How could reduced time typing help your firm grow?

This is a guest article written by Karen Godden of Document Direct to help firms think about what they are spending their time on and how support with administrative tasks can lead to generating more value in your firm.

In a world where time is money, how much of your working day is spent on tasks that non-lawyers in your firm could do and which don’t directly generate revenue?

For many professionals – especially in the legal sector – document production, transcription, and formatting eat into hours that could be better spent on business development, client relationships, or strategic growth.

It’s time to shift the balance.

The hidden cost of doing it all

Typing up client notes, formatting reports, or editing long-form documents may feel like necessary tasks. And they are – but that doesn’t mean you or your fee earners should be the ones doing them. When skilled professionals spend time typing instead of building client relationships or developing new business, opportunities are lost. These are important activities that can’t be done by non-fee earners.

A helpful way to think about it is if your lawyers can earn more per hour doing a different task than what they are spending their time on, and they aren’t the only person who can do it, then they probably shouldn’t be!

Let’s do the maths:

• Just 1 hour a day spent on admin or typing equals 5 hours a week – or over 250 hours a year.
• That’s more than 6 full working weeks lost to non-billable work.

Now imagine reinvesting that time into strategic planning or business development activity, such as developing existing client relationships, meeting new introducers and working on how you can support similar clients or attending events to meet prospective clients directly. How could that contribute to increased and more sustainable revenue and profit?

Smart outsourcing = smart growth

Outsourcing document production to a specialist provider like Document Direct gives you:

• Highly accurate, secure transcription and formatting
• Rapid turnaround times to keep projects moving
• The freedom to focus on high-value tasks like client engagement, pitch preparation, or attending industry events

Plus, with a dedicated, skilled team behind you, you can maintain consistency, accuracy, and quality – without compromising your time.

Results that speak for themselves

Firms we work with often report:

• Increased efficiency across teams
• Faster turnaround times for client-ready documents
• Fee earners with more time for chargeable work and business development

Some even comment that our team “thinks” and doesn’t just “type” – meaning we’re not just a service, but a supportive extension of your business.

Reclaim your time

Whether you’re a solo consultant or part of a busy legal practice, freeing up your time from document-heavy tasks could be the change that accelerates your growth.

Let us help you work smarter, not harder – and give you back the time you need to build your business.

Karen Godden has worked in the legal profession for more than 20 years, starting as a legal secretary and developing a strong foundation in precision, confidentiality, and client care. At Document Direct, the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of transcription and document production services, she now helps deliver a service that frees up fee-earners’ time, enhances productivity and ensures every document is returned to a consistently high standard.

Working inside law firms has given her hands-on insight into how law firms operate and the challenges fee earners face, so she understands the unique pressures.