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2025 Legal Trends for Solo and Small Law Firms

Solo and small law firms are navigating a rapidly shifting landscape where evolving client expectations, technological advancements, and increasing competition demand adaptation. Legal consumers expect seamless experiences, transparency, and efficiency, yet many firms struggle with outdated tools and limited payment options.

While cloud adoption is increasing, hesitation around AI adoption puts firms at a competitive disadvantage. Financial strategy is also a key factor in long-term success, but many solo firms—often seen as industry innovators—are lagging in critical software investments.

The 2025 Legal Trends for Solo and Small Law Firms report provides exclusive insights into these challenges and opportunities, equipping firms with the data and strategies needed to thrive in a changing legal industry.

Solo and small law firms are navigating a rapidly shifting landscape where evolving client expectations, technological advancements, and increasing competition demand adaptation. Legal consumers expect seamless experiences, transparency, and efficiency, yet many firms struggle with outdated tools and limited payment options.

While cloud adoption is increasing, hesitation around AI adoption puts firms at a competitive disadvantage. Financial strategy is also a key factor in long-term success, but many solo firms—often seen as industry innovators—are lagging in critical software investments.

The 2025 Legal Trends for Solo and Small Law Firms report provides exclusive insights into these challenges and opportunities, equipping firms with the data and strategies needed to thrive in a changing legal industry.

Read the full report

“By aligning their services with client expectations, embracing the right technologies, and making data-driven financial decisions, solo and small firms can position themselves for long-term success.”

– 2025 Legal Trends for Solo and Small Law Firms report

AI in law

Are solo and small firms keeping up?

While they are often thought of as leaders in law firm technology, solo and small firms are actually falling behind their larger counterparts when it comes to AI adoption. Explore how solo and small firms are using AI, including their preferred AI tools and the perceived benefits of harnessing AI for legal practice.

The future of law firm billing

Solo and small firms are embracing flat fees, but the billable hour continues to dominate

Where does your firm fall on the flat fee billing spectrum? While hourly rates remain the most common method of billing among solo and small law firms, flat fees are gaining traction. Find out which billing options solo and small firms are offering—and what their clients really want.

Elevating client intake

Clio features can help solo and small firms increase their revenue, client leads, and conversion rates

For solo and small law firms, improving revenue by up to 53% might be as easy as implementing new features in your client intake workflow. Discover how solo and small firms are using Clio features—like e-signatures and online intake tools—to boost revenue, enhance client conversion rates, and streamline hiring processes.

NA Solo LTR Chart 3

NA Solo LTR Chart 4

Leveraging technology for growth

Solo and small firms lead the way in cloud-based legal practice management software adoption

Approximately four out of every five solos and small firm lawyers use cloud-based legal practice management software—are you one of them? Learn more about technology adoption and the tools that are shaping law firm growth.

Trust the leader in legal industry research

  • Led by an expert team of data analysts, researchers, and industry professionals
  • Featuring multi-modal research methodologies that support robust analyses and findings
  • Including insights from the largest industry data sets—based on aggregated and anonymized data from tens of thousands of legal professionals
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The Legal Trends for Solo and Small Law Firms report features research conducted for the annual Legal Trends Report, which provides information on the most important issues faced within the legal profession. By analyzing aggregated and anonymized data from tens of thousands of legal professionals in the US, supported by extensive survey research, the report offers unique insights into law firm efficiencies, hourly rates, and other key metrics for success.