Stop Wasting Time: How to Run More Efficient Law Firm Meetings

Process Improvement Tips | Most meetings are a colassal waste of time. Let’s fix that.
The post Stop Wasting Time: How to Run More Efficient Law Firm Meetings appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech for Law Firms and Lawyers.

Are your meetings helping or hurting your firm? Try these five strategies for making your meetings more efficient and valuable … and see how much time you save.

Meetings are a necessary part of running a law firm, but let’s be honest: most of them are a colossal waste of time. According to the recent Fellow Report on the State of Meetings, the average person spends over 11 hours a week in meetings. A 2024 survey by the London School of Economics of over 3,400 professional employees found that more than one-third of business meetings were unproductive. That’s almost two full workdays wasted every single week.

For law firm owners and busy legal professionals, that’s time you could be using to serve clients, develop your practice, or simply go home earlier. Here’s how to run more efficient law firm meetings.

1. Ask Yourself if You Really Need the Meeting

You’ve probably seen the memes about meetings that could have been emails. Sadly, many of us are still sitting through meetings that could have been handled more effectively via an email, a shared document or a quick call.

Start with the lowest-hanging fruit: the unproductive (often recurring) meetings. If attendees aren’t clear on the objective and everyone attending isn’t contributing to decisions that generate action items, your meeting isn’t productive. Consider replacing it with asynchronous communications.

2. Define a Clear Purpose and Agenda

Every meeting should have a clearly stated goal. If you can’t articulate why you’re meeting and what outcome you need, cancel it. If you proceed, distribute an agenda and materials ahead of time.

Many organizations use a “no agenda, no attenda” rule. With a clear agenda, people arrive knowing what to expect, so you don’t waste precious time bringing people up to speed. Plus, the more time people have to gather the information they need and develop ideas and solutions, the better your results will be. Even for initial client consultations, a short agenda will keep you and your clients on track.

3. Keep It Short and Stick to the Clock

Meetings expand to fill the time you allow. Cap internal meetings at 30 minutes. We’ve set the default meeting times in our booking system to 30 minutes. If the agenda suggests more time will be needed, we can adjust, but keeping the default at 30 minutes saves us hours every week.

Start on time, even if there are stragglers. How much time do you waste at the beginning of meetings, waiting for people to show up? Start on time, even if people are missing, and provide notes or recordings— not recaps — if people arrive late.

If your meetings regularly run over, use a timer and end on time — no exceptions. If the discussion drags on, take unresolved issues offline. We try to build in a mandatory buffer between meetings. Even just five minutes will give you time to capture your thoughts and action items from the last meeting and time to mentally prepare for the next one.

4. Limit Attendees to Essential Participants

Efficiency is the right people doing the right work at the right time. Only invite those who are directly involved in the decision or action items. If someone just needs to be informed, send them a recap afterward. AI note-taking apps make this even easier. You can generate transcripts, notes and action items instantly, and circulate them to anyone who needs the information.

Remember, the more people in a meeting, the less productive it becomes. Research from Stanford University suggests the tipping point is eight people, so aim to keep meetings to seven or fewer if you can.

5. End with Action Items and Accountability

A meeting without clear next steps is a waste. Assign action items, set deadlines and document who is responsible for what. No one should leave wondering, What happens next?

Again, AI is extremely valuable for this. AI tools can help you generate your agenda and brief you on issues you’ll be discussing before the meeting. They can also take meeting notes, capture action items and create a list of next steps.

Try Zoom’s built-in AI workflow assistant or experiment with in-meeting transcription apps like Otter.ai and Fireflies, or AI meeting assistants like Fellow and Circleback to see how you can automate your meetings.

Meetings Should Make Work Easier, Not Harder

Meetings should be a tool for decision-making and action—not a productivity drain. By being intentional about when and how you meet, you’ll reclaim valuable hours each week and keep your firm running efficiently.

Be sure to read “Got a Process for Your Processes? Create Law Firm SOPs in 5 Easy Steps.”

More Process Improvement Tips for Your Law Practice

• 5 Tips to Make Time Entry Less Painful for Lawyers
• Law Firm Intake: 3 Tips to Save Time and Convert More Clients
• New Client Onboarding: 5 Tips to Win Over New Clients
• Time to Build Your Team: 5 Steps to Improve Your Hiring Process
• From Hire to Higher: 6 Ways to Improve Employee Onboarding
• Dread the Law Firm Annual Planning Process? 5 Ways to Make It Easier and More Fun
• Lawyer Conflict Checks: 5 Tips to Tune Up Your Process
• Got a Process for Your Processes? Create Law Firm SOPs in 5 Easy Steps
• Want to Get Paid Faster? 5 Ways to Fix Law Firm Invoicing
• Who’s Answering Your Phones? 3 Tips to Improve Your Law Firm’s Call-Answer Process

Karen Dunn Skinner and David Skinner help lawyers and legal professionals build more efficient, productive and profitable practices. They’re the co-founders of Gimbal Lean Practice Management Advisors and lawyers with over 20 years of experience each in Canada and Europe. Together, they’re the exclusive Global Advisors on Legal Process Improvement to the International Institute of Legal Project Management. They write and speak regularly, facilitate legal process improvement projects across North America, and have taught Gimbal’s LeanLegal^® approach to thousands of legal professionals.

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