Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Efficiency definition

What does Efficiency mean? Efficiency, in legal practice, means delivering the same or better outcome with fewer resources (time, money, people), or increasing outputs from the same inputs. It is a descriptive term used across public law, procurement, regulation and litigation rather than a single statutory concept, though it features in Best Value and audit frameworks that emphasise the “three Es”: economy, efficiency and effectiveness. In England and Wales the Local Government Act 1999 imposes a Best Value duty; Scotland has the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003; Northern Ireland has the Local Government (Best Value) (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. In Ireland, the Public Spending...

Measuring inefficiency in law firm processes: mapping, RACI, voice of the client, check sheets, and charts (client onboarding example)

Published by a LexisNexis Practice Management expert

Practice notes

There are five key steps to improving Efficiency:

identify (define) the process that requires improvement
measure the issue
analyse your data
enhance the process
Control, ie embed the new process so it becomes business as usual

Many management Consultants describe this as the DMAIC framework.

This Practice Note focuses on step 2—measuring the problem or inefficiency highlighted in step 1—see Practice Note: Continuous improvement—law firms—step 1—identify and define the problem. It proceeds on the basis that the step 1 issue is an inefficient client onboarding process. For further detail on continuous improvement and the phases of raising efficiency, see Practice Note: Simplifying continuous improvement—law firms.

Every form of waste or inefficiency carries a cost to the firm. Some, eg surplus equipment, create a direct expense, while others relate to lost time (opportunity cost) and materials.

The most frequent hurdle in step 2 is deciding what to measure. The tools below help you determine which part of your processes to target and which measurements to capture. You can apply some or all of the following as appropriate:

mapping the process—it is strongly recommended that

...

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Beth Pipe , FCIPD

OnLive Learning

Beth is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD) and has spent over 25 years specialising in Learning and Development. During that time she has worked across a broad variety of different industries and has, for the past 15 years, worked closely with a number of well known law firms; this has involved putting in to place systems and structures to encourage, enable and track the effectiveness of learning activities. Adept at face to face course delivery, and always enjoying excellent feedback, Beth is also accomplished at online delivery and created OnLive Learning in response to the challenges presented by the 2020 Covid-19 restrictions.Beth has written extensively for LexisNexis on subjects such as Performance Management, Managing Change and Stress Management. Away from her training delivery she is a published author writing about local history, hiking, wildlife and the outdoors and is...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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