We are hearing a lot about growth lately. The UK government is under huge pressure to deliver economic growth but has so far failed to fire up the economy.
Law firms are bucking the trend
In contrast, numerous law firms have reported positive financials for 2024/25, with robust revenue growth a noticeable trend in the legal sector.
Firms in the UK, have exceeded expectations with record fee income and increased profitability linked to higher billable hours and greater costs control.
However, success brings the pressure of keeping the growth, growing!
At Global BPO we know that when law firms expand and take on new business, they often need support with internal processes and systems which may not have grown so quickly.
We spoke to Fiona, a partner in a regional law firm, about some of the issues her firm were grappling with as they expanded their business.
Here’s what she had to say:
“We all want to grow our firm, and the partnership has a two-pronged approach to this – growing revenue by winning new clients and expanding the services we provide to existing clients but also driving up profits by keeping control of costs and identifying efficiencies – which often means incorporating new technology such as AI into how we work.
But achieving growth is a bit “chicken and egg”, it’s not as simple as going out and winning lots of new clients!
It’s a tricky balancing act to make sure you have the right resources in place, at the right time, to service those clients when they come through the door.
The regulatory expectation on law firms is growing – we know the SRA is getting tougher and imposing more sanctions, so compliance processes like client due diligence and client care are something we just cannot afford to skimp on (nor would we want to).
If you overpromise before you have the capacity in place, you could end up with a very unhappy client (and, if they take their business elsewhere, your investment in business development is wasted) but the recruitment process for lawyers can be long-winded and no one wants to pay for professionals who are under-employed while they wait for new work to come in.
Using Global BPO has enabled us to scale up our resources to support our growth in a highly flexible way which has really helped to take the stress out of second guessing our future business needs.
I’ve seen the quality of their personnel first hand– vetted teams of paralegals, legal executives, qualified lawyers and others such as accounts, IT and administration staff who work seamlessly with our own in-house staff.
As direct employment costs in the UK are soaring, the added bonus is that Global BPO’s staff are highly cost effective, helping us keep our office budgets under control.”
Talk to us
If your law firm is growing (or you want it to), talk to us about supporting you with internal processes and systems to help you achieve your growth goals. To find out more contact our Client Manager, Suzie Young, at: suzie@globalbpo.co.uk for a confidential, no obligation chat.
