Ndoping & Co.
SSCS™ Diagnostic
For Law Firm Founders

For law firm founders. This 3-minute diagnostic shows how much of the firm runs on you personally, and where to start. It measures the business beneath your compliance — a fully compliant firm can still run entirely on one person.

How to score: for each statement choose 1 to 5 — 1 = not true at all, 3 = somewhat true, 5 = fully and consistently true. Answer about how things are today, not how you intend them to be.
1. StructureRoles, decisions, workflows, continuity
1.1Day-to-day decisions are made at the right level, without routing back through the founder.
1.2Roles and accountabilities are defined in writing for lawyers, paralegal, and support staff - not held together by personal relationships.
1.3Intake, engagement letters, and the matter lifecycle are documented well enough for a qualified staffer to follow without the founder.
1.4New staff and interns become productive through documented onboarding, and matter knowledge and precedents stay in the firm when someone leaves.
1.5Compliance systems - conflicts checks, limitation and deadline docketing, trust records - run on documented processes trained staff operate, not on the founder personally.
2. StrategyFocus, matter selection, decisions
2.1The firm has three clear priorities that determine where the founder time goes.
2.2There is a clear rule for which matters to take or decline - competence, conflicts, capacity, and fit.
2.3Each priority has specific, measurable goals attached to it.
2.4There is a defined picture of the firm being built toward, not just a full calendar of matters.
2.5Daily work is driven by priorities, not by whoever called or emailed most recently.
3. CapacitySupervised leverage, founder time
3.1The founder spends most of their time practising law and running the firm, not on admin a trained assistant could handle.
3.2Work is properly leveraged - associates, paralegals, and assistants each work at the right level, under supervision.
3.3There is a clear framework for what is delegated (intake, billing, scheduling, drafting under supervision) and to whom.
3.4Documented standards exist so work product does not depend on the founder touching every file.
3.5The founder can take a full week off without matters, deadlines, or client service degrading.
4. StabilityMetrics, compliance, succession
4.1The firm tracks meaningful metrics - realization, WIP, A/R and collections, client satisfaction - not just revenue.
4.2The firm could pass a Law Society trust-safety review and file its annual reporting without a scramble.
4.3A feedback loop catches client-service or quality issues before the client does.
4.4Professional-liability coverage is current and a file-retention practice is defined and followed.
4.5A written continuity and succession / incapacity plan exists, so clients are protected if the founder is suddenly unavailable.

Your result (updates as you go)

Structure0/25
Strategy0/25
Capacity0/25
Stability0/25

About you

Your answers go straight to Ndoping & Co. We follow up with a free 45-minute diagnostic conversation.
Ndoping & Co. Performance Consultants · SSCS™ Model: Structure · Strategy · Capacity · Stability
Ndoping & Co.
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For Law Firm Founders
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