Thrive in 2025: expert insights for your legal career this year

In an ever-evolving legal landscape, staying inspired and informed is crucial for solicitors at every stage of their career.

Drawing on their diverse experiences, we asked three legal professionals to share their insights to support personal development for both newly-qualified and experienced solicitors working in traditional firms and in-house.

• James Brewster is a recruitment specialist, focusing on firms in Birmingham and the wider Midlands region, with over 20 years of employment experience in the legal sector.
• Scott Brown is a former corporate lawyer who founded an in-house legal recruitment business. He hosts the podcast ‘Lessons I Learned in Law’, in which he interviews a successful general counsel each week about their career story.
• Elena Manukyan is a Manchester-based solicitor who runs her own law firm and a social media agency for lawyers.

Recruitment and networking

James: We’re seeing more firms incorporate a drafting test into their interview processes to assess competency. This is a good tool as it gives the partner some insight into what that person is capable of.

Often when a candidate doesn't work out, it can be because they’ve overegged their expertise. Behavioural tests are now common in recruitment in other industries, but law firms don’t seem to be adopting those much yet.

Hybrid working is as important as salary or location for candidates looking at new roles. A lot of companies have mandated lawyers to return to the office. The average is two to three days a week, but some are asking staff to come in four days.

There are firms at the other end of the spectrum, who aren't mandating people to come in at all. It can be a deciding factor if a candidate has a choice of offers.

Real estate, employment, commercial and corporate law are the areas where my team anticipate the most growth for our firms in 2025. Within general commercial law we expect to see increased demand for IT and IP lawyers .

Scott: Of all the guests I’ve interviewed on ‘Lessons I Learned in Law’, I’d estimate about 75% have landed their positions because of their network. Whether you are a student, a lawyer working in-house or in private practice, I would encourage everyone to proactively build your network.

A lot of lawyers we speak with regret not building a network proactively. It’s much better to build it before you need it. And, like it or loathe it, LinkedIn is your “shop window”. I find that most lawyers don't tend to utilise it to the best of its ability.

In today’s digital age, I think those that establish a strong “professional brand” can really stand out. To borrow a piece of advice from a recent interviewee: you should try to think “What do I want to be known for? What are my values?”

Once you’ve decided on that, it's important to demonstrate these both internally within your organisation and externally.

This goes a long way when you’re an in-house solicitor, because it’s essential to develop relationships with colleagues across your company to build influence.

That impression you make lasts a lifetime – those colleagues will remember you when they leave or and may recommend you down the line – that is the value of a network.

Client relationships

Elena: You must be a proactive solicitor, rather than reactive. If a client has to prompt you for an update, they're going to think that you’re not working their file until they chase you.

When you take the time and organise your diary to be proactive, your clients don’t bother you. You’re simultaneously making your and their lives easier.

I’m a big fan of Ray Kroc’s quote: “look after the customers and the business will take care of itself”. I've been a client of more law firms than I care to say, and I've never really had an experience I'd rave about.

I don’t want my clients to have that when they come to my firm. When we do a good job, we naturally get more referrals.

James: A lawyer's best weapon for business development is being good with clients. Everybody thinks lawyers need to be experts at giving advice on one specific area. But firms want solicitors who can think more broadly and show a business brain.

Business development isn’t about cold calling; it’s about leveraging what you can from existing client relationships as well as securing referrals.

Firms are looking for this tenacity in junior lawyers as well – they’re eager to see that potential. My advice to any trainee or junior lawyer would be to seek out senior solicitors who excel with their client relationship building and ask them for mentoring or advice.

Skills and experience

Scott: For anyone looking to move in-house, experience in a regulated environment is an extremely valuable and transferable skill in today’s market. As regulation is tightening in pretty much every sector, it’s a strong asset.

I recently interviewed a group general counsel who had moved from the pharmaceutical sector into the insurance space. That’s an uncommon switch to make – especially at a senior level – but that experience in a regulated environment opened the doors to make the move possible.

We are seeing this more regularly for those with regulatory experience.

James: Given the instability of the economy, we’re finding that law firms are being risk averse when hiring. A lot of the roles we’re recruiting for are for lawyers with three to four years of post-qualification experience. These are the solicitors who can work relatively unsupervised.

Junior lawyers – who might need more supervision – are deemed a greater risk.

Technology

Elena: Technology is moving so fast, and there's a real risk of feeling overwhelmed by what’s out there. I’ve taken a step back from the trends, and now my approach is to ask: what do we need as a small firm? Do my staff or clients need it?

Letting clients guide our practices is key to us deciding what tech we adopt. There’s no point introducing and investing in something that doesn’t serve clients or that they can’t use.

For example, we introduced Clio Grow to manage our case management system – I adore it. It took me a few days to input all the data and set up the automation, but it’s made our intake so much simpler.

This involved me doing some ‘soft’ coding which is something I never imagined I’d need to do as a lawyer. We’d previously been doing everything in emails which wasn't ideal. Clients are now able to sign paperwork within seconds which is great for them and us!

With so much tech available, the chances are if you’re facing a problem there’s already a solution out there. I was wasting huge amounts of time explaining processes to new starters, until I discovered Scribe. This allows me to record my screen as I’m carrying out a task and it produces a step-by-step guide.

I was dubious at first, but it works well. I’ve now got an archive of all our processes that my team can refer to.

Scott: Being proficient with technology – whether it's artificial intelligence (AI) or tech tools – is important. But the thing I hear repeatedly from clients is that the real value add for a lawyer is the power of coupling these AI and tech skills with a growth mindset. Having the capacity to apply those tools and understand what the benefits can be is essential.

The legal press is awash with AI solutions, it’s top of the agenda at every event. The reality of working in-house is that implementing new technology isn’t easy. Many companies would rather use the systems they already have, instead of investing in new software.

That said, it’s still beneficial for in-house lawyers to stay curious about how peers are using tech.