Briefing Finance Leaders 2025

Briefing Finance Leaders, held on 9 September 2025 at HFW, London, brought together chief finance officers and finance directors from the legal industry for a half-day of networking, learning and solution-sharing to some of the biggest challenges facing finance leaders right now.

The role of CFO and finance director in the legal sector has expanded rapidly in few short years. In addition to managing traditional priorities, they must now also juggle an ever-broader array of operational, transactional and commercial responsibilities, all while looking to the future of finance in an era of unprecedented technological change.

Briefing Finance Leaders 2025 took a different approach to the usual conference model; creating a uniquely discursive environment that emphasised sharing experiences and solutions with a diverse range of businesses.

Key themes included:

• Steering a course through economic uncertainty and geo-political chaos
• Seeking profitability: strategies to improve working capital, reduce lockup and harness efficiencies
• Navigating business transformation: getting started with overhauling legacy systems
• Building commercial awareness among fee-earners
• AI and the pricing conundrum: balancing cost, client expectations and productivity
• The mounting IT burden: how much tech do firms really need?
• Beyond bonuses: motivating meaningful change in law firms
• Smart Resourcing: Matching Skills, Roles, and Tools for Maximum Efficiency