Wrestle with PESTLE: what is it?

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Across 2025 and 2026, we’re set to continue to help you crack down on your commercial awareness. Welcome to LawCareers.Net’s Wrestle with PESTLE series, where we use the PESTLE technique to analyse various business case studies. This article offers an introduction to the technique and outlines how you can use it to pull apart commercial issues you may need to explore in exams, interviews and beyond.

Check out the latest Wrestle with PESTLE on the impact of AI on the legal field.

What’s the PESTLE technique?

PESTLE stands for:

• political;
• economic;
• sociological;
• technological;
• legal; and
• environmental.

You can use these six external factors as a basis for your analysis and to help you better understand the world of the clients you’re advising. To complete a PESTLE analysis, you must find as much relevant information as possible about the business or issue you’re assessing and divide it appropriately between the six categories listed above. This technique helps you to break down complex issues into manageable portions, allowing you to analyse and view matters from various perspectives.

To complete a successful analysis, you must first understand what each category stands for. The acronym breaks down as follows (with generic ‘market-based’ examples):

• Political factors – these relate to government control and influence over an economy or industry, such as through legislation or economic policy.
• Economic factors – these have a direct impact on a business’s long-term projections within a given market. For example, shifts in inflation, interest rates and consumer confidence can affect pricing, investment and demand.
• Sociological factors – these involve the demographic and culture context surrounding a given business, issue or product. Trends, buying patterns and lifestyle all influence how people interact with businesses, products and services.
• Technological factors – these can have a direct or indirect impact on businesses. All industries are affected to some degree by changes, including technological developments in hardware and software changes, and cultural adoptions of these new technologies.
• Legal factors – these affect the policies and procedures of a business or product. Employment, safety and regulations all fall under this bracket.
• Environmental factors – these include all factors relating to the physical environment, such as geographical location, weather and stakeholder values.

Benefits of a PESTLE analysis

As you can see, PESTLE is a useful tool to break down and understand commercial issues in greater detail. It helps you to grasp the broader context in which businesses operate – knowledge that’s crucial for providing well-rounded legal advice.

By practising the technique you should be able to demonstrate a solid understanding of the commercial landscape, and show that you’re aware of the challenges and opportunities businesses face. This is a key attribute that law firms look for in trainees and associates, and a skill you can use to impress recruiters and interviewers.

Understanding the business environment will also help you to relate better to your clients’ needs and concerns, so you can offer more relevant and practical legal solutions, which will ultimately enhance client satisfaction and trust. In addition, you’ll become more adaptable to the changing external factors in the dynamic legal industry.

For a bitesize boost of commercial awareness, you can listen to the COMMERCIAL CONNECT series of LawCareers.Net’s podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, other podcast apps and on the Podcast hub.

Follow along with our Wrestle with PESTLE journey, featured in the Commercial Connect Newsletter and via the LCN Says section of the website, by signing up to LawCareers.Net.

Ellie Nicholl (she/her) is a senior content and engagement coordinator at LawCareersNet.