Practice management platform: an essential for midsize law firms
Oliver Tromp, regional VP (UK) at Actionstep, breaks down why midsize law firms can’t afford to keep managing legal operations the old way, and how they can quantify the value of modernising their core systems
Midsize law firms continue to stand at a pivotal point in legal industry evolution. You’re not small enough to run lean and agile on spreadsheets, and you’re not large enough to afford sprawling in-house IT systems.
What they are is poised: poised to scale, improve profitability, and deliver top-tier client service. However, that’s only if they invest in the right operational foundation — a modern practice management platform.
The practice management imperative
A practice management platform is more than just a case management or timekeeping software. It’s your firm’s operational backbone — coordinating matters, tasks, documents, client communications, billing, compliance and reporting in one streamlined ecosystem.
When implemented correctly, platforms like Actionstep replace disjointed tools with a single source of truth, automate repetitive admin work, and connect your people to the right processes at the right time.
At the midsize level, this is no longer a “nice to have” — it’s a strategic necessity.
Value analysis: what you’re gaining vs what you’re losing without it
Let’s explore the tangible and intangible ROI.
- Time savings = capacity creation
It’s common for lawyers and support staff to waste hours each week on redundant data entry, manual document creation or chasing information across systems. Practice management platforms offer smart workflows and templates to reduce manual tasks, freeing staff to focus on billable work or high-value client service.
Hypothetically, let’s say your law firm has 20 legal professionals, reclaiming five hours a week per person. That equals 5,200 hours/year. At £150/hour in opportunity cost, that’s £780,000 in potential recovered value.
- Revenue acceleration
Without a practice management platform, invoicing is delayed, write-offs are common and trust accounting is error prone. With platforms, such as Actionstep Practice Management, you get access to automated billing cycles, time capture suggestions, and integrated accounting that reduces billing leakage and accelerates collections.
- Compliance and risk reduction
Every firm requires compliance with AML, trust accounting rules, and client confidentiality, which is often a manual (and risky) effort. Platforms like Actionstep have built-in compliance checks, permission controls, and secure document access to lower risk and support audits or professional indemnity requirements.
Avoiding even one regulatory breach or malpractice claim (which can cost thousands, and sometimes even millions of pounds, in legal and reputational damage) pays for the system many times over.
- Staff satisfaction and retention
Now, we all can empathise with how law firm professionals get overloaded with admin work, which leads to burnout and high staff turnover — especially for the most organised team members. Practice Management provides legal teams with clear workflows, shared task views, and automation that reduces friction and improves team morale.
With a practice management platform that offers these efficient tools and features, you can save your firm the expense of losing and hiring new team members. For example, replacing a senior paralegal can cost thousands in recruiting and onboarding. Keep just two key staff for an extra year? You’ve paid for your software.
The “hidden” ROI: strategic agility
Beyond time and cost savings, the true power of a practice management software is the ability to lead and scale with confidence.
- Want to open a new office? Your systems already support remote collaboration.
- Need better insight into partner profitability? Your reports show it in real-time.
- Thinking about adopting AI tools? A unified data foundation makes it possible.
When law firm leaders talk about modernising their operations, they often look to client-facing tech or marketing first. But the back office — the workflows, the processes, the infrastructure — is where true transformation starts.
So, what’s the cost of doing nothing?
The greatest risk isn’t trying a new system, it’s staying stuck in inefficiency. For midsize firms, inertia can be a silent killer of profitability and staff satisfaction.
A practice management platform like Actionstep turns chaos into clarity, and inefficiency into profit. When you add up the value of the time saved, revenue gained, and risk reduced, the ROI is not only real — it’s essential.
Actionstep Practice Management is a platform used by nearly 5,000 law firms and is designed specifically for midsize law firms, no matter their stage. Contact Actionstep to talk about how it can help your firm build the operational backbone it needs to thrive.
