Practice Management

A Kent-based law firm has unveiled plans to increase its headcount and turnover by 30% over the next two years, while also allowing staff to do 10 days work in nine and have the extra day off.

Three in 10 partners at large firms are unhappy with their working hours, with many also not keen to undertake non-billable work unrelated to business development, research has found.

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.