The Challenge 

Dickinson Wright is a leading full-service US law firm with a history spanning nearly 150 years. The firm offers services across a wide spectrum of practice areas and is frequently recognized for their client-focused approach. The traditional support staff model was proving to be inefficient for the forward-thinking firm and the evolution of the legal workforce required an innovative solution.

Linda M. Reyna, Chief Human Resources Officer, comments, “With close to 25% of our support staff approaching retirement age in the next few years, there’s a risk of losing institutional knowledge and valuable expertise. This past year alone, twelve staff members retired, some after spending 30+ years with the firm. With fewer people coming into the workforce wanting a traditional legal assistant role, we needed to adapt our support structure and workflow allocation to allow knowledge to be shared across the firm and build upon the expertise of our more junior staff.”

The onboarding of almost 100 new attorneys over the past few years added another driver to how back office and backup support is handled. “We needed to ensure that we could provide consistent and scalable administrative support services to keep up with our year-over-year growth.

The Result 

Since adopting BigHand Workflow Management, Dickinson Wright has been able to provide their lawyers with more efficient support staff services and create a foundation from which they can continue to grow their firm without disrupting their client service. The insight from real-time access to data and reporting in BigHand Workflow Management enables the firm to scale operations efficiently without disrupting productivity as it grows.

“Receptionists who previously had idle time now handle invoice entry and expense reimbursements. This redistribution of tasks has allowed higher-skilled staff to focus on more substantive and complex responsibilities, enhancing productivity across the board,” notes Reyna.  The firm also has a group in FAST that handles new business intake (conflict checks, engagement letters, etc.), removing those tasks from the legal assistants and allowing them to focus on performing the highly skilled work that they do.

Additionally, the added visibility into workflows has created valuable cross-training opportunities. “With BigHand, staff have been able to adapt to diverse legal practices and regional requirements, enhancing their flexibility and effectiveness in supporting the firm’s varied needs. We can have back office support in Phoenix work on tasks sent in by assistants in Chicago improving task turnaround times and efficiencies.  Not to mention, we can also put more junior legal assistants into the workflow group and use that as a training area to increase their skills and prepare them for a direct assignment down the road,” continues Reyna.

The partnership with BigHand has proven invaluable. “From sales to implementation, the BigHand team has been incredibly supportive. Their expertise and willingness to adapt to our needs have made all the difference,” says Reyna, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the relationship.

Dickinson Wright’s adoption of BigHand Workflow Management exemplifies the transformative potential of technology in modern legal operations. By addressing immediate challenges and building a foundation for future efficiencies, the firm has set a benchmark for innovation and adaptability within the legal sector.