When Operations Go Silent: Why Hidden Costs Are Hiding in Plain Sight

Not all operational costs show up in conventional reports. Some build slowly, tucked into vendor renewals, outdated workflows, or small inefficiencies that go unnoticed until they’re accepted as “just the way things work.” These hidden costs may not trigger alerts, but they erode profitability and performance all the same.

Firms that want to stay sharp need to look beyond the obvious. Silence isn’t always a sign that everything is working; it’s often where the problems hide.

The Hidden Cost of “Good Enough”

In many law firms, operational processes run quietly in the background. As long as services get delivered and teams aren’t complaining, leadership assumes the systems are working. Yet what often gets missed includes:

• Extra fees quietly built into renewed vendor agreements

• Manual workarounds that staff rely on instead of efficient processes

• Under‑used equipment or systems that no longer match current demand

Each item may seem small in isolation, but together they add up to a real financial impact.

Where Inefficiencies Tend to Linger

Here are a few areas where we regularly uncover unnecessary spend:

• Mail‑room and copy‑center scope creep: vendors continuing legacy services the firm no longer needs

• Records storage: boxes stored indefinitely without a destruction review or updated inventory

• Administrative staffing: legacy structures that don’t align with current hybrid or practice‑specific needs

• Overlapping technology or processes: tools that perform the same function in different departments

Without regular reviews, these inefficiencies become baked into the cost structure.

A Look at What’s Often Missed

We worked with an Am Law 100 firm with over 800 attorneys across 27 offices that had outsourced both equipment and labor services, though labor was only used in a few locations. Over time, this hybrid approach created operational inconsistencies and embedded costs that had gone unchallenged for years. We helped the firm restructure by bringing labor services back in‑house while keeping equipment outsourced, aligning service levels across offices, and eliminating legacy bloat. This straightforward restructuring led to over $1 million in savings, and perhaps more importantly, gave the firm renewed visibility and control over an area that had gone quiet for too long.

The Mattern Perspective

From our vantage point, the most expensive costs are often the ones no one is watching. Almost any service provider, if they have the capability, can do an excellent job if they are managed and held accountable. The difference lies in the governance, oversight, and continuous review.

At Mattern & Associates, we help law firms make the invisible visible through operational audits, vendor assessments, and strategic reviews designed to surface what’s really going on behind the scenes. If your firm hasn’t taken a hard look lately, you may be sustaining a hidden cost base without realizing it.

To explore what your firm might be missing, reach out to info@matternassoc.com.