Is Your Admin Strategy Ready for What’s Ahead in 2026?

Law firms are entering 2026 facing a familiar contradiction: growth and change on one hand, but stagnant support models on the other. Despite rising client expectations and increased internal complexity, many firms still rely on administrative strategies built for a different era.

The issue isn’t that administrative teams aren’t working hard. It’s that their structure, tools, and oversight often no longer match the demands of a hybrid, high-performing law firm. That disconnect slows attorneys down, drives up internal frustration, and adds unnecessary cost.

This year’s mandate is simple: Is your admin strategy ready to support where your firm is going, not just where it’s been?

The Cost of “Set It and Forget It”

In most firms, administrative services get the least scrutiny until something breaks. Tickets get closed, documents get processed, but few firms take the time to ask whether those tasks are being handled by the right resources, with the right tools, at the right cost.

When admin operations are managed by default rather than by design, inefficiencies accumulate quietly. Outsourced resources may be underleveraged. In-house roles may have drifted without anyone noticing. And leadership may not have the visibility to intervene early.

New Year, New Pressures

2026 isn’t just about budgets; it’s about transition. Retiring partners, evolving client demands, and internal leadership changes all introduce new stress points into admin functions. If the support model hasn’t adapted, those pressure points quickly turn into operational friction.

Modern admin strategy must account for:

• Hybrid workflows

• Attorney expectations for service levels

• Integration with workflow and document technologies

• Vendor accountability

• Staff utilization and performance tracking

Keeping the status quo isn’t neutral anymore; it’s a risk.

Where Inefficiencies Hide

We often see attorneys doing work that should be delegated or admins, duplicating tasks across departments. In some firms, the wrong teams are fulfilling requests simply because the routing logic hasn’t kept up with how the firm actually works.

Even firms with decent ticketing systems often lack insight into who’s doing what and how well.

The impact? Burnout, rising costs, and frustrated attorneys, not because the work isn’t getting done, but because it’s not getting done efficiently.

Aligning Support with Strategy

Admin strategy should be a driver of growth, not a drag on it. That requires a clear line of accountability, measurable vendor expectations, and a structure that supports attorney productivity.

Ask the hard questions:

• Do we have the right people in the right roles?

• Is the service mix aligned with attorney demand?

• Are we measuring vendor performance or assuming it?

• Who owns the results of admin operations?

Metrics That Actually Matter in 2026

Completion isn’t a strategy. Firms need to track:

• Time to fulfill service requests

• Escalation and resolution workflows

• Cost per transaction or matter

• Attorney satisfaction and rework rates

These aren’t vanity metrics. They tell you where support services are helping or where they’re quietly slowing things down.

Getting Leadership Buy-In

Restructuring admin support can feel like an uphill push. But when you tie it directly to firm performance, profitability, client responsiveness, and attorney satisfaction, leaders listen. Start with data. Lay out a phased plan. Demonstrate where the firm is losing time and money. From there, the case for change becomes obvious.

Case in Point: Aligning Admin Strategy to Firm Growth

A 200-attorney Am Law 200 firm approached Mattern during a period of post-pandemic reorganization. Their hybrid environment had outgrown their long-standing administrative structure, leading to inefficiencies, uneven support levels, and rising dissatisfaction among attorneys. We conducted a deep operational review, redesigned the support model to align with attorney practice groups, and implemented a hybrid on-site/centralized service structure with performance metrics and accountability built in.

The result: improved response times, reduced duplication of effort, and clearer service ownership, all without increasing headcount.

The Mattern Perspective

Admin strategy is a firm strategy. The firms that treat support functions as a core part of their business, designed with intention, measured with rigor, and managed with clarity, are the ones that will scale, adapt, and outperform in 2026.

If you're ready to assess whether your admin model is helping or hindering your growth, contact info@matternassoc.com.