And the Numbers Show… (Part 1)

We all love data. Crave it. We don’t put down our digital devices for a second of missing some interesting digital tidbit. Here’s some interesting data I’ve recently come across with regard to the administration of law firms:

Being Efficient Doing the Wrong Tasks = Not Being Efficient

According to Bob Ambrogi in: Exclusive Survey Results: Small Firms’ Greatest Challenges and What They’re Doing to Address Them, the numbers clearly show how the administrative functions of running a practice have taken over the average attorney work day:

Top five overall challenges (factoring in the issues ranked as both moderate and significant):

  1. Acquiring new client business (78 percent).
  2. Spending too much time on administrative tasks (69 percent).
  3. Increasing complexity of technology (63 percent).
  4. Cost control and expense growth (62 percent).
  5. (Tie with 4) Clients demanding more for less or rate pressure from clients (62 percent).

Top five overall challenges facing solos:

  1. Acquiring new client business (25 percent).
  2. Spending too much time on administrative tasks (22 percent).
  3. Clients demanding more for less or rate pressure from clients (20 percent).
  4. Increasing complexity of technology (16 percent).

Oddly, administrative tasks did not appear in the:

Top five challenges of firms of 11-29 attorneys:

  1. Acquiring new client business (37 percent).
  2. Clients demanding more for less or rate pressure from clients (22 percent).
  3. (Tie with 2) Succession planning (22 percent).
  4. Cost control and expense growth (14 percent).
  5. (Tie with 4) Information overload from growth in legal documents (14 percent).

Which leads me to believe the other 47% for spending too much time on administrative tasks is attributable to firms with 2-10 attorneys. Even without surmising, the above solidly shows that attorneys rank spending too much time on administrative tasks a major challenge.

Coming next week in Part 2: So Why Are Lawyers Spending So Much Time On Administrative Tasks?

-Andrea Cannavina
866-848-2195 x101 andrea@legaltypist.com

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