The leadership gap in law firms

Future workflows and career paths will be heavily reliant on technology.

We asked lawyers how private practice will change in the next 1-3 years. Interestingly, the top answer was the increased use of AI for legal research and document review (56%).

Technology skills will also grow in importance (48%), and more non-traditional career paths for lawyers will come into existence (46%).

Bhavisa Patel, Director of Legal Technology at Eversheds Sutherland, says:

To Darren Mitchell, the Chief Operating Officer of Simmons & Simmons, this means embedding technology and transformation into the very heart of the firm's business model.

However, this is easier said than done. When we enquired about the top challenges facing firms in the next 1-3 years, keeping pace with new technology was one of the top challenges (40%).

We also asked lawyers to rate their firm’s speed in implementing new technology. Only 17% said their firm is fast or very fast.

This disconnect suggests that, while firms are deploying new tools, they may not be doing enough to support tech-led change at a leadership level.

Tony Randle, a Partner at Shoosmiths, sheds some light on the realities of technology engagement in legal work.

All long-lasting, meaningful change needs to come from the top and trickle down. Law firms need leaders that understand the challenges and opportunities of today's tech-driven market, and are prepared to dig deep to make change happen.

Our survey of legal professionals working in private practice found the top traits of an effective leader are communication (56%), maintaining integrity and ethical standards (35%), and being commercially savvy (33%).

Communication is the top trait of a law firm leader

Interestingly, only one in ten listed being tech-driven as an important leadership trait (10%), while less than a quarter (23%) selected pragmatic and agile.

These needs reflect a desire for law firms to provide efficient, consistent, and expert support.

Read our report:
Investing in innovation: law firms can offer clients more than legal expertise

We asked in-house counsel what they need from their law firms, 68% said agility and responsiveness. A similar proportion (73%) of private practice lawyers agreed.

Kingsley Daniels, Director of Go-to-Market at LexisNexis UK, says:

Senior leaders value integrity, junior lawyers value empathy

When looking at the results by seniority, current leaders place greater value on external-facing leadership traits.

Maintaining integrity and ethical standards (41% vs. 31%) and client focus (38% vs. 25%) were noticeably more important to leaders than associates.

Associates, however, tend to value emotional intelligence (36% vs. 25%) and inclusion and collaboration (28% vs. 18%) more than leaders.

Small firms emphasise values; large firms prioritise vision

Leadership isn’t a one-size-fits-all. It reflects the operational context of the firm.

At smaller firms, leadership tends to be more hands-on and value-driven:

• Integrity and ethical standards were chosen by 43% of lawyers at small firms, compared to just 30% at large firms
• Client focus also ranked higher at small firms (33%) than at mid-sized (23%) or large firms (27%).

This suggests a link between values-based leadership and the close-knit culture of smaller practices.

In contrast, larger firms lean toward long-term strategy and scalability:

• Strategic vision was prioritised by 38% of large firm leaders, versus 28% in small firms and 26% in mid-sized firms
• Emotional intelligence was also more prominent in large firms (35%) than in mid (31%) or small firms (29%).

Mid-sized firms tend to balance both worlds. A striking 67% of leaders at medium firms rated communication as the top leadership trait, perhaps reflecting the challenge of leading diverse teams while staying connected to daily operations.

In-house legal departments want their external counsel to be cost-effective (74%), responsive and agile (68%) and provide specialist legal expertise (48%).

Reassuringly, private practice lawyers demonstrated strong awareness of their clients' needs. Cost-effectiveness (75%), agility and responsiveness (68%) and specialist expertise (54%) were the top three responses from law firm lawyers, too.

But for firms to deliver a legal service that is quick, cost-effective and well-informed, they will need technology infrastructure, tools and perhaps most importantly, an effective adoption strategy.

As Deborah Finkler, Managing Partner of Slaughter and May, observed:

Fast and accurate generative legal AI

Patel from Eversheds Sutherland says: “Adopting these tools is only the first step; ensuring their effective use to solve a real problem is crucial. Good change management is fundamental.”

The key to encouraging lawyers to use AI to its full potential comes from a shift in perception of the very practice of the law, believes Laura Hodgson, GenAI Lead at Linklaters.

The top three challenges facing law firms in the next 1-3 years are increasing costs (47%), attracting and retaining talent (44%), and keeping pace with new technology (40%).

These pressures are interlinked, and solving them will require firms to think differently about how work gets done.

Speed up all aspects of your legal work with tools that help you to work faster and smarter

In a competitive market, the firms that adopt the right tools, and support their people to use them well, will be best placed to manage costs, stay compliant, and create a more sustainable and attractive working environment.