Last week, Pirical celebrated a decade of innovation at our biggest Pirical Pioneers event to date! We brought together a fantastic crowd of law firm Recruitment, Strategy, HR & DEI leaders for some insightful panel discussions and previews of our latest tools & new features.

Now that the dust has settled, here’s a recap of the key takeaways from the day.

You’ve Shared Your Challenges and Data, and We’ve Helped Turn It Into Winning Decisions

Our CEO & Founder, Jason Ku, kicked things off by talking about his journey from a consultant at McKinsey to the founder of Pirical. Pirical was born from the idea of making better business decisions using data, plus a huge number of meetings over breakfast, lunch & dinner (who knew a free meal makes someone more likely to take a meeting).

From these meetings Jason found a home for his idea of ‘making data useful’, the legal sector. And so began Pirical’s ongoing partnership with many of the world’s biggest law firms. 10 years down the line we’ve built a host of data-driven tools to address the variety of challenges faced by our customers. As Jason summed it up, “Pirical Pioneers 2025 marks the 10-year anniversary of us making winning decisions with data.”

How Much of an Impact Does Lawyer Productivity Have on a Firm’s Revenue Goals?

Next up, our Director of Analytics Consulting, Rob Griffiths, debuted an exciting pilot programme we've been running with customers of Pirical On Demand (POD), the secrets of Associate productivity.

Back in 2024, we were approached by a law firm with an ambitious growth strategy to double revenues in 5 years. The firm was already growing headcount as much as possible and felt that after a recent period of high inflation and rate rises, increasing the rates of chargeable hours wasn't an option. This left productivity as the key area of focus.

In our deepest analysis yet, we shared insights derived from 10,000+ lawyers and more than 31 million billable hours over a 5 year period. The team compared how ‘Firm X’ was performing compared to a group of similar peer firms and found that productivity had been falling. So what factors were at play?

We tested dozens of hypotheses around hiring, retention, attrition, firm structure, offices, holiday allowance, business development, salaries and more. As a result, we uncovered plenty of areas for Firm X to work on in order to increase productivity to the Market Leaders level.

Using AI to Uncover the Clients That Work With Specific Partners

One of the most frequently asked questions we get from customers of Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP), is around having better visibility over the type of work and types of clients that individual Partners take on. Naturally, when assessing potential lateral candidates, firms are keen to know which clients each Partner has represented. 

Inspired by this topic, the team has been working on a solution that uses AI to structure all the client data Pirical holds on Partners in PLP. Fueled by the coffee break, our updated Client Work tab was the focus of the next session.

Client Work allows users to view a clear and concise breakdown of the clients & industries that each Partner on PLP has worked with. This new feature automatically extracts client information from a variety of sources using AI.

Navigating DEI in Today’s World: Some Practical Tips From Our Panelists

One of our panel discussions explored how leading law firms are practically approaching DEI in today’s shifting landscape. The conversation highlighted how some firms are beginning to integrate inclusion metrics directly into their core business analytics. Doing so requires a high level of transparency, but it’s also key to securing meaningful investment and long-term commitment.

Another theme that arose was the importance of interpreting DEI data carefully. Without context, data can be misleading, especially when dealing with complex outcomes like representation, progression, and belonging. Ultimately, the panel underscored that DEI data shouldn’t sit in isolation. When combined with performance, retention, and engagement metrics, it offers a more complete view of how people experience the workplace.

The session closed with a clear message: the firms making the most progress are those treating inclusion like any other core business priority, one that is measured rigorously, interpreted thoughtfully, and acted on with intent.

Bringing Your Firm’s Data to Life With Customisable Dashboards

As highlighted in Jason’s opening remarks, one of Pirical’s core principles is to make data useful. Our latest development in Pirical On Demand (POD), has been designed with exactly that in mind, to make your firm’s data even more useful and accessible.

Some of our users have told us how helpful it would be to be able to create custom reports of their firm’s data directly in POD. In response, we've built Dashboards, a powerful way to explore and visualise your firm’s data. Stay tuned, Dashboards are coming soon!

Dashboards allow users to compile individual analyses to a customisable report at the click of a button. This gives you the ability to view different analyses side by side for better comparison & organisation, add notes to clearly explain the analysis or summarise key points, and easily download multiple analyses as one easy to read file. Dashboards can be edited to whatever layout, sizing and order you want to display, alongside text fields that help you tell the story you want to highlight. Sharing internal reports using POD data just got easier!

Curious to learn more about any of our latest features or programmes?

People analytics software & consulting for law firms

After 10 years working with the world’s leading law firms, we’ve learned one thing: great decisions start with great data. That’s why Pirical delivers the most definitive legal insights so you can run a winning law firm.