Why Lawyers Should Rethink Their Perfectionist Habits
- markhope61
- Jul 2
- 7 min read
In legal practice, precision is essential. But have you ever asked yourself whether the time you spend polishing a draft, rewording an email or checking formatting is always time well spent?
Many lawyers identify as perfectionists. This is understandable. The law requires attention to detail. A single error can affect the outcome of a case. However, perfectionism is not the same as high standards. When left unchecked, it begins to slow you down. It eats into your time, limits your output and reduces profitability. If you manage a legal team or run your own practice, it can quietly affect your entire operation.
This article looks at where the tipping point lies. It offers practical steps to help you protect your time and your bottom line without compromising the quality of your work.
Why Perfectionism Persists in Law
Perfectionism often begins as a commitment to quality. That in itself is not a problem. In fact, it is a strength. You want to deliver work that reflects your expertise. You want your clients to feel confident in your advice. You want your drafting to stand up to scrutiny. This is what legal professionals are trained to do.
But the culture of law tends to reward perfectionist habits. Law school trains students to aim for top marks. Firms prize precision and comprehensive reasoning. Clients expect near flawless advice. Over time, this builds a mindset where anything less than perfect feels like failure.
However, there is a difference between delivering excellence and chasing flawless work. The latter can lead to diminishing returns. When you spend an extra hour on a piece of work that was already good enough, you are not increasing its value. You are losing time that could have been spent on other tasks.
What Does Perfectionism Look Like in Practice?
Perfectionism in legal work often shows up in small ways:
Rewriting emails several times to get the tone exactly right
Checking a clause multiple times even when you know it is correct
Spending hours on formatting that the client may never notice
Hesitating to send a draft because it might not be perfect
Over-researching case law to make sure you have not missed anything
While these actions might seem minor, the costs dp add up. If you spend 20 extra minutes on five tasks a day, that is nearly two hours lost. Over a week, that is almost a full working day. That time could be used as chargeable time or for billing or chasing debt.
More importantly, these habits often go unbilled. Lawyers who know they spent too long on a task often feel uncomfortable charging the full time. This creates a billing gap that eats into profits.
The Impact on Profitability and Capacity
Let us consider a basic example. Suppose you charge £200 per hour. If you spend an extra hour each day chasing minor improvements that do not change the outcome, you lose £1,000 a week. Over 48 working weeks, that adds up to £48,000. Multiply that by the number of fee earners in your firm, and the cost becomes significant.
In addition to lost revenue, perfectionism limits your capacity. If you are spending more time than necessary on each piece of work, you can handle fewer matters. That means less time for business development, team management or responding to new opportunities.
It also increases stress. Perfectionists often feel that they are never doing enough. This can lead to long hours, late nights and eventually burnout.
Ask the Right Questions Before You Tweak
To prevent perfectionism from becoming a liability, you need to develop better habits. One of the most effective ways to do this is to ask yourself simple but clear questions before making another change:
Will the client notice this improvement?
Will it change the legal effect or outcome?
Is the work already clear and accurate?
Am I spending time adding value or just avoiding closure?
If the answer to these questions is no, it may be time to move on.
Recognise Where Perfection Matters Most
Not all legal work requires the same level of attention. A witness statement for a high-stakes trial deserves more time and care than a short update email to a client.
You need to be strategic. Ask yourself where your perfectionism adds genuine value. Reserve your full focus for the work that demands it. For everything else, aim for clarity, quality and timely delivery.
The Time Trap of "Just a Bit Better"
Almost every legal professional has fallen into the trap of wanting to make something a bit better. You write a document. It is clear, correct and ready to go. But you think, "Let me just fix that sentence". Then you move a paragraph. Then you adjust the formatting. Before you know it, another hour has passed.
This is common. But it is not always productive. If the changes do not improve the outcome or affect the client experience, then that time has not been well spent. Worse still, you might not even bill it.
Start Faster by Speaking First
One overlooked cause of perfectionism is the pressure to get everything right from the start. That pressure can stop you from beginning. You want the perfect first sentence or the ideal structure before you begin typing.
Dictation is one way to break this habit. Speaking your ideas out loud helps you bypass the internal editor that slows you down. It allows your thoughts to flow naturally. You get the content out faster. Transcription then turns that speech into a draft you can edit.
You do not lose control. You still shape and refine your final work. But instead of staring at a blank page, you begin with something real. That shift can save hours each week.
Real Gains Through Dictation and Transcription
At OutSec Legal, we have seen how lawyers use dictation and transcription to work more efficiently. On average, speaking is three to four times faster than typing. That means a letter that takes 30 minutes to type might take only 10 minutes to dictate. While it is being transcribed, you can move on to the next task.
This does not only improve output. It also gives you better visibility on your time. You can see how long you spent thinking, drafting and revising. This makes it easier to record time accurately and bill with confidence.
Legal professionals who adopt this approach report:
Shorter turnaround times
Less time spent rewriting drafts
More accurate time recording
Higher billing confidence
Take Back Control of Your Time
If you want to reduce stress, increase capacity and improve billing, you need to be aware of how perfectionism is affecting your practice. Perfectionism is not always obvious. It hides in small habits. It shows up as hesitation, overworking and undercharging.
Tools like transcription and dictation can help. But the real shift comes from changing how you think about your time. Not everything needs to be perfect. What it needs is to be clear, correct and delivered on time.
Your skills are too valuable to be spent fixing what is already good enough.
Final Thoughts
You do not need to lower your standards. You need to choose where to apply them. Let your perfectionism serve the work that matters. For everything else, aim for high quality that is delivered efficiently.
If you manage a team, start the conversation. Encourage better habits. Promote the use of transcription. Make space for more productive ways of working.
Time is your most limited resource. Spend it where it counts.
About OutSec Legal
At Outsec Legal, our services are designed to support legal professionals by providing reliable and high-quality legal transcription, allowing your practice to focus on clients and fee production. Whether your practice needs help with day-to-day transcription or support during busy periods, our pay-as-you-go option enables legal practices of all shapes and sizes to access support as and when they need it.
So What Are The Benefits?
Sole Practitioners/Barristers/Small Law Practices:
OutSec Legal is the perfect solution for sole practitioners, small law firms or barristers who need typing assistance on a pay-as-you-go basis, as it provides a cheaper alternative to employment.
Medium to Large Law Practices:
Medium to large law firms use OutSec to:
Reduce secretarial staff (completely or partially). This reduces the need for expensive office space (or enables space to be utilised for more productive use/fee generation);
Allow fee earners to concentrate on chargeable hour targets, rather than typing emails or amending documents;
Provide an effective solution to enable your fee-earning staff to work remotely. Therefore providing further opportunities to reduce expensive office space or increase your fee earner headcount with less space. It enables flexible working and makes law firms more agile;
Provide a business continuity solution to enable law firms to access secretarial staff in times of absence.
Enable firms to upscale support as the firm grows or at times of high workloads, without the need for employing additional staff.
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Want to know more, why not get in touch with us on 020 7112 7527.
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