The Administrative Reality of Economic Consulting
Economic consulting firms produce some of the most analytically demanding work in the professional services industry. From antitrust litigation support to regulatory impact analysis, the outputs require deep quantitative expertise and tight deadlines. Yet much of the work that consumes staff hours at these firms has nothing to do with econometrics or economic theory.
A 2024 study by the National Association for Business Economics found that economists at consulting firms spend an average of 25% of their working hours on tasks classifiable as administrative or coordinative: scheduling expert depositions, formatting research memos, compiling citation lists, and managing client communication threads. For a firm billing at $500 to $800 per hour for PhD-level economists, that idle overhead is expensive.
The response from a growing segment of the industry is structured delegation to virtual assistants who handle the coordination and formatting work so senior staff can stay in the analysis lane.
Core VA Functions at Economic Consulting Firms
Literature and data source organization is one of the most impactful entry points. Economic consultants regularly review dozens of academic papers, government datasets, and industry reports for each engagement. Virtual assistants can run systematic literature searches, download and organize source documents, format citations, and maintain shared reference libraries so economists can begin analysis immediately rather than spending hours in database retrieval.
Exhibit and report preparation support is another high-value delegation point. Economic consulting deliverables often include dozens of tables and charts. VAs proficient in Excel and document formatting tools can populate exhibit templates, apply consistent styling, and flag discrepancies between draft text and supporting data, reducing the revision cycles that consume economist time.
Client and case management coordination rounds out the typical VA scope. This includes scheduling calls and depositions, tracking document production deadlines, maintaining contact lists for expert witnesses and client counterparts, and managing the logistics of multi-party engagements that span legal teams, corporate clients, and regulatory agencies.
Litigation Support Engagements Create Acute Staffing Pressure
Economic consulting firms with heavy litigation support practices face particularly acute staffing pressure. Federal litigation timelines are largely fixed once scheduling orders are entered, which means firms must surge capacity on short notice when cases are filed or trial dates approach.
Hiring full-time staff to cover peak litigation demand is economically inefficient. Virtual assistant staffing models—which allow firms to scale remote support up or down based on active matter volume—are a natural fit for this environment. Several boutique economic consulting firms that specialize in antitrust and securities litigation have adopted this model explicitly to avoid the overhead of carrying underutilized staff between matters.
According to data from IBISWorld, the economic consulting industry in the United States generated approximately $15 billion in revenue in 2024, with the majority concentrated among firms that serve litigation and regulatory clients. That concentration means the staffing pressure described above is an industry-wide phenomenon, not an edge case.
Technology Integration and Knowledge Transfer
Economic consulting firms typically run sophisticated technology stacks, including statistical software like Stata and R, econometric database subscriptions, and secure document management platforms. Virtual assistants working in these environments don't need to operate the analytical tools themselves, but they do need to be comfortable with the surrounding infrastructure.
Effective integration typically involves a defined onboarding period during which the VA learns the firm's project naming conventions, file management protocols, communication preferences, and client-specific requirements. Firms that invest in structured onboarding consistently report faster time-to-value and lower error rates.
Communication preferences vary widely across economic consulting engagements. Some clients expect formal written updates; others prefer brief status messages via chat. VAs who adapt their communication style to match client and internal norms quickly become embedded in the workflow rather than adding a translation layer.
Stealth Agents provides dedicated virtual assistant support for professional services and consulting firms, with staff trained in research coordination, document management, and client communication workflows.
Sources
- National Association for Business Economics, Consulting Economist Time Allocation Study, 2024
- IBISWorld, Economic Consulting Industry Report, 2024
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services Employment Data, 2024