However, small law firms said their biggest challenge over the next 12 months will be keeping up to date with the near-constant changes to both the legal industry and the law (70%), followed by meeting compliance regulations (69%). Almost a quarter (22%) are regularly relying on free-to-access resources for legal research, such as Google, forums, blogs or ChatGPT. 

Tim Rayner, Head of Small Law Go-to-Market Team at LexisNexis UK, says: 

“Lawyers at smaller firms often lack the luxury of restricting their legal expertise to a specific area of the law. Instead, there is an expectation that they're experts in everything. They need to be able to jump from one specialist area of the law to another in moments, otherwise they will struggle to keep pace, so access to the latest legal content will be critical." 

Hiring more lawyers was also a top priority for small firms, with 40% revealing plans to increase their headcount and 16% having already done so. However, in today’s competitive job market, retaining talent might be easier for firms to achieve. The survey revealed 62% of lawyers plan to still be at their same firm in five years' time – and only 10% have ambitions to eventually move to a larger firm.

For more information and to access a copy of the full report please visit the PSMG Knowledge Bank