Find out how Ashtons Legal has prioritised digital transformation to optimise work delegation with BigHand Workflow Management.

Read the full case study to find out how Ashtons Legal is embracing hybrid working with BigHand Workflow Management. 

Although Ashtons Legal was already well established on their digitization journey, the law firm was keen to improve the visibility of support workflows by transforming the way fee earners would delegate tasks to support staff in a hybrid working model. 

The law firms successfully adopted BigHand workflow management to provide a data-driven approach to optimize the way in which tasks are delegated, managed and reported upon. In doing so, Ashtons has been able to decrease processing time and optimize the use of its centralized secretarial service. Ashton's digital transformation manager explains, 

“Previously, we had already introduced some centralized support functions across our five offices, and were well geared up with flexible working policies. However, it became apparent very quickly that we had little if any visibility of support workflows across the firm. Moreover, the traditional way in which fee earners would typically delegate tasks to specific support staff was unsustainable. We took the opportunity to centralize our entire legal PA and support staff function.”

Ashtons reported, “Prior to BigHand, we simply had no metrics on our legal support workflow at all. With BigHand we have insight into the type of tasks and the amount a particular team was putting through. While monitoring how long those tasks were taking. The data from BigHand workflow management has shown a significant improvement in task management across the board.”

In a six month period, the average number of workflow management tasks completed had risen from 83 to 124 per day. In addition, the average processing time for workflow management tasks has fallen from 23 minutes to 14 minutes. This shows the increased efficiencies achieved through a centralized legal support team and having the ability to move work around easily to those with capacity, regardless of location. 

CEO at Ashtons legal concludes, “Digitization is absolutely the future of legal practice and data driven approach is key to unlocking much-needed operational efficiency. The drive towards workflow technology will play a key role in enabling the sector to build on the progress of the past year and successfully adopt a hybrid working model with all the benefits it offers staff and clients alike.”