A holistic client- and people-driven strategy is critical for any firm wishing to capitalise on what has been an exceptional year for revenue and profit growth at many law firms. In my view, any firm strategy must ensure that all medium- and long-term goals are aligned to a clear, defined business investment strategy — ie identifying where investments in clients, people and technology can be made to enable the execution of these goals.

The opportunities I’ve previously highlighted in workplace, data and process strategies are all underpinned by the same common theme of delivering an effective operating model. However, having delivered transformation programmes across multiple industries, in our experience the legal sector is further behind in technology adoption, business services efficiency and collaboration.

Historically, firms have based technology investment decisions on trends instead of aligning them to outcomes that improve operating models or bring more agility to commercial models. I fear this is repeating itself with generative artificial intelligence (genAI) without first giving serious consideration to one’s data strategy. At best, firms may not realise the full value of this technology. At worst, they may risk making their second-most valuable asset after their people, ie firm data, available to be leveraged (even when anonymised) outside the firm through open-source AI solutions.

With market growth and increased competition from in-house counsel, a likely increase in M&A activity presents a key strategic challenge. Much of our advisory recognises the need to deliver greater efficiency within business services. For those firms engaged or planning to engage in M&A that inefficiency will be exacerbated by traditional legal technologies that lack the breadth of capabilities to break down silos that exist within most business service functions.

We believe that firms (whether engaged in M&A activity or not) will greatly benefit from leveraging enterprise-grade technology, proven in other service-driven markets, as a strategic tool to enable and deliver efficiencies, while enhancing collaboration between clients, business and fee-generating services.

Ultimately, a firm strategy that combines talent and client attraction and retention, with leveraging technology as an enabler not as a solution, will provide the foundation for investment to deliver significant value creation. Firms open to incorporating successful strategies proven in other markets will achieve greater value with an increased ROI.

Finally, no strategy can ever be effectively executed without business-wide buy-in. Key stakeholder engagement will always remain the most critical factor in successfully delivering strategic priorities and goals.

In summary, a myriad of market pressures requires a firm strategy that leverages enterprise-grade technology and unlocks firm-wide data to deliver enriched client and employee experiences. Any strategy must factor in the firm’s ability to adopt change and reengineer business processes. If at the heart of the firm’s partner and executive strategy is stakeholder engagement, focused on client and talent retention and attraction, then strategic decisions will pay off — maximising revenue and delivering value to the firm’s clients, partnership and people.