Revenue
Profitability
People
Working capital
Working practices
Future focus
Our benchmarking is based primarily on data submitted by UK law firms with financial years ending in the first half of 2022 and provides insight into how firms performed as we entered the ‘post-pandemic’ period. We explore how financial results compared with their expectations, what happened in the ‘people space’ and which areas of the business firms are focusing on now and in the future.
In conjunction with the ILFM
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Hear from Ross Prince on the key findings.
Ross Prince Partner
Revenue and business confidence
Overall, most firms reported a pleasing 2021/22 year, with over half of participants stating their results exceeded expectations and only a tenth considering performance to be slightly below expectations. Post-pandemic demand for legal services was high.
How did your results compare with your expectations?
19%
Greatly exceeded our expectations
37%
Slightly exceeded expectations
33%
Were as expected
12%
Were slightly below expectations
12%
Average revenue growth overall
11%
City firms
14%
Regional firms
Change in revenue by overall population
10%
Firms with fall in revenue
46%
Firms with increase in revenue <10%
44%
Firms with increase in revenue >10%
View our analysis
Profitability
Did revenue growth translate into profit growth? Stronger demand, coupled with efficiency and cost cutting measures implemented throughout the pandemic period, has boosted year end profit pools for many. But as the sector got back to 'business as usual', some firms, mostly Regional, found it harder to keep a lid on costs this year.
Changes in profit per equity partner (PEP)
City firms
Regional firms
21%
32%
Firms with fall in PEP
36%
50%
29%
32%
Firms with increase in PEP >10%
Firms with increase in PEP >10%
Firms with increase in PEP <10%
Firms with increase in PEP <10%
Firms with fall in PEP
View our analysis
People
With solid demand for legal services this year, it is no surprise to see headcount continuing to increase. A 4.2% increase in headcount across all participating firms, coupled with average salary increases of around 5%, resulted in a near 10% increase in people costs. City firm participants experienced less salary pressure than their Regional counterparts.
Increase in headcount
All partners
Professional staff - non partners
City
1.5%
Regional
0.4%
City
5.5%
Regional
6.3%
Support staff
Total headcount
City
3.7%
Regional
2.1%
City
4.2%
Regional
4.2%
4.3%
City firms
4.9%
Increase in average staff cost per head
5.8%
Regional firms
From your recent recruitment hiring experience, what do you understand to be the main drivers which attact and retain talented personnel?
70%
48%
38%
33%
Baseline salary
Flexible / agile working policy
Firm culture and values
Firm brand and reputation
View our analysis
Working capital - lock-up
Last year we reported that just over two-thirds of firms planned to focus on improving lock-up and reducing their credit risk. They succeeded, with Regional firms reducing overall lock-up by seven days and City firms by one day.
Average lock-up days at year end
City firms
144
39
105
2021
143
38
105
2022
WIP days
Debtor days
Regional firms
130
68
62
2021
123
64
59
2022
WIP days
Debtor days
Looking forward, a negative outlook for the UK economy means management teams are even more concerned about credit risk this year. The proportion of firms planning to focus on improving lock-up in the coming 12-18 months has now risen to almost 80% of respondents.
Working practices
One thing is sure – the pandemic changed the workplace in many ways and remote / agile working became a big feature for almost all firms. Moving on a year, has anything changed?
This year, just over a half of respondents reported that their teams are working away from the office more than 50% of the time and lawyers working in City firms are the ones most likely to be working remotely. Around 30% of Regional firm participants reported their people only spending a day a week out of the office.
65%
Proportion of firms who consider remote working has a negative impact on supervision of team members
50%
15%
Temporary issue
Long-term issue
Future focus
People matters continue to top the list of priority risks for most firms, with training and development coming into greater focus this year. Firms remain relatively unconcerned about the availability of funding, although a greater proportion deem it a higher priority than this time last year.
In terms of firms’ immediate focus, managing credit risk continues to take a lead but this year there is a notable increase in the number of firms working on improving their environmental sustainability impact – from around half of participants last year to nearly 70% this year.
7.5%
Proportion of firms considering salary increases in excess of 7.5% for the coming 2022/23 year:
36%
45%
26%
All firms
City firms
Regional firms