: Ian Hopkins, a Business Improvement Consultant at Hopkins Legal Consulting discusses the key challenges that small and medium law firms are facing in 2024. Specifically, he identified 3 main challenges. The first is for law firms to achieve growth and to maintain profitability. Productivity appears to be falling across law firms in England and Wales. The Law Society Financial Management Benchmarking survey this year found the medium number of chargeable hours is 793 which is a reduction from the previous years, being a total of 816. Law Firm leaders should focus on attracting good quality work into the firm and nurture your existing clients and try to get more work from your existing clients; for partners to resist grabbing that work when it arrives in the firm but instead pushing it down so it is done at the right level of fee-earning, allowing the partner more time and space to look after clients, and attract more work; for lawyers to achieve their targets, build a whip, and recover cash by ensuring tight management of control is in place, whilst the management of the firm keeping an eye on every expenditure. Secondly, is around recruitment and retention of talent and every effort should be made to retain staff at the firm. Cost of living pressures means lawyers often look around for higher salaries and greater flexibility at work. The third key challenge is one of regulation, for smaller firms the current regulatory framework is burdensome and expensive. The feeling amongst small firm practitioners is regulation is too onerous and has become a drag to productivity and profitability.