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UK Legal Services Market 2010
IRN Research, April 2010, Pages: 62
New report on UK legal services market predicts only limited growth for the next two years.
The UK Legal Services Market Report provides a market review of the UK legal services market, a market that until recently was experiencing healthy growth. The economic downturn has had an impact on many law firms, irrespective of their size. Smaller firms, focusing on areas such as conveyancing for example, have been hit but the large firms have also struggled as M&A activity has dwindled and key customers, like the financial services sector, have cut back and reduced law firm panel sizes.
Already underway is a period of major change as liberalisation, increased competition, and new ways of working transform this traditional market. When these changes are added to questions over the extent and length of the current economic downturn, the result is a period of uncertainty for the legal services sector.
The UK legal services market (including private practice firms, barristers, patent agents, and other legal professionals) experienced growth of just 2% in 2009, the lowest growth for many years. There are over 10,000 law firms in England and Wales and 85% of these are small firms with 4 or less partners. Around 40% of all law firms are sole practitioners. Numerically, the sector may be dominated by small firms but, in revenue terms, power is heavily concentrated amongst the top players. The top 100 law firms claimed 74% of market revenues in 2009 while the top 10 firms generated 39% of all revenues.
Numbers of practising solicitors have been rising year-on-year for the last five years and the overwhelming majority of these are still in private practice. However, solicitor numbers are growing at the fastest rate outside private practice in corporate legal departments and the number of paralegals employed in law firms is also on the increase.
Results from a YouGov survey of 2,000 adults in 2010 commissioned for the report show word of mouth recommendations are still the most important way to find a solicitor. Some traditional channels for information on legal advice – Yellow Pages and other directories – are becoming less important compared to new sources on the Web. The second most important method of choosing a solicitor – mentioned by 21% of respondents – would be a Web search using one of the major search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo etc).
The short term outlook remains cautious. The worst of the downturn may be over but there are little signs of a strong recovery in key legal markets, including corporate work, conveyancing, and commercial real estate. Increased competition and consolidation seems inevitable, and more pressure on costs and fees. However, there is evidence of growing interest from outside investors in the legal services market.
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