The LexisNexis Bellwether Report has revealed that confidence among law firms with regards to their financial prospects is ‘surprisingly high’, but there are still concerns.
The report is based on the analysis of small firms and small offices of larger firms. It demonstrates that this new research paints a different post pandemic picture as opposed to what was predicted earlier in the crisis.
The report reveals that the market is ‘more confident than might be expected‘, with one third of those surveyed believe their workload ill increase both in the short and long-term, but concerns regarding cash flow do remain.
44% of those spoken to are worried that they don’t have the cash flow to meet their current costs.
To counter these worries firms have revealed they have cut staff hours, cancelled subscriptions and delayed investments.
Only 4% of firms have needed to make redundancies, 18% have delayed planned investment or cut bonuses, 16% said they had reduced salaries and 14% had taken on debt.
The end of the furlough scheme, is one of the worries playing on the mind of firms with more job losses set to be predicted. However, the survey showed that only 17%of firms believe that redundancies will be a necessary step.
The report states:
“Fewer firms are in distress than many would have feared,
“This is a starkly different picture to other surveys of the legal market, including The Law Society and Bar Council.”
