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835 |
Firm sizes from  50 - 1000+ |
90+ |
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Responses |
lawyers |
Data points |
BigHand’s latest market research report reveals how law firms are optimizing talent and workloads to meet client demand for value-driven legal services while boosting profitability. Discover how your firm can stay ahead by adapting to the shifting expectations of both clients and legal talent.
To help you get the most value from our research, we’ve broken down each section with tailored insights on what these market trends mean for your lawyers and support staff.
12% |
64% |
41% |
33% |
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of lawyers spend over five hours a week on client-facing or internal administrative tasks |
confirm reviewing matters with a focus on profit is a priority
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have no or only partial access to information relating to the different skill sets of each associate |
have only partial or no data about the types of tasks sent from lawyers to support staff |
28% |
41% |
12% |
66% |
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of firms are planning to raise associate salaries by more than 10% this year |
of firms are increasing pro bono work for lawyers
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of lawyers spend over five hours a week on client-facing or internal administrative tasks |
of firms plan to use more succession planning |
69% |
33% |
25% |
84% |
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of firms confirm support staff attrition has risen or stayed the |
have only partial or no data about the types of
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confirm support staff attrition is due to a lack of professional development |
struggle with manual delegation of tasks between support staff working at home and staff in the office |
28% |
87% |
41% |
47% |
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of firms say hybrid work has a negative impact on the development of skills |
of firms report an increase in client requests for DEI data around matter staffing
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have no or only partial access to information relating to different skillsets of each associate |
do not have systems or technology in place to provide reporting on DEI across matters |
63% |
 36% |
67% |
57% |
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of firms are improving leverage to minimize lower value work being undertaken by senior staff |
said that partners picking resources based on personal preferences was a challenge
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have a greater focus on delegating the right work to the right resource at the right cost |
have Resource Managers, 25% will add this role or work allocation managers over the next 24 months |
Section one reading time: 9 minutes
Section one Section two |
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The 2023 global economic bounce back has boosted law firms' fortunes. The Law Firm Financial Index (LFFI) for the first quarter of 2024 illustrated the current resilience of law firms, with all the major metrics of the large law firm sector moving in the right direction. To add, Citi’s Global Wealth at Work Law Firm Group found the industry continued it's momentum from the first quarter with double-digit revenue growth into the first six months of the year. 
Despite this strong start, changing client behavior should not be forgotten, with almost all firms (96%) experiencing client attrition and 81% of firms confirming a drop in demand for legal services in the past 12 months, continuing a similar story from the previous year. Therefore, the current uptick in demand, in particular for large AMLaw 50 firms that are surging ahead in market performance this year, must be put into context. The last few years have demonstrated the ability for client demand to ebb and flow, emphasizing the importance for firms to have solid, holistic talent management strategies and tools in place to suit any market.
Thomson Reuters reports that clients are becoming more aggressive about splitting work among lower-cost firms to reduce costs and this research confirms the primary reason for this level of attrition is clients reducing their spend on legal budgets (40% confirmed). The competitive outlook is also changing. Not only have 33% of clients found cheaper legal services elsewhere, but 34% are reducing the number of firms they have on their panels. On the plus side, those firms that can meet client expectations and secure a position on a smaller panel will be better placed to retain and improve business moving forward.
However, client expectations for value and timeliness of service delivery continue to evolve. The shift towards clients bringing more legal work in-house (33%) continues, underscoring the desire for better visibility and control over expenditure. While this shift in-house is not as high as was predicted last year, suggesting it is taking longer for clients to build the depth and breadth of skills in-house required to manage the increased or specialized workload, the trend is undeniable.
This evolution of client demand and the moving of more legal work in-house comes at a time when many firms are over-staffed following the lateral hiring frenzy BigHand has reported for the past few years. While the extent of lateral hiring has slowed from the peak, the disruptive trend continues, especially in senior roles including law firm management (54% confirm it’s increased) and equity partners (53%). With 32% of firms also confirming they lost work when departing partners took clients, the operational and cost implications of lateral hiring (and/or lateral losses) continue to be felt.
It is interesting to note that lateral hiring is beginning to impact the mid-market. AM Law 200 firms are now targeting successful mid-market equity partners and associates, creating new waves of disruption for a tier of firms that has enjoyed significant growth over the past few years.
Despite the decline in lateral hiring, high levels of attrition continue throughout the legal sector, with firms reporting attrition at every level, from equity partner to support staff. While firms continue to chase top talent, with newly qualified salaries breaking records seemingly every month on both sides of the Atlantic, salary is far from the only reason cited for leaving a law firm.
Workers’ attitudes to work are changing, with hybrid working, work/life balance, and professional development being high priorities for individuals seeking a new role elsewhere. The level of equity partner attrition, and the associated business loss, should be a concern, especially when 25% cite hybrid working arrangements and 23% professional development opportunities as the reasons for leaving. Hiring managers (91%) in the legal industry face challenges finding skilled candidates, compelling firms to become far more receptive to staff demands beyond financial remuneration – with some law firms attempting to become more attractive as an employer by reducing the time it takes to make partner or making career paths much more transparent. Are firms able to deliver on promises to fast-track partnerships? 
Almost half of all firms have also forced exits through redundancies or reductions over the past 12 months in all roles, underlining the constraints created by practice level rather than firm-wide resource management. Chasing talent in one area while forcing exits in another is inefficient and costly. It also undermines staff confidence and constrains potential career development opportunities through regional or client secondment.
Firms need to look hard at internal resources across the entire business and ensure they are maximizing opportunities to retain valuable talent wherever possible.
In addition to focusing on the challenge of retaining lawyer talent, law firms must not forget the challenge of support staff attrition, where the loss of skills directly impacts their lawyer's ability to deliver first-class client service. BigHand’s survey suggests the highest levels of attrition are within the support function, with over two-thirds (69%) of firms confirming support staff loss has risen or remained steady in the past year. Given the accelerating loss of talent in support staff in recent years, this continuing trend raises concerns regarding firms’ ability to support client demands for more cost-effective and responsive legal services.
While the shift to centralized support services is helping, firms face significant pressure to ensure lawyers have on-demand access to the required skills and experience to ensure they are providing world-class service to their clients. The loss of institutional knowledge as senior legal assistants exit firms is a dynamic firms need to deal with. As this research confirms, support staff are not just leaving due to retirement or attractive salaries, 25% cite professional development and 23% work/life balance. If law firms are to build and sustain a support model that ensures lawyers’ needs are met, more robust resources, and delivery planning as well as training and development will be required. Efficient support functions are increasingly data-led. Understanding individual and team performance while assessing the skill gaps in the support function is critical to evolving support structures to meet the evolving needs of lawyers and ultimately clients. Developing these skills in-house, creating career paths for support staff, and creating specialized teams versus an army of support generalists, are just a few areas firms are focused on. 
These areas all help to provide exceptional service in an environment where clients are not afraid to move their business in response to perceived apathy from their legal service providers.
Lawyers’ responses to this cultural shift in support model differ notably, especially across generations, leading to challenges with morale, utilization, and, critically, productivity. Effective change management, including training for both lawyers and support staff to embed effective resourcing practices, is becoming core to ensuring productivity and utilization at every level. Underpinning this evolution with technology is critical to success.
While Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) strategies have become embedded in corporate behavior over the last decade, law firms are still falling short of clients’ expectations. A third (33%) of firms' report losing clients because they found other firms more in line with their goals around DE&I. Clients have strong DEI expectations, with many setting targets for all service providers, including law firms. 
They expect firms to commit to improving equity and they want proof these goals are being attained: 87% of firms report an increase in client requests for DEI data around matter staffing.
Law firms are not currently well placed to respond to these demands – a fact that may explain why so many are losing business due to not meeting DEI expectations. 
Less than a fifth (19%) of firms include DEI as a priority when resourcing matters, suggesting there is a significant cultural shift still required to transition DEI from a strategic objective to an operational deliverable.
Almost half (47%) of firms do not have systems or technology in place to provide reporting on DEI across matters, seriously raising the risk of losing more work in the future. For those that do have systems in place, are they proactively communicating the changes with clients to demonstrate their commitment to improvement and potentially raising their profile above those firms earlier on in their DEI journey that might still treat it as a tick-box exercise? Effective DEI policies are also key to reducing lawyer attrition by delivering equitable access to work required to support their professional development. DEI strategies may be robust but without the data, process, and systems to support DEI goals day to day, firms will continue to lose both clients and talented staff.
The market may have bounced back well over the past 12 months but with the US economy showing signs of recession and global financial market confidence dropping, clients will inevitably become even more cost-conscious. BigHand Resource Management (work allocation technology) and BigHand Workflow Management (task delegation technology) are transformational tools that enable law firms to mitigate the implications of changing client behavior and expectations. Improved efficiency and resource allocation support firms’ financial and operational goals in periods of peak demand, and periods of lagging demand.
BigHand Resource Management is a legal work allocation and resourcing tool that allows law firms to identify resources, forecast utilization, manage workloads, and add structure to career development for lawyers. BigHand Workflow Management is a support services task delegation solution that allows work to be automatically routed to the right support staff, with the right skills at the right cost to the firms, putting transparency in a typically opaque process.
Together, these tools transform the day to day working environment for support staff and lawyers and provide a robust platform for their career development. Using Workflow Management, lawyers can seamlessly access support resources, delegate tasks, and track progress across a hybrid workforce, improving their productivity and ultimately billable time, while also reducing stress. Resource Management delivers real-time visibility of their associates skills, availability, and career aspirations, ensuring lawyers are effectively utilized day to day, maximizing matter profitability while also meeting clients’ value expectations.
In addition, Resource Management underpins motivation strategies, leveraging insight into lawyers’ skills, experience, and career development goals, to ensure lawyers gain access to opportunities such as secondments and pro bono work, in addition to client matters. Further, it can support their career growth by ensuring associates are not pigeonholed into the same type of work and ensuring they can gain access to working with different partners and/or clients. It can support far more effective succession planning to ensure individuals are identified and prepared early for their next role to minimize disruption when senior partners retire or leave.
Workflow Management also supports far more equitable allocation of work across support services, improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness. It delivers the insight required to understand the evolving support model, highlighting key metrics such as work type, volume, capacity, and utilization to support resourcing and productivity decision making, and highlights opportunities to train and develop support staff to enhance career development and reduce attrition.
Critically, with a robust foundation provided by both technology and a dedicated resource management process, firms can deliver not only the cost-effective legal services demanded by a competitive market but also the transparency of service delivery, including DEI, required by clients.
In the next two sections, this report explores the implications of these trends on both lawyers and support staff and highlights law firm strategies to respond to both client and staff attrition.
Section one Section two |
Section two reading time: 11 minutes What the trends mean for your lawyersSection two: The impact of changing client attitudes on buying legal services to lawyersUtilization and productivity of lawyers | Nurturing and developing talent | Attrition, retirement, and succession planning | Resourcing for profitability | Investing in technology and people Lawyers have a key role to play if firms are to respond to clients’ increasingly value-driven approach to sourcing legal services. With clients chasing lower cost alternatives, reducing the number of firms on their panels, and exploring the value of expanding in-house legal teams, the quality of legal services delivery is under the spotlight. |
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measure matter efficiency/profitability |
are increasing pro bono work for lawyers |
of lawyers spend over five hours a week on client-facing or internal administrative tasks |
Law firm productivity has declined in recent years, with billable hours per lawyer continuing to fall. The shift to alternative fee arrangements impacts billable hours to a degree but when lawyers are still working incredibly long hours, this drop in productivity suggests many still feel compelled to undertake administrative tasks rather than focus exclusively on billable activity. More often than not, this work is not billable and leads to further lawyer burnout with no real financial value to the firm.
In addition, firms expect lawyers to play a wider role in client service delivery, from improving profitability to building stronger client relationships. The traditional productivity measure of billable hours targets continues to dominate but firms are responding to clients’ expectations of value. Almost a third (31%) now measure matter efficiency/profitability and 28% measure outcome-based results. The importance of business development and the impact of client satisfaction on the bottom line are also recognized, with 28% tracking client acquisition and retention.
These performance measures are undermined by continued issues with work delegation. While improvements have been made, the problem remains with 12% of lawyers spending over five (non-billable) hours a week on client-facing or internal administrative tasks that should be delegated to support staff. If we assume those firms have 100 lawyers, that equates to 500 billable hours lost per week, or circa 23,000 hours per year!
Analysts do not expect a wave of layoffs despite overcapacity and lower utilization, so how are firms responding to ensure talented lawyers remain engaged and motivated when workloads drop? Firms are actively investing in career development, with over two-fifths (41%) increasing pro bono work for lawyers during less busy times. Secondment is also increasing both to other regions (40% confirm) and other clients (39% confirm), as firms look to expand on associates’ specializations and overcome the peaks and troughs of demand in certain practice areas.
BigHand’s Legal Resource Management allows law firms to better understand and increase utilization rates and predict potential gaps or overloads in demand to proactively manage existing resources. Matching lawyers’ experience and areas of interest to new work opportunities minimizes the chances of expensive talent being underutilized while also avoiding the need to recruit new staff into the business. In addition, the platform’s Opportunities Board enables firms to support lawyer career development and aspirations with seamless access to information on available work, including billable, pro-bono, and secondment opportunities.
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of equity partner attrition is due to hybrid working arrangements |
confirm hybrid working has a negative impact on the development of attorneys’ skills |
are planning to raise associate salaries by more than 10% this year |
of equity partner attrition is due to professional development opportunities |
The legal market still faces a serious talent shortage. The go-to response for law firms to the challenges of attracting and retaining talented lawyer staff has been to increase salaries, especially to attract the top tranche of newly qualified lawyers. This policy persists, with 24% of firms planning to increase salaries for newly qualified lawyers by more than 10% on average. There is a reliance on financial incentives to retain talent at every level of the organization, with 28% of firms planning pay rises in excess of 10% on average for associates and 26% planning the same for other non-equity tiers.
Attitudes about work have changed in recent years, but North American models of long hours persist, even in UK firms, leading to increasing lawyer burnout. Mental health issues are rising, with 36% of lawyers reporting depression and 69% anxiety in 2024 – and work/life balance is cited as a reason for leaving a firm by 19% of equity partners and 23% of junior associates. Hybrid working arrangements (25%) and professional development opportunities (23%) are also key drivers for equity partners’ departures.
Hybrid working has become embedded in most law firms over the past four years – but is that helping or hindering lawyers’ work/life balance goals? Half (49%) confirm that access to flexible working has a positive impact on staff loyalty. However, serious problems continue. Over a quarter (28%) say hybrid work has a negative impact on the development of attorneys' skills, 27% on culture, and 25% on client relationships and collaboration.
Furthermore, despite lawyers’ professional development goals, over a third (36%) said that partners picking resources based on personal preferences was a challenge. Stressed, overworked lawyers risk burnout because they do not know where to turn for administrative support. Work is not allocated equitably, undermining the DEI requirements outlined in Section 1. Inadequate, inefficient resource allocation processes are not supporting work/life balance goals, inevitably negatively impacting talent acquisition and retention. Many attorneys are working at over 100% utilization while attorneys in the same firm are struggling to find enough work to maintain their billable targets. 
Two fifths (41%) of firms have no or only partial access to information relating to the different skill sets of each associate, and although this is an improvement on the 59% in this position last year, firms need to do much more to nurture and support this expensive, valuable resource. As more and more firms are recruiting non-lawyer C-suite leadership, they are often amazed that attorney work allocation has not been adopted more readily, especially considering other professional services firms have been using work allocation technology and practices effectively for 30+ years.
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of equity partner attrition is increasing or staying the same |
plan to use more succession planning |
will use data surfaced from technology to identify the required roles and skills |
Loss of staff results in a significant business cost and disrupts client relationships. As we reported in Section 1 above, lateral hiring has slowed over the past year. However, attrition levels remain a serious concern. 
Almost three quarters of firms report attrition levels for equity partners (72%) and junior associates (71%) are increasing or staying the same. With 34% of firms expecting to lose between 20% and 40% of equity partners in the next five years, often to retirement, succession planning and building legal skillsets must both be top priorities. Yet, when only a quarter of law firm associates aspire to be partners in the next five years, and 21% are expecting to leave within two years (according to the 2024 Chambers & Partners 2024 Leading Teams research), replacement is not going to be straightforward. On a scale of 1-10, firms rate finding like for like replacements for equity partners (55%) and junior associates (53%) difficult or extremely difficult.
Firms plan to mitigate attrition through promotions (66%) and succession planning (66%), however, with the lack of skillset data outlined in the section above, firms risk a negative impact on the firm, clients, and lawyers if they are not ready for advancement. 65% also expect lateral hiring will help to plug the gaps. This continued reliance on expensive lateral hiring is inevitable since few firms have created robust succession plans despite the strategic commitment. Only a minority of firms have implemented benchmarks and criteria for assessing readiness for succession for junior associates (29%) and equity partners (25%). Similarly, dedicated talent development programs to nurture potential successors (29% for junior associates, 25% for equity partners) are also far from widespread. Quite simply, firms are not doing enough today to develop the skills of their junior lawyers to grow them into the business-developing partners they will need in the future. It begins with their skills as a lawyer, but the lack of attention at growing them into smart businesspeople is also apparent.
In a more competitive market, with lawyers increasingly expected to undertake business development and demonstrate value to clients, firms need to identify not only the roles to be filled but also an evolving skill set. Two-thirds of firms (67%) confirm they will be required to hire staff based on their specific strengths and interests, underlining the increasing expectation of better career development.
While there is still a reliance on manual data gathering to identify roles and skills (64%), firms are becoming more strategic about succession. Two-thirds (67%) are planning to use data surfaced from technology to identify the required roles and skills and 67% will use resource managers or work allocation-focused employees to identify the skills required against demand. With the in-depth insight into lawyers’ skills, expertise, and career development goals provided by BigHand Legal Resource Management, firms can deliver succession planning and provide lawyers of all stages with enhanced legal skills development to help maintain client relationships and safeguard profitability.
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have experienced more than 10% client attrition in the last year |
confirm that reviewing matters with a focus on profit |
confirm hybrid working forces lawyers to undertake administrative tasks |
Record billing rate increases, despite productivity reductions, underline the continued need for robust price increases to maintain or grow profitability. Yet with the scale of client attrition is this trend sustainable? Building on the trend for-cost transparency, this year’s findings that clients are reducing spend and cutting the number of firms on their panels, underpins the increasingly competitive nature of the legal services market. The ability to use the right resources at the right cost is now essential and firms are increasing their commitment to improving resource management processes. Two-thirds (67%) confirm a greater focus on delegating the right work to the right resource at the right cost (64% last year) and 63% are improving leverage to minimize the risk of lower-value work being undertaken by senior staff (62% last year).
Despite rising client attrition, however, firms are still not adopting a profit-first approach to resourcing matters: just a third (34%) of firms confirm that reviewing matters with a focus on profit is a priority. 
Over a third (36%) said that partners picking resources based on personal preferences was a challenge, an approach that is often masked by internal relationships versus skills, experience, and costs, often creating a delta between what the client expects to pay and what they are billed, typically resulting in write-offs or write-downs.
Almost a quarter (24%) of firms also confirm that hybrid working is still leading lawyers to more administrative work rather than engaging support staff, further undermining matter profitability. With write-offs continuing to increase, clients are refusing to pay for excessive partner hours or any resources added mid-matter. Firms urgently need to ensure they are resourcing with profit in mind. It begins with creating a budget (using dedicated matter pricing technology) with the right costs and resources planning, to effective delegation to the correct resources, and communicating against budget/matter progress to reduce write-offs. It is also essential that lawyers maximize their focus on billable work: profitability is eroded quickly when expensive resources are completing non-billable work.
Law firms cannot continue to depend solely on driving up prices and expect to retain clients’ business. Technology that surfaces availability, skillsets, and billable rates and supports robust work allocation processes will be key if firms are to embed resourcing for profitability and efficiency across the business.
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have technology to support properly resourcing matters, 13% will add it over the next 24 months |
have Resource Managers in place |
will add a Resource Manager role or dedicated work allocation managers over the next 24 months |
highlight efficiency gains from implementing technology in response to the changing legal buyer |
Year on year, BigHand has tracked law firms’ increasing commitment to technology innovation to reduce costs while improving the effectiveness of resource management, work allocation, and improved client satisfaction. Investment continues this year: over half (58%) of firms have technology to support resourcing matters and 13% plan to add this over the next 24 months.
The rapid increase in the use of dedicated professionals to transform the efficiency of resourcing has slowed: 57% of firms now have Resource Managers in place, the same number as last year, with 25% planning to add this role or add dedicated work allocation managers over the next 24 months. This could be due to more mid-tier firms introducing a technology-first approach to driving resource management, and not needing a dedicated role to run the process due to firm size at this stage. For large firms, the combination of skilled resource management experts and dedicated resource management technology will be vital to embed the changes required to retain both clients and talented staff.
There is a growing gap between technology-first organizations and the rest, with 64% of law firms now actively highlighting RFIs efficiency gains from implementing technology in response to the changing legal buyer. These firms’ ability to leverage improved insight and streamline workflow to deliver and demonstrate greater client value provides a compelling competitive edge in response to shrinking panels and increasingly cost-sensitive clients. It also creates a positive working environment for lawyers, with seamless access to highly effective support as well as a focus on lawyers’ professional development, providing a differentiation among firms competing for the same talent and winning the race to be the employer of choice.
While the top line performance figures look promising for law firms, the underlying trends in client expectations and behavior underline the urgent need for change. With the financial outlook in the US looking less positive, and the inevitable implications for the global economy, clients will become ever more demanding. Firms need to balance clients’ expectations of higher-value legal services that comply with DEI goals with lawyers’ concerns regarding equitable access to work and professional development while retaining a focus on profit.
Leveraging technology to improve work allocation will improve lawyer utilization and productivity, reducing cost and ensuring firms are meeting client service expectations. Detailed, real-time insight will support a new focus on lawyer career development. With detailed information to forecast required skills and potential gaps, creating strong training and/or succession plans, and embedding robust DEI policies, firms can reduce the upheaval created by staff attrition and build for a profitable future.
Section one Section two |
Section three reading time: 9 minutes What the trends mean for your support staffSection three: The impact of a changing support structure in optimizing lawyer potentialUtilization and productivity of support staff | Attracting and retaining talent | Attrition, retirement, and succession planning | Work delegation for profitability | Investing in technology and people Efficient, cost-effective support is essential if law firms are to deliver client expectations of value and quality. Support teams have seen significant change in recent years, as law firms have wrestled with the retirement of highly skilled, highly experienced legal assistants. This has created the need (or some might say opportunity) to change support structures to better support lawyers needs against the backdrop of a loss of experienced talent and a generation of new staff entering the job market with little interest in becoming a generalist legal secretary supporting the needs of a small group of busy lawyers. Coupling this with the expectations for hybrid work by both attorneys and their support staff and the need to underpin these services with effective technology has become even more obvious. |
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measure support staff throughput rates |
measure support staff utilization |
measure support staff quality of work |
To mitigate the risk of further business loss, law firms need to consider every aspect of client service delivery. Effective utilization of support staff is vital to ensure client tasks are completed by the right resource, with the right skills at the right cost. 
Without visibility of support tasks or effective work allocation software firms cannot ascertain the efficiency of the support functions or determine the changes in skills, processes, and structures required to best support lawyers.
As we reported in the BigHand Support Staff Trends for those firms tracking support staff productivity, 42% focus on throughput rates, 40% on utilization, and 38% on quality of work. The value of this information is increasingly recognized, 
with over two-thirds (68%) of firms confirming that better visibility of support staff workloads and activity improves the understanding of support staff value to lawyers. With detailed insight provided by BigHand Workflow Management, firms can move away from reliance upon lawyers’ personal feedback about support services and embrace a data-led approach to both performance management and ongoing skills development.
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confirm support staff attrition is due to a lack of professional development |
cite work/life balance as a reason for leaving |
offer support staff a clearly defined career path |
The talent shortage in the legal market extends to support staff and firms urgently need to consider how best to attract and retain talent. Simply boosting salary is often not enough, with 25% citing a lack of professional development as the biggest reason for leaving. The onus is on firms to deliver more clarity to long term career options. The accelerating trend towards centralizing support teams provides opportunities to define career paths, progressing from junior administrative assistant to more senior roles focused more on client support and legal delivery.
Building skills in-house, as opposed to attempting to recruit from a scarce market, requires not only clear career paths and excellent training but also insight into the current skillsets and experience of staff, as well as their expectations. Speed of career progression may be the motivator for some; others will prioritize work/life balance and firms able to professionalize the work experience, including progression, will be well placed to reduce disruptive attrition.
Indeed, the day-to-day experience is important for support staff, with 23% citing work/life balance as a reason for leaving and 22% referring to a lack of hybrid working arrangements. In addition to creating a flexible support model that enables a more balanced allocation of tasks across a hybrid environment, firms need to create more visibility around the diversity of work available, including adding more valuable tasks such as cash collection and client support, to improve support staff morale.
With BigHand Workflow Management, firms can provide access to a wider range of work as well as identify opportunities for targeted training to upskill staff and build new specialties. Today, however, only 25% of firms are providing support staff with access to a clearly defined career path within their current structure. Given the importance of professional development to reduce support staff attrition this is a significant oversight that needs to be urgently addressed if firms are to successfully attract and retain talent.
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confirm support staff attrition has increased or stayed the same over the past year |
are using career planning for support staff |
have created a dedicated talent development program for support staff |
Support staff attrition is both costly and disruptive, impacting the efficiency and performance of lawyers and compromising the quality of client service delivery. With 69% confirming levels of attrition have increased or stayed the same over the past year, firms are not only experiencing disruption but also losing valuable knowledge and experience from the business, especially when you consider the accelerated rate of talent loss for legal support staff in the last few years.
BigHand has been following the looming support staff crisis for years. In Accelerating the Redesign of Support Services to Meet Escalating Client Demand 98% of support services managers expected to lose up to 50% of support staff to retirement over the next five years, with almost two-fifths (38%) expecting between 20% and 40% of support staff to retire over the next five years. This year that figure is down slightly (34%) but retirement remains a significant problem for the industry where like-for-like replacement is not only difficult but, in a new support model, not always the right solution. When you couple these retirement rates with normal attrition, these numbers become more numbing.
Firms are responding to recruitment and retirement rates by increasing centralization (63%) and using career planning for support staff (66%). To date, however, only 27% of firms have set benchmarks and criteria for assessing readiness for promotion and 
only 28% have created a dedicated talent development program to nurture potential replacements for support staff. Using BigHand Workflow Management firms can transform succession planning, identifying individuals with the right skills and career expectations to step up to the next level.
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will increase focus on delegating the right work to the right resource at the right cost |
have only partial or no data about the types of tasks sent from lawyers to support staff |
With 96% of law firms confirming client attrition rates increased over the past 12 months, attention must turn towards the role of support services in meeting clients’ value expectations. With clients reducing spend on legal budgets (40%) and creating smaller panels (34%), efficient and effective support management is key to ensuring lawyers’ time is 100% focused on billable, client-facing activity. Cost-conscious clients will not pay for lawyers’ administrative work, yet almost a quarter of firms (24%) confirm lawyers are doing more administrative work rather than delegating because of the shift to hybrid working – which will ultimately lead to write-offs or write-downs.
As we referenced earlier, 12% of lawyers are spending over five (non-billable) hours a week on client-facing or internal administrative tasks that should be delegated to support staff. If we assume those firms have 100 lawyers, that equates to 500 billable hours lost per week, or circa 23,000 hours per year.
With the acceleration of centralized support models and the shift to hybrid working, it is more critical than ever to ensure lawyers can quickly access the most appropriate support resource. Law firms continue to improve support staff workflows, with 67% placing a greater focus on delegating the right work to the right resource at the right cost (up from 64% last year). 
However, 33% of firms have only partial or no data about the types of tasks sent from lawyers to support staff, creating the risk that firms are not utilizing support teams efficiently. In addition to visibility of support resources, providing lawyers with training about the level of support available and support staff with clear guidance on how best to deliver support to different areas of the business will maximize efficiency and safeguard profitability.
Law firms also need to consider the potential boost to profit that can be achieved by creating the right support structure and ensuring lawyers are delegating the tasks that they should, and that those tasks are picked up by the right level of support. In an evolving support model, BigHand Workflow Management highlights opportunities to avoid replacing departing staff by absorbing tasks into the existing support structure rather than hiring direct replacements. Detailed insight into support tasks also reveals areas where a junior person or administrative assistant could be recruited at a lower price to undertake more entry level work, allowing more senior staff to focus on the work that is appropriate for their level of legal experience, and/or more focused on supporting clients.
By ensuring that centralized, lower-skilled resources pick up more general tasks, including reporting and time entry, more expensive, skilled legal support teams are released to deliver the high-value work that further impacts lawyers’ ability to serve clients. Plus, a visible, tracked support model encourages the opportunity for highly skilled legal support staff to also undertake billable tasks.
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use Workflow Managers to manage the allocation of work from lawyers to support staff |
have workflow technology in place |
struggle with manual delegation of tasks between support staff working at home and staff in the office |
Law firms have overhauled support services in recent years, responding to changing demands and high levels of staff attrition to embrace centralized teams and hybrid working. These modern support services, however, cannot deliver the efficiency and transparency required without highly effective workflow technology. From task allocation to staff utilization, talent management to succession planning, a streamlined and optimized support process is essential to reduce costs and meet client expectations.
The importance of effective workflow processes is increasingly recognized: over half (55%) of firms already have Workflow Managers managing work from lawyers to support staff, with 12% planning to add this role over the next 24 months. These individuals are empowered with workflow technology (54% of firms), supporting the streamlined allocation of tasks to the right resource with the right skills at the right cost.
However, manual delegation of tasks (84%) between support staff working at home and staff in the office remains a significant problem for firms. With hybrid working a core aspect of staff attraction and retention for both lawyers and support staff, implementing technology that allows seamless task allocation and management irrespective of location is imperative. BigHand Workflow Management delivers the visibility and control required to ensure effective task allocation, track task turnaround time, the capacity of support teams, and the quality of work completed. With complete visibility of the entire support function, law firms can optimize operations to support lawyers in the delivery of profitable services that meet clients’ value expectations.
Law firms have long acknowledged the trend for clients to demand billing transparency, but the past 12 months have highlighted the next stage in the evolution of client behavior. High attrition levels, increased price sensitivity, and reduced panels are creating a very competitive, value-driven legal services market. An efficient and effective support team has a vital role to play both in delivering profitable client services and ensuring lawyers have seamless access to the right level of support at the right time.
The shift towards centralized support teams is enabling law firms to improve access to support resources and manage the continued high levels of staff attrition and associated knowledge loss. This is, however, a very significant cultural change. Ensuring lawyers can easily access the right support skills at the right time across a hybrid working model is imperative but firms also need to invest in building the right support skills to ensure efficient task completion.
From attracting, training, and retaining a new generation of support staff to ensuring access to the task diversity required for career development, workflow management technology is underpinning a hyper-efficient support services process that enables the acquisition and retention of profitable client business, while providing clients a superior overall service experience.
