Lawyer Resourcing & Talent Management

One of the key areas I anticipate law firms focusing on is cost management. This is always a part of law firm management, but the way costs are reviewed and managed will shift further in 2025. Law firms have focused on hiring over recent years - bringing in more resources to handle the work. The combination of spiraling salaries, the cost of training new hires and the continued pressure on fees from clients means firms are now looking at maximize utilization and provide career progression for existing lawyers, rather than just making hires. Firms are looking to address this in a variety of ways but are quickly doubling down on understanding what skills already exist within the firm and running more in-depth analysis of how their lawyers are being utilized on matters on an ongoing basis. This enables firms to be much more strategic in their hiring, ensure profitability on matters by using the right level of lawyer and drive productivity by aligning the right work to the right skills sets. Ultimately this also helps to retain existing lawyers by aligning the right work to the right people, removing the substantial costs of attrition and re-hiring.

Having data to support each aspect of this is critical. Aligning our development strategy to providing this data has – and continues to be – our priority. In light of growing demand for visibility it is vital to have the complete picture to support key decisions. Coupling the transparency our technology provides of current and forward-looking capacity with individual lawyer expertise and bringing in more data on team and office performance through our leadership dashboards gives a complete picture of how lawyers are being utilized across a firm. Our soon to be released end-to-end resourcing functionality enables firms to assign work rapidly and importantly ensure the right lawyers are assigned to work and are up and running (and billing) far quicker than ever before. This is all wrapped around a consistent focus on making sure lawyers are getting access to the work that will benefit them and make them want to stay at their firms longer – avoiding substantial costs and interruptions of client delivery associated with attrition.

With technology advancing rapidly and law firms embracing developments in AI, among other legal technologies, the role of lawyers will continue to evolve throughout 2025. Lawyers who embrace these innovations will enhance their position by providing faster and more efficient services to clients, while also freeing up time to focus on career development.

Work allocation tools like BigHand Resource Management will enable better delegation of work to the appropriate resource levels, leading to more cost-effective solutions for clients and contributing to the firm's profitability. To remain competitive, firms should stay ahead of the curve with new technologies. This includes making the necessary investments in training, ensuring lawyers have time to upskill - creating an environment that attracts and retains tech-savvy talent. The continued expansion of legal technology will open new opportunities for lawyers interested in transitioning to more technology-focused, innovation-driven roles. Firms with established resource management processes will be better positioned to identify and retain talent for these newly created roles.