Today’s GCs are striving to provide ever more strategic advice to the leaders of their businesses; and as a result, they expect a similar shift from their outside law firms, needing them to move beyond providing just technical competence to adding valuable strategic thinking that’s aligned with their organization’s needs
Key insights:
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Corporate GCs are focused on serving their businesses as strategic enablers and expect the same from their outside counsel
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GCs increasingly demand advice that is proactive, clear, actionable, and aligned with broader business needs
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Law firms that fail to meet these expectations risk being replaced by another law firm or an alternative provider
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The legal landscape in the United Kingdom is experiencing a fundamental transformation, driven by economic uncertainty and rapid technological advancement. As corporate legal departments navigate these challenging waters, their expectations of outside counsel are evolving dramatically. Technical competence, while undoubtedly necessary, is no longer sufficient. Instead, UK general counsel (GCs) are increasingly expecting that their outside law firms evolve into true strategic business partners that can deliver measurable value beyond billable hours.
The shift from technical advisors to strategic enablers
Corporate in-house legal teams are increasingly focused on positioning themselves as trusted strategic advisors to their C-Suite; and in turn, they expect their external legal partners to support this same end, according to the Thomson Reuters Institute’s State of the UK Legal Market 2025 report. Indeed, the conclusion is clear: solid technical advice is no longer enough for law firms to maintain a competitive advantage in the legal services market.
“Corporate legal teams place more trust in firms with strong reputations and deep industry knowledge that can help them drive strategic discussions with their organization’s leaders,” the report states, noting that this development represents a significant departure from the traditional model in which law firms were valued primarily for their legal expertise and ability to navigate complex regulatory frameworks.
However, today’s economic climate has intensified pressure on corporate legal departments to demonstrate clear value while controlling costs. According to the report, 28% of UK-based corporate legal departments are planning for their legal spend to decline in 2025. That represents an increase of 6 percentage points from the 22% that had anticipated a spending decrease in 2024. And UK GCs have proved that they know how to make these reductions happen, even as corporate matter volumes and law firm billing rates both increase. Clever GCs are becoming increasingly selective about how they allocate their external legal budgets, opting for lower-cost law firms or, in an increasing number of instances, alternative legal service providers (ALSPs).
This cost consciousness has fundamentally altered the value proposition that law firms need to offer in order to secure work matters. As one technology industry in-house counsel quoted in the report noted: “Our job is to provide cost effective, valuable legal advice to our function teams in the next 12 months. The priority would be to find an efficient way of doing this.”
Corporate GCs are no longer willing to pay premium fees for legal work that can be automated, streamlined, or just as easily performed in-house. Instead, they’re seeking legal partners that can help their in-house teams achieve their broader business objectives while delivering measurable efficiency gains.
The four pillars of modern legal partnership
In the report, UK GCs identified several key areas in which they expect their law firms to excel beyond traditional technical competence:
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- Business-aligned strategic thinking — Corporate legal teams want law firms that understand their industry, business model, and strategic objectives. This means providing guidance that goes beyond legal compliance to support business growth and competitive positioning. Law firms must demonstrate deep sector knowledge and offer insights that help drive strategic discussions at the boardroom level.
- Proactive communication and responsiveness — The report underscores that GCs “appreciate law firms that are proactive, communicative, and responsive.” This expectation extends beyond mere availability to encompass anticipatory guidance and regular strategic check-ins that keep legal issues from becoming business problems.
- Clear, actionable advice — GCs emphasize the critical importance of “simplifying complex legal advice into clear, non-technical language, making it actionable for business leaders and stakeholders without legal backgrounds.” Law firms that can translate legal complexity into business-focused recommendations position themselves as indispensable strategic partners.
- Value-added services — Beyond individual matters, corporate legal teams value outside firms that offer thought leadership content, training sessions, and informational resources that reinforce expertise while providing ongoing value to the organization.
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Technology as a catalyst for change
Not surprisingly, the rise of AI and legal technology is accelerating the shift away from hourly billing model and toward outcome-based value delivery. GCs are optimistic about the potential impact of these changes with 41% of respondents expressing excitement about AI’s potential to free up time for complex and strategic work. At the same time, 18% of GCs also see technology as a means to handle increasing data volumes more effectively.
This technological transformation is forcing law firms to reconsider how they position their value to GCs. As routine tasks become automated, focus increasingly will shift toward strategic thinking, business judgment, and the ability to synthesize complex information into actionable business intelligence. And those law firms that fail to evolve beyond their role as technical service providers will risk losing market share to more strategically minded or even lower-cost competitors and ALSPs. In fact, the report notes that almost two-thirds (65%) of UK respondents said their corporate legal departments already work with firm-affiliated or independent ALSPs — a significantly higher portion than their counterparts in the United States, at 52%.
These shifts reflect a willingness on the part of GCs to unbundle traditional legal services, reserving high-value strategic matters for law firms but being more selective about which firms have demonstrated clear business value.
What GCs want
The report made clear that there are a few key criteria that GCs in the UK are looking for in their outside law firms, including:
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- deep industry expertise and sector-specific knowledge;
- investment in client relationship management that goes beyond individual matters;
- value-added services such as training programs and thought leadership;
- technology solutions that demonstrate efficiency and cost-effectiveness; and
- restructured pricing models that better align with client outcomes rather than time spent.
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The message from UK general counsel is clear: The legal market is moving beyond technical competence toward strategic partnership — and outside law firms that want to succeed need to make that move.
GCs have an increasing set of demands being placed upon them, and those law firms that recognize this shift and actively work to become trusted business advisors will have greater opportunity to thrive in this new environment. Those that cling to traditional models of legal service delivery, however, risk being relegated to commodity status or replaced entirely by more agile alternatives.
You can download a copy of the Thomson Reuters Institute’s State of the UK Legal Market 2025 report here
