Team Morale Is Directly Linked To The Ability To Deliver Differentiated Client Services

Published in Managing Partner magazine November 2015 In previous articles, I have written about how the lack of any meaningful differentiation between law firms on criteria that are of value to clients leads inexorably to price-driven competition. When we can see no difference between the services on offer, we buy the cheapest available. The same […]
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Horizon Scanning To Identify And Capitalise On New Growth Opportunities

Published in Managing Partner magazine October 2015 Ted Levitt, the economist and business thinker who penned the game-changing Marketing Myopia in 1960, commented that “the future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious”. His words capture the essence of the challenge faced by many legal professionals. In a world where the pace […]
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A strategic perspective on winning more business through pitches

Published in Managing Partner magazine September 2015 Law firms are being subjected to evermore demanding pitch and tendering processes. Larger firms have teams dedicated to the winning of such business, whilst smaller firms tend to have a client partner who leads the firm’s response to such opportunities. Across the spectrum, there are some overall guidelines which, […]
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Using a competitive perspective to chart your law firm’s strategy

Published in Managing Partner magazine The core purpose of any strategy is to create sustainable competitive advantage. A critical strategic discussion centres on the choice of markets in which to compete and the kinds of activities which are involved in such markets.  Several models exist to chart market attractiveness and these tend to map the […]
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Using Proxies to Differentiate and Build Confidence in Your Law Firm

Published in Managing Partner magazine March 2015   Choosing between law firms is difficult. For many clients, even those with in-depth knowledge of the profession, the decision to appoint a firm is laden with risks. These centre on three factors in the client’s mind: that the service being procured is complex; its costs are potentially […]
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Aim to Dominate a Market, not The Market

Published in Managing Partner magazine May 2014   Much of modern marketing strategy is based around the principles of an approach based on segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP). Segmentation is the process by which an apparently heterogeneous market is divided into a series of homogeneous sub-groups or segments, each of which shares a set of […]
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The Law Firm Merger: A Leader’s Guide to Strategy & Realisation

Published by ARK Group April 2014   THE LEGAL services market has undergone unprecedented change over the last decade. The Great Recession has been a catalyst to accelerate the pace of this change. At its core are structural changes in the profession and the deregulation of the legal services industry, leading to a fundamental reshaping […]
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Driving for Growth

My Editorial Advisory Board blog for Managing Partner magazine http://www.managingpartner.com/blog/driving-your-law-firm-towards-more-aggressive-growth Activity levels are on the increase in the UK legal market. Has the corner been turned? Can we now be more confident that the much-vaunted green shoots of economic growth have finally taken hold? For the past twelve months, a growing swell of firms have […]
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Develop a Strategic Framework for Merger Communications

Published in Managing Partner magazine It is all too easy for those focused on the consummation of a merger (and with a deep knowledge of the transaction) to assume that its strategic logic will be selfevident. It is always wrong to presume that the benefits flowing from the union will be apparent to the combined […]
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Unlocking the Client Dividend in a Merger

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Any merger should seek to build a sustainable competitive advantage. What this means in practice is that vision is needed to create a client proposition which is more compelling than either firm could offer before and, crucially, better than other firms competing for the same work. A characteristic of […]
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Why merge? Forces driving consolidation in the UK legal services market

Chapter 3 of The Law Management Section Merger Toolkit A merger is a means by which a strategic objective may be achieved; it is not a strategic objective in itself. This is, perhaps, an obvious statement, but one which seems to elude many management teams when discussing strategy and the options available to them. A […]
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Organic Growth Strategies: Back to Basics

Published in The Cambridge Marketing Review   The challenging market conditions of the last four years mean that organic growth is a significant issue for many organisations. My own practice is focused on the professional service sector and commercial law firms in particular. This particular market has suffered from the pincer squeeze of economic recession […]
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Strategies to unlock the merger dividend

Chapter 11 of The Law Management Section Merger Toolkit Panjat Pinang is one of the most popular traditions in Indonesia. It is a unique way of celebrating the country’s Independence Day and involves, quite literally, climbing a greasy pole. Tall nut trees are felled, denuded of all branches and bark, and placed vertically in the […]
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The Innovation Advantage

Published in The Future of Legal Services – Expert Analysise THIS ARTICLE is concerned with the ways in which innovative approaches have already changed the nature of law firm practice, and how they will continue to do so at an accelerating pace in the future. In particular it will consider service innovation and how firms […]
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Service Quality and Reputation Management Strategy

Published in Business Continuity Planning and Management for Law Firms   AS BENJAMIN Franklin so wisely said: ‘It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it’. His words should be a wake-up call for managing partners that have placed their trust in the fingers-crossed method of […]
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Horizon Plan

Published in Managing Partner Magazine Andrew Hedley discusses how continuous planning can help you to improve the implementation of your firm’s strategic vision. It is self-evident that, without a clear and robust approach to implementation, even the most well-crafted of strategic plans will founder. A continuous longerterm planning cycle is required. This article considers how […]
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Where did all the fun go?

In the brave new world of Six Sigma, LPO and BPR it is all too easy to forget that, for the vast majority, this approach to legal service delivery isn’t what was signed-up to when entering the profession. However, with pricing under pressure and a fixed-fee basis increasingly the norm, better management is needed.  But […]
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Firms should focus on doing the simple things well

Managing Partner Magazine BLOG   It never fails to surprise me how consistently firms fail to adequately prioritise their time and efforts to doing the simple things well. Surely putting one’s own house in order would deliver the most returns most quickly, whether by securing existing client relationships, expanding those that are nascent or providing […]
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Client Service and Relationship Strategy

Published in Best Practices in Legal Marketing   Despite having been centre stage for almost two decades, it remains the case that the effective management of client relationships and the delivery of quality and consistent levels of client service are two of the key management challenges facing many firms. These obstacles are multi-dimensional since the […]
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Market Changes – Dealing with Uncertainty Using Scenario Planning 

Published in Best Practices in Legal Marketing   In the turbulent business environment faced by modern law firms it is imperative that any strategy is robust. By this I mean that it has inbuilt flexibility, enabling it to respond appropriately and quickly to changing circumstances, as well as having sufficient resilience to allow firms to […]
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Emerging Opportunities

Published in the Emerging Markets: Taking the Plunge review   An effective strategy for capitalising on emerging market opportunities is a standing agenda item for the boards of internationally-minded firms. Indeed, the topic is so enduring that some markets have moved from emerging to emerged in the time that the subject has been under consideration. […]
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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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Effective business development = low risk + high trust

Managing Partner Magazine BLOG   The best approaches to law firm marketing and sales share two characteristics: they aim to minimise perceptions of risk and to maximise feelings of trust between the decision maker and the firm. For clients, it is crucial that trust is high and risk low when engaging lawyers. Their often-subliminal thought […]
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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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