The legal field is ever changing with legislation being updated, scrapped, and new legislation being regularly introduced. 

Law firms are growing and covering more and more sectors – take Brodies LLP, for example, which provides legal support in everything from the construction sector to Data and IP.

While it is important to have specialists, offering a broad range of legal support will provide you with more varied clients and opportunities.

With that being said, What’s next? There are many industries that have experienced rapid growth and development over the past years; many of which are still having legislation formed through trials that could guide the industry’s direction.

Covering these industries will allow your firm the unique chance to help in shaping an evolving legal sector which could have a huge effect on your reputation.

The Environment

While environmental law has been present for some time now, it is now becoming more beneficial than ever to have environmental specialists in-house.

With so many countries working towards net-zero, the UK has cracked down on environmental policies. There are now fines that are reaching just short of hundreds of millions of pounds. Because of that fact, businesses’ environmental responsibility is more important than ever.

Many businesses will seek legal counsel regarding their practices to ensure that they fall in line with the ever-tightening environmental legislation.

Now is a fantastic time to bring on a professional who specialises in environmental law as sectors like construction and engineering will benefit from regular guidance.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is booming. As with any fast-growing sector comes legal specifications and technicalities that offer financial lawyers an intriguing new challenge.

From the development of regulation to the requirements that will be needed for broker-dealers and advisors, there is ample opportunity for legal growth in the crypto space.

As well as this, legal professionals specialising in finance and assets could provide more general guidance and advice for those trading in cryptocurrency.

It offers more diversity in legal financial consultancy services. As you may well know there is still much left to be determined legally in the sector. Significant legal battles may shape legislation surrounding cryptocurrency – so now is the time to pay attention and get involved.

While it is still undetermined, cryptocurrency could have a huge effect on a range of industries, could revolutionise contracts, and influence how trade is conducted.

Intimate knowledge of the developing cryptocurrency-based legislation and prominent cases may become an essential tool for financial legal professionals moving forward.

Artificial Intelligence

This is the big one. AI has the potential to significantly affect intellectual property law, what is IP if not thought up by a human?

Does AI have a right to intellectual property or does its creators? With machine reasoning it’s debatable that they are coming to conclusions themselves, these murky waters may offer layers an interesting new challenge.

While AI is still very much in its infancy, it is rapidly developing and there will be questions surrounding agency and rights that may have broad implications for the legal landscape.

For legal professionals, AI is still a fairly new and uncontested field where there is still much that is left to be defined.

It may be worth getting onto the cutting edge of AI legislation as there may be opportunities to shape the field as it develops.