THE PROBLEM
Every fee earner was spending 3 hours a week on work a system should be doing.
For every new client, the same sequence played out. A fee earner would open a Word template, manually populate the client details, select the relevant clauses, convert it to a PDF, and email it out for a wet signature. Then chase for that signature. Then chase again for outstanding documents. Then manually update the CRM once everything was finally in.
This was not one person doing extra admin. It was the same broken process touching every fee earner in the firm, every time a new client came in.
Across a team of four, that added up to roughly 3 hours per fee earner per week. Every week. None of it billable. None of it adding any value to the client. Just the cost of a process that had never been questioned.
At their average billing rate, that was over $800 a week in fee earner time spent on admin. More than $40,000 a year. Walking out of the business quietly, invisibly, one new client at a time.
WHAT WE DID
We started by mapping exactly what was happening before recommending anything.
The first step was a free discovery call. We spoke with the Managing Director, asked them to walk us through how a new client gets onboarded from start to finish, and listened carefully to where things slowed down, got missed, or required someone to intervene manually.
Within 72 hours we sent a written report identifying the three highest-impact opportunities and recommending the discovery workshop as a logical next step.
In the paid discovery workshop, our BCS qualified business analyst spent two hours with the team mapping the current process in full detail. Every step. Every handoff between people. Every point where something could go wrong and regularly did.
What we found confirmed what the discovery call had suggested. The entire client onboarding process was being held together by individual effort. There was no system. There was no automation. There was just a person doing the same thing, the same way, every single time.
We designed the future state, built a fixed-price proposal, and the client approved it the same week. Within six weeks the system was live.
WHAT WE BUILT
A single intake form that triggers everything else automatically.
A new client now completes a single branded intake form. The moment they submit it, everything else happens automatically.
Their engagement letter is assembled from the firm's existing approved templates and sent for electronic signature within minutes. Once signed, a document request portal opens automatically and begins chasing outstanding items on a set schedule. The CRM is updated in real time throughout. The fee earner receives a notification to review the generated letter before it reaches the client. The only manual step remaining in the entire process.
What previously took 2.5 to 3 hours of fee earner time now takes under 8 minutes.
No templates opened manually. No PDFs emailed by hand. No documents chased individually. No CRM updated after the fact.
3 hrs
Per fee earner per week recovered
95%
Reduction in processing time
81%
Of the process automated
6 weeks
Discovery call to live system
THE OUTCOME
The numbers that came out of it.
"This has given our business back something like 40 hours a week. I have never dealt with any supplier professionally that has been more impressive. The attention to even the smallest detail was remarkable."
- Managing Director, Professional services firm
THE BIGGER PICTURE
40 hours a week is not a statistic. It is a team of people doing the work they were hired to do.
Four fee earners each getting 3 hours back every week. Hours that now go toward billable work, client relationships, and the work that actually grows the business.
The system paid for itself in under 8 weeks. Every week after that is pure return.
And because the process is now systematic rather than human-dependent, it scales with the firm. Twenty new clients a month or forty — the onboarding process costs the same amount of time either way.
If you see your business in this story, let's talk.
WORK WITH US
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We will listen to how your business operates, identify where we think the biggest opportunities are, and send you a written report within 72 hours. No cost. No commitment.
No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about your operations.