WHEN Optim Legal's Natasha Goulden wakes up every morning she decides where she is going to work -- from home, her firm's office, the city or at the office of one of her clients.

She also thinks about how many hours she wants to work that day.

Just three months after leaving a top-tier firm, Goulden, who has an MBA as well as legal qualifications, says she is already working more efficiently.

And despite working more hours during the busy lead-up to Christmas, she says she is seeing her family more often, has more control over her work. And she is making more money. Originally from Perth, Goulden moved to Sydney 13 years ago, joining Clayton Utz. But the former senior associate said she reached the point where she had to decide whether partnership at a big firm was what she really wanted.

"I was considering marriage versus the partnership road," Goulden says. "I made the decision that both couldn't be done ... so I did the marriage and kids route."

Goulden wanted to be able to juggle not just her family and work commitments but also a Perth-based residential property business she runs and her charitable work.

Goulden, who won Clayton Utz's pro bono lawyer award in 2007, sits on the board of Technical Aid for the Disabled.

"I didn't feel the large firms could offer the flexibility; they are pretty rigid," Goulden says.

"I thought there would be a more efficient way of working where I can fit all these other extra curricular activities ... but still achieve what I want to achieve in my life."

Goulden approached Optim Legal, a firm based in Surry Hills in inner Sydney, that has no set billing targets and allows clients to lower or raise their fees by up to 20 per cent each month, depending on how satisfied they are with the work.

She joined the firm in October and remains on good terms with her former colleagues. "You are able to work from home without it being frowned upon," she says. "We have flexibility in terms of where we work, from home, the Surry Hills office, client's office, and we have premises in the ABN AMRO building in the city," she says.

Lawyers at Optim work a minimum 20-hour week and are paid 50-55 per cent of their billed hours. In addition, they get paid a percentage of hours they supervise and a percentage of work done for clients they have introduced to the firm.

The firm has about 10 lawyers, all from top-tier firms, and wants to double in size this year.

Goulden, the practice leader of the property group, says that many lawyers would be scared off by the constant assessment by clients -- and the possibility their bills could take a 20 per cent cut if the client was not happy. "In many ways you are really putting it on the line," Goulden says.

But she has found that many clients like being asked for feedback. Others can choose to opt out of the assessment process and just get sent their bill every month. Optim makes no secret of the fact that its rates are about 40 per cent cheaper than those charged by partners at top-tier firms.

Law firms have to be sensitive to the global financial crisis, Goulden says, and need to offer better value for money without compromising the quality of work.

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