PRE-READING (10 minutes)
How Compensation Works
How rates are set, what you take home, and how billing and payment work on the platform.
Goodlawyer mandates are built around fixed-fee subscription arrangements designed to reward efficient, focused legal work. We handle all of the billing, collections, client marketing, acquisition, and relationship management, so you can focus on the legal work while keeping strong take-home earnings relative to your overhead.
Commitment, Rate, and Stability
The mandate types sit on a spectrum of commitment, and that shapes how you're paid:
- Higher commitment from the client → lower hourly rate, but more stability and higher total monthly take-home. A 4-5 day/week secondment can lock in income for 12–18 months and is the fastest path to replacing a full-time salary if that's what you need.
- Lower commitment from the client → higher hourly rate, but less stability. 1-3 day/week fractional engagements (especially GC roles) are typically higher-responsibility without a defined end date. Filling your capacity with fractional work will be a slower ramp, but it's generally the most lucrative for lawyers who run an organized practice, want the challenge and responsibility, and most critically are comfortable with the risk of lower stability.
Our Service Fee
Goodlawyer's service fee is by far the lowest in the industry, typically between 20-25% compared to the 40-50% of competitive ALSPs. It covers marketing, sales, engagement structuring, contracting, billing and collections, ongoing account management, and operational mandate support. The model is simple: we succeed when you succeed.
It costs you nothing to maintain your profile in our database indefinitely.
How Billing Works
You don't do any billing or collections. Each month, Goodlawyer issues two invoices for each mandate:
- An invoice sent directly to the client covering your legal fees and applicable taxes.
- Upon receipt of payment from the client we issue a second invoice directly to the lawyer outlining the full transaction (the full amount paid by the client, less our service fee with applicable taxes which is charged to the lawyer). We initiate the direct deposit of the lawyer’s take-home earnings when we issue the second invoice.
We handle collections and pay you out — no chasing payments, no accounts receivable to manage.
When we quote a take-home number, that's after our service fee and before your personal taxes. Because most of our lawyers operate through a professional corporation, the effective tax rate on that income is often meaningfully lower than a salaried equivalent — though that depends on your situation, so it's worth confirming with your own accountant.
Typical engagements have either 15 or 30 day net payment terms and are invoiced in advance, meaning you can usually expect your first payment 15-30 days after the mandate starts. Please note that terms can vary depending on the client’s preferences and are arranged throughout the sales process.
See a detailed breakdown of Invoicing, Payments, & Collections →
Typical Earnings
Compensation varies by mandate type, experience level, jurisdiction, and scope. We express the ranges below as hourly figures for easy comparison, but remember that mandates are fixed-fee — you're paid for your availability, not by the hour.
FGC — Fractional General Counsel
- Canada: roughly $200–$400/hour. Example: a 2-day/week mandate → ~$14,000/month take-home.
- United States: roughly $300–$450/hour. Example: a 2-day/week mandate → ~$21,000/month take-home.
FIH — Fractional In-House
- Canada: roughly $125–$175/hour. Example: a 2-day/week mandate → ~$10,000/month take-home.
- United States: roughly $225–$275/hour. Example: a 2-day/week mandate → ~$18,000/month take-home.
FTS — Secondments / Full-Time Coverage
- Canada: roughly $100–$140/hour. Example: a 5-day/week mandate → ~$20,000/month take-home.
- United States: roughly $140–$170/hour. Example: a 5-day/week mandate → ~$24,000/month take-home.
Building Your Practice
There's no single right structure — most Goodlawyers build around one or two anchor mandates. Two common shapes (Canada):
Stacking fractional roles — flexibility and variety
- A 2-day FGC mandate → ~$14,000/month
- A 2-day FIH mandate → ~$10,000/month
- Together, that's roughly $288,000/year while working about four days a week.
A single secondment — stability and a faster ramp
- A 5-day secondment mandate → ~$20,000/month, roughly $240,000/year, locked in for 12–18 months — often with a long tail, as many lawyers are asked to stay on part-time or even hired outright once the secondment concludes.
In 2025, our top fractional earners averaged over $300,000 in take-home while working an average of 36 hours per week — comparable to many senior in-house roles, but with substantially fewer hours and far more control over how your practice is structured.
Specific compensation details are shared when a concrete mandate opportunity arises.