In a typical commercial law firm, lawyers spend only 60% of their working time on actual client work. The remaining 40% goes to administration: sorting emails, searching for documents, coordinating meetings, generating invoices, internal alignment.
For a lawyer working 220 days per year at 9 hours per day, that amounts to 792 hours per year on admin. At a billing rate of $300 per hour, that represents $237,600 per lawyer — in lost revenue or wasted capacity.
Multiply that by the number of lawyers in your firm, and you see the scale.
The Five Biggest Time Drains — and What to Do About Them
1. Email Management: 2–3 Hours Daily
The most obvious time drain. Partners regularly report that they spend an hour in the morning reviewing their inbox, constantly switch between client work and email throughout the day, and address outstanding messages again in the evening.
The problem is not the medium of email — it is the lack of structure. When every email is treated equally (whether client enquiry, newsletter, or internal question), prioritisation falls to the most expensive resource: the partner.
In our article on 7 strategies against email overload, we describe concrete measures — from simple filter rules to full automation.
Savings potential: 40–70% of email time through structured intake and automatic routing.
2. Document Searches: 30–60 Minutes Daily
Where was the latest draft of the share purchase agreement? On the server? In the cloud? As an email attachment? Which version?
Lawyers spend a surprising amount of time searching for documents that exist — just not where expected. According to McKinsey, knowledge workers spend 19% of their working time searching for and gathering information.
What helps:
- Consistent folder structure: A binding scheme everyone knows and uses (e.g.,
/Client/Year/Practice Area/Document Type) - Consistent naming:
20260208_SPA_Miller_v3.docxrather thanContract_final_final2.docx - Full-text search: Practice management software with search that covers document contents — not just file names
Savings potential: 50–80% of search time through consistent naming conventions and search tools.
3. Invoicing: 2–4 Hours Per Week
The classic scenario: end of the month, invoices need to go out. Partners sit on Friday afternoon reconstructing time entries from memory because they did not keep their time records up to date.
The result: invoices that are too low (forgotten hours), sent too late (cash flow problem), or contain errors (rework plus poor impression on the client).
What helps:
- Daily time recording: Consistently at the end of each day, not at month-end. 5 minutes daily instead of 3 hours monthly
- Automatic invoice generation: Generate draft invoices directly from recorded time entries
- Payment reminders: Automatically after 14, 30, and 45 days — instead of manually chasing by phone
Savings potential: 60–80% of invoicing time. Bonus: invoices go out faster = better cash flow.
4. Scheduling: 30–60 Minutes Daily
The ping-pong effect: "Does Tuesday work?" — "No, how about Wednesday?" — "I have a court date, Thursday?" — "The partner is not available." Three emails, five calendar checks, 20 minutes — for a single appointment.
What helps:
- Online booking: Tools like Calendly or Cal.com show available slots directly. The client picks, the appointment is set — no ping-pong
- Automatic reminders: 24h and 1h before the meeting. Reduces no-shows by 30–50%
- Calendar integration: Appointments automatically in all relevant calendars (partner + client + conference room if needed)
Savings potential: 80–90% of coordination time for standard appointments. Complex meetings (multiple parties, court dates) remain manual.
5. Internal Coordination: 30–60 Minutes Daily
Quick question to a colleague: "Have you progressed the Miller case?" Answer three hours later. In the meantime: reminder email, quick walk to their office (colleague not there), Slack message.
Internal communication is necessary — but the effort per exchange is often disproportionate because information is not centrally available.
What helps:
- Central matter overview: One place where everyone can see the status of a case — without needing to ask
- Asynchronous updates: Daily 5-minute status update instead of spontaneous interruptions
- Clear responsibilities: When every matter has a clear owner, 80% of "Who is dealing with...?" questions disappear
Savings potential: 40–60% of coordination time through transparent status overviews.
The Total Cost: What Admin Time Costs Your Firm
For a firm with 10 lawyers (average $300/h):
| Time Drain | Time/Lawyer/Day | Lawyers | Working Days | Rate | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email management | 2.5h | 10 | 220 | $300 | $1,650,000 |
| Document searches | 0.75h | 10 | 220 | $300 | $495,000 |
| Invoicing | 0.5h | 10 | 220 | $300 | $330,000 |
| Scheduling | 0.75h | 10 | 220 | $300 | $495,000 |
| Internal coordination | 0.5h | 10 | 220 | $300 | $330,000 |
| Total | 5h | $3,300,000 |
Even if only 30% can realistically be saved, that is $990,000 per year in freed capacity — capacity that can be used for billable work or business development.
Where to Start: The Prioritisation Matrix
Not everything at once. The rule of thumb: highest time saving × lowest implementation risk = first lever.
| Measure | Time Saving | Implementation Effort | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic acknowledgement | Medium | 1 hour | Today |
| Email filter rules | High | 2–4 hours | This week |
| Online scheduling | High | 1 day | This week |
| Consistent folder structure | High | 1–2 weeks | This month |
| Automatic invoicing | High | 2–4 weeks | This quarter |
| Full workflow automation | Very high | 3–6 weeks | After individual measures |
The mistake most firms make: they deliberate for months about whether to tackle "digital transformation" — and then do nothing because the overall project seems too large.
Better: one measure per week. Acknowledgement email on Monday. Filter rules the following Monday. Online booking the week after. After a month, you have reclaimed 20% of your admin time — without a major project.
The Hidden Gain: What to Do With the Time You Win Back
Saving time is only half the equation. The other half: what do you do with the hours you gain?
Three options:
- More billable hours: Direct revenue increase. 2 hours/day × $300 × 220 days = $132,000 per lawyer.
- Better client service: Same hours, but more attentive service = higher retention = more repeat instructions.
- Business development: Speaking engagements, networking, articles — the investment that fills the pipeline long-term but for which there is never time in daily practice.
Most successful firms use a mix: 50% more billable work, 30% better service, 20% business development.
How to Start — Concretely
Today:
Estimate honestly: how many hours per week do you personally spend on the five admin tasks listed? Write the number down.
This week:
Implement the first measure from the table — the one with the least effort. Not perfect, just functional.
In 30 days:
Compare: has anything changed? If yes — next measure. If not — analyse why.
If you find that manual measures are not enough and you are thinking about systematic process optimisation: take a look at what our services cover in this area, or get in touch directly for a no-obligation assessment.