Key Trends Law Firms Should Keep A Close Eye On In 2022

Petro Krasnomovets
By Petro Krasnomovets,
26th November |
231

We are nearing the end of the highly eventful 2021 and the implications this year has brought will likely make themselves known in 2022 as well. That said, is there anything else a success-oriented law firm should watch out for in the year to come?

Saying that the past few years have been a doozy across nearly every industry would be an understatement. The personal and professional lives of lawyers were not an exception. From remote work to remote meetings with clients and even remote hearings in courts, we’ve embraced it all simply because there was no other choice. So should we expect things to revert to the status quo in the nearest future? 

And what about the COVID-19-brought changes our clients have experienced? Surely there’s still a lot of fallout law professionals will be dealing with in the foreseeable future. 

In my opinion, both points of view are equally important when deciding on key legal trends to follow in 2022. That’s why I’ve decided to break up this article into two segments. Part one will focus on the bigger picture issues that will be affecting the legal industry as a whole (through the new pains and challenges of clients). Part two will focus on the trends and challenges within a law firm. Quick spoiler: the second part will mostly revolve around the clever use of technology capable of enhancing everyone’s experience. 

Legal industry trends for 2022

Bloomberg Law has recently announced the availability of their Bloomberg Law 2022 series. This is a curated array of articles from Bloomberg Law’s team of legal analysts that explore key issues across major industry trends. The authors look at key issues like compliance, D&I, and litigation that will shape the legal industry next year. 

“The changes to the legal market in the past year have been profound and deeply impacted by the ongoing pandemic, the new administration and Congress, and a heightened focus on attorney well-being and diversity & inclusion,” said Kristyn Hyland, Director, Analysis, Bloomberg Law. “With Bloomberg Law 2022, our analysts provide expert perspectives and insights as they preview what legal professionals can expect in the next 12 months.”

If I were to boil the series to its core, I’d name the following legal trends for 2022:

  • Increase in regulatory and compliance: People are inevitably returning to their offices and with them come new mandates. In addition to that, the US Congress (as well as other governments across the globe) show growing interest in tech, privacy, and cryptocurrencies. 
  • Transaction and contracts: New trends in M&A and IPOs will be much more nuanced within the context of increasing interest in contract language and data security laws. 
  • Litigation: The aforementioned fallout of the pandemic will result in an increase of contractual and antitrust cases as well as new bankruptcy filings. 
  • Talent gap: Young lawyers seem to avoid Big Law. The talent gap becomes much more visible even to an untrained eye while the demand for legal guidance is growing. As such, the race for new hires will grow into an all-out war with attorney well-being, diversity and inclusion, and access to technology being the primary weapons of choice for attracting new hires. 

In-house legal industry trends for 2022

Another report – this time by Clio – revealed an interesting shift in the paradigm. An analysis of data obtained from thousands of law firms has shown that the levels of tech adoption have a direct correlation with a law firm’s ability to grow in size and revenue. 

For instance, those firms that have grown their revenues by 135% since 2013 are more likely to have a client portal, online client intake, and relationship management solutions, as well as some options for online payments. 

Then there’s the fact that the law firms that use reporting tools are growing while firms that fail to adopt this kind of technology are shrinking. The difference has already reached 175% in 2019. This statistic clearly illustrates having access to the information about the firm’s overall performance as well as detailed stats on every attorney allows for smarter data-driven decisions in the long run. 

Lastly, the clients themselves have changed. As little as 23% of consumers were open to working with a lawyer remotely whereas now a whopping 79% of clients see the ability of remote cooperation as a key factor in choosing a law firm to work with. 

What’s your take on the key legal trends lawyers should keep an eye on in 2022? Share your thoughts in the comments below.