With a focus on optimizing workforce efficiency and meeting client demands for value-driven legal services, the report highlights key trends that are reshaping the legal industry.
Key statistics from the report include:
- Client attrition: 96% of firms have lost clients in the last 12 months, with 34% citing reduction of the number of firms clients have on their panels as the main reason and 33% confirming clients found cheaper legal services elsewhere.
- Work allocation challenges: 84% struggle with manual task delegation between remote and in-office support staff, and 36% say partners picking resources based on preference is challenging.
- Access to actionable data: 41% of firms have no or only partial access to data relating to the different skillsets of each associate, and 33% have equally poor access to data about the types of tasks sent from lawyers to support staff.
- Law firms are facing growing pressure from clients to prioritize equitable resourcing of work while still maintaining cost-effective legal services. This shift is intensifying competition, with many firms losing clients due to cost concerns or inadequate diversity efforts. Clients are also increasingly consolidating their legal work with fewer firms, making it critical for law firms to meet client expectations.
The research also highlights the challenge of high attrition rates from equity partners to support staff, which poses significant operational and financial challenges. As partners plan their retirement or move to other firms, succession planning has become a significant challenge, with many firms unprepared for the expected turnover. Firms face disruptions to client relationships, underscoring the need for better talent development programs and visibility into skillsets so there is no loss of knowledge or expertise from both lawyers and support staff.
“In order to provide value-add, data-backed insights for our clients and the wider industry, each year BigHand gathers market intel around key challenges facing law firms. The findings of this report make it clear that law firms must adapt to retain talent and clients in an increasingly competitive market. BigHand’s technology surfaces actionable data for better decision making around talent management, work allocation, and enables them to provide transparency to clients over how their matters are resourced from partners through to support staff,” comments Briana McCrory, CMO at BigHand.
The research sheds light into the role of technology in law firms' strategic plans to address key talent management and operational challenges facing the industry today. By leveraging advanced tools like BigHand, firms can streamline work allocation, ensuring that tasks are delegated to the right resources at the right cost, enhancing efficiency and profitability. The data-driven insights provided by technology support firms in facing the challenges revealed in the research.
The full report, Emerging Trends in Law Firm Talent Management, is now available for download on BigHand’s website. For more information, click here.
