Practice Management

Variations in progress among the top 50 law firms over the past five years is leading to a “two-track” market where one group is likely to “accelerate past” the rest, a report has argued.

The belief that review websites favour big law firms which can provide large numbers of reviews is a misconception, a leading provider has argued.

Future professionals’ working lives could be based not on “working days or even patterns” but on “aggregated maximum time” during which they are accountable to their employer.

Flexible working has overtaken pay as the top priority for lawyers looking for a change of job, a survey has found. Meanwhile, feelings of job security have increased massively over the past year.

Two large law firms – Osborne Clarke and Eversheds Sutherland – have said that they will offer all their trainees the opportunity to work part-time from September 2024.

Firms should relieve lawyers who hold their anti-money laundering compliance roles of some of their fee-earning workload and consider appointing deputies too, the SRA has said.

The law firm leading the new wave of firms balancing profit with social purpose has turned down “quite a lot” of potential clients for ethical reasons, its managing partner revealed last week.

Half of all legal professionals think that the pandemic has been detrimental to their career, with many now looking for new roles, according to a survey conducted by a Kent law firm.

Law firms record lower scores for customer experience than other professional sectors, with a host of “basic and avoidable errors” costing them new business, a survey has found.

Lawyers must “redouble” their efforts to provide pro bono legal advice because the pandemic had led to “increased inequality”, the London Solicitors Litigation Association has said.