The findings indicate law firms may be in a healthier state than many thought―a Law Society survey published on 1 May, by comparison, found 71% of high street firms believed they might have to close their business in the next six months.
‘This is a starkly different picture compared to other surveys of the legal market,’ the report states.
‘Our fieldwork, conducted a month or two later, may reflect the impact of the government’s rescue plan in shoring up legal firm’s finances.’
Nearly eight in ten firms are making use of a rescue initiative, such as the furlough scheme. Surprisingly, only 4% of firms needed to make any redundancies and only 17% believe they may need to when the furlough scheme ends in October.
The option of working from home is likely to continue when the pandemic ends. Of those surveyed, half thought their firm was likely to permanently change its policy, and 53% said they would like to work from home full- or part-time in the future. However, there have also been drawbacks, with the biggest issue, cited by 71% of respondents, being the lack of face-to-face contact with clients.
Chris O’Connor, Small Law lead at LexisNexis, said: ‘The COVID-19 crisis has been tough for the legal sector, but there are positive signs in the darkness.
‘With high growth predictions, improved wellbeing and an uptake of new technologies―law firms have a lot to look forward to. But, with commercial and consumer market-places stuttering―much rides on a sharp recovery.’
The report, ‘OMG or BAU? Bellwether 2020: COVID-19 and the legal industry’, can be downloaded from: www.lexisnexis.co.uk/Bellwether2020.
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