As a law firm that’s probably not a question you want to answer even if you are a practice who has adopted some disruptive marketing or have wiped out hourly rates for client fees.
Whose doing your finance?
A recent AccountingWeb article is what led us to ask this question. There’s been a huge adoption of cloud accounting over the last 5 years or so and even more acceptance of this remote way of working from the effects of the pandemic.
They report how businesses can get more cash into their bank account, have better cash flow forecasting and a higher standard of finance by fully outsourcing it. That’s a win for any business. Even more so when you need to be focussing on the thing that brings the cash in which is fee earning.
Having an outsourced legal cashiering function can free up time, ensure you are ALWAYS SRA compliant, make your office account healthier and provide you with a range of experts to work on your finance function (like payroll, VAT returns and monthly management accounts).
What about when it comes to tech?
Gartner have reported on the five trends to keep your eye on in the legal sector; one of the main findings is that workloads are at an all time high and legal teams are thinly stretched. And that the advances in legal tech will have a positive impact on the working environment plus be critical for your future success.
What are they and can you benchmark yourself on where you currently are against these trends?
- By 2025, legal departments will increase their spend on legal technology threefold. What’s your appetite to expand the use of technology to support workflows and meet productivity demands?
- By 2024, legal departments will replace 20% of generalist lawyers with nonlawyer staff. It’s important that you look at what the best use of your team is; none of the firms surveyed were planning on cutting employee numbers. Utilising technology can help with that workload decreasing.
- By 2024, legal departments will have automated 50% of legal work related to major corporate transactions. M&A work will continue to increase in coming months as a result of the pandemic, inflation, cost increases, recession and other factors.
- By 2025, corporate legal departments will capture only 30% of the potential benefit of their contract life cycle management investments. Whilst automation is no silver bullet and there’s lots of complexity in law poorly planned IT projects will result in failure.
- By 2025, at least 25% of spending on corporate legal applications will go to non-specialist technology providers. Watch out for lots of interesting apps from the traditional legal vendors and enterprise software suppliers designed to help your law firm but also from non-sector specific tech suppliers too.
Being on trend doesn’t involve wearing Crocs it’s just about ensuring you have given due diligence on the best future approach for your solicitors practice or law firm. Working ON instead of IN the practice to strategise the best way forward to ensure your continued success.
And if that means outsourcing your finance function or migrating to a new PMS tool (practice management software) then get in touch as we’ve got our finger on the pulse of the best trends.
Ascentant Accountancy are Accountant’s based in Derby who specialise in working with Small Businesses across the Country – Get in touch on 01332 981920 or info@ascentant.co.uk to discuss your needs.
We can be found at Suite 5 Keynes House, Alfreton Road, Derby, DE21 4AS.
