Clark Hill Future-Proofs Its Firm with BigHand Workflow
Changing working practices, including the shift to hybrid working, and the scarcity of skilled legal support staff are compelling law firms globally to reconsider the structure of support services. As a hybrid organisation, cross-office working has become core to delivering client services to AM Law 200 firm Clark Hill.
With twenty-nine locations across the United States, Ireland, and Mexico, the firm’s 700 lawyers work in agile, collaborative, cross-office teams. Until recently, however, the traditional lawyer-to-legal Administrative Assistant (LAA) relationship was still in place. This created difficulties when an LAA was absent and in recruiting replacements when LAAs left. Clark Hill also recognised the changing industry dynamics, with many of its highly skilled support staff approaching retirement age.
Philip E. Ross, Chief Operating Officer of Clark Hill, explains, “With so many LAAs closer to the end of their careers than the beginning, Clark Hill was set to lose a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge. These skills are scarce in the wider market, meaning we needed to find a better way to share that knowledge across the firm and be more efficient about how those support services are delivered in the future.”
Transforming Efficiency to Optimise Service
Initially implemented in response to the COVID pandemic, in 2023, Clark Hill embarked upon a strategic project with BigHand Workflow Management to optimise support services for lawyers and clients. The software has now been rolled out firmwide, working in partnership with both BigHand and Unbiased Consulting (leading independent consultants in improving law firm client service delivery, enhancing business operations, and leveraging technology solutions.)
“Clark Hill is looking to the future,” explains Kathleen Sullivan, Chief Human Resources Officer, Clark Hill. “BigHand Workflow Management is supporting our drive to achieve cross-office ability, the specialisation of practices and work capabilities. That doesn’t require an LAA outside the door of each lawyer. We can develop that expertise wherever it may sit in the firm.”
Clark Hill has taken an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach in transitioning from a direct lawyer-LAA relationship. Each lawyer still has an assigned LAA, but these individuals operate within a team of four to support twenty lawyers. Anyone in the team can pick up the work within BigHand Workflow Management. This approach is more efficient and provides complete visibility of work progress for lawyers in different offices or working remotely.
In addition to the LAA teams, the firm’s centralised support service, the Clark Hill Administrative Resource Team (CHART), undertakes general administrative work, high-level document creation and formatting, new matter opening and time entry, and lower-level tasks such as meeting coordination or data entry. Again, all work goes into the BigHand Workflow Management queue and is picked up by an individual with the right skills to complete the task.
Kathleen Sullivan says, “This centralised CHART resource frees the local LAA team to focus on higher-level, more productive work that impacts our lawyers’ capabilities to serve clients.” With some LAAs undertaking billable tasks, this visible, tracked support model also enables Clark Hill to explore further billable opportunities.
Building a Strong Foundation for the Future
Clark Hill also uses BigHand Workflow Management as a succession planning and talent management tool. With all support tasks recorded within BigHand, the firm has new insight for developing targeted training to upskill staff and build new specialties. Through the system, staff can also identify opportunities and gain access to a wider range of work.
In addition, the BigHand Workflow Management data provides far more clarity about the level of skills required across the firm. Having undertaken a rigorous process of defining the competencies needed for each role, Clark Hill is now developing its training and development program to support career progression from entry to mid and senior levels. In-depth information also helps with attrition management, with the data used to demonstrate that tasks can be absorbed by the existing support infrastructure rather than require a direct replacement.
Kathleen Sullivan confirms, “Finding skilled people in the marketplace is hard. We have to focus on developing the right skill, but also, do we need it? The insight provided by BigHand Workflow Management shows that we often don’t need to hire a highly skilled LAA with a four-year degree at a higher price tag. A junior person or administrative assistant could be recruited at a lower cost to undertake more entry-level work and be trained to develop the additional skills.”
Clark Hill is not the only law firm considering how to staff its support teams in the future. Recent research from BigHand confirms that 25% of firms expect to lose 11-20% of support staff to retirement in the next five years. That is a lot of skill and knowledge leaving the industry. As Kathleen notes, firms need to prepare for this loss of expertise but don’t necessarily need to look for like-for-like replacements at higher costs.
Achieving Effective Change for the Next Generation
Over the past 18 months, Clark Hill has undertaken a rigorous change management process to improve engagement throughout the firm, from lawyers to office managers and support staff. Now, 30 LAA teams, plus the reception and office services team, use the technology, with 20,886 tasks completed in July.
Kathleen Sullivan advises, “It is essential to approach this change strategically. This is not a software implementation project. It is a significant cultural change with a good software application supporting it. Look at it holistically. Understand what you are trying to achieve. Recognise that the behaviour of everyone involved is just as important as introducing new software.”
Clark Hill is also pragmatic about the difficulties in changing the behaviour of long-standing, high revenue-generating partners, looking to achieve a new mindset in the next generation instead. The incoming Associate class this Autumn will be the first to start work with a team structure supported by BigHand Workflow Management. Rather than giving each an assigned LAA, the firm is considering a shift straight to accessing CHART support to ensure this generation immediately learns the new behaviours.
Throughout the process, the relationship with BigHand has been positive. Philip Ross says, “BigHand has been a great partner. We have had very collaborative relationships with a good, two-way interchange of ideas and information, including industry insight and suggestions on how to do things better. It has been a partnership.”
Built-in Flexibility
For Clark Hill, demonstrating the effectiveness of work allocation and completion is extremely valuable. Kathleen Sullivan confirms, “We have breathed transparency into the delivery of support services. We knew work was getting done, but we couldn’t see, name, or measure it. With BigHand Workflow Management, we can.”
In addition, the ability to operate collaboratively across the firm has significantly improved agility. New offices have been opened in Boulder and Atlanta without the need to immediately recruit local resources, with lawyers reaching out to the central support team. In addition, the firm has begun to develop practice expertise in immigration and intellectual property that has no specific geographic location. “The use of BigHand Workflow Management is helping to build bonds between individuals working as a practice area rather than local teams. It is an approach we may develop further,” says Kathleen Sullivan.
With clients increasingly demanding more billing transparency and expecting work to be carried out by individuals with the correct skills and seniority, the software has a key role. Philip Ross confirms, “BigHand Workflow Management supports Clark Hill in several major new initiatives, from opening offices to developing practice expertise. The next logical step will be to use BigHand to ensure our resources are deployed to clients as effectively as possible.”
