The way leads are processed is backwards in my opinion.
My frustration is that you have to press save as you edit each field or you loose the last one.
Also my techs will assign a lead to me then create a ticket giving me 2 notification rather than just one.
Here is my suggestion:
We should not have the option to edit any fields, yes add notes, and yes send messages, and have the emails to and from on a lead front and center. Have a nice Create Ticket button that would allow you to change all of the info you need to create the ticket. Subject, Type, Description, Assigned user and customer.
Have all of the fields populated from the lead but able to edit them. have the Create ticket button at the bottom save all the fields rather than a save button per field.