Increasing productivity is not a matter of skipping lunch breaks or working longer hours. Productivity is rather the measure of output. Increasing your productivity means creating more value in a shorter amount of time and depending on fewer resources.
Increased productivity brings myriad benefits, which spreads across law firms. Team members and colleagues find that individual increases in productivity tend to support wider team productivity and leads to more evenly distributed work.
Firms welcome productivity from individuals because it means they gain more output per employee and, according to a , leads to higher profitability. And clients receive better value for money, higher quality work, and faster legal solutions. And, for the individual, for the lawyer, increased productivity creates a better work/life balance, improves morale, minimises tedious work, and increases job satisfaction.
So the benefits of increased productivity are clear. The question is how lawyers can personally aim to increase their productivity and encourage firms to do the same. In this article, we look at five simple steps that lawyers and firms can take to ensure productivity rises.
encourages organisations to ensure people, processes, tech, and other elements of operations are approached with maximum flexibility. Agile working offers the ability to undertake day-to-day tasks without adhering to traditional boundaries. Agile working in the legal sector aims to provide freedom and autonomy to lawyers.
Examples of agile working includes prioritising speedy decision-making over internal hierarchies and bureaucracy, providing flexible working practices, minimising formal rules and regulations, and providing an open and inviting office space.
The benefits of agile working are many. And one of the greatest benefits is an increase in productivity. Indeed, according to , 67% of businesses report substantial increases in productivity following the emphasis on agile working.
And, on the individual level, agile working can improve a lawyer’s productivity. Minimal formal rules, for example, give lawyers the freedom to reduce outdated processes that consume time but provide little value. An inviting office space leads to stronger collaboration. Prioritising quick decision-making means less bureaucracy and the absence of bottle necking.
And, perhaps most importantly, agile working culture encourages lawyers to take the initiative, to break boundaries, to reduce time-wasting, to increase their own productivity. Lawyers can feel empowered to make needed changes, rather than waiting for authorisation from above. The shift to agile creates a working culture that simple encourages productivity.
Perhaps the most common aspect of agile working – especially in the past few years – is the switch to hybrid. is typically defined as employees spending some of their working days in the office and other working days at home.
The are well-known. Reports suggest that hybrid working typically improves employee wellbeing, increases staff retention, reduces law firm costs, allows for a greater talent pool, and improves in-house collaboration. And, importantly, hybrid working massively increases productivity,
The increase in productivity broadly stems from personal empowerment, more free time, and greater wellbeing. Consider, for example, that lawyers at home can avoid the distractions that come with the office, allocating more time to focus. A , for example, that 90% of people working from home felt they could better concentrate on one activity for longer.
In addition, hybrid working improves lawyer wellbeing. Consider, for example, the absence of the commute, more time spent with family, more flexibility on working hours, lunch breaks spent in comfort, and so on. And, of course, there is a clear correlation between lawyer wellbeing, productivity, and general performance of the firm, .
Automation is the act of digitising repetitive and tedious tasks. In the legal sector, that typically means automating tasks such as , payment collection, data entry, and document creation. These are typically the tasks that lawyers find tedious and tasks that take up unnecessary amounts of time.
Increased productivity depends on automation. Certain menial tasks take machines very little time, but the same tasks can be exhausting and frustrating for lawyers. By automating tasks, lawyers can spend more time focussing on important, client-facing work, which broadly leads to improved output, better outcomes, and a higher rate of client solutions.
Legal document creation is one particularly grating task. Lawyers should aim to automate. Lexis Create, for example, helps lawyers automate legal documents and pinpoint mistakes. The tool allows lawyers to find clauses, review legal documents, minimise mistakes, ensure work is client-ready, validate citations, and so much more.
Another tedious task is billing. relies on the use of artificial intelligence. Through innovative machine learning, the automated system can process invoices and other documentation and can also alert timekeepers when they spend too much time on a task and whether or not the client is likely to pay for that billable time. The best tech can even provide up-to-date and real-time notifications, allowing lawyers to adjust and increase productivity.
Legal document creation and automated billing are just two examples of legal automation. There are many others. If you are ever unsure of which tasks to automate, talk to colleagues at your firm and find the most tedious and time-consuming tasks, the tasks that leads to frustrations, and that is likely the best place to start. It’s that simple.
is a tool designed to improve productivity. The software brings many benefits, all of which increase productivity, including:
All project management software will possess additional functionality, which law firms can use to provide further benefits. The is to establish your needs and find the software that best suits those needs.
Do not simply follow the latest fashion. Think about exactly what you’ve required, then do detailed research to scout the best options. Involve any stakeholders and others working on the system and ensure they agree with the choice. That’s particularly important as it creates buy-in at a later stage, leading to less complaints and better co-operation.
Another way for lawyers to increase productivity is to find easy ways to access legal knowledge. The key is to ensure the information is digested and utilised in the most efficient way. Reading reams of irrelevant case law is not a good use of time. Instead, lawyers can use programmes, platforms, and tools that streamline the consumption of legal information.
One such legal tool is ³¢±ð³æ¾±²õ®±Ê³§³¢. The tool offers lawyers clear and concise guidance, helping them to speed up all aspects of legal work. It has easily digestible practice notes, precedents, forms, and current awareness pieces across 36 practice areas, which lawyers can tailor to ensure they only receive the information that matters the most to them.
Another option to help lawyers access the right legal information is ³¢±ð³æ¾±²õ®³¢¾±²ú°ù²¹°ù²â. The tool provides comprehensive access to all the legal information a lawyer could possible need, with filtering options to make sure they only read the right information. ³¢±ð³æ¾±²õ®³¢¾±²ú°ù²¹°ù²â contains the largest collection of UK law, exclusive content such as Halsbury’s Laws of England, and more than 600,000 legal cases. Lawyers can certainly save time and increase productivity by possessing all that legal research in one accessible location.
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