Having been around the block once or twice now in this Legal PR gig, I’m quite good at trend-spotting, but also BS-identifying. I hope this makes me well-placed to write a blog covering the trends that I think will dominate Legal PR and marketing during 2026. I’m writing this in mid-March as we approach the new tax year, so you might think this blog is a bit late, but 2026 / 2027 Tax Year Legal PR and Marketing Trends doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it?! There’s no surprise that AI continues to top the list, not as a new trend but simply due to the pace of change and evolution of AI tools, and it’s driving other trends too, in SEO vs. GEO and PR through to brand authenticity and the types of content people are reaching for. Read on to find out more. AI usage in the legal sector It is literally fairly impossible to move at the moment without AI popping up across every single conversation around law firm management, growth, delivery, marketing, compliance and literally everything else. I think there’s a fairly good chance we have all gone AI-mad. Do I think AI is a bad thing? No. Do I think there are huge opportunities for businesses that embrace AI? Yes. Do I think that AI can be used for everything? No. And do I think that AI is a magic bullet that will solve existing and deep-rooted problems within some law firms? No, no and no again. *Spoiler alert* Like many of us, I’m in my early days of learning about AI’s capabilities, and I’ve been trying to work out how we can use it at LexRex, whilst also being mindful of protecting our high IP value content and data from scraping. Please be reassured that none of our client data or information is being fed anywhere and that won’t change any time soon. I’m also conscious of AI’s ability and sometimes tendency to ‘hallucinate’ or invent things when it doesn’t know the answer. We also continue to write all of our own content when it matters (and I think it always matters). I want to ensure that my writing continues to sound like me. And that the content we create for our clients continues to sound like them. I also hate the idea that content becomes generic, because it is written by AI and therefore, everything created by AI sounds like everything that’s already been created by humans in the past. I’m also sure that at some point we’ll experience a backlash against AI-derived content and start to seek or relearn slower forms of communication. In fact, I suspect this is already happening, it’s just not yet hit the mainstream. AI slop, beware! How are law firm marketers using AI at the moment and where is this going? 1. Content research. AI can be really helpful for marketers to research what ‘the market’ is saying about certain practice areas. You can also use this data to reverse engineer what isn’t being said and hopefully spot and utilise some gaps that you can use creatively. 2. Content ideation and planning AI can also be used to create powerful content ideas, particularly for areas of law that may be perceived as ‘dry’ or boring. Do remember, though that if you rely upon these ideas, you’re basically rehashing conversations and content that have already been covered in depth by your competitors. If your approach is ‘let’s just write some content on XXX’ that’s all well and good, but a more nuanced approach, along with some good old human creativity, will be required if you want to stand out from the competition. BTW, I’m very happy to die on the hill that says original, nuanced content that takes its cues from a goal-driven strategy will knock open AI-derived, generic content out of the park every single time when it comes to effectiveness and cut-through. But yes, it costs more. 3. Social and other content writing and imagery We’ve all seen the cartoon images and videos on LinkedIn haven’t we, and having spoken to lots of lawyers and marketers, I know that lots of you are using AI to create written and visual content for your social media channels. There’s nothing wrong with this, and I completely understand the reasoning behind it. My personal advice though is twofold – one, ensure that the content you post does actually sound like something you’d say, and two, try and mix the AI generated content with some content that you have written. I just think this helps to ensure that you sound ‘like you’ and it also helps to ensure you are sharing original ideas and content, not just regurgitating stuff that has already been covered to death elsewhere. And in case you’ve forgotten – a quick reminder that social channels are about engaging with humans, not algorithms. Another hill that I’m happy to die upon is my strongly held belief that it’s way better to have a smaller, engaged audience of potential buyers than a gigantic audience of fans who, nonetheless, will never buy from you. Remember as well that the more ‘randos’ you connect with, the harder (and longer) you’ll have to search on your channels for content that actually interests you. 4. Competitor analysis. Again, AI can very quickly undertake basic competitor analysis and does this so much faster than can ever be achieved through desk research carried out via Search. Be mindful of the hallucination point earlier and remember to apply not only your common sense to the results, but also your own data points and knowledge of the market. AI can’t replace human insight (yet), but I think it can help us to identify blind spots and, where data sets are available, can help us to interrogate our thinking and assumptions. 5. Writing award submissions and legal directories content. Tricky one, this. I can definitely understand why you might be tempted to do this from
We have recently been working on a number of pitches for PR retainers for law firms. Seeing how different firms have approached the process has been really interesting. The pitch system isn’t without its pitfalls, and I remain to be convinced that it’s the best or indeed only way to select an agency. We relatively rarely pitch for work, mainly because our relationships within the sector mean most of our clients come to us, but also because pitching is an expensive process with no guarantee of success. Also, we are quite fussy about who we work with. However, for the right firm, we will pitch. And when we do, we go hard! Now that the process has finished, and we’re waiting to hear whether we were successful, I started thinking about the lessons I could share agency-side for other law firms looking to find a great PR partner. What does a great PR brief contain? Clear, measurable goals: One of the features of a great PR brief is a clear outline of what the firm is trying to achieve by bringing in a PR partner. The more honest about this you can be, the easier it will be for the pitching agencies to create a proposal that helps you to reach this goal on time and on budget. Introduction to the firm: Don’t make us Google you (too much). Tell us about the firm – what you do, who you do it for, which sectors you work in and set out your key partners and heads of department. Key trends, stories, legislation, reported cases: What’s going on for your clients. What’s keeping them up at night, what are the challenges or opportunities they face? What are your colleagues working on, how are they helping your key clients? What are you doing now and what you have done in the past? Do you have an incumbent agency? Have you worked with an agency before? What kind of marketing (if any) have you done before, what are you working on now? Tell us who we’ll be pitching to: Will it be the management team, marketing and BD team, both or neither? Let us know so that we can ensure that our pitch is appropriate for the audience – a PR pitch for a marketer will be quite different to one for a bunch of lawyers. Involve your marketing team: I’m sure you all do this, but if you don’t, please start. These are the people at the coal face of working with your lawyers, so they know what will and won’t work, and they will be able to be very clear about what they want your PR agency to bring to the table. Ideally let your marketing team write the brief and manage the process. Let us know your budget: Please do this as it allows us to create a bespoke package that aligns with your goals. Also, it’s only fair to let us know how much is available on a monthly or annual basis, so that we pitch something that matches your budget. I won’t pitch without a budget, and we absolutely have a minimum monthly spend. Tell us if you want to see anything specific: The following provides some sensible examples: Previous law firm experience How do you measure success Example outputs Levels of activity Who will be on the team?* Budget required How will you plan activity on our account? Will we get reports? Do you work with other law firms, and how will you manage working with competing clients or conflicts?** Budget and disbursements Be clear on the post-pitch process and know when you’ll be able to appoint: Please don’t drag out the process any longer than you need to. Ideally, get the post-pitch meetings into the diary before you hear the presentations and then make a quick choice. Let us know if we were successful, and if not, please do give feedback. Once you’ve appointed your agency, make sure you have everything ready to enable them to crack on. Then stand back and let them impress you! If you enjoyed this content, sign up to our monthly newsletter for more content like this, straight into your inbox every month. And if you’d like to chat about any of our PR services, book a call with Victoria. *Not a problem for us, the team that pitches is the team you get. **Also, not a problem for us, we don’t work in conflict. Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex. A non-practising solicitor she has been supporting law firms with their PR for over a decade. Get in touch with Victoria to discuss your law firm’s PR needs.
They say to avoid ‘I’m delighted to announce’. But sometimes only ‘I’m delighted to announce’ fits the bill. So, I am genuinely delighted to announce that NetworkingAF is BACK for 2026. Sneaking in just in time for the end of Dryanuary, if you commit to such a thing. And definitely giving us all something to look forward to during the truly miserable (for me anyway) month of January. What is Networking AF? NetworkingAF is all about networking between lawyers, particularly partners and senior employees of law firms. It came about as a concept a whole year ago, hot on the heels of one of its sister events, Christmas Drinks. Over the years I’d been brewing a bit of an idea for a network just for lawyers, a ‘safe space’ really for legal professionals to chew the cud, shoot the breeze, build relationships and just generally take the time out of the office and meet others working in law firms. When I was in practice (admittedly in not-very-networky-Doncaster) I used to find that I really wanted to meet others in practice. Things improved when I moved to work in Leeds, but even then, it was quite tricky to meet other lawyers. Too often events would be mainly attended by suppliers and recruiters. Not that there’s anything wrong with suppliers or recruiters, but I didn’t have any budget or ability to access budget, and I wasn’t looking for a new job. I just wanted to meet lawyers and have a moan. Lol. About the Law Firm Supplier Network and the annual events Anyway, fast forward to 2024 and I decided the best way to run my planned networking events was through collaboration. This led to the creation of the Law Firm Supplier Network, a small group of suppliers to the legal industry. Founded by me (obviously) and supported by my business, LexRex – my Law Firm Supplier Network partners and fellow supporters are Tracey Longbottom, Forsyte; Martyn Best, Document Direct; Tom Bailey, PostPartner and Alex Holt, The Cashroom. We now work together to deliver four networking events in Manchester each year: January – NetworkingAF July – Summer Drinks October – NetworkingAF December – Christmas Drinks Our New Partner In addition to being delighted about NetworkingAF, I’m positively excited to confirm that we have a new partner. Manchester Law Society has come on board as an official supporter of The Law Firm Supplier Network and is helping to promote our Manchester events, to enable us to reach even more legal professionals. This is a great collaboration, reflecting Manchester Law Society’s key role at the centre of the profession and our aim to build more networking opportunities for members and others operating in practice in both Manchester and further afield. Book your tickets for NetworkingAF now. Book your tickets for Manchester Law Society’s February Supper Club at Pip now. Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex. A non-practising solicitor she has been supporting law firms with their PR for over a decade. Get in touch with Victoria to discuss your law firm’s PR needs.
The NatWest Legal Sector Report 2025 was published on 9th October this year, and I’m excited to once again review a report that I always look forward to reading. This is the NatWest report’s 11th edition, and this review will mark the third Report review I’ve written this year. Legal sector reports in review If you’re interested in the others – I wrote about the Thomson Reuters State of the Market 2025 report back in May 2025, you can read that here, and the LexisNexis Bellwether Report 2025 in June 2025, and you can read that here. I didn’t really rate the Thomson Reuters report because at that time, I felt the authors were heavily pushing an AI angle that I didn’t feel reflected what I saw happening in reality (at least in the firms I work closely with). Here was my overview: Always a worthwhile read, but in my opinion this report contains too many sweeping statements that are not backed up by the data. A naivety or lack of deep knowledge of the UK legal market by the authors (or maybe it was written by an AI bot!). Some interesting raw data, but a lack of nuance in the interrogation and reporting. A missed opportunity by Thomson Reuters to deliver really insightful content on the UK legal market in 2025. Sorry not sorry. I was more impressed with LexisNexis’ report however, I criticised the authors for failing to include data about the seniority of respondents. It was a small point though and overall, I rated the report stating: This year’s Bellwether Report is, like every year, an interesting snapshot on the sector, and a great read for anybody either in practice or who works alongside or sells to lawyers. When I read these reports, I’m always aiming to draw parallels between the reporting and my own experience working with a range of law firms of varying sizes and specialisms. It remains the case that a lot of our clients are boutique or specialist, some based in Manchester and the North more generally, others based in London and outside of the UK. My reviews tend to comment upon the Report content and statistics utilised, and highlight the bits that I find particularly interesting or different to my experiences or what I’m seeing on the ground. It’s essentially a bit of a TL:DR. Anyway, let’s see how NatWest’s report gets along… NatWest Legal Sector Report 2025 Methodology This year 110 participants took part in the research process, compared to 308 for the LexisNexis research and 364 for Thomson Reuters. A relatively small sample, and this is something to take into account when you read the report. The firms surveyed had turnover ranging from £1million to £200million, with an average turnover of £17million (I’m assuming median average as this tends to have been used throughout to measure averages). Trends identified in the report Reading the report, the most obvious trend that crops up again and again is a focus upon improving structures, practices and ‘ways of doing things’ in order to drive better margins, which appears to have been successful for many of the respondents. This is so interesting as I’ve long observed that the legal sector loves nothing more than chasing new shiny things, particularly new business – and often ignoring the multitude of opportunities available just by examining their current book of work and former / lapsed client lists. That firms are taking time to tighten things up and invest in structures, process and technologies (and by the looks of things avoiding excessive cost saving by redundancies) is very interesting and it’s something I’ll be watching carefully over the next few months. Does this mean that 2026 will be the year of cross- and up-selling as firms look to improve those margins even more? Who knows!? The report looks at various drivers for this renewed focus on better rather than more, and these appear to include basis period reforms, challenges with recruitment / retention (driven by a crazy market creating higher and higher salaries and seemingly ever reduced fee earner loyalty) which naturally put pressure on margins, along with concerns around exposure with regards to interest income. I also wonder if the current craze – AI and the race to utilise this technology – has given firms pause to consider how else they might spruce up existing systems to generate better returns. Finally, the report identifies external investment into the sector as a key driver and I wonder therefore if this housekeeping may, for some firms, come in readiness for discussions around investment. It’s hardly rocket science to recognise that the firms displaying good margins, strong systems and increased profitability are likely to be of interest to those with money to spend in the sector. Perhaps not surprisingly, optimism is high but not as high as last year with “84% of firms feeling positive about the future, referencing strong growth in both fee income and profitability. This is a slight decrease from 90% in 2024.” Some TDLR stats Some at-a-glance stats that I found interesting: Median PEP is up by 23% to £340,000. Small firm PEP (defined as up to £5million turnover) increased by 8% to £204,000. Large firm PEP (£5million and above turnover) increased by 23% to £372,000. 89% of firms expected fee income to further increase in 2026. Strongest team performance: private client, residential property and commercial property. Weakest team performance: litigation, family and commercial and transactional work. 10% year-on-year growth level in profits per fee earner to £158,000 (2024 £144,000) Immediate points of interest for me – improved PEP as a result of improvement in core profit margins (reduction in people costs). Does this signify a change in direction of the pendulum? Is the market settling down, or are firms qualifying out from silly salaries? Or something else? The report also states: “This improvement in margin seems to have arisen from firms focusing on productivity; looking to increase average chargeable hours and recovered time. Many firms
Why is networking important for lawyers? And how do you learn how to network? The phrase ‘networking’ can strike fear into the heart of many otherwise completely calm and sane people, particularly lawyers, I’ve found. I understand it though. Many people see networking as an instruction to go into a crowded room and ‘meet people’. Indeed, at one of the law firms I used to work at, we were encouraged to go out to a popular wine bar and ‘meet people.’ We thought it was great – we drank all the wine, got hideously drunk and got the 8.00 pm train home for takeaway on many a Friday night. I definitely didn’t puke on my own shoes one night. But I digress, and actually whilst the above ‘tactic’ was an interesting one, it definitely didn’t result in any new contacts or business for the firm (not via me anyway). Instead, networking should be undertaken strategically and although strictly speaking it falls into business development rather than marketing or PR, it’s something that PR and marketing-savvy lawyers will be careful to do well. So, what is networking? At its heart, networking is about adding people to your network and developing existing relationships. It’s about building closer relationships with people you don’t know well and maintaining strong relationships with people you know already and want to stay close to. If you want to be a partner or own a law firm at some point in the future, then you are going to need a book of work. That will only come about by being able to network and build business. But… networking doesn’t have to be about joining a dreaded 5.00 am networking group where YOU MUST BRING AT LEAST TWO REFERRALS OR WE WILL THROW YOU OUT. It can be as simple as keeping an eye on who is interacting with your content on LinkedIn and asking if they’d like to meet for a coffee. It can be hosting or attending an event – a seminar, drinks or something else. It doesn’t really matter what you do, as long as you use the time to develop those key relationships. Read on for more simple ideas for building your relationships. But first… How do I develop my networking skills One of the first things to understand is why you need or want to network. This is key for any effective PR and marketing tactic (including networking). For most lawyers, it will be to try and generate new work for the firm. For you personally, it might be because you are trying to get a training contract, you’re looking for a new job, or you want to apply for a more senior role or put yourself forward to be considered for partnership. Whatever your reason, you next need to think about who you need to meet, in order to most easily meet your objective. If you are building a book of work – think in detail about who your best work typically comes from and consider building a few different personas of ‘perfect’ clients. If you get work from referrers, or you want to build a route for this kind of instruction then again, map out an ‘ideal’ referrer. If you are looking for a new role or promotion, who do you need to get in front of internally or externally in order to make a good impression and become liked and trusted as a potential colleague or new partner. Once you understand what you are looking for, you can start to think about how to get in front of these people and build relationships. The aim is to move from somebody knowing about you, to meeting you, to liking you and finally to trusting you. What networking do I need to do? There are so many different ways to network, and the following are just a few suggestions that hopefully give you pause for thought and the ability to start creating your own networking plan. Networking events: There are so many groups, often sector-based, geographically-based, role-based-, and gender-based, that it can be hard to choose which is the best for you. If you are happy in a room full of people, try a few and see whether you meet anybody fitting your target audience. As an alternative, if you know that somebody you want to know is attending, why not make plans to meet them there? This gives you the opportunity to see how you feel on the day about dipping your toe into the networking pool, but with a safety blanket of a pre-arranged meeting. Educational seminars or workshops run by law firms can be very effective and provide great opportunities to build relationships with existing or lapsed clients of your own and your colleagues’ from other teams. Other professional services businesses also run this type of informative event, so do your research and try a few out. Seasonal parties, drinks events, charity nights, lunches or meals to mark religious or cultural events. As above, great opportunities to build and grow relationships. Small, informal events with handpicked guests. A few people with shared interests meeting for a lunch, drinks, coffees, sport, spectating, music – whatever you like. This sort of thing doesn’t have to be expensive but can be very effective at building deeper connections. Meeting for coffee or lunch on a 121 basis. Another great way to build those deeper connections where a more in-depth conversation is more appropriate or will help you to reach your goal. Zoom or Teams call. A 121 Zoom or Teams call is a great way to meet somebody, but without the initial effort of getting out of the office. This type of meeting allows you both to see whether you can get along, have interests in common etc, which you can then move along to a face-to-face if appropriate. The downside to a call rather than face-to-face is that you don’t quite achieve the same level of connection, and if possible, it’s always
