By Deenah Parmar, Customer Solutions Manager at Legal Futures Associate BigHand
I recently read an article highlighting the ongoing stress and burnout among lawyers. This piece deeply resonated with me as I have seen this play out day to day in law firm life, and from that experience, I understand that the issue is still very real.
From legal to tech
About 14 months ago, I embarked on a new journey, leaving behind my law firm existence to work for a legal tech company.
I had been responsible for resourcing matters, often making numerous calls and juggling schedules (both in person and virtually on Teams) to find someone with capacity. Many lawyers were genuinely overworked, yet some would still say, “I’m really busy, but come back to me if there is no one else.” I would analyze utilization reports which often meant a wait of several weeks. In an ideal world, those allocating lawyers to matters would have up to the minute information on capacity, but instead those resourcing matters in law firms often have to lean on tedious and time-consuming manual processes.
There were times when I urgently needed to find someone. Should I go back to that overworked associate because everyone else appeared busy? Is it the right time to challenge those at the lower end of utilization, or was last month an anomaly, and had they done their fair share in the previous 12 months? Meanwhile, a partner might call to say a new matter had surfaced and ask, “Who do we have available? Oh, and ideally, they should speak French and be ready to travel in the next few days…”
In my mind, I started moving lawyers around like chess pieces or puzzle parts, figuring out how to redeploy them all. Yes, I had Excel sheets, but the real strategy was just in my head.
You get the drift. I started to think there just had to be a better way to do this.
From disorder to order
Nowadays, I work with law firm leaders to address all the issues I have described (and many more). In teaching law firms to maximize the value of BigHand technology, I found the solution to the resourcing stress which is still prevalent in law firms.
How did I do that? BigHand Resource Management is a legal work allocation tool that allows law firms to identify resources, forecast utilization, manage workloads and add structure to career development for lawyers. In reality, it’s so much more. The tool unlocks the data required to flatten capacity across a firm’s fee earners and ensure the fair, equitable work allocation needed to reduce lawyer burnout. The impact on individual lawyers within firms is groundbreaking.
When working with tech, you’re surrounded by discussions around the latest industry trends. It can feel as though there is a race to AI, for example, and in the process, it can be easy to lose sight of the human element of business. The fact is that 62% of firms say they lack vital information about lawyer training and development and 56% of firms have either no data or limited data about how matters are resourced based on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This highlights why technology is pivotal to informing business decisions, with people at the heart of those decisions. The same research from BigHand showed that 54% of firms now have processes and/or tech to identify skills and availability across teams. Encouragingly, a further 11% plan to do this in the next 24 months.
I’m pleased that technology is helping firms fulfil their objectives to foster equitable associate workloads and gain true visibility into their capacities. I’m happy to help practices see the value in allocating work to the right lawyers, where team composition is truly analyzed and considered. Above all, I’m so proud to work with firms that recognize the need for change regarding lawyer burnout. That simply has to stop.
If lawyer burnout is happening at your firm, please get in touch to find out how BigHand can support your people.
