The Future of the Legal Sector

Nicholas Cheffings who was Global Chair at Hogan Lovells, and was also until recently Chair of the Prime Commitment shared his insights as to how the legal sector has changed in the last 10 years, with more law firms focusing more on their wider purpose and creating more routes into the profession for people from all backgrounds.On the skills needed, strong technical legal skills are key but IT and coding skills, as well as a wider knowledge and set of skills can bring real advantage when it comes to clients in different sectors.Covid-19 has proved lawyers can perform at a high level and not need to be in the office, and that is leading to a rise in more flexible and hybrid working, as well as outsourcing and a rise of contract lawyers. But spending time in office around others is still important to grow knowledge, especially in early stages of your career. Nicholas shares his views on the Partnership model in law firms and also discusses the issues around when to specialise.Finally, he encouraged all who either want to come into and are working in the legal sector to ‘believe in yourself’, as everyone has doubts and fears (some hide it better than others|)  and enjoy your work!