The future of a successful law firm isn't just about winning more clients.
It is also about making sure the right people are spending their time on the right things.
Partners should have time to develop client relationships, advise clients and grow the business. Lawyers should be concentrating on legal work. Practice managers and operational teams should be improving processes and keeping the firm running effectively.
But somewhere between the legal work, client relationships and running the business, there is often another workload quietly consuming valuable hours:
Administration.
Emails to chase. Meetings to arrange. Documents to prepare. Appointments to coordinate. Information to collect. Clients to follow up. Databases to update. Invoices to prepare. Systems to maintain.
Individually, these tasks may seem small.
Collectively, they can take a significant amount of time.
And when that time belongs to a Partner, senior lawyer or other highly skilled member of your team, the real cost may be much greater than the number of hours involved.
The Future Firm Forum 2026 takes place on Friday 16 October at the Hilton Lake Taupō.
Now in its 19th year, the Forum brings together around 30–40 law-firm leaders, including Managing Partners, Partners, Heads of Departments, Team Leaders, Senior Associates, CEOs and Practice Managers. The event focuses on developments and opportunities affecting the legal services industry.
This year's programme covers some particularly relevant questions for modern law firms.
Steven Brown, Director of Perth firm Lynn and Brown, will discuss his firm's move from traditional time billing to value-based pricing and the practical steps involved in making that transition.
The discussion also considers how AI is changing the conversation around pricing and value.
That raises an interesting operational question:
If your firm is increasingly focused on delivering value rather than simply recording hours, how much of your professionals' time is still being consumed by routine administration?
Chartered Accountant Elwin Loo specialises in professional-services firms, particularly law firms.
His Forum session will look at financial performance, ways to enhance profitability and practical approaches to succession, drawing on research and consulting with small-to-mid-tier law firms.
Profitability isn't simply about increasing revenue.
It also means understanding how your firm's time and resources are being used.
If a highly qualified legal professional spends an hour dealing with routine administration, the question isn't simply:
"How much did that hour cost?"
It is also:
"What could that professional have been doing instead?"
Elizabeth Broderick AO will explore leadership, workplace culture, trust, accountability and navigating change within professional environments.
Those themes connect directly to another challenge facing growing firms:
How do you introduce new ways of working without simply putting more pressure on an already busy team?
Sometimes the answer isn't another permanent employee.
Sometimes it is better processes.
Sometimes it is technology.
And sometimes it is simply giving your existing team additional support.
The Forum also features Abbas Nazari, whose session focuses on resilience, leadership, business growth and high performance.
Taken together, the four sessions create a broader conversation about what it takes to build a modern legal practice.
And that leads to a practical question for every firm:
How do you build a more efficient, profitable and sustainable law firm without asking your most valuable people to do everything themselves?
At Reliable Solutions, we believe one useful place to start is with the administrative workload surrounding your legal practice.
Not by asking:
"Do we need a Virtual PA?"
But by asking:
That distinction matters.
Some administrative tasks absolutely need to remain with your existing team.
Others may be suitable for delegation.
Some could potentially be automated.
And others may simply be processes that have developed over time and could be redesigned.
The objective isn't to remove people.
It is to make better use of the people you already have.
Think about a typical week in your firm.
A Partner may spend part of Monday managing diary changes and rearranging meetings.
Tuesday might involve chasing information from clients or third parties.
Wednesday could involve preparing documents, updating systems and responding to routine enquiries.
Thursday brings another round of follow-ups, scheduling and administration.
By Friday, several hours may have disappeared into tasks that were necessary — but didn't necessarily require a Partner or senior lawyer to perform them personally.
Now multiply that across several people.
That is where the opportunity can become significant.
To coincide with Future Firm Forum 2026, Reliable Solutions is offering Forum attendees a free 20–30 minute Law Firm Admin Efficiency Review.
There is no obligation to become a client.
The purpose is simple:
Look at where administrative work is consuming valuable professional time and identify practical opportunities to improve it.
During the review, we'll look at areas such as:
The question isn't whether these tasks are important.
It is whether they need to be handled by the person currently doing them.
Client experience is often influenced by the administrative details surrounding the legal work.
Who handles new enquiries?
Who arranges appointments?
Who follows up outstanding information?
Who makes sure clients receive the next communication?
Who keeps track of outstanding actions?
Reliable Solutions provides virtual administrative support including client communication, appointment scheduling and related administrative workflows for legal practices.
Legal practices generate significant amounts of information.
Documents need to be prepared and organised. Information needs to be entered into systems. Meetings need to be coordinated. Actions need to be followed up.
We'll identify areas where appropriate administrative support could potentially take responsibility for routine work, subject to your firm's own confidentiality, security and access requirements.
We'll also consider the administrative work surrounding billing and financial processes.
This can include:
The goal is not to interfere with your professional or financial controls.
It is to identify where routine administrative work may be consuming time that could be used elsewhere.
Sometimes there isn't one major administrative problem.
There are dozens of small ones.
A Practice Manager may be coordinating calendars, arranging meetings, maintaining records, handling enquiries, supporting Partners, managing suppliers and dealing with operational issues — all while trying to improve the firm itself.
Additional flexible support can provide capacity without automatically requiring another permanent full-time position.
A Virtual PA should be an extension of your existing team, not a replacement for it.
Reliable Solutions provides flexible virtual administrative support to New Zealand businesses, with services including administrative support, diary and schedule maintenance, marketing, accounting and payroll.
For legal firms specifically, services can include document preparation, client intake and correspondence, diary and court-date scheduling, billing and invoicing support, CRM and case-management updates, marketing and virtual receptionist support.
The appropriate level of support depends entirely on the firm.
It might be:
A few hours a week.
Additional support during particularly busy periods.
Help with one specific administrative process.
Ongoing support for a Partner or Practice Manager.
Or a combination of several services.
AI is becoming an increasingly important part of the conversation around the future of professional services.
But technology doesn't automatically eliminate administrative work.
Someone still needs to manage workflows, communicate with people, check information, maintain systems, follow up actions and make sure processes actually happen.
The opportunity may therefore be less about choosing between:
People or technology
and more about combining:
People + technology + better processes.
A Virtual PA can form part of that wider workflow — helping turn systems and automation into practical day-to-day efficiency.
At your next team meeting, ask two questions:
Then:
The difference between those answers can be revealing.
Your most valuable people should have time to concentrate on the work where their experience, expertise and professional judgement are genuinely required.
If you're attending Future Firm Forum 2026 on 16 October, we'd like to offer you a free 20–30 minute Law Firm Admin Efficiency Review.
We'll look at your firm's administrative workload and identify practical opportunities to:
Give professional staff more time for higher-value work
There is no obligation to use Reliable Solutions afterwards.
You'll simply leave with a clearer picture of where administrative work may be creating unnecessary pressure or consuming valuable professional time.
Book your free 20–30 minute Law Firm Admin Efficiency Review
About Reliable SolutionsReliable Solutions provides flexible Virtual PA and administrative support to New Zealand legal practices.
For legal firms, support can include diary and meeting management, client communication, document preparation, client intake, billing and invoicing administration, CRM and case-management updates, virtual receptionist support and other routine administrative processes.
With NZ-based management and flexible support options, Reliable Solutions works alongside existing teams to provide additional administrative capacity when and where it is needed.
Find out more about Virtual PA support for legal firms.
