Growing an ADR Practice Starts With How the Work Gets Done

Growing an ADR practice means bringing in new matters. It also means having the capacity to manage them, from the first inquiry through scheduling, case preparation, billing, and close.

ADR Notable’s 2026 Business of ADR survey suggests that respondents are thinking about both sides of that equation. Of the 63 professionals who participated, 44% selected growing their practice as a priority for the next 12 months. Improving efficiency and reducing administrative work were each selected by 43%.

These findings raise a practical question: What needs to change behind the scenes to make growth manageable?

Find the Work That Creates the Bottleneck

The administrative demands of an independent practice can look different from those of a firm or a court program. The survey responses reflect those differences.

Among solo practices, 59% selected intake and onboarding as an administrative task taking the most time. Scheduling was the most frequently selected task among private firms and groups, at 57%, and among programs and nonprofits, at 62%.

These percentages describe respondents selecting each task, rather than the percentage of their working hours spent on it. Still, they offer a useful starting point for reviewing operations.

For a practice struggling with intake, that review might begin with how information is collected and what happens next. Are people answering the same questions more than once? Does someone have to copy information from an email into a case record? What follow-up is needed before a matter can move forward?

For an organization struggling with scheduling, the questions may be different. Who coordinates availability? Where are changes recorded? How do participants receive updated information?

The goal is to identify the recurring work that would multiply as case volume increases.

Look at the Connections Between Your Tools

Adding another tool does not automatically simplify a workflow. How information moves between tools matters, too.

In the survey, 38% of respondents said some of their systems were connected but gaps remained. Another 29% said separate tools required manual work. Only 21% said most of their tools were connected and worked well together.

At the same time, 56% were somewhat or very satisfied with their technology.

Satisfaction with individual tools can coexist with friction across the overall process. A calendar may work well for appointments, and an accounting system may work well for invoices, while someone still has to transfer information between them.

A useful exercise is to follow one matter from intake through close. Note every point where information must be copied, re-entered, checked, or manually passed to another person. Those handoffs can reveal opportunities to reduce work without changing every part of the practice.

Connect Growth Plans to Capacity

Before pursuing more matters, consider what additional volume would require from the people and processes already in place.

If case volume increased, which task would become harder to manage first? Would inquiries wait longer for a response? Would scheduling require more follow-up? Would billing fall behind?

The answers can help turn a broad efficiency goal into one manageable improvement. That might mean simplifying intake, clarifying responsibility for scheduling, or reducing duplicate entry between systems.

An improvement should have a clear purpose and a way to assess whether it helped, such as fewer follow-up emails, faster intake completion, or invoices sent sooner.

Start With One Recurring Problem

The survey findings reflect the experiences of participating respondents, rather than a representative sample of the entire ADR field. They offer questions to investigate within your own practice, firm, or program.

Start with one: What recurring administrative task could you simplify, and what capacity would that create?

Download the 2026 Business of ADR report for more findings on growth, daily operations, technology, and AI.