In an environment defined by increasing segmentation of the legal market, elevated competition for talent, rapid technological advancement, and shifting client expectations, law firms must resist the temptation to build strategies that are safe, short-term, and easily achievable. Incremental progress has its place, but it will not suffice in a market where the pace of change continues to accelerate. The firms that thrive in the next decade will be those that set bold, forward-looking goals and launch a plan to make progress against the goals.
How law firms choose what to prioritize (and what NOT to prioritize).
Each year, we look ahead and identify the key strategic and management issues that we believe will need to be top of mind for law firm leaders during the coming year.
Law firms are facing intensifying growth pressure. Competitive and client forces have pushed law firms to not only focus on increasing revenue and profitability, but perhaps more importantly, to add practice depth, practice breadth, overall scale, and geographic reach. Significant investments in lateral hiring and law firm combinations have changed the competitive landscape by forming new, dominant firms in particular practice areas, industries, and geographic regions. This has reshaped the AmLaw 200, with an increasing number of firms now offering considerable scale and reach compared to existing competitors, regionally, nationally, and internationally. This evolution has created new choices for clients seeking advisors who can provide services across multiple jurisdictions or offer superior depth in particular practices and industries, further fueling the race for market share and the pressure on law firms to grow.
Each year we look ahead and make predictions for the coming year. Each year brings uncertainty, and 2023 appears to be bringing more uncertainty than most. Economic headwinds, inflation, the threat of a possible recession, global unrest, and in particular the decline in the corporate transactions that drove much of law firms’ success in 2021 and the first half of 2022, are raising questions for many about what the coming year will hold for law firms.
