ Truth over convenience.

A few years later, King Charles II forbade persecution of the Quakers, a prelude to religious tolerance in America.

This story got me thinking about my own life. Would I risk as much for my principles as my ancestor did? 

Fortunately, I have the right to practice my faith as I wish, but what about other things?
 • Will I shy from hard conversations at work and at home? 
 • Will I tolerate broken systems to the detriment of others?
 • Will my fear delay necessary change?

Ralph Allen taught me courage comes before progress.

LegalTech Thought Leader | LeanLaw Founder | Sharing What Made My Law Firm and Practice Profitable

“Should we move to flat fees?” is the wrong first question.

The right question:
 💡 Do we actually know how long our work takes?

Before you price anything flat-fee, you need:
 • 10–15 completed matters
 • Average time per matter
 • A clear scope definition
 • A profitability floor

Flat fees don’t fail because of pricing.
 They fail because firms guess instead of using data.

Predictable work + real data = profitable flat fees.
 Everything else is just hope in a different wrapper.

If you’re a plaintiffs' contingency firm, you don’t “bill.”

You invest.
Time.
Costs.
Risk.

And you wait—sometimes a long time—to get paid.

That’s why most billing systems quietly fail contingency firms. They were built for invoices, not case economics.

We’re fixing that.
Early this year, LeanLaw will deliver contingency-specific financial workflows designed around:
✅ Case-level investment tracking
✅ Real visibility into costs before settlement
✅ Clean trust, settlement, and distribution reporting
✅ Profitability that reflects how plaintiff firms actually make money

This is part of a bigger shift we’re making to tailor our products to specific financial operating models—hourly, fixed fee and yes, contingency, where the stakes (and the upside) are highest.

👉 If you’ve ever wondered “Which cases are really driving our firm’s future?”—you’re exactly who this is for.

Comment if your firm could use a financial operating system like this, and we'll let you know when it's available.

73% of law firms plan to raise rates this year.

 Most will do it the wrong way.

The worst approach?
 📨 A generic rate-increase letter.

The better approach?

 A value conversation:
1️⃣ Lead with outcomes you’ve delivered
2️⃣ Explain why you’re investing more
3️⃣ Offer options (tiers, flat fees, scope clarity)

Clients don’t hate higher rates.

They hate surprises without context.

If you’re nervous about raising rates, that’s usually a signal your value story isn’t clear yet.

💬 Question: How are you planning to talk to clients about pricing in 2026?

Hourly firms don’t fail because of rates.

They fail because they find out too late:
 • Time wasn’t captured
 • Bills weren’t realized
 • Collections slipped

If month-end is when you discover how the firm actually performed, that’s a warning light.

Hourly firms need real-time WIP, realization, and collection visibility—not accounting archaeology.

If this sounds familiar, your operating model is talking to you.

Peter Neda's article presents a valuable framework for adjusting billing practices in light of AI advancements in the legal field. He categorizes charges for legal services into three buckets: time, output (such as fixed fees), and outcomes (like contingency fees).

Many lawyers are noticing that routine tasks, which were previously billed by the hour, now require significantly less time due to AI assistance. This raises important questions about how to charge for these newfound efficiencies. Should the client benefit from reduced costs? Given the ethical constraints on increasing billed hours, is it appropriate to raise rates? Will clients accept such changes?

The complexity arises from the fact that lawyers often bill hourly for tasks that hold varying values. For instance, creating a summary or a routine brief may not add substantial value, whereas a 30-minute phone call that resolves a $1 million matter is invaluable. If routine tasks are now billed at half the cost, does this inadvertently devalue high-stakes interactions, potentially benefiting the client disproportionately?

As legal matters become less time-intensive overall, finding the best way to capture value becomes crucial. Each of the three billing methods presents its own challenges: billing for time can create misaligned incentives and may not accurately reflect value; billing for outputs is effective only when the output is predictable; and billing for outcomes can be problematic when the desired outcome is unclear.

Have others in the legal community discovered effective solutions to these challenges?

View newsletter: DealDoctor® CARMA™ Viewpoints

Open article: ⚡ AI won’t “break” law firm billing. It forces one decision: what unit are you selling? by Peter Neda • 4 min read

⚡ AI won’t “break” law firm billing. It forces one decision: what unit are you selling?

This is a very smart observation. Legal apps should add high value to important workflows and make it easy for the customer to connect existing systems. At LeanLaw, we call that creating a "best-in-class" system - let the customer have the best of everything.

Chief Innovation Officer, Jackson Walker — Blogger 3 Geeks and a Law Blog — Podcast Host 🎧 at The Geek In Review - he/him/his - May not respond to sales DMs.

Clio buying vLex was a headline. The bigger signal sits in the ripple effect.
In Marlene Gebauer and my year in review chat with Nicole Black and Sarah Glassmeyer, Niki framed the next phase as less “who buys whom,” and more “who connects what.” Pre-gen AI, the all-in-one dream felt bulky. With gen AI in the mix, the pressure shifts to integrations between the business side of law and the practice side of law, billing, practice management, research, drafting assistants, DMS.
Also, law firms are loyal to their stacks. Plenty of teams like Clio, or NetDocuments, or Harvey, or Thomson Reuters, or LexisNexis, and zero appetite for a forced swap. Vendors chasing adoption might win faster by shipping clean connectors than by pitching one platform to rule them all.
Where would an integration move the needle most for your team, billing, DMS, research, matter intake, knowledge management?

https://lnkd.in/gDm48-mX 

The Geek in Review #LegalTech

A quick exercise I run with firms:

Which sentence describes you best?
▪ “Our biggest issue is time leakage and write-downs.” → Hourly model
▪ “We don’t really know which matters are profitable.” → Fixed fee model
▪ “We invest heavily now and hope it pays off later.” → Contingency model

Most firms don’t have a reporting problem.

They have a mismatched model.

Once you name the model, the right questions—and answers—show up fast.

The most expensive 15 minutes of your day is a simple thing you skip.

Biggest silent revenue leak I see across firms:
 ⏱️ Time entry lag

Waiting until Friday (or month-end) costs firms 10–20% of billable time.

Simple fix:
 The First 15 Rule
 Spend the first 15 minutes of each day entering yesterday’s time.

Why it works:
 • Better narratives
 • Fewer write-downs
 • Faster billing
 • Predictable cash flow

The firms that win aren’t working more.

 They’re capturing what they already do.

If your firm closed tomorrow, how long would it take you to know why?

One of the most dangerous blind spots I see in law firms isn’t revenue.
 It’s financial visibility.

If it takes:
 • 15+ days to close the month
 • Multiple spreadsheets to understand WIP
 • A bookkeeper “getting back to you” to answer basic questions

You’re flying blind.

The implication isn’t inconvenience.

 It’s delayed decisions, misaligned compensation, and missed warning signs.

Best-in-class firms don’t wait for surprises.
 They see them coming.

Wyoming lawyers:

 Trust accounting mistakes don’t usually start with bad intent.
 They start with busy weeks and manual workarounds.

Here’s the uncomfortable question:
 👉 If the bar asked for your trust records tomorrow, would you feel confident?

Common issues I see:
 • Trust balances not tied cleanly to matters
 • Transfers recorded late (or not at all)
 • Reconciliation done “when there’s time”

That’s not a technology problem.

 That’s a risk problem.

If you practice in Wyoming, here’s a clear summary of the trust accounting rules—and what compliance actually requires in real life:

Open article: Mastering Wyoming IOLTA and Trust Accounting Compliance for Small Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy by leanlaw.co

Mastering Wyoming IOLTA and Trust Accounting Compliance for Small Law Firms - LeanLaw - Legal Billing Made Easy

One commitment I’m making this week:

A walk every day with no phone, no podcasts, no notifications.

Just time to be. A little chicken soup for the soul. 

What’s one thing you’ll do this week that doesn’t involve a screen?

Fixed fees are only “simple” on the invoice.

Behind the scenes, they demand discipline:
 • Scope control
 • Cost tracking
 • Matter-level margin visibility

I’ve seen great firms quietly lose money on their best-selling services—because no one could see the economics clearly.

Fixed fee firms don’t need more work.

They need better insight into which work deserves to grow.

The firms with the best cultures don’t talk about culture first.

They fix fairness and accountability.

When lawyers believe:
 • If I work hard, I’ll be compensated fairly
 • If I’m not, it’s because of my own performance
 • The numbers are transparent

Burnout drops.
 Politics fade.
 Retention improves.

When compensation is opaque?
 People assume the worst—even when leadership means well.

Culture isn’t kombucha taps or slogans.
 It starts with whether the math makes sense.

Most firms don’t have a growth problem.

 They have a leakage problem.

Unbilled time.
 Slow collections.
 Overstaffed admin processes.
 Discounting without data.

None of these feel existential on their own.
 Together, they quietly determine who thrives—and who stalls.

Before you chase new clients this year, ask:
 👉 Where is money already slipping through the cracks?

Fixing leaks is less glamorous than growth.
 But it’s faster, safer, and far more profitable.

After 35 years practicing law, here’s what I know for sure:

Most law firm financial problems don’t come from bad lawyers.

They come from using the wrong financial model for how the firm actually makes money.

That’s why we’ve stopped leading with features and started leading with operating models:
 • Hourly
 • Fixed fee
 • Contingency

When you frame the conversation this way, firms immediately recognize themselves.

 And when that happens, everything gets clearer—pricing, staffing, reporting, growth.

If your software was designed for a different model than you are using, you’re fighting gravity every day.

What’s one thing you’re genuinely grateful for this week—professionally or personally? 

Post in the comments.

Happy MLK Day everyone. One of my favorite quotes: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that."

“A goal reviewed once a year is just a wish.”

January goal-setting mistake I see every year in law firms 👇
• “Grow revenue”
• “Be more efficient”
• “Improve collections”

None of those are goals. They’re hopes.

Try this instead for 2026:

 3–3–3
 • 3 revenue goals
 • 3 efficiency goals
 • 3 client experience goals

Track them monthly, not annually.

If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

 And if you only look once a year, it’s already too late.

“We’ve always done it this way” is the most expensive phrase in a law firm.

Manual billing.
 Delayed invoices.
 Paper checks.
 End-of-month surprises.

Individually, they feel small.
 Together, they quietly crush margins year after year.

Here’s a simple challenge to start 2026:
 👉 Pick one process you’ve never questioned.
 👉 Ask: Why do we do it this way?
 👉 Fix just that.

You don’t need a full transformation to see results.
 You just need to stop protecting broken habits.

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