Law firms bid to grow profits
IMPROVING profitability is the biggest commercial challenge for law firms in the North West, a survey by the sector’s recruitment specialists BCL Legal has revealed.
BCL approached 1,000 law firms across the region and 52% of respondents said increasing profits was their primary consideration, ahead of stepping up their financial growth (32%).
Other challenges in the market place included a lack of talent and ongoing changes in the legal sector, such as ABSs, umbrella brands and legal reforms including LASPO as well as attracting staff and developing a strong management team.
The survey also asked how much law firms are expecting their turnovers to increase by in 2015.
Up to 46% of respondents stated they predicted increases of between 10% and 20% whilst 34% thought it would be less than 10%.
Just 9% believe they will see a rise of 20% to 30% and 11% believed that they will see no rise at all.
From its network of offices in Manchester, London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Reading, the BCL Legal team deals with the placement of lawyers at all levels from paralegal to partner within the private practice and in-house sectors on both a permanent and temporary basis.
“There’s no doubting that the legal sector has been through some tough times over the past five years,” said BCL managing director James Batt. “The aim of this survey was to really identify what factors will be helping to drive growth across the entire market.”
