Ten challenges facing the legal profession this year

What are some of the things law firms should look out for this year? Darren Gower, sales director, of Access lays down ten defining challenges of 2022

.

The legal sector continues to reel and adapt to the forced, Covid-fueled culture-shock that has changed the way the profession works at an unprecedented speed-of-change. Having shifted from predominantly office-based to remote working overnight – and more recently on to a new and unfamiliar hybrid-working world – law firms currently face a number of significant challenges, though tech can play a positive role in easing many of these.

1.  Law firm recruitment and talent retention

It has been widely reported that over the summer of 2021, across sectors, more than two million of the UK’s working population found new jobs. Although the sector has been described as ‘pandemic-proof’, the recruitment and retention crisis is no brighter for the UK legal profession. It’s been cited in a G2 survey of 1600 professionals that almost a quarter (24%) would quit their job due to poor software. Overcoming frustrations around clunky technology and disparate systems with a lack of integration can have a real impact on talent retention.

2.  Fee earner burnout

Law firm leaders are increasingly having to ask themselves difficult questions about workloads and culture within their own organization.  Of course, just as with physical health and safety, there is an educational piece law firms must carry out in terms of sharing knowledge with staff on how to keep themselves mentally healthy. There is a piece of work to be done to equip managers so they can confidently support workers who are struggling. There is also a duty of care for law firm line managers in terms of signposting when it is clear a mental health professional needs to be called upon. This is all part of a law firm’s developing wellbeing strategy.

3.  Lawyer competency

How does a law firm manage the competency of its people in 2022 and beyond? The ongoing training of staff as well as the onboarding and training of new staff is now under the spotlight. Remote working has affected junior lawyers’ opportunities to shadow and learn from their more senior colleagues, which was something taken for granted in the pre-pandemic days. On-screen conversations are scheduled. The chance meeting with a colleague on the stairs or by the coffee machine has gone. There is less spontaneous interaction between co-workers. The heart of law firm training needs a re-think if we are going to reduce the negative impact of the challenges facing trainee solicitors.

4. Clients’ digital expectations

The way we all shop and interact with the world has made a revolutionary shift to online during the last decade. People shop online, book doctor and dentist appointments online, we book and pay our cab drivers using apps, we liaise with our insurance companies, our gyms and even our kids’ school teachers online – so law firms must be geared up to do the same. And many law firms are. The future of legal practice management software includes mobile apps for lawyers on the move, portals so that clients can check in 24/7 on the progress of their cases without needing to speak to their solicitor, and good case management systems provide SMS texting features.

5.  Equipping solicitors with the right technology

Figuring out where your law firm sits on the digital adoption spectrum that has paper-heavy processes at one extreme and digital disruption at the other is a good starting point on the transformation journey. Taking care of the technological side of your business for you, and keeping you in the current century so you can remain competitive and efficient should be the remit of your chosen tech partners. When a law firm wants to automate the processes of a new area of law, it should be able to build on proven workflows that already exist within their case management system, and develop them for their own purposes, using intuitive tools provided by the software system.

6. Thriving as a hybrid-working law firm

The transition to hybrid is going to take significant rethinking, coordination, and a total reconfiguration to meet the new needs of the hybrid workforce. For those that have returned to their physical workplaces, being back in the office is not turning out to be quite as expected. Returnees are finding the colleagues they were expecting to meet are not there. It seems while in the past hardworking lawyers were spending too many hours at the office, causing burnout, some are now literally ‘living at work’ as lines blur. There is a fine-line between big-brother style monitoring and keeping a caring eye on your people. Productivity tools that come with cloud-based systems can really help law firm leaders watch over their workforce, making sure their teams are not overdoing it, without micro-managing and adding more pressure.

7.  Keeping cybercriminals at bay

Underground cybercrime ecosystems continue to grow in sophistication and gather momentum. There is a lot law firm owners and leaders need to know about cybersecurity in 2022. It is worthwhile reading up on the learned experiences of other legal practices that have made mistakes. An IT partner for any aspect of your firm’s business system must be ISO 27001 certified and have Cyber Essentials before you should even consider them.

8. Remaining on top of compliance

In terms of what’s coming next for law firm compliance, the SRA is considering several factors for its next series of thematic reviews for 2022 – such as workplace culture, immigration, supervision, powers of attorney, mental health law, and legal ombudsmen service complaints.

9.  Renewing professional indemnity insurance

The underwriter’s view of risk for future claims is taking a number of factors into consideration. The Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday which kept conveyancers mega-busy for 12 months from July 2020, has meant high transaction volumes have led to higher numbers of errors that could result in PII claims. Proposal forms are full of pandemic-related questions as a result of the kind of claims insurers have seen. And although the legal profession has fared better than expected during the pandemic, financial stability with regard to loans, deferred VAT etc. are being taken into account at renewal time.

10.  Knowing how to work your law firm data

The legal profession has  more rich data available to it than ever before, offering insights and answers to most challenges. At the same time, we are a world suffering from information overload across all sectors, so all the answers the legal industry needs can become buried and completely lost for those firms that are not in touch with their data.