How to Reduce Cognitive Overload in Lawyers

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Up to date Dec 23, 2025

Psychological well being is a identified drawback within the authorized career

It could’t be talked about sufficient: authorized professionals endure disproportionally from psychological well being points.  

A current research from Bloomberg Legislation discovered that attorneys reported feeling burned out of their work 42% of the time. Two key components had been that 49% had been unable to disconnect from their work and 44% had hassle focusing whereas performing work duties. One other research from ALM Intelligence and Legislation.com Compass discovered that 73% of attorneys and their workers felt their work surroundings contributed to psychological well being points.

Psychological fatigue has been proven to be a key contributor to some of these well being points. Over time, people who’re put below sustained cognitive overload typically really feel mentally fatigued, harassed, and anxious about their work. These signs result in burnout, emotional exhaustion, and despair.

Cognitive overload and psychological fatigue in workers may also have an effect on the regulation companies they work for. Psychological fatigue can scale back the flexibility to pay attention and course of info, which in flip can result in a better threat of error. Stress, lengthy hours, and on-the-job pressure can be a complicating issue for psychological fatigue, particularly when doing work that requires a excessive diploma of consideration to element.

Repetition and context switching are a part of the issue

Most regulation companies can’t merely scale back the quantity of labor they tackle, particularly if excessive hourly billing targets are at stake. What companies can do, nevertheless, is create higher working environments that supply extra environment friendly processes and automations (extra on this under). 

Merely having to do the identical, repetitive rote work again and again generally is a important drain on the mind’s govt functioning, which solely exacerbates the issues of cognitive overload. Duties like checking e mail, managing time monitoring, or reviewing consumer payments can in a short time add up when it comes to the period of time they take, and the eye they require. Easy duties typically contain loads of context switching, which could be taxing in and of itself. 

Current analysis exhibits that it takes employees a mean of 9.5 minutes to regain focus after switching between two completely different contexts. Even switching between software program purposes has been proven to create stress hormones which have a adverse affect on the flexibility to focus. The time to redirect consideration can add up. One other research discovered that the typical employee spends 4 hours per week reorienting between apps. Over the course of a yr, that quantities to 5 weeks, or 9%, of annual work time.

New analysis into lowering cognitive overload in authorized work

To raised perceive tips on how to scale back cognitive overload in authorized professionals, Clio labored with Neuro-Perception, one of many world’s main neuroanalytics researchers, to conduct a neurological research of authorized professionals.

Within the research, researchers used proprietary Regular State Topography™ to measure mind exercise in 63 authorized professionals as they carried out a collection of timed work duties. Research contributors carried out every activity twice, as soon as with a way used as a management, and as soon as modified with the usage of Clio. The management and Clio duties had been carried out in randomized order with the aim of investigating how legaltech can assist scale back cognitive load in frequent duties at a regulation agency. 

When averaging the completely different areas of profit to cognitive functioning, the researchers discovered that contributors lowered complete cognitive load by as much as 25% when utilizing Clio. 

Right here’s a breakdown on the important thing advantages that assist higher, extra useful psychological actions in authorized professionals. 

Decreasing the lively focus wanted to calculate billable hours

Attorneys typically have to work by loads of tedious info with a excessive quantity of consideration to element. One of many greatest findings from the research is that Clio lowered the quantity of lively focus required for calculating billable hours by 72%. 

For the duty, contributors had been requested to create a work-in-progress report to tell a agency supervisor of their billable hours for a divorce case. For the management, contributors reviewed their actions in a spreadsheet, which was in comparison with finishing the identical activity by reviewing an inventory of actions logged in Clio Handle. 

The truth that researchers noticed such a drop in lively focus whereas utilizing Clio signifies that contributors considerably lowered psychological load on this space of mind exercise. This allowed them to finish a routine activity with much less effort, conserving psychological power for extra demanding authorized work. 

Lowered emotional pressure whereas logging consumer info

Whereas coping with the sheer quantity of data in a regulation agency generally is a problem, the emotional toll can be a big issue for a lot of authorized professionals, and some other stressors solely add to the psychological load that they bear. 

In a consumer consumption activity, emotional pressure was lowered by 16% by contributors utilizing Clio Develop’s fast consumption workflow in comparison with those that logged an inventory of consumer particulars right into a spreadsheet. Additional, researchers discovered that 93% of all feelings felt whereas utilizing Clio had been optimistic—probably the most dominant emotions being pleasure (47%) and happiness (47%). 

For the consumption activity particularly, these utilizing Clio Develop felt nothing however optimistic feelings. Comparatively, they had been extra prone to really feel adverse feelings like anger whereas filling out consumption knowledge in a spreadsheet. 

Easing reminiscence demand in authorized doc evaluation

Even easy duties can require a big demand on remembering key particulars, which in flip places a heavy pressure on cognitive load. One of many easiest methods to cut back the cognitive pressure is to reduce the quantity of data that one has to recollect. 

In a activity involving the evaluation of a six-page authorized doc (on this case, a will), contributors had been requested to reply a authorized query relating to a third-party contestation and the way it may have an effect on the beneficiary. Within the management, contributors reviewed the doc as a PDF, which was in comparison with the hassle required in utilizing Clio’s AI to seek out and analyze the knowledge wanted for the duty. 

When evaluating the information, the researchers discovered that Clio’s AI lowered reminiscence demand in contributors by 11%. Which means contributors spent much less psychological power remembering key particulars to finish the duty. 

Decreasing cognitive load by 25%

When averaging the cognitive load advantages of utilizing Clio, researchers decided that authorized professionals can save as much as 25% of their psychological load. 

That is along with reviewing the visible effort evaluating the usage of Clio to different strategies for every activity. Visible effort is usually checked out as an evaluation of potential boundaries launched by sure instruments or workflows, and it sometimes will increase when research contributors are requested to carry out duties in a brand new surroundings. 

On this case, nearly all of research contributors had been utilizing Clio for the primary time and noticed no added difficulties in visible effort, which the researchers famous as a optimistic outcome for the intuitive consumer design of the Clio platform. 

Added advantages to work high quality and efficiency from Clio’s AI

Apart from lowering the cognitive effort in authorized professionals, probably the most important outcomes from the research was that the usage of Clio’s AI not solely lowered cognitive load but additionally enormously improved the standard of labor amongst contributors. 

Within the doc evaluation activity, when utilizing Clio’s AI, contributors had been greater than twice as prone to reply the beneficiary query appropriately, they usually elevated completion charges for the duty by 40%. 

Along with making the work simpler for contributors within the research, the usage of Clio’s AI made these authorized professionals higher at their jobs. Checked out on one other scale of affect, the information exhibits that the usage of AI advantages each authorized professionals (when it comes to the benefit of workload) and the regulation companies they work for (when it comes to the standard of labor finished for shoppers). 

Your group is your regulation agency’s most necessary asset

Since authorized work is so knowledge-intensive, the individuals you’ve at your regulation agency are your most useful asset in delivering high quality work in your shoppers and bringing income into your agency. The extra you are able to do to deal with your individuals and decrease the psychological burdens they tackle, the higher geared up (and priceless) they are going to be to you in the long term. 

In truth, cognitive load administration is changing into an necessary focus for individuals managers working in skilled companies. 

Working in a regulation agency is intrinsically tough and requires intensive information administration and activity switching. Poor methods, disjointed instruments, and administrative work add pointless burdens to companies, growing cognitive fatigue and threat of error. To assist authorized professionals of their capability to maintain their minds on the duties at hand, companies ought to: 

Give workers the instruments and assets to higher navigate advanced info 
Automate routine busywork to reduce or eradicate distractions the place potential

What makes attorneys really feel much less harassed and extra motivated of their work?

Giving attorneys and their workers higher instruments may also give them extra time to give attention to the work that really motivates them. In flip, workers who’re motivated will ship better-quality work, and they are going to be much less prone to search job alternatives elsewhere. 

In interview research with a gaggle of authorized professionals, mentioned within the 2025 Authorized Traits Report, Clio’s researchers explored what forms of work had been extra prone to encourage attorneys and what forms of work had been extra prone to trigger stress and cognitive pressure. 

For instance, of their conversations, researchers discovered that the largest stress drivers had been tough shoppers, the emotional pressure concerned in contentious circumstances, and the burden of working a observe (particularly amongst solo attorneys). Administrative work like timekeeping and managing schedules additionally contributed to psychological load.

Conversely, attorneys reported feeling much less harassed after they had been immersed in additional purpose-driven work, after they may see the optimistic affect of their work, and after they had extra autonomy. General, they felt extra balanced after they had been in charge of their schedule, had higher methods and expertise to assist them, and had extra optimistic relationships with their shoppers. 

In different phrases, attorneys really feel lots higher when they’re able to put extra time into the work that they discover rewarding and really feel extra supported by the methods they work with. 

Demotivators

Administrative and billing duties
Shopper-related frustrations
Work overload
Fatigue
Poor work-life stability

Motivators

Constructive relationships and affect with shoppers
Mental challenges and the flexibility to problem-solve
Autonomy and management
Constructing and working their very own enterprise
Skilled development and achievement

Authorized expertise that reduces cognitive overload

Clio’s authorized expertise is designed to assist regulation companies be extra organized and environment friendly, whereas additionally offering AI capabilities that assist each activity, from drafting month-to-month payments to conducting complete analysis with one of many world’s largest authorized databases.

Our group can be readily available to reveal how Clio can assist the precise workflows checked out in these research, which can assist you automate billing work, streamline consumer consumption, and allow you to get your work finished much more effectively, and with higher high quality outcomes utilizing AI.