13 December 2024in Jornal Económico What do leaders expect for the legal market in 2025?

Hugo Marques dos Santos shares with Jornal Económico readers his forecasts for the legal sector in 2025

‘For 2025, there is talk of an imminent economic crisis, of an international order that will fall apart as a result of the war in the east, of the results of an election held on another continent, that the worst dystopias of Orwell and Atwood will come true; that artificial intelligence will radically change the world. However, it seems to us that none of these scenarios will bring a major change to the legal profession in Portugal.

This is not to say that, if the worst-case scenarios come true, there will be no impact on this area of activity, just that, as in any other complex economic reality, the legal profession in Portugal is a bureaucratic colossus that is averse to change and seeks the solutions it already knows.

Previous crises have led to greater demand in certain legal areas to the detriment of others, but conflict has always marked human activity and the need to turn to a lawyer will continue to exist. There may be more or less demand for legal services, but the activity as a whole will not undergo a profound change in the short term.

Even the ‘threat’ of artificial intelligence has been slowly incorporated into the world of legal practice and its benefits/malefits will only begin to reveal themselves slowly. To summarise, it seems to us that 2025 will be a continuation of 2024.’

Read Hugo Marques dos Santos' perspectives here.

(portuguese version only)