The Law Society of England has endorsed a new study which has found that solicitors firms could gain up to £38,000 a year for a practice with 20 fee-earners, if each person were to free up just five minutes a day.

A report by BT Business claimed that professional service firms are losing out on potential income by not fully exploiting existing work practices and investing in remote and mobile technologies.

The report looked at the experience of legal firms and shows that fee earners can be more productive if they are using flexible working technologies, which they claim can help lawyers increase the number of hours billed by helping work more flexibly and productively when they are visiting clients, travelling to and from meetings, travelling internationally or when at home.

“Fee earners can be productive whether in or out of the office by using mobile devices. Thousands of pounds of fees are being written off without good reason. A mobile device in a lawyer’s hand means they can work - and therefore bill - on the move," said BT spokesman Sean Farrell.