{"id":1093,"date":"2013-10-13T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-13T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hub.findingsimple.com\/au\/resources\/resource\/study-reveals-lack-technological-nous-waste-weeks-fee-earners-time-every-year\/"},"modified":"2020-06-05T06:05:13","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T06:05:13","slug":"study-reveals-lack-technological-nous-waste-weeks-fee-earners-time-every-year","status":"publish","type":"insight_resource","link":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/legal\/resources\/resource\/study-reveals-lack-technological-nous-waste-weeks-fee-earners-time-every-year","title":{"rendered":"A Lack of Technological Nous Could Waste Weeks of Fee-Earner&#8217;s Time Every Year (Infographic)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"intro-paragraph\">We recently conducted a study which has revealed law firms could be needlessly wasting hundreds of hours each year and miscalculating tens of thousands in billable time because of a lack of specialist training and adoption of new technologies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>76% claim their lack of technology knowledge wastes &#8216;significant firm time<\/li>\n<li>Only 11% of firms offer training for new technologies<\/li>\n<li>Automated process can save up to 50% compared with legacy methods<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More than 80* senior fee-earning legal practitioners in medium-large practices were questioned in our August 2013 survey to help us understand how law firms use practice management and research technologies. A lack of knowledge was a common trend, with just 11% claiming their firm offered formalised training for newly adopted technologies. Only 17% said they got the most out of the current workflow and research tools at their disposal and the majority (76%) claimed this had a negative impact on their time efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>A large number of professionals also rely exclusively on &#8216;manual&#8217; processes for day-to-day tasks, despite fully-automated computer-based processes being available, including workflow management (41%), legal research (38%), tracking billable time (37%), client cost-ledger (35%), document management (31%), and document production\/assembly (19%).<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, the survey highlighted the potential time savings offered by fully automated solutions, including workflow management (50% average time saving compared to the manual process) legal research (50%), document production\/assembly (50%), tracking billable time (25%), client cost leger (25%) and document management (25%).<\/p>\n<p>The top reasons for this lack of adoption emerged as greater trust in &#8216;traditional&#8217; legacy methods (43%) and technophobia (32%) from users.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff9900\">Miscalculation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The study also highlighted a number of other issues impacting a firm&#8217;s potential profitability due to lack of technology. Of those professionals manually tracking billable time, 56% admitted they generally underestimated their hours. This is compared to just 18% of those who fully automated the process. And, with an average inaccuracy of 30-40%, there is some serious billable time being lost.<\/p>\n<p>The same can be said for manually tracking client cost-ledger, with 50% of firms underestimating &#8216;recharge&#8217; costs, by an average of a quarter. The research also highlighted a dearth of fee-earner time analysis, with just 21% of firms analysing fee earner&#8217;s figures on a monthly basis. 16% did this every six months, 37% yearly, while 19% never did it.<\/p>\n<p>Carl Olson, ANZ Product Management Director, Thomson Reuters Legal, comments: &#8220;It&#8217;s surprising to see so many firms still relying on so-called &#8216;manual&#8217; processes, despite the availability of proven and trusted time-saving alternatives such as online research portals and sophisticated practice management software. In some cases this costs time, but when a fee earner undercharges their hours, it&#8217;s a case of directly losing money. Firms that fail to adopt new technologies leave themselves open to being less competitive than those that do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff9900\">How much is this really costing?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Underestimating fee earner&#8217;s time by 40%. Based on a typical senior solicitor&#8217;s charge out rate of $300 per hour, this equates to a potential $20,000 a month in lost revenue. Based on an average partner&#8217;s hourly rate of $800, this rockets to more than $51,000 a month.<\/p>\n<p>Document assembly time savings of 50% with automated solutions. According to recent research, taking instructions and drafting one of three types of common legal document takes an average of 86 minutes**, meaning automated solutions could save 46 minutes. Based on producing just three documents per week, a senior solicitor could be wasting $2,760 each month in lost billable time.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Sources:<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em>*Study questioned 80 senior staff\/partners across medium-large law firms in Australia<\/em><br \/>\n<em> **According to a 2011 study by LegalFutures<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We recently conducted a study which has revealed law firms could be needlessly wasting hundreds of hours each year and miscalculating tens of thousands in billable time because of a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1095,"template":"","categories":[588],"tags":[70,386,440,559],"resource_type":[600],"insight_job_role":[604,614,619,627,628],"insight_practice_area":[],"class_list":["entry","author-legaladmin","post-1093","insight_resource","type-insight_resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","category-efficiency-and-time-management","tag-billable-hours","tag-mid-sized-firms","tag-profitability","tag-workflow","resource_type-infographic","insight_job_role-knowledge-manager","insight_job_role-partner","insight_job_role-practice-manager","insight_job_role-senior-executive","insight_job_role-solicitor","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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