PwC’s 2021 Law Firm Survey found almost all (97%) of Top 100 UK firms outperformed their revenue and profit expectations in 2021, with about three-quarters increasing their fee income and profits. This contrasts sharply with the pessimism expressed in last year’s survey when four out of five firms expected fee income to fall.
The survey report highlighted the importance of ongoing investment in IT, as the majority of firms now expect staff to be in the office 40%-60% of the time. Nearly half the firms said they expect to reduce their office footprint, and 87% expect to reconfigure their office space.
Meanwhile, the jobs market for lawyers is booming, according to research by legal recruiter BCL Legal and data analytics firm Vacancysoft. Real estate lawyers are in particularly high demand with demand more than doubling year-on-year in Q3. Shoosmiths, DWF and Freeths were BCL’s top recruiters to date this year for real estate lawyers.
Private practice recruitment in Q3 was up 92% year-on-year and 47% higher than its pre-pandemic level in 2019. In Q2 legal vacancies jumped 122% on the previous year, and were 55% up on 2019.
However, the recruiter believes demand within private practice has peaked, as hiring totals dipped 19% month-on-month in September.
James Chaplin, CEO, Vacancysoft, said: ‘Activity in the commercial UK property market this year has shaken off the effects of Covid with overall construction levels at a 10-year-high.
‘But the big question now is whether these levels are sustainable as interest rates start to rise and quantitative easing tapers off. That vacancies for private practice real estate specialists are levelling off suggests law firms might be pausing to see what happens next.’
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