As we start a New Year, it has become a tradition to make predictions about the year ahead. As advisors to the advisory community, you would think that our lessons of the past would ensure that we know better than to try to predict the future! We do! This is therefore not an attempt to predict the future per se, but rather to comment on the likely themes of the year. Many of those themes will be driven by legal services regulation 2026, rather than by market prediction alone.
The Lebanese American professor specialising in mathematics, statistics, and philosophy, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is widely quoted as having come up with the life lesson:
“Invest in preparedness, not prediction.”
(from Antifragile)
In the book from which that quote arises, he espouses the foolishness of trying to predict. We took that advice on board many years ago, but would encourage our clients, our contacts and our potential clients to think about being prepared for 2026 rather than trying to predict precisely what will happen.
This is part of a two-part series. This is the first part, but we believe that our clients and prospective clients will benefit from reading both parts, starting with this one.
We regularly advise law firms on regulation, supervision, and management, and these themes reflect the issues we are seeing across the sector.
In terms of the legal services agenda for the year ahead, and particularly the impact of legal services regulation 2026, you should be prepared to address the following, in our view:
Legal services challenges law firms should prepare for in 2026
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Mazur
The story of 2025, the case in which we were instructed, both at first instance and in the High Court, which has sent shockwaves throughout the profession, will continue to do so in 2026.
It is arguably the most significant case before the courts in terms of legal regulation over the last four or five decades. The forthcoming Court of Appeal’s decision, whatever it may be, will continue that trend either by affirming the High Court’s decision, which has proved so controversial, or overturning it and adding some clarity. We are not involved at the Court of Appeal stage, as CILEX, a non-party, is bringing the appeal to clarify and address the challenges of the original High Court judgment.
There is uncertainty across the legal services sector about what non-admitted staff (including barristers and CILEX professionals without an additional qualification or permission) can undertake and what they can conduct in terms of the reserved legal activity of litigation. This uncertainty sits at the heart of legal services regulation 2026 and the way firms structure and supervise their litigation teams. We think firms need to be prepared that the Court of Appeal will lead you to have to reassess your litigation approach as a law firm, whatever the outcome, and that you should be prepared for the decision, whether that comes immediately after the February hearing or more likely some months later.
In terms of preparing your law firm, you have got to be able to respond to the current legal position as set out following the High Court judgment, and whatever the Court of Appeal may clarify further. Flexibility and the ability to respond quickly, including re-engineering your case management software and retraining your litigators and supervisors, will be critical.
We would suggest investing now in training to understand what the SRA mean by “Effective Supervision” in their Guidance of that name from 2022, as that is unlikely to change during the appeal. Understanding what they mean by adequate supervision will be critical moving forward. It will enable you to respond most effectively.
Action Point: Set up a Google Alert to notify you when the Mazur Court of Appeal case is heard, and ensure that your team, who will be responsible for responding to Mazur, all receive the information they require instantly. Setting up a Google alert is a simple way of doing this.
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Managing better
Managing your business, managing your resources, managing your finances, and managing the introduction of new technologies will be management challenges in 2026.
We are at the cliff edge in terms of new technologies and changes to the sector, with increased interest from private equity in larger firms and rising client expectations year on year, making it more critical than ever to manage the businesses we run better. It is likely, therefore, that you will again want to invest in training and in enhancing how your firm is run in terms of:
- people – Partners and staff
- operational practices and efficiency
- financial planning and profitability
- supervision of work and the team
- technology adoption, and client experience.
Managing better almost certainly leads to a review of both your strategy and your operational plans. Your policies and procedures may be wonderful on paper, but how are they implemented operationally by your leadership team?
You should take a critical look at your strategic and operational plans and ensure they are timely and accurate.
As a law firm advising other law firms, we do heed our own advice: every 12 months, we have an away day (actually a long weekend) and focus on the business, not on working in the industry. We also periodically take time out from client work to focus on operational issues and review policies and procedures. January for us is one of those times when we typically do this, and, unsurprisingly, having done that ourselves over recent days, it is one of the reasons we are writing this blog about where we think the challenges more generally across the sector will be. Of course, each firm has its own unique challenges, but the themes of the industry are the intention of this blog.
Action Point: If you are planning a Partners away day in 2026, why not instruct us, as an external facilitator, to enhance the day and deliver some management training to your team throughout the day?
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Supervision
Supervision was brought into focus by the SRA’s referral to its Effective Supervision Guidance from 2022 in its own Mazur submissions, and the High Court appeared to endorse its views.
However, adequate supervision applies across the board, not just to the reserved legal activities, or indeed the specific reserved legal activity of litigation.
The high number of complaints reaching the Legal Ombudsman, the consumer panel of the Legal Services Board’s consistent feedback, and the increasing number of complaints made to the SRA itself all point towards supervision being ever more critical.
Every law firm in England and Wales should therefore train all of its supervisors. If you fail to do so, every regulatory breach will appear to be wilful neglect. After Mazur, when the Court endorsed the SRA Guidance, it is foolish not to train your supervisors on their fundamental expectations (it may be far from good management, but it is now a Court-endorsed baseline).
The research conducted by the legal sector charity LawCare on supervision, management, and leadership, published in 2025, continued the trend that management and supervision training are not a priority for many law firms. The Effective Supervision Guidance means it really should be. The court’s emphasis on the issue in 2025 suggests it will likely be of growing importance in regulatory decisions over the next three to five years.Supervision should therefore be viewed as a core risk area for legal services regulation 2026 and beyond. You and your firm are, therefore, well-served by addressing supervision now.
In terms of training, we have provided webinars and courses on supervision for both the Legal Futures webinars and the MBL seminars, and they are available to purchase online. We can also deliver in-house training on supervision, leadership, and management, including bespoke sessions tailored to your needs.
Action Point: All supervisors should receive training at least annually. This can be delivered internally. You could purchase webinars, including those delivered by us for MBL Seminars and Legal Futures Webinars, or, of course, you could commission bespoke in-house training. Supervision is probably one of the most significant ways to address factors affecting client service experience and ensure profitability. It is a really powerful lever. Are you pulling it? If you are not, developing an ongoing training plan to enhance the level of supervision across your firm is perhaps the most obvious lever to pull.
This concludes Part 1 of our two-part blog. The second part will be published in the coming days. In the interim, take the opportunity at the start of 2026 to reflect and explore what you can do better, differently and more simply as the year progresses.
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