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Firms share biggest business challenges
Law firms across the country have identified the top five challenges they have that continue to impact day-to-day operations.
Emma Musgrave
The latest CommBank Legal Market Pulse report asked respondents to rate what they believe to be the top challenges they’re currently facing within their businesses.
This was followed by negotiating prices with clients, which 51 per cent elected, competing with other firms, which 46 per cent elected, winning new business, which 44 per cent elected, and collecting invoices, which 39 per cent elected.
“To accommodate a substantial uplift in client demand for legal services in [financial year 2018], law firms recruited heavily, and challenges associated with workforce utilisation eased,” the CommBank report noted.
“As this surge in activity tapered off, firms are again looking at the issue of keeping their newly expanded teams at capacity. While not ranked among the top challenges facing firms overall, staff utilisation was the element of business conditions that saw the largest net decrease year-on-year. This net decline from -2 per cent in [FY18] to -12 per cent in [FY19] was led by the top-tier firms.
“However, firms of all sizes still rank identifying and securing top talent as their most significant challenge and is largely unchanged from the prior financial year. This suggests that in addition to ensuring their workforce is deployed efficiently, firms are positioning themselves for future client demand.
“Having a high-calibre team in place may also allay other top-rated challenges such as negotiating prices with clients and competing against other firms.”
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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