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66% of law sees hit to revenue
New research has provided pivotal insight into just how much the business of law has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Emma Musgrave
The COVID-19 Business Confidence survey, commissioned by MyBusiness, is an ongoing survey of a cross-section of Australian business leaders and employees conducted by research firm Momentum Intelligence. The survey encourages participants across a range of Momentum Media’s professional services brands (accounting, aviation, defence, financial services, law, mortgage and finance broking, and real estate) to take part in an online questionnaire.
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Over 2,800 people responded to the survey and were weighted accordingly by industry, serving as a barometer of how businesses, and working Australians, are adapting to the changed working and social environment throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the results, 66 per cent of respondents who operate within the legal profession have seen their revenue decrease as a result of the pandemic. This is higher than the average across all industries, where 56 per cent of businesses have seen their revenue negatively impacted.
To date, the survey found just 26 per cent of businesses overall are making decisions to decrease their labour costs, with many of the business owners noting JobKeeper as a useful tool in this light. Looking at law the results differ slightly, with 36 per cent of legal respondents noting their respective firms and/or organisations have decreased their labour costs.
“Clearly many businesses have been impacted severely by COVID-19 and many business owners have had to make difficult decisions to ensure the survival of their business,” said Michael Johnson, head of strategy at Momentum Intelligence.
“These results show that business owners are doing their best to retain their staff in light of difficult economic conditions, which [are] undoubtedly being assisted by the JobKeeper program.”
The survey also asked respondents about how they’ve pivoted during the pandemic and whether these changes are expected to be kept in place beyond COVID-19.
Overall, 72 per cent of businesses have made changes to pivot/adjust their offerings to clients during COVID-19 with 87 per cent planning to keep these changes moving forward.
Many of the “minor” changes focused on distance communication methods such as Skype, Zoom or other videoconferencing tools. Meanwhile, some more of the significant changes include changing product offerings, pricing models, or moving office locations.
“The large majority of businesses have had to adapt to the changing world, many starting with the obvious replacement of in-person conversations to [videoconferencing],” Mr Johnson said.
"However, we’ve also seen many organisation make more significant structural changes to their offerings that are here to stay for the long-term.”
