Too Many or Too Few? Rethinking Admin Staffing in a Hybrid World

As law firms continue adjusting to hybrid work, one area remains surprisingly underexamined: administrative and office services staffing. Some firms have rebuilt their support teams to pre-2020 levels. Others cut too deeply during disruption and haven’t fully recovered.

But today, the real question isn’t whether staffing has increased or decreased. It’s whether the support model actually reflects how attorneys and staff work now.

The Dangers of Overstaffing

Having too many support staff can quietly inflate operational costs without adding value. Common signs include:

• Idle capacity on lower-traffic office days

• Duplication of services or overlapping roles

• Internal teams doing work vendors are also providing

These inefficiencies often persist because no one is measuring the actual demand or output. Just because a team looks busy doesn’t mean the workload requires that headcount.

The Cost of Underserving

Lean teams aren’t always more efficient. Underserved operations can result in:

• Slower turnaround times on essential services

• Attorneys taking on administrative work

• Burnout and low morale among support staff

• Ad hoc vendor use that costs more per task

If your support staff is consistently overextended, it doesn’t just affect service; it affects productivity firmwide.

Hybrid Work Obscures the Reality

Hybrid schedules make it harder to spot service imbalances. A team may seem right-sized on a quiet Monday, only for bottlenecks to surface by Thursday. Effective staffing needs to be based on usage patterns by day, department, and location, not just firmwide averages.

We’ve found that many firms are underestimating the variability in support demand across the week.

Service Mix Matters as Much as Headcount

It’s not just about how many people you have, it’s about what they’re doing. Many firms now outsource functions like hospitality or reception, but haven't adjusted internal roles to reflect those changes.

Right-sizing requires evaluating the total mix of in-house, outsourced, and floating support. Otherwise, you risk overpaying for some services while under-delivering on others.

Aligning Staffing to Volume and Value

Firms seeing the best results are the ones that go beyond simple staff-to-attorney ratios.

They measure:

• Volume of service requests by function and location

• Cost per task or deliverable

• How often do attorneys handle their own administrative work

• Which staff are underused or overused

That data becomes the foundation for making informed decisions about where to scale up, scale down, or shift responsibilities.

Where Vendors Can Fill Strategic Gaps

Vendors aren’t just a fallback; they can be a strategic lever. Flexible contracts let firms scale support based on need, not headcount, especially for variable or specialized tasks.

We’ve seen firms benefit from vendor-supported float pools, cross-training programs, or backfilling niche roles. But this only works when contracts are structured to support flexibility, not just lock in minimums.

Case Study: Rebalancing Staffing and Vendor Roles for Better Efficiency

Holland & Knight, an Am Law 100 firm with 24 locations and a sizable administrative team, realized that legacy support models were no longer aligned with actual demand. Internal roles had not been adjusted to reflect the firm’s post-pandemic use of outsourced services, leading to duplicated effort and inefficient workflows. Mattern conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the firm’s administrative staffing, identifying areas where vendor services could be streamlined and internal teams refocused on higher-value support. The result was a restructured model that reduced costs by shifting redundant tasks to vendors while reassigning internal roles to better align with attorney needs.

The Mattern Perspective

There’s no universal formula for administrative team size, but there is a right answer for your firm. In our experience, successful firms take a holistic view of their support model: in-house roles, vendor scope, task volume, and day-to-day rhythm all have to align.

We help firms analyze what support is really needed, where value is being lost, and how to structure a staffing model that supports attorneys without wasting resources.

If your firm hasn’t revisited its administrative services since hybrid became the norm, now is the time. Contact us at info@matternassoc.com to start the conversation.