UK legal industry turnover reaches all-time high

updated on 21 May 2021

There was good news for the UK legal sector in March as turnover surged to record heights. Turnover reached £4.06 billion in March 2021, up 30.3% on February 2021 and 19.8% compared to March 2020, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics. Revenues even managed to outstrip December 2020, which previously held the record as the highest billing month in the sector at £3.57 billion.

Increase in legal industry turnover outmatched the overall UK Services Sector (which includes legal), although this also grew month on month by 24.2% to £196.8 billion.

Reacting to the news, Julie Norris, regulatory partner, legal services at Kingsley Napley LLP said: “This is tremendous news for the legal industry across the UK. After the instability of the past year, the sector has showed resilience and is dashing to keep up with an explosion in demand. Firm leaders should however take care that the pressures of keeping up with growth on staff wellbeing, on culture, and on regulatory compliance are managed to ensure that serving short term demand doesn’t leave firms exposed in the medium term.”