The 10 biggest challenges facing the legal profession in 2022

The legal sector continues to adapt to the Covid-fuelled culture shock that has changed the way the profession works at unprecedented speed. But the shift in working patterns is only part of the story.

We have pooled several of our legal tech experts and, as a collective, we believe managing the modern law firm today presents the following new challenges, as well as a host of new perspectives

Law firm recruitment and talent retention

‘The Great Resignation’ is in full swing and firms need to offer more than just high salaries to attract and keep talent. A positive culture, flexible working and systems which support – not hinder – staff are vital.

Fee-earner burnout

There is constant pressure to maximise fee-earning time and increase billable hours. These things are important, but a happy employee will always be productive over the long term and support a good firm culture.

Lawyer competency

The debate continues around how lawyers must be regulated to remain competent through their careers, identifying areas of risk and having tools in place to take immediate action where failures occur.

The ongoing training of staff, as well as the onboarding and training of new employees, is under the spotlight.

Meeting your clients’ digital expectations

The way we interact with the world has made a revolutionary shift online during the last 10 to 20 years. People shop online, communicate 24/7 and use apps to run their lives – so law firms must be geared up to do the same.

Those that work with good legal software suppliers have all the tools they need to interact with clients, and prospective clients, online.

Having the right technology

With so much choice, law firm tech can be a daunting place. The right software partner can support every aspect of a firm, and law firms can greatly improve their business as a result.

Thriving as a hybrid-working law firm

The transition to hybrid working is going to take significant rethinking, coordination and reconfiguration to meet the new needs of the workforce.

Technology alongside well-thought-out implementation plays a significant role in optimising hybrid working.

Keeping cybercriminals at bay

Law firms are prime targets for cybercriminals. This is one of the most significant challenges that is keeping law firm leaders up at night.

Your IT partner must be ISO 27001-certified and have Cyber Essentials before you should even consider working with them.

Remaining on top of compliance

Firms must be completely on top of their compliance game in order to remain practising. Excellent practice and case management software is a must, and should have compliance tools built in throughout every module.

Renewing professional indemnity insurance (PII)

Professional indemnity insurance (PII) proposal forms are full of pandemic-related questions, reflecting the kind of claims insurers are now seeing.

Although the legal profession has fared better than expected during the pandemic, financial stability with regard to loans, deferred VAT payments and so on is being taken into account at renewal time.

Knowing how to interpret your law firm data

The legal profession has more rich data available to it than ever before, offering the potential for insights and answers to most challenges. However, we are a world suffering from information overload across all sectors. Understanding data is key to success.

As a team of 400+ professionals working closely with solicitors, Access Legal gather a whole raft of relevant information about the profession. Because we are in the business of solving law firm pain points, we learn more about the challenges facing the legal profession every day.

For more free legal insight resources and articles, please view the Access Legal Resource Hub or Legal Insight Blog.

Access Legal is a Working With partner of the Law Society.