The Briefing Legal  / HSBC  2025/26 Law Firm Investment and Strategy Survey paints a picture of overall confidence, with a touch more uncertainty than last year's responses 54% of the 90 surveyed firms are pursuing a strategy of UK only growth and further 45% of international growth (p7), with the US and Middle East preferred destinations in the latter But it's p11 that stands out 82% of firms are looking to achieve that growth through lateral hires in existing geographies an

(1) I don't know what's going to happen and neither does anyone else. There are a range of scenarios in play from AGI taking all our jobs through to the bubble pops triggering a recession and we all lose our jobs. Possibly with more positive outcomes in between 🙂 In any case, planning for a range of scenarios seems sensible (2) This time is different for two reasons; (i) the wall of money trying to break into legal is significantly higher than previous tech waves, and (ii) t

Further to my post last week, where firms are increasingly anticipating a negative impact of AI on their business models, there are essentially four strategic questions they need to be able to answer Namely, what is the impact of AI on: (A) The clients they choose to serve (B) The services they choose to offer (C) The prices they choose to charge (D) The way they choose to deliver the work Note the emphasis on choice Much of the discussion to date has been around (D) "look at

Law firms are increasingly nervous about the impact of GenAI on their business models One of the trends that stood out to me in PwC 's 2025 UK Law Firm Survey is the shift in sentiment illustrated on p16 Now, the step change from net positive to net negative actually happened from 2023 to 2024, where 69% anticipated a positive impact on revenue and margins in 2023, that flipped to 60% anticipating a negative impact in 2024 There's a further darkening of the mood in 2025 (now

On my list of headlines I wish I had written, but didn't... all flash but no cash... 🙂 It's a good read from  Taha & Watmough , based on...

Week 4 of our 12 week Legal Mini-MBA is drawing to close for our current cohorts and we spent time discussing the goals, objectives,...

When it comes to structural shifts, law firms tend exhibit herd-like behaviours which, rather than be a criticism, I attribute to...

Good round up of recent NQ salary increases in this FT article (paywall) I don't really share in the "this is terrible, in my day NQs...

For Episode 12 of the Empowering Law Firm Leaders podcast , Darren and I joined Amy Bruce – host and Marketing Director at Osprey...

It's naïve to think law firms increase headline rates by 10% and that all clients just pay up For certain clients, and certain practice...

Having sat on both sides of the fence on this one, in multiple firms, there are five common sticking points or hurdles I see in...