Law Firm Case Study

Sterling & Associates: Billable Hour Revolution

How a 150-attorney law firm increased billable hours by 40% while reducing support staff by 60-70%

Firm Overview

Full-Service Corporate Law Firm

Practice Areas

Corporate, Litigation, M&A, IP

Size

150 attorneys / 225 support staff

Annual Revenue

$185M → $260M

The Challenge

Sterling & Associates faced increasing pressure to improve profitability while competing for top legal talent. Key challenges included:

Attorneys spending only 60% of time on billable work

High support staff costs eating into profit margins

Document preparation consuming 25% of associate time

Client demands for 24/7 responsiveness

Inefficient time tracking leading to revenue leakage

The Solution

Sterling implemented Framework Zero's AI-driven legal operations platform, transforming how legal work is delivered while maximizing attorney productivity:

Document Management

45 paralegals12 senior paralegals + AI

Contract drafting

Legal research

Document review

Citation checking

Client Services

30 client coordinators8 senior coordinators + AI

24/7 client inquiries

Matter status updates

Billing questions

Document requests

Administrative Support

60 assistants15 executive assistants + AI

Calendar management

Travel coordination

Expense processing

Meeting preparation

Research & Analysis

25 research analysts5 senior analysts + AI

Legal research

Case law analysis

Regulatory tracking

Due diligence

Implementation Timeline

Month 1-2

Workflow Analysis

Mapped attorney workflows, identified non-billable tasks, designed automation strategy

Month 3-4

Document Automation

Deployed AI for contract drafting, legal research, and document review

Month 5-6

Client Service AI

Launched 24/7 client portal with AI support, automated status updates

Month 7-8

Full Integration

Complete automation of administrative tasks, time tracking optimization

Results & Impact

Billable Hours

+40%

Per attorney increase

Revenue Growth

+41%

Year-over-year

Support Staff

-60-70%

Reduction in headcount

Profit Margin

47%

Up from 31%

Practice Transformation

Attorneys now focus 85% of time on high-value billable work

Document preparation time reduced by 75% through AI automation

Client satisfaction increased to 96% with 24/7 AI-powered support

Revenue per attorney increased from $1.23M to $1.73M

Eliminated $8.2M in annual support staff costs

Competitive Advantage

Market Position

Sterling now offers Fortune 500-level responsiveness and efficiency while maintaining boutique firm attention to detail, winning clients from larger competitors.

Attorney Satisfaction

Partners report highest job satisfaction in firm history, with attorneys freed from administrative burden to focus on complex legal work.

Transform your professional services firm

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*Results are specific to Sterling & Associates' implementation and context. Individual results may vary based on firm size, practice areas, and implementation approach.