Strategic sector insights for the legal profession in 2025: mid-sized firms

For a typical 40-hour week, the average fee earner is achieving 50% to 63% chargeable time, which may be considered low.

This could represent a missed opportunity to increase chargeable hours, ultimately boosting turnover and supporting firms’ growth strategies.

Technology

Technology presents an opportunity for firms to drive efficiency.

However, it also poses a threat to firms that are not up to date with technological advances.

Firms are approaching artificial intelligence (AI) with caution, as the benefits and drawbacks are not fully understood.

Many prefer to wait for more evidence before investing in AI, noting that automation will have a bigger impact.

Premises

The most common working pattern was three to four days per week in the office (71.9% of mid-sized firms sampled).

There is a clear change in hybrid working policy as firms increase in size: