It exists in every organization and business, even the best managed and most efficient. The winning strategy for law firms in today's market is to look for waste and reduce it whenever possible. Time is money Waste appears in many different shapes and forms in law firms. The most crippling form, however, is waste of time. Even though the legal profession is moving away from the billable hour culture, time is still the most important commodity in the firm's inventory.
Time relates to more than just hourly fees.
It also affects capacity. Some organizations have discovered that by identifying and eliminating waste, they can increase their capacity for cases and matters by as much as 30 percent - and with no significant increase in staff or resources. The most prevalent forms of waste in law firms are sometimes the hardest to notice. The waste is ingrained in procedures and paradigms that have been in effect for years. That's just the way one handles these cases.