The Growing Role Of CFOs

CFOs are rapidly becoming a highly in-demand position in the legal field. Primarily, this is due to their role in handling traditional financial priorities – something which lawyers aren’t always well-versed in – and that they’re needed to look forward to the financial future that’s coming. With growing technological changes in both the legal and financial fields, it’s becoming more obvious that a CFO is an investment that law firms need to seriously consider.

Updating Financial Functions

With a large percentage of the legal field expecting that technology will be key to cost-cutting in the future, it’s not surprising that investing in technology is a high priority. With these upgrades comes a need for the CFO to be familiar and up-to-date with all new developments involving finances and financial management.

CFOs in the legal sector are also looking at growing their support personnel, with an eye to looking to support financial operations at the highest level of law firm leadership. These support positions will be especially vital given the changing technological field that we’re moving into, particularly with the developments of the last few years.

Broadening Challenges

Financial management is a key part of the business of law. There’s a strong need for those who possess a wealth of operational, transactional, and commercial expertise. Thus, CFOs are an increasingly valuable part of a law firm, given that they operate at a management level who can have an impact on every aspect of a firm’s financial strategy.

In the past few years, there has been a shift for the CFO role. It’s been gradually moving from being a purely operational role to one that’s more strategic in nature. The CFO of today focuses on the firm’s positioning for growth, mitigating risk, and optimizing financial processes so as to remain competitive.

The Financial Future

With an eye to the future’s horizon, law firms are now focusing more heavily on implementing and hiring individuals with new skills and capabilities. There’s a need for more new talent in the field, given that it’s been shifting to a more strategic mindset over the past few years. In the future, law firms are looking to hire financial personnel with a wide breadth of different talents to best handle the many facets of modern legal finance.

Additionally, there are valuable lessons to learn from the last few years and the pandemic. These lessons will help with developing financial strategies for the future and streamlining financial departments within the legal field. Thus, there’s a need to balance the traditional with the new, all underpinned by a growing reliance on technology. The CFO of a law firm is a valuable and key member of the management and leadership team. Even a small firm can greatly benefit from having one, even if they aren’t traditionally “in-house.” That’s where LevLegal comes in. If you’re looking for a CFO or help with your law firm’s finances, then give us a call for a consultation today.