Briefing/HSBC UK law firm strategy 25-26
reports|October 2025Where are law firm leaders prioritising focus for the next 12 months?
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INSIDE
Leading firm strategy leaders consider growth paths, competition pressures, pricing models and process pain-points, as technology makes the case for taking efficiency in law to a whole new level
WHAT'S ALL THIS?
What do the largest law firms active in the UK intend for the next phases of their strategic growth and business transformation? Where must they invest to change or improve their infrastructure or processes as a priority into 2026, and where do they see the competitive landscape and specific pressure points shifting over time?
The Briefing/HSBC law firm strategy and investment research 2025/2026 are the results of an annual survey of almost 100 senior strategic legal business leaders – CEOs, managing partners, chief operating and financial officers – at all the leading UK-based law firms.
Responding firms represent the breadth of the legal market in the UK — from national firms with annual revenues of £20m up to the largest global businesses. This research was carried out in summer 2025. Key findings are clearly highlighted, including through an executive summary, and many illustrations indicate responses grouped by different revenue sizes. Briefing also interviews respondents from firms of all stripes represented to understand more about the practical challenges and real priorities in their own worlds.
Strategic challenges and choices explored include the appetite for, and alternative routes towards, planned expansion; extent of organisational challenges, from people management to client pricing; the need for new or improved technology in particular; intentions to involve artificial intelligence in legal business; and firms’ focus on both sustainable financial management and social responsibility (ESG).
- Firms are less confident, but still backing cross-border growth, in wildly uncertain times
- With expectation of more M&A on the horizon for the market, private equity is emerging as a potential partner to take seriously
- A growing number of leaders expect artificial intelligence to be used with some consistency in the creation of legal work
- Leaders holding their firms accountable to ESG-linked intentions stay steady.
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The survey report is also available as a pdf report here.
Firms confident to keep growing
Over half (54%) of leaders say the plan is to grow in the home regions, and 45% say they will be building strength across international borders. In spite of no little uncertainty and instability, strategic leadership teams are now more likely to see North America and the Middle East as high-priority regions, with Europe perhaps viewed as less of a priority than in 2024.
Quarter of leaders see more appeal in private equity support
Four-fifths of leaders continue to expect growing consolidation of the legal market as a whole in the year ahead — and considering their own business-growth plans, 24% are more likely to see a stronger case for private equity involvement than in 2023. They’re unlikely, however, to anticipate any immediate change of ownership structure.
Expected IT spend increases again
With cyber risk continuing to rank highly as an overarching organisational challenge for leaders at firms of all sizes (59%) — alongside pressure to be as streamlined and competitive as possible for cost-conscious clients (35%) — they plan to invest a higher percentage of annual revenue in technology development, implementation, or the necessary skills that lead to either.
