Case Study: Charles Russell Speechlys achieves faster turnaround and higher fee‑earner productivity with BigHand speech recognition

Charles Russell law firm touts benefits of BigHand Speech Recognition

Charles Russell Speechlys faced the challenge of supporting a growing number of fee earners without increasing secretarial headcount. IT director Lee Hanley led the firm to adopt BigHand speech recognition as a cost-effective dictation alternative to free secretaries for higher-value PA-style work and enable fee earners to process and complete documentation more independently.

BigHand’s server-side speech recognition, using its pre-learning utility, was deployed in phases starting with pilot users and delivered measurable gains: accuracy over 90% after minimal setup, process times cut by at least 60%, turnaround reduced to well under 10 minutes, and 15% of dictations using BigHand after six months. The firm reported a roughly 10–15% increase in fee-earner headcount with no rise in secretarial support and expects adoption to reach about 25% of headcount within five years.

Charles Russell Speechlys

Lee Hanley

IT Director