The Role of the Partner in Delivering a Marketing Strategy

Published in Best Practices in Legal Marketing   While it may be self-evident that the law firm partner has a central role in the creation, development and implementation of a successful marketing and business development strategy, the nature of this role is less well articulated. This chapter considers the nature of this role and the […]
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Client Strategy in a Changing Market

Published in Professional Marketing magazine   Client strategy sits at the heart of all strategy. Without the ability to attract and retain clients, at a price which delivers an acceptable level of profitability, no business can be viable in the longer term. A firm’s client strategy should be under constant review in order to ensure […]
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Live to Serve

Published in Managing for Success, the magazine of the Law Society’s Law Management Section   Along with the other ‘traditional’ professions, law firms have witnessed real transformational changes in the last 25 years, in some cases willingly, but in many, as a response to market demands. One of the most significant changes has been in lawyers’ […]
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Playing the Keeps

Published in Managing for Success, the magazine of the Law Society’s Law Management Section (www.lawsociety.org.uk/lawmanagement)   Programmes designed to support better management of a law firm’s most important clients have three distinct stages – acquiring, developing and managing. You start by acquiring the client and securing it from competitors; then move on to deepening the […]
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Chasing scale for its own sake is not a strategy

Published in Managing Partner magazine   If much of what has been written is to be believed, it could easily be assumed that strategic success simply hinges on the achievement of scale. Simply by being bigger, planting more flags in the map, increasing purchasing power over suppliers and improving the gearing ratio, all will be […]
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Hardwiring Values

Published in Managing Partner magazine   In law firms of all sizes, managing partners are keen to position their firms as having a clear set of guiding principles by which they conduct business, engage with teams and serve clients. However, there is often an underlying misconception that a values-led approach is altruistic or, worse still, […]
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A New Approach for a New World

Change Management for Law Firms   LAW FIRMS continue to grapple with a number of shifts in their competitive environment as difficult market conditions show little sign of abatement. These issues create a maelstrom that will tax the skills of any leadership team to the limit. Here we consider some of the core drivers in […]
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The Role of Competitive Intelligence in Shaping Strategy

Competitive Intelligence: Improving Law Firm Strategy and Decision Making   “IF YOU are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, then you are a fool and certain to be defeated in every battle. If you know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won, you will suffer a loss. If you know your enemy and […]
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Merging Cultures

Managing Partner Magazine   The principle drivers behind law firm mergers are fundamentally economics and sustainable competitive position, but at the core of their long-term success is the ability to create a unified culture and shared sense of purpose. Even in the most unbalanced of law firm marriages, it is a foolhardy managing partner that […]
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A New Model of Partnership

Managing Partner magazine   Being a partner isn’t what it used to be! The economic climate, impending deregulation, ever rising client demands, attitudinal changes (both in society and among young professionals), the apparent obsolescence of the historic charging model and the impact of IT on process efficiency are all catalysts forcing change in many firms. […]
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Virtually reality

Managing Partner Magazine   Virtual Law Partners (VLP/www.virtuallawpartners.com) was established in May 2008 with eight attorneys and now has around 50. It describes itself as a “virtually connected and geographically distributed firm that provides excellent legal service at very competitive rates”. When it was established it made the news in the US legal press for […]
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Out of this World

Managing Partner Magazine   The past year has seen unprecedented turbulence for the legal profession, but is perhaps simply a portent of what is to come. Longstanding rules of competition and client relationship management have been cast to one side. A new, resolutely commercial, approach is to the fore, which is an anathema to those […]
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“The Road is Long” Merger Masterclass

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Many managing partners regard the delivery of a successful merger as their gold-standard achievement. In one act they see themselves able to demonstrate, for the entire world to see, that their firm is going places, has ambition, and is prepared to move decisively and determinedly to achieve its goals. […]
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“Hitting the Ground Running” Business Development Masterclass

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Many firms are coming to terms with a very uncomfortable truth: that growth is the only way out of the perilous position in which they find themselves. In many cases, costs have been pared to a point at which any further marginal reductions will have limited impact. Furthermore, the […]
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Primus Inter Pares

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Observation and experience over the past 20-plus years have led me to formulate the ‘First Law of Professional Firm Management’. It can be simply stated and I have found it to be true in firms of all sizes, shapes, hues and colours. It is most strikingly accurate among partners […]
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Profiting from Key Clients

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   It is widely accepted that the ‘Pareto effect’ applies to most businesses, with 80 per cent of turnover coming from 20 per cent of the client base. Indeed, my experience of many professional-service firms operating in the commercial sphere is that the numbers are even more compelling. It is […]
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Brave in the new world

Published in ‘Legal information in a recession: A restructuring opportunity’   In the current recession, managing partners have a great opportunity to overhaul their information and knowledge-management functions for long-term growth and profitability. To succeed will require addressing critical information and knowledge-management issues, but the results will fundamentally re-shape legal business creating the profitable next-generation law […]
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Crystal Ball Gazing

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   When marketing guru Ted Levitt said: “The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious”, he captured the essence of the challenge faced by those in fast-changing environments. How do firms cope with a world in which the pace of change has never been greater and […]
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Opening up

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Every firm has huge untapped potential in the form of hidden knowledge about clients, relationships, experience and technical issues. If unearthed and shared, this could create a step-change improvement in business performance. Generally it is not a paucity of systems that prevent firms from capitalising on knowledge. This is […]
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“What Gets Measured Gets Done”

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   ‘What gets measured gets done’ is an old adage of management. It is also a universal truism that many firms ignore when designing and implementing performance management and reward systems. It is crucial that these are aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives. Many firms are now moving towards a […]
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Some Observations on Law Firm Leaders

Published in Leadership Development in the Legal Profession   Over the past 20 years, I have observed a range of leaders and leadership styles in professional service firms. Over this same period, there has been an exponential increase of interest in the subject of leadership, and the crucial role that it plays in the success […]
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Mind Over Matter

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Ignore the importance of cultural fit at your peril when merging firms. Culture clash is one of the most common reasons mergers fail. Within professional services, where the importance of common values and behaviours in creating cohesive firms is indisputable, getting the cultural aspects of a merger wrong can […]
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Talking with one voice

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Integrated marketing communications is the name; clarity and consistency is the game. Students of marketing communications are inculcated with the need to create compelling, consistent and clear messages that can be directed at an array of targeted delivery channels. In considering communications (whether internal or external) it is crucial […]
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The Law Firm of the Future

Published in Law Firm of the Future supplement report by Managing Partner and Legal Marketing magazines   Views on the shape and focus of the law firm of the future are widely divergent, but invariably pessimism is expressed by many as to how the profession as a whole will fare over the next decade. The common […]
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Leading the Edge

Published in KMLegal magazine   A key component of building the bridge between theory and realisation in the utilisation of knowledge assets lies in improvements in a broad range of leadership capabilities within the KM function itself, according to Andrew Hedley. If law firms are to be effective in building a competitive advantage through knowledge […]
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