Global Survey Reveals Legal Professionals Spend Up to Half Their Day on Admin Work, Hindering Profitability

New LEAP Research Shows Legal Professionals View Automation and AI, Especially in Document Review, as Effective Paths to Reducing Admin Burden and Boosting Profitability

JERSEY CITY, N.J., March 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Legal professionals across the globe are navigating a period of significant transformation. Pricing pressures, evolving client expectations, and rapid technological advancement, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), are reshaping how firms operate and compete. To better understand this moment of change, LEAP, a long-standing legal technology partner to firms worldwide, collaborated with Agile Market Intelligence to survey legal professionals across multiple regions, practice areas, and stages of growth. The findings are published today in a new research report, Profitability in Law: Global Report 2026. 

According to the global survey results, nearly all legal professionals (93%) see fairly strong profitability potential for their firms, yet many (44%) cite administrative burden and excessive manual work as key drivers of cost challenges. Many respondents (42%) report spending two to five hours each day on administrative tasks with 6% saying they spend more than five hours daily on such activities. To increase profitability, 43% agreed automating repetitive workflows and tasks would be among the most valuable technology investments their firms could make. When asked where AI could have the greatest impact, 42% identified document review and analysis as one of the top opportunities to increase profitability. 

According to respondents, firms in the United States and Canada show the strongest focus on profitability, while also managing the highest levels of platform fragmentation. Some (21%) use five or more platforms daily. Despite managing the most complex tech stacks, they lead in integration effectiveness with over half (58%) describing their technology as mostly integrated with add-ons. Respondents in the US/Canada region also report the highest proportion of mostly office-based workers (45%). When asked about AI, 29% identified client communication and correspondence as a priority use case.

"The legal profession is at a major turning point," said Poppy Bale Dyer, CEO of LEAP Legal Software in the United States. "Legal professionals see profitability potential ahead, but they're also spending a significant portion of their day on admin tasks that could be automated. Our research shows that automation and AI, especially in areas like document review, will be essential to reducing that burden and building more efficient, resilient, and profitable practices."

Research Methodology
The Profitability in Law: Global Report 2026 draws on a quantitative survey of 700 legal professionals across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Fieldwork was conducted between November 10-28, 2025. Participants included firm leaders, partners, senior practitioners and operational decision-makers representing a range of firm sizes and practice areas. The study examined how firms are managing profitability across four core areas: strategy and revenue, people and retention, technology and operations, and AI adoption. Fieldwork was analyzed to identify both global trends and market-level differences in how firms are responding to profitability pressures. 

About LEAP Legal Software  
LEAP combines case management, document automation, legal accounting, billing, and AI into a single solution. Designed to help maximize law firm efficiency, LEAP's award-winning technology helps legal professionals enhance organization, accelerate document creation, reduce manual work, and improve client services. Learn more at leap.us. 

Media Contact: 
Mike Zellmer 
Senior Vice President of Marketing, LEAP 
[email protected] 
leap.us 

SOURCE LEAP Legal Software