As we start the year, we have published a two-part Legal Services blog to help clients and prospective clients plan for the year ahead. This is the second part, and you should read the first part first to get the context and the most from this second blog (and the next arising from points 1, 2 and 3 before reading 4 and 5 below).
Productivity
The UK’s poor productivity in economic output is well documented in the mainstream press. Productivity has been a challenge in the UK economy for almost two decades. Any law firm that can make its team more productive will be more profitable (and have happier staff, as more productive staff find their work more rewarding).
In terms of the levers that you can pull to enhance your financial position and enhance your work-life balance, focusing on productivity is one of them.
Training in clear thinking, critical thinking, and simple productivity should, in our view, be the norm across the sector. In fact, it is scarce. But the simplest levers to pull undoubtedly relate to productivity: doing things more efficiently and effectively, and stopping individuals working in law as if we were still a cottage industry by adopting widely accepted productivity techniques from other knowledge-sector professions and industries.
There are literally hundreds of books on productivity. Still, in essence, they all come back down to having the individuals undertaking the work thinking about how effectively they are undertaking it and encouraging them to adopt good habits such as focusing on one task at a time (because multitasking is inefficient and the human brain under performs when multitasking), and undertaking work away from distractions (which is why in 2020 with the pandemic, we saw many firms have an uplift in productivity and profitability when first working from home).
Thinking as a management team about the challenges ahead and planning for what you want to encourage your team to do to be most productive. Establishing simple habits can transform your productivity, and as a firm, we have been delivering this training to clients since 2019 for a reason (it is simple, effective and helps the team engage more fully with your firm).
Action Point: There are many books, articles, and podcasts on productivity, and a much smaller but still very substantive set of books, podcasts, and resources on clarity of thought. Why not commission a series of training sessions on productivity and clear thinking? Two sessions, which can be combined into one, last a total of four hours. We can offer both in-person and remote. These are simple to adopt, quick, and provide practical outcomes that can enhance your firm’s productivity and client experience within minutes of completing the training sessions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI, of course, will play a part in the legal services landscape in 2026. Since it went mainstream in late 2022, there has been a rush of software suppliers and products. In reality, the key to achieving leverage, profitability, and productivity with artificial intelligence is about the user experience and what will assist, but not undermine, your team.
The Management Professor Ethan Mollick wrote in his seminal 2024 book Co-Intelligence – Living and Working with AI as follows:
“Assume this is the worst AI you will ever use.
…
AI can now do many things that once seemed exclusively human. By embracing this principle, you can view AI’s limitations as transient, and remaining open to new developments will help you adapt to change, embrace new technologies, and stay competitive in a fast-paced business landscape driven by exponential advances in AI. This is a potentially uncomfortable place to be, as we will discuss, but it suggests that the possibilities of using AI to transform your work, your life, and yourself, which we can now glimpse, are just the beginning.”
The Lesson from Mollick’s work is that AI is not static.
You cannot buy an AI solution as you could with previous technologies.
AI is an evolving field of play; the clue is in the name of generative AI: it generates distinct outcomes each time. The unique nature of generative AI’s output each time it is used creates risks that we will need to adapt to and evolve with. Software providers are, though, selling solutions – you must therefore understand AI in professional services, then adopt what will enhance the client experience or productivity.
For example, a number of our clients have seen the number of complaints that they face from consumer legal services clients increase dramatically over the last 12 or 18 months because of the ease with which letters of complaint can be drafted using AI technology. It means that you have to adapt how you deal with clients, the client experience, and, of course, the complaints themselves to ensure that clients’ needs are being met.
Action Point:
Artificial Intelligence is an evolving issue; as a leader in a law firm, you need to start to play with Artificial Intelligence, but in a safe way. When we started, we used devices that were not linked to our client data or system to explore and begin to understand what AI could do for us in terms of productivity, focusing on simple outputs. Then we moved on to enhancing the client experience. Why not start playing with AI in the same way to understand it and engage with others to select training and AI tools you can have confidence in?
Conclusion
The purpose of our two-part blog is to explore with you the core challenges your firm may face in 2026. The one sure thing, as noted in part one, is that you cannot precisely predict the future or how it will evolve, whether that be the SRA’s approach under its new Chief Executive, the Court’s approach in Mazur, or indeed the evolution of Artificial Intelligence across the sector. What you can do, though, is as a management team, think about how you will tackle each of these management challenges and start to build in some resilience so that you and your colleagues adapt more easily to the future.
We would suggest you do so by adopting the three bullet points below as principles for 2026:
- Review your strategy at least quarterly to assess whether or not it meets the needs of your business and your clients on a 12, 36 and 60-month basis. At Bennett Briegal LLP, we always try to think in terms of the long-term impact, and we tend to focus on 5- to 10-year blocks, but we never lose sight of the need to sense-check more frequently.
- In terms of your operational plans and your use of technology, including case management systems and software, you should be reviewing these, not because you may purchase a new case management system or a new piece of software, but because the free to use and secure AI tools that you probably have access to already may mean that you can do things more effectively from an operational perspective. Think about simplicity and effectiveness as being your guiding lights for 2026.
- Training. Historically, training in the legal services sector has been about compliance with professional rules. Historically, there were 16 hours of CPD for solicitors until 2016, and thereafter, with the vaguer continuing competence regime. We are now, however, in an era in which training is so fundamental to a good client experience, running a great business, and delivering outstanding leadership to our teams, that training on supervision, technology, leadership, and challenging the leadership group’s thinking is probably an essential task.
This two-part blog was intended to challenge your thinking: Have we succeeded? Would you like to instruct us on a problem in your law firm? Would you want help with the business of law, either to enhance the client experience or profitability? Reflect on the 9,000-odd law firms; each is unique in some ways, but what is the one issue you would like to tackle as your overarching 2026 improvement?
Take this opportunity at the start of 2026 to reflect and explore what you can do better, differently, and more simply moving forward.
Good luck and have a great 2026.
Please get in touch if you would like to arrange any advice or training, info@bennettbriegal.co.uk
Recent Comments