36% of firms made reductions to lawyers' salaries: survey
Job cuts and salary reductions have helped the Ukrainian legal services sector survive the Russian invasion, according to the Law Society Gazette.
Data collected by Legal Talents found that external factors such as success, recognition and innovativeness have lost their importance, but almost every second respondent deemed traits such as courage, bravery and confidence more significant.
Of the 164 law firms operating in Ukraine who answered the survey, 38% had to apply cost-cutting measures such as cut-offs and 36% made reductions to lawyers’ salaries, the Gazette reported.
However, lawyers were compensated with bonuses and their ‘remuneration is fairly close to pre-war levels’, the data revealed.
The most frequently referred to social initiatives included free consultancy for war-affected citizens, financial donations to the Ukrainian armed forces funds, volunteering and humanitarian activities and pro bono assistance to volunteers or charity funds, reported the Gazette.
In addition, 83% of firms considered it ‘unacceptable’ to hold corporate parties and anniversaries while six out of 10 believed it inappropriate to sponsor legal conferences.
Legal Talents told the Gazette: ‘The Ukrainian legal market has overcome the survival stage and entered the transformational point. The final destination is obvious for the market and its players: lawyers shell be extremely busy with an after-war revival. However, today no one is able to predict how many steps it will take.’
The survey also asked firms about the challenges facing the Ukrainian legal market, the Gazette reported. Customer-related concerns were considered the biggest challenge both in expanding into new markets, especially European; targeting new clients, with a particular focus on foreign clients; and retention of existing clients through in-depth involvement into business recovery and transformation.
Legal market risks included lawyer outflow, with migration not only to different countries but to other professions, the economic downturn in Ukraine and the lack of investments and cuts to legal spending, reported the Gazette.
