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When the demands on legal teams ramp up, the instinctive solution is to hire more people. After all, if the volume of legal requests keeps growing, more hands-on deck should help, right?
Not always. In fact, in many cases, the real issue isn’t the amount of work but how that work is managed.
Without structured workflows, legal requests can pile up causing lawyers to spend more time tracking down information and managing bottlenecks than actually practicing law.
So, before simply hiring more lawyers, GCs and Legal Ops should ask: Do we have too much work, or do we need a better way to handle it?
Signs of a Workload Problem vs. Workflow Problem
To determine whether your team needs more headcount or just better processes, look for these key indicators:
If you’re still having trouble distinguishing, take this quick quiz:
The Hidden Costs of a Workflow Problem
For a workload problem, the solution is simple: hire more staff. But if your legal team is struggling due to inefficient workflows, adding more people won’t fix the root cause. In fact, it will just create more complexity. And it is important to note that poor workflows don’t just slow legal down, they impact the entire business. Here’s how:
🚩 Delays & Bottlenecks
Without structured intake and clear ownership, legal requests get stuck in inboxes, causing slow turnaround times and frustration for the business.
🚩 Lost Visibility & Control
When work is scattered across multiple channels, legal leaders can’t accurately track workloads, spot inefficiencies, or demonstrate the team’s impact to leadership.
🚩 Wasted Time & Resources
Legal professionals spend too much time on repetitive, manual tasks (much of which are admin) instead of strategic work. This leads to burnout and lower productivity.
Instead of throwing more people at the problem, legal teams need better processes, automation, and visibility to manage demand efficiently. The good news is that fixing workflows is often faster, cheaper, and more scalable than increasing headcount.
How to Fix a Workflow Problem
If your legal team is bogged down by inefficiencies, the solution lies in streamlining how work actually moves through your team. Here are some ways legal teams can fix a workflow problem:
1. Centralize Legal Intake & Matter Management
Stop relying on disconnected tools such as email, Slack, CLM platforms, and spreadsheets. Implement a single source of truth where all legal matters are logged, tracked, and prioritized in one place.
2. Automate Repetitive Tasks
Identify high-volume, low-strategic-value work (i.e. NDAs, contract approvals, and routine legal questions) and use no-code workflow automation software such as Checkbox to streamline them. This frees up lawyers for more impactful work and eliminates unnecessary back-and-forth.
3. Gain Visibility with Real-Time Data
You can’t improve what you can’t see. Implement tracking tools that provide real-time insights into workload, request volume, legal KPIs, and bottlenecks, so you can make data-driven decisions instead of relying on intuition.
4. Empower the Business with Self-Service
Reduce the burden on legal by enabling business teams to self-serve for common requests through automation and AI-powered legal chatbots. This ensures legal only steps in when truly necessary, without slowing down the business.
With these fixes, legal teams can increase efficiency, reduce delays, and scale smarter, all without the immediate need for expanding headcount.
Key Takeaways
More lawyers might seem like the answer to an overwhelmed legal team, but if you don’t have the right workflows in place, adding headcount only multiplies inefficiencies. So, before expanding your team, check whether you are already streamlining intake, automating repetitive tasks, and gaining real-time visibility into legal’s workload.
Legal workflow automation software like Checkbox helps legal teams work smarter by centralizing intake, streamlining processes, and providing a single source of truth for all legal work.
Fix your workflow before hiring more lawyers. Schedule a demo today to see how legal can scale smarter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between a workload problem and a workflow problem?
Workload problems are about too much work. Workflow problems are about inefficient processes that create unnecessary work.
How can legal teams solve a workflow problem?
Start by centralizing intake, automating repetitive tasks, and gaining real-time visibility into your team’s workload.
Is legal workflow automation expensive?
No-code tools like Checkbox are built to be cost-effective, fast to implement, and manageable without IT support.
How can workflow automation help my legal team handle increasing demands?
Workflow automation streamlines repetitive tasks, reduces manual follow-ups, and ensures requests are routed and tracked efficiently. This frees lawyers to focus on higher-value work while improving turnaround times and service consistency.
Checkbox's team comprises of passionate and creative individuals who prioritize quality work. With a strong focus on learning, we drive impactful innovations in the field of no-code.
