Blog / What does 2021 look like for the legal market?

As 2020 draws to a close – and what a year it’s been – we look ahead to the new year with optimism.

Here we wonder what trends we will see in the legal market and highlight the importance on getting found online.

Content marketing during 2021 – are you being found?

As you will know already, there are many law firms all over the world competing for clients so ensuring you are getting found online, as well as having a universal content marketing strategy, should be high on the priority list.

With a further focus on search engine optimisation (SEO), ensuring you have rich content across various mediums which leverages your expertise will be vital in driving organic traffic to your website throughout 2021.

Where is your firm ranked within Google’s search rankings? For firms, focusing on how you can actually leverage SEO can help drive more relevant traffic, qualified leads and essentially contribute heavily to your marketing ROI.

The first thing that will determine your SEO strategy are your prospects and what they are likely to be searching for in order to get them to your website. With this being the most important aspect of SEO, we recommend getting to the root of this; you will need to understand:

• What are the types of problems being searched for?
• What language or tone of voice would your prospects use?
• What search terms (keywords) are bringing up your competitors?
• What aspects of your business are of high interest?

Google’s search ranking algorithm will score you based on variety of factors, including engagement, high-quality content, backlinks, mobile optimisation, crawlability, website security (SSL Certificated), keyword use, page speed, the use of video and images and alt tags, to name a few.

As reported by Think with Google 2019 via HubSpot, around 49% of users say they use Google to discover or find a new item, service or product.

In addition, this chart shows the percentage of companies which invest time in SEO according to a global survey by Hubspot (November-December 2019).

Focusing on SEO can make the difference in getting found by new business prospects, so we recommend investing time in this.

With content being a major factor in SEO, did you know you could save time and resource by repurposing your existing content? Read our blog here which looks at ways to and benefits of repurposing your law firm’s content.

Look out for our upcoming blog on SEO and how Lexology can help improve your visibility online. Can’t wait? Contact us here for more information on how we help law firms get found.

Reviewing legal topics in 2020

In a challenging year for the legal market, where both in-house teams and law firms faced myriad issues, the structural challenges to be tackled along with key legal topics shot to the top of global searches.

The year has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with all businesses scrambling to adapt to the new normal. With many people forced to work from home, questions around employment rights and digital security have been key. With businesses struggling to deliver on contractual obligations, the concept of force majeure has jumped to the forefront, while many also had to get to grips with signature software in order to close deals; and with events and travel on hold, insurance issues have also been front of mind for many. The courts and legislatures have also had to adapt, holding virtual hearings and attending sessions by Zoom, Teams or other video software.

Despite the prominence of the pandemic, other issues have also been notable within searches. Brexit continues to rumble on, with the UK and EU no closer to a deal than at the start of 2020, and firms continue to deal with the implications of GDPR two years after its introduction. Facebook faced fines in Canada for misleading privacy practices, and in the wake of 2019 being dominated by #MeToo, various US states introduced harassment prevention training.

As the year ends, the focus is on ending the pandemic, with COVID-19 vaccines starting to gain approval and companies starting to think about how testing and vaccines might start to encourage a return to business as normal.

The big challenge for firms

This crisis has affected everyone, so companies need representation/advice in areas they have never needed it before, so they will be looking around now for the best lawyers for their needs.

We know that since lockdown restrictions have come into play, your firm has had to halt:

• Public speaking
• Legal events and conferences
• Networking
• International travel
• Face-to-face meetings

With these challenges, law firms have had to get creative and think of new ways to leverage their expertise – and the pivot to a more digitally led strategy has become a priority.

From 2021, we expect there to be a slow progression towards normality, but we also know that there will be a continued focus on digital content marketing in order to contribute to the void in revenue.

A survey conducted by The Institute of Legal Finance & Management asked: what do you think the impact of the current Coronavirus pandemic will be on projected earnings for the financial year (compared with the original budget for 2020-21)?

With close to 50% stating they believe there will be a 25% reduction in fee outcome, ensuring your firm has a strategy that allows you to close the gap on revenue loss for 2021 is key – read this report in full here.

With legal content in high demand, find out how we are helping law firms become more digitally focused and how we are getting their insight in front of the right audience at the right time – click here for more information and to speak to us today.

Looking ahead to 2021

It’s not all doom and gloom! We know that 2021 will be started with optimism and hopefully a return to near enough normality within the legal workspace.

With the legal sector being an essential service for all, law firms will be adapting to new ways of working and welcoming a variety of new clients who are looking to navigate through new challenges in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Topic prediction for 2021

With many of us living largely online in 2020 during COVID-19 lockdowns, our reliance on Big Tech has never been more pronounced; 2021 is set to see governments and regulators respond with competition law reforms to curb the largest tech firms’ perceived abuse of dominance. And while several jurisdictions will proceed apace with unilaterally imposed digital services taxes on online platforms, hope persists that an OECD-led multilateral framework for digital taxation may be agreed in 2021.

Meanwhile, data protection laws will likely evolve amid a push for even greater transparency over data use. GDPR-inspired legislation will continue to proliferate globally, while it is hoped that the United States and the European Union will agree a new regime for cross-border data transfers in the wake of the ECJ’s Schrems II judgment striking down the US-EU Privacy Shield.

Many government-backed pandemic relief programmes are set to expire in early 2021 – likely opening the floodgates for the inevitable wave of corporate insolvencies in the retail, hospitality and aviation sectors, among others. The ensuing legal proceedings will likely rival the surge in litigation last seen in the 2008 global financial crisis.

That said, the growing calls of many world leaders to ‘build back better’ will intensify focus on investment in environmentally sustainable companies and their related financial disclosures. At the same time, increased government scrutiny of foreign investments is likely to become a substantial obstacle that will need to be navigated.

Looking for guidance on pivoting to a digital model for 2021? Speak to our team today who are on hand to help your law firm get the best marketing ROI.