How Howells Solicitors Reimagined Their Law Firm and Built its Operations for Scale

Efficiency and scalability are on the minds of every law firm. In late 2024, Howells Solicitors had reached a crossroad: their firm couldn’t grow the way they wanted it to because their current systems were holding them back. 

Howells Solicitors has four offices across South Wales and close to 200 employees. Their work spans seven different practice areas; including family, personal injury, and real estate conveyancing. Despite that, in 2024, their firm was still heavily operating offline with two disparate front and back-office tools. As the firm’s 30^th anniversary grew near, the firm’s volume of work was becoming harder to sustain. 

When Carrie Lewis, Head of Operations and Finance, joined the team, the problem was clear from day one. “We didn’t have a true end-to-end system. Our document management and finance platforms didn’t speak to each other and that created a real bottleneck.”  

Howells needed a way to run matters, documents, communications, and finance as one cohesive operation. 

When Outdated Processes Start Holding You Back 

Before Actionstep, Howells relied on separate platforms for document storage and accounting. Their internal workflows; precedents, templates, and letters varied from practice area to practice area, and even lawyer to lawyer. Information entered in one system had to be re-entered elsewhere.  

Many law firms assume that the friction of double-entry and siloed operations are a necessary evil, but Howells was determined to modernise. For their firm, choosing modern cloud-based technology was the key to remaining competitive in the legal market and continuing to provide exceptional client service.  

“Having the right technology is vital for a law firm,” says Tania Garcia, a Professional Support Lawyer at Howells, “it makes lawyers’ days easier because instead of dealing with admin and paperwork, they can concentrate on the work that is actually important to the client”. It was time that their firm found a new platform that could adapt to Howells processes, empower lawyers to focus on client support, and could continue to evolve as the firm’s work continued to grow in volume. 

The pain points: 

• No end-to-end visibility from matter initiation through to finance 
• Manual, paper-based workflows 
• Inefficient financial processes, particularly around completion packs 
• Inconsistent document usage, with precedents and other key files being stored on individual computers 
• Limited ability to restructure work across teams as work volumes increased 

Choosing a Platform Built to Flex 

The search for a new end-to-end practice management solution began in October 2024. After multiple product demonstrations, Actionstep quickly stood out. For them, configurability was non-negotiable. They wanted direct control over how processes were designed, adjusted, and improved over time. 

What resonated for Howells was how well the platform could fit into their firm’s day-to-day reality. With Actionstep, they could have a single system that connected legal work, finance, document management, and client communication, with the added benefit of being able to adapt and configure its workflows in the years to come. 

Why Actionstep stood out: 

• A genuinely integrated end-to-end platform 
• Strong support for high-volume residential conveyancing 
• Native Outlook integration for email-heavy workflows 
• High levels of in-house configurability 
• User-friendly design that would support adoption across teams 

Configurability was crucial for Howells, and Actionstep delivered. They now have an end-to-end solution that they can build on as their business grows.

Implementation Provided an Opportunity for Innovation 

Once Howells selected Actionstep as their solution for their firm’s future, they began a seven month implementation project, working alongside Actionstep Certified Partner, Xperate. However, Lewis and her team took the transition project as an opportunity to rethink and improve their internal financial processes. This was a decision that she believes made a large difference in the process. Instead of simply mirroring their old way of doing things, they looked at what they could accomplish with Actionstep and found faster, more efficient workflows that they could set-up and implement.  

One of their biggest successes? Standardising their completion pack processes. Their redesign of this process significantly sped up their conveyancing financial activity. “Our focus on improving the completion pack process has really changed a lot for our business since we’ve gone live with Actionstep,” says Lewis. 

A Better Way of Working 

Once the firm went live officially in May of 2025, Garcia felt the improvement immediately. Processes that once relied on paper or individual knowledge were now centralised and systematised. Letters and templates that would have been slow and agonizing to manually change could now be automated, with changes rolling out firm-wide all at once, with just a few clicks.  

For the first time, Howells legal and finance workflows were aligned, thanks to Actionstep and its cloud-based platform.“I’m no longer chasing physical files or information saved on someone else’s computer. Everything I need is in Actionstep.”                                                                                                      

Key improvements include: 

• Processes became standardised: legal and finance teams now operate from shared, consistent workflows 
• Faster financial processing 
• A single firm-wide bank of documents ensures consistency and significantly easier updates 
• File reviews, research, and oversight can be done without physical files. 

Tania Garcia no longer has to chase physical files or manually update letters and templates. Firm-wide changes can be made in just a few clicks with Actionstep.

Reimagining Workflows 

The implementation of Actionstep has opened new doors for Howells that they hadn’t been able to consider before. The new efficiencies the platform has brought their firm has enabled them to rethink how work moves through the firm. 

Their new vision is one that Lewis is excited about, as it will allow them to scale in a much more sustainable way. Instead of one case handler managing an entire file end-to-end, she now aims to distribute the work across specialist teams, such as file opening, closing, and legal work. This new internal process is only possible because of Actionstep, because the platform empowers work to pass from team to team without the risk of losing visibility or control. 

Actionstep is empowering Carrie Lewis to build new internal processes that will streamline client service and allow the business to scale sustainably.

Built for Ongoing Change 

While Howells is still early in its use of Actionstep, the operational gains are already clear. Lewis and her team have more oversight into finances and operational efficiency. Lawyers have more time to spend on client service. Professional staff are able to get what they need, faster. More importantly, the firm now has a platform that supports continuous improvement rather than locking them in place. Lewis has the perfect analogy: 

“Actionstep is like Lego. It’s case management in the middle, but you can add APIs, processes to the front, reporting to the back… it’s fully buildable.”  

With a unified platform in place, Howells is now focused on refining their processes further, improving team utilisation, and continuing to scale efficiently.  

For firms considering a similar move to Actionstep, the advice from Howells is simple: “Go for it. It will change your processes and make life easier.” 

Explore how Actionstep supports scalable, configurable practice management.