A contingency firm’s caseload has a ceiling, and lawyer hours set it.
Where the hours go
Each case brings a stream of work: the complaint, the motion to dismiss and the opposition, discovery, more motions, and eventually trial or settlement. Much of that work is production: reading, researching, drafting, revising, checking, formatting. Production is where most of a lawyer’s hours go, and it is the part a client never sees.
Because every case draws on the same pool of lawyer time, a firm takes only as many cases as it can staff. Good cases get turned away, not because they are weak, but because no one has the hours.
Raising the ceiling
Agentic litigation moves most production off the lawyer. When an opposition to a motion to dismiss arrives drafted, researched, attacked, and cite-checked, the lawyer’s work on it becomes review and decision. The hours each case consumes go down, and the number of cases the same team can carry goes up.
More bets, less downside
For a contingency firm, each case is a bet paid for in lawyer time. Lower the time each case costs and two things happen at once: the firm can place more bets, and each bet that does not pay out costs the firm less. That is a different business, not just a faster one.