Managing Partner case study archive

Managing Partner magazine archive

Volume 13 Issue 10 - Editor's Letter: Time to think
The traditionally quiet summer presents a great opportunity to think about firm strategy, says Manju Manglani

Volume 13 Issue 9 - Editor’s letter: Don’t give up
This issue looks at how to manage a partnership in the current market conditions and provides practical advice on what to do – and what not to do

Volume 13 Issue 8 - Editor’s letter: Choosing a firm name
When two firms decide to merge, managing partners have the unenviable task of achieving partner consensus on the new firm's name

Volume 13 Issue 7 - Editor's letter: What it takes
This issue looks at what it takes to be a successful managing partner.

Volume 13 Issue 6 - Editor’s Letter: At the core
A rough patch may be the best place to stop and decide upon what is at the core of the business, suggests Manju Manglani

Volume 13 Issue 5 - Editor’s letter: Keeping it fresh
This issue is dedicated to helping law firms to review plans and push through initiatives in the coming year.

Volume 13 Issue 4 - Editor’s Letter: How to live
Law firms are at risk of collapsing if they do not let go of traditions, suggests Manju Manglani

Volume 13 Issue 3 - Editor’s Letter: Innovating change
The principles of dog training could be used to develop a positive attitude to change in law firms, suggests Manju Manglani

Volume 13 Issue 2 - Editor’s Letter: Fighting rules
Managing partners have the unenviable task of getting partners to both fight with each other and work well together, comments Manju Manglani

Volume 13 Issue 1 - Editor's Letter: Being original
Quality of service and dedication to clients are not enough for law firms looking to remain competitive, suggests Manju Manglani.

Volume 12 Issue 12 - Editor's Letter: Playing to Strengths
Manju Manglani asks how far an ‘attractive’ personality is necessary to secure success as a managing partner.

Volume 12 Issue 11 - Changing Times
The economic downturn has affected law firms in many ways. Some have committed to legal process outsourcing and flexible working arrangements, while others have increased their international expertise through mergers, aquisitions or lateral hires. Whichever option you are currently considering, it is covered in this issue of Managing Partner.

Volume 12 Issue 10 - New beginnings
This April sees the first edition of a brand new-look Managing Partner designed for the modern global law firm.

Volume 12 Issue 9 - Good vibrations
The concept of a workplace culture is a curious thing. However hard an organisation tries to define and then ‘live’ its chosen values through clever communication initiatives, it remains extremely difficult to articulate just how general positive feeling in a workforce is fused and fed.

Volume 12 Issue 8 - Editor's letter
Trial or error?

Volume 12 Issue 7 - Editor's letter
AS THAT familiar festive feeling comes around once again, many business marketing teams may be wrestling with a classic communications roast chestnut.

Volume 12 Issue 6

Volume 12 Issue 5 - Editor's letter
IN THIS column around a year ago I suggested that law firms would probably need to accept the Web 2.0 world as something they were going to have to face one way or another.

Volume 12 Issue 4 - Editor's letter
What’s new?

Volume 12 Issue 3 - Editor's letter
Taking your chances

Volume 12 Issue 2 - Editor's letter
Regardless of your political persuasion, one of the biggest stories surrounding the recent Europe-wide elections was, in fact, how small they turned out to be.

Volume 12 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Spring in the air – and ‘green shoots’ perhaps? While you had to watch your back uttering such ever-so-tentatively hopeful phrases a mere matter of months ago, a slight note of confidence – that elusive beast – suddenly seems to be back in fashion.

Volume 11 Issue 10 - Editor's letter
Management may not be the most exotic of topics to pontificate on – albeit a subject this humble column regularly explores – but if the past year has taught us anything, it is that this is a set of skills that can be woefully underestimated.

Volume 11 Issue 9 - Editor’s letter
Brave New World?

‘Gathering stormclouds’ was one of the more popular metaphors to adorn the various article offerings and press releases that pinged into my inbox back in the heady days when something called a ‘credit crunch’ was causing just a few curious ripples of concern in the business world.

Volume 11 Issue 8 - Editor's letter
Money makes the world go around...

Volume 11 Issue 7 - Editor's letter
If any readers had previously been sceptical of the value of an effective ‘change management’ strategy embedded in their organisations, I’d be very surprised if they needed convincing as we entered the closing chapters of 2008.

Volume 11 Issue 6

Volume 11 Issue 5

Volume 11 Issue 4 - Editor’s letter
I have just typed the word ‘Facebook’ into the Google search engine. At the time of writing, the second result on the first page reads: “Welcome to the official Facebook Page of Barack Obama. Get exclusive content and interact with Barack Obama right from Facebook.”

Volume 11 Issue 3 - Editor's letter
Today's governments and political parties continually stress the struggle to improve equality – enhancing equality of ‘opportunities’; fighting discrimination where it exists; and extending ‘choice’ in education.

Volume 11 Issue 2 - Editor’s letter
Managing Partner rarely enters the murky realms of politics. However, it seemed impossible to ignore a major event with the potential to affect the city in which so many of our readers live. Or at least work – at least some of the time.

Volume 11 Issue 1 - Editor’s letter
I am writing this foreword on ‘Earth Day’ – April 22nd. It is commonly taken to be the day – in 1970 – that the modern ‘environmental awareness’ movement was born.

Volume 10 Issue 45

Volume 10 Issue 10 - Editor's letter
According to the charity SANE, the statistics suggest a quarter of people reading this will be directly affected by mental illness at some point in their lives.

Volume 10 Issue 9 - Editor’s letter
I thought a little trip down memory lane this month.

Volume 10 Issue 8 - Editor's letter
HOWEVER REWARDING your job or rosy your outlook, I think few would dispute that returning to work on 2 January is invariably something of a headache.

Volume 10 Issue 7 - Editor's letter
As the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest, law firms have already started toasting a pretty promising set of half-year results. The annual champagne quaffing and party antics seem unlikely to be spoilt by suggestions in the wider business world that the fall-out from this summer’s ‘credit crunch’ could rumble on for some time to come.

Volume 10 Issue 6

Volume 10 Issue 5 - Editor's Letter
LAST MONTH marked 50 years since the publication of the Wolfenden Report. Given the seismic change in law that followed, it is an event with which many readers may be familiar.

Volume 10 Issue 4 - Editor's Letter
IN THE last issue I mentioned meeting the team in charge at the new London base of US class-action firm Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll. Now the firm has hit the headlines nationwide, announcing it will pursue collective action on behalf of any consumers affected by the British Airways and Virgin price-fixing incident.

Volume 10 Issue 3 - Editor's Letter
THE BATTLE between British consumers and their banks took a further twist at the end of June.

Volume 10 Issue 2 - Editor's Letter
AS TONY Blair slowly takes his leave of the political limelight, prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown has pledged “to build trust” in the Labour Party through “a different type of politics, a more honest and open dialogue”.

Volume 10 Issue 1 - Editor's Letter
SO BRITS are getting even grumpier if a new study from Cambridge University is to be believed. Academics found the UK ranked ninth out of 15 European countries for ‘happiness’ in 2004 – a drop on the previous (2002) survey’s findings.

Volume 9 Issue 10 - Editor’s Letter
AN UNUSUALLY warm week suddenly gave way to icy snowstorms hailing from the Arctic across the UK in mid-March. It served as a reminder that no matter how thorough your preparation, if there is one thing seemingly impossible to plan for it is the British weather.

Volume 9 Issue 9 - Editor's Letter
WHEN I took over as editor of this magazine some six months ago, I wondered if I would eventually start to come across faces familiar from my time at university.

Volume 9 Issue 8 - Editor's Letter
As another packed schedule begins for me as editor of Managing Partner, there can be little doubt that 2007 will be an equally exciting year for the legal profession.

Volume 9 Issue 7 - Editor's Letter
A number of legal commentators have previously alluded to the similarities between a merger and a marriage, but it is a comparison that remains compelling.

Volume 9 Issue 6 - Editor’s Letter
'Work-life balance’ is a hot topic for law firms today.

Volume 9 Issue 5 - Editor's Letter
IT IS with great pleasure that I am introducing my first issue as editor of Managing Partner.

Volume 9 Issue 4 - Editor's Letter

Volume 9 Issue 3 - Editor's Letter

Volume 9 Issue 2 - Editor's letter
As some of you may know, I have been working hard in recent weeks to launch a new edition of Managing Partner magazine, in the US. This will be published separately, and will be managed by Ark Group’s Chicago office, but the aim will be the same: to provide practical guidance to US firms on better managing their businesses.

Volume 9 Issue 1 - Editor’s foreword
In a renewed spring effort to get out and about, I recently attended the International Legal Technology Association’s (ILTA) inaugural UK event for law-firm IT professionals.

Volume 8 Issue 10 - Editor’s foreword
With Elite’s launch this month of its next-generation practice-management system, 3E, there is once again a sense of excitement in the legal-technology space. The technology waters of recent years may not have been as stagnant as some commentators have suggested, but there has definitely been something of a lull following the widespread investment excitement of the late 1990s.

Volume 8 Issue 9 - Editor’s foreword
This packed issue of Managing Partner is a truly global edition of the magazine. Not only does this month’s cover story explore the career opportunities for lawyers and managers working in the offshore market, but we are pleased to publish our second country report, which focuses on South Africa. Following on from the Canada report of last year, this supplement assesses the latest investment and development issues in both the country and region.

Volume 8 Issue 8 - Editor's foreword
Ark Group is once again in the final weeks of preparation for its annual LEX Connect event (27-28 February 2006). The format of the event has worked well, with practical workshops balanced against networking sessions and one-to-one meetings between law firms and legal solution providers.

Volume 8 Issue 7 - Editor’s foreword
So ends another year at Managing Partner magazine. In many ways, 2005 has seemed a quiet time for the legal profession. The ‘2005 Financial Management in Law Firms’ survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers is largely positive, revealing higher profits per partner in many firms since 2004. Strong figures, however, are balanced against the fact that many top-25 firms reduced their number of equity partners in 2005, and have kept close control of general staff numbers since reductions in 2004. But with the survey suggesting that many firms are optimistic for 2006, it may very well be next year that we see the more dramatic figures hitting the headlines.

Volume 8 Issue 6 - Editor’s foreword
I recently had the pleasure in attending the post-conference networking dinner at Ark Group’s ‘People Management for Law Firms’ conference. Not only was it a fine opportunity to sample the menu at the new Gary Rhodes brasserie in London’s impressively refurbished Cumberland Hotel, but I was able to get the low down on the events of the day and the current concerns regarding people management in law firms.

Volume 8 Issue 5 - Editor's letter
In 2003, Managing Partner published its first in-house counsel special issue, with a particular focus on the in-house to external counsel relationship. Since then we have spoken to many in-house lawyers about the challenges of their roles and the quality of service they receive from their private-practice counterparts.

Volume 8 Issue 4 - Editor’s foreword
The legal world has been left reeling once again this week by the publication of a novel that claims to reveal all about the sexual antics and misbehaviour of the UK’s richest lawyers. Fish Sunday Thinking, written under the pseudonym Alex Gilmore, has set tongues wagging as to the unnamed firm on which the novel is based.

Volume 8 Issue 3 - Editor’s foreword
In every respect, I am proud to say that this issue of Managing Partner is truly a summer bumper edition. Not only are we pleased to introduce a new look, which I hope you will agree, is far more user-friendly, but we have also included a special pull-out report on ‘Mobile Working for Law Firms’.

Volume 8 Issue 2 - Financial management for law firms
Today’s news has been full of the salutary tale of the senior associate at Baker & McKenzie who tried to get his secretary to pay the £4 dry-cleaning bill for his ketchup-stained trousers. She decided to respond by e-mail, sarcastically suggesting that as a senior associate, he clearly needed the money more than she did as a mere secretary. She also included the whole third floor of the firm in her response, which consequently led to the e-mail appearing in in-boxes all over the world.

Volume 8 Issue 1 - Editor's foreword
For many law firms, ‘to be or not to be?’ is quite literally the question that counts. Fee earners are the business, a view that is elevated by the primacy of the billable hour. Support staff and non-fee-earning activities in the firm – business development and knowledge management, for instance – are increasingly respected, but rarely embraced as core to business success. And it is still the case that firms are neatly split into the all-important lawyers on one side and nice-to-have support staff on the other.

Volume 7 Issue 10

Volume 7 Issue 9 - Editor's letter
Getting people to acquire and share knowledge more effectively has become an essential management target among law firms large and small. Whether a person’s knowledge can be ‘managed’ may be questionable, but there is no doubt that law firms, which make their profit from selling their expertise, are working harder than ever to improve and align their data repositories within a better culture of information sharing among staff.

Volume 7 Issue 8 - Best-practice management in the legal profession

Volume 7 Issue 7 - The profit game: Expansion strategies in a competitive market
As another year comes to an end, two transatlantic mergers dominate the news with promises of an exciting start to 2005. The merger of Nicholson Graham & Jones (NGJ) with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart (K&L) is assessed in detail in this issue, but DLA and Piper Rudnick have also jumped on the bandwagon to confirm their merger, just as we go to press with the final Managing Partner issue of 2004.

Volume 7 Issue 6 - People management in law firms
Jeannine Rupp was recently appointed director of professional and personal-life integration at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP in New York. It is a post that is likely to be greeted with a mixed response; some will roll their eyes at a title that sounds like a PR stunt that has little bearing on the real world, while others will recognise that such work/life balance initiatives are becoming important differentiators for firms struggling for competitive advantage.

Volume 7 Issue 5 - Eye to eye: In-house and private-practice lawyers face up to change
The most patronising advice to law firms surrounds client service. Instructing lawyers to understand their clients’ needs and consequently cut costs and improve efficiencies is a common theme, the corollary to which is the death of the law firm, if it fails to comply.

Volume 7 Issue 4 - Strategic marketing for law firms
I was recently talking to Andrew Hedley, business-development director at Pinsents, about his evolving role in law-firm marketing. As he told me about his career to date, it struck me how far law firms are now looking to business-management expertise to build and develop their firms.

Volume 7 Issue 3 - Internal efficiency for long-term profitability
In conducting research for Ark Group’s forthcoming ‘Strategic marketing for the legal profession’ conference, Managing Partner was surprised to hear just how many firms continue to struggle to manage their client relationships.

Volume 7 Issue 2 - Risk management for law firms
The Money Laundering Regulations 2003 have just come into force (March 2004), requiring law firms to comply unless they wish to risk prosecution, fines and, most worryingly, irreparable damage to their reputation.

Volume 7 Issue 1 - The future of legal-service delivery
The first warm days of summer have arrived and with it a new optimism as we finally shrug off the cold dark days of winter. It seems appropriate, therefore, that this issue looks to the future of legal-service delivery, which, despite endless tales of woe, actually gives us plenty to look forward to.

Volume 6 Issue 10

Volume 6 Issue 9 - Knowledge management for law firms
Knowledge management (KM) is no longer a new concept for the legal industry. However, while KM systems and teams are typical to most firms, there still appears to be limited understanding as to what knowledge management actually entails. There are those that equate KM with technology, creating repositories including standard documents, directories and legislative updates, brought together through intranets, extranets and portals. Many other firms, however, now view KM as a deeply cultural phenomenon, driven by a firm-wide commitment to share know-how as part of the fee earners’ day-to-day working practices.

Volume 6 Issue 8 - Best-practice management for law firms
I was talking to a delegate at Ark Group’s LEX Connect this month, when our conversation wound its way round to law-firm branding. We had just heard an interesting presentation from Eversheds, which had covered everything from analysing existing brand reputation to delivering better brand values. The delegate was confused. Isn’t this all about building better client relationships he asked? And that’s not a branding exercise, it’s a core requirement of the business.

Volume 6 Issue 7 - Mergers, alliances and networks: Choosing the best strategy for your firm
Some of the hype surrounding law-firm mergers may have dissipated, but as a recent Managing Partner survey demonstrates (see this month’s news or visit the Managing Partner website at www.mpmagazine.com), there is still a lot of activity in the market, as firms continue to perceive merger as the quickest route to increased competitive capability. Many survey respondents referred to the inevitability of merging, as the globalisation reinforces a trend for major international players in the legal marketplace. Whether in the short or long term, law firms are likely to face the strategic choice of expanding through merger, or reinforcing the firm’s strengths as a small firm with local expertise. And faced with the consolidation of competitor firms, the merger route will likely prove most tempting for instant growth and greater profit.

Volume 6 Issue 6 - Special focus: Strategic HR for law firms
HR has become a popular subject in many law firms, as the profession attempts to benchmark itself against blue-chip clients, competing with law firms to provide the best services by paralleling the client’s business operations both externally and internally. On an external level, firms are keen to demonstrate value-added services based on a good knowledge of their clients’ businesses and the markets in which they operate. To strengthen and support those services, however, firms are recognising the importance of focusing on their internal infrastructure. And, in a business where profitability lies in the knowledge and expertise of the firm’s people, the concept of HR has won many supporters.

Volume 6 Issue 5 - A question of value: An in-house perspective
A law firm can sell itself on a range of capabilities: expertise, geographical location, size and technology to name but a few. All might come to nothing, however, if the legal team pitching the prospective client does not know how those resources might meet the particular needs of the client company.

Volume 6 Issue 4 - Holding all the aces: The role of marketing in the modern law firm
Law firms are facing innumerable challenges. Client companies are consolidating to become global players, but law-firm panels are getting smaller. As more firms pitch for less work, client expectations are growing, fuelled by an economic downturn that drives demand for value-added services with a smile.

Volume 6 Issue 3 - Best-practice law-firm management: How to make money in a difficult market
The merger process is fraught with complications and the failure of negotiations can be hard for all concerned. The dream of the legal powerhouse promised by the merger of Ashurst Morris Crisp and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson crumbled at the last moment, leaving partners bitterly disappointed and outsiders incredulous that such a perfect partnership could fail.

Volume 6 Issue 2 - A risky business: The new perils of law-firm risk management
Risk management has been an area easily overlooked in the annals of law-firm management. The solicitor’s indemnity fund (SIF) provided firms with the security of knowing that they would be covered, but with the demise of the SIF and the advent of an open-market insurance regime, firms are facing a more perilous path in ensuring they are adequately covered against all eventualities.

Volume 6 Issue 1 - Mergers and alliances: Expansion in an uncertain world
What a month it has been for Addleshaw Booth & Co. The long-awaited announcement of its merger with Theodore Goddard has finally been confirmed and the new firm, Addleshaw Goddard, will commence trading as of 1 May 2003. On top of that, the firm’s marketing team has won two awards for its sponsorship of the Commonwealth Games. Few would argue with the fact that the merger is an acquisition of Theodore Goddards, a firm that has spent many months searching for a merger partner. In this context, the awards are the icing on the cake, a notable addition to a very successful expansion for Addleshaws.

Volume 5 Issue 10 - Leadership and change management
Many firms have restructured over the last few years to include industry expertise on their corporate-style management boards. For example, chief executives are becoming a regular feature of the modern firm and partners are quick to recommend the business benefits brought about by introducing a non-legal perspective to a firm’s business development.

Volume 5 Issue 9 - Beyond the hype: A KM special issue
Managing Partner’s survey of 2002 provided an insight into knowledge management (KM) initiatives in law firms. Athough many respondents said that their KM initiatives had been successful, a significant 24 per cent felt that it had not. There were some patterns to this. The most successful KM was experienced by firms who had firm-wide and particularly management support for knowledge sharing. Many also had the benefit of a system that had been implemented several years earlier, enabling full firm-wide integration and a certain degree of learning through experience. The failures were significantly from firms who were either new to KM or who had failed to win this vital and active support from the firm as a whole.
These conclusions provide a good basis for the ideas raised in this month’s KM issue.

Volume 5 Issue 8 - Maximising your operational efficiency
Change is a concept rarely embraced. For most of us, past experience is the best yardstick for predicting future events and the successes of earlier years become a model in which all future strategies are entrenched.

Volume 5 Issue 7 - Client power: Are you meeting the needs of your clients?
Law firms seeking to win and retain clients must strive harder to meet the needs and expectations of a demanding marketplace. Even firms that have enjoyed a relatively stable position on a legal panel must now prove their merit as clients, cut legal spend and reduce the number of firms they work with.

Volume 5 Issue 6 - The three Rs – recruitment, retention… results
Long gone are the days when a professional firm was seen as something of an old boy’s network, prospering within its own secretive network where recruitment would be down to who you know, not what you know. Today, firms must compete ever harder to sustain profitability and, as part of that drive, recruiting the best people has become intensely competitive as well as an absolute necessity.

Volume 5 Issue 5 - Globalisation and the lawyer
The global marketplace is a familiar term, well ingrained in the strategic plan of the expanding business. Law firms are no different and in recent months, we have continued to witness the expansion of firms from the national to international level.

The desire to cross frontiers is clearly a powerful force and many law firms are prepared to accept any inherent risks of expansion in the hope that in the long term, they will reap the rewards of increased reputation, bigger clients and most importantly, greater profit. A good example of this is the Withers merger of earlier in the year. They have since recorded flat profits after spending at least £1m in fees for the transatlantic merger. In the long run however, the firm obviously hopes to compensate for the short-term shortfall and turnover has already increased by 11 per cent.

Volume 5 Issue 4 - The changing state of law firm governance
Law firm management is facing its biggest overhaul in years. Ring up any law firm and there’ll be someone who will be happy to discuss their marketing and branding efforts, their business development strategy and the client relationship techniques they have employed to deliver a ‘top-quality service’. However, the really significant changes are the core values facing scrutiny and change as large numbers of firms adopt a corporate management style, casting off the traditions of the partnership model and incorporating the commercial incentives and strategies reflected in many of their clients’ businesses.

Volume 5 Issue 3 - Law firm profitability
Managing business profit seems to be a fairly obvious strategy and it might be assumed that most law firms and their managing partners would understand the process of improving cash-flow. With the correct information, gathered from an assessment of the billing, chargeable hours and fee collection of the business, profit can be improved by an overhaul of the system and the performance of individual partners or departments as a whole.

Volume 5 Issue 2 - Law firm marketing special
With the holiday season upon us, I hope you'll be feeling revived and ready to tackle this month's fearsome topic of marketing for law firms. I say fearsome because marketing remains a horrifying term for many lawyers who believe that marketing actually means employing an aggressive sales strategy. Admittedly, marketing seems an incongruous application for the professional services firm. There is no discernible product to promote and the very ethos of the legal profession seems to strike an uneasy balance with any kind of sales strategy.

Volume 5 Issue 1 - Leadership and management of change
As the year speeds its way through to the half-way point, law firms continue to face uncertain times. While certain firms have published positive results inspiring thoughts of an escape from recession, some magic circle firms are freezing salary bands, presaging fears of impending redundancies.

Volume 4 Issue 10 - Risk management special
Risk is a subject frequently ignored by law firms who were once able to sleep secure in the knowledge that negligence claims would be few and far between. Times are a-changing however, and with the number of claims rising against solicitors, risk management has come to the fore. Indeed, as this month’s articles will demonstrate, it is a perilous strategy to leave risk management on the back-burner!

Volume 4 Issue 9 - Knowledge management special
This issue deals with knowledge management, a term rapidly gaining currency among law firms striving to attain competitive advantage. The articles discuss themes such as KM justification, effective KM implementation strategies as well as the cultural issues impacting that all-important return on investment.

Volume 4 Issue 8 - CRM: a client focus special
While most law firms are implementing some kind of CRM system, it is more questionable whether these have so far delivered the desired business objectives. After all, why spend the money if it’s not going to have the necessary impact? How do you quantify the deliverables of a CRM system? How can you integrate CRM concepts into the very nature and culture of a law firm? The articles in this issue will address such challenges with plenty of practical tips for successful CRM strategies.

Volume 2 Issue 10

Volume 2 Issue 9

Volume 2 Issue 8

Volume 2 Issue 6

Volume 2 Issue 5 - Equal footing
Originally from Women Legal Volume 2 Issue 5:I hav

Volume 2 Issue 4

Volume 2 Issue 3 - Editors Letter
Originally from Women Legal Volume 2 Issue 3:

Volume 2 Issue 2 - Letter from the editor: Goodbye and farewell
Originally from Women Legal Volume 2 Issue 2:It is

Volume 2 Issue 1 - Letter from the editor: A year in review
Originally from Women Legal Volume 2 Issue 1:This

Volume 1 Issue 6

Volume 1 Issue 5

Volume 1 Issue 4 - Letter from the editor: Onwards and upwards?
Originally from Women Legal Volume 1 Issue 4:Sprin

Volume 1 Issue 3 - Editor's letter: The best of times?
Originally from Women Legal Volume 1 Issue 3:It’s

Volume 1 Issue 2 - Letter from the editor: Yes we can
Originally from Women Legal Volume 1 Issue 2:

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 1 Issue 6: Anyone who has picked up a paper or watched the news in the past few months may have developed a morbid fascination with the tumultuous life of a certain Ms Britney Spears.
The ‘pop princess’s’ fall from grace has constantly been splashed across front pages and hoovered up by an increasingly celebrity-obsessed public.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 2 Issue 6: The Olympics opened at eight minutes past eight on the evening of the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008: an auspicious date in China as the number eight denotes luck and prosperity. One can only hope that this also applies to the financial year ahead, although I fear that reality may be a follower of numerology where the number eight is the number of material success… or monumental failure. And it is with that thought that I introduce myself as the new editor of FD Legal and welcome you to this August/September edition.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Feeling the pinch?
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 3 Issue 3: Finance group AXA has released research which reveals that children across the country will be feeling the pinch this summer, with one in six parents admitting to tightening their purse strings over the past six months. Of the 2050 UK residents who participated in the survey 17 per cent revealed that the current climate of economic uncertainty had forced them to reduce or simply stop pocket money pay outs and loans to their offspring altogether. So how will children who have grown used to having it all cope now their boredom-fighting budgets have been cut? And might they in fact benefit from being forced to rethink how they spend their time?

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: What a difference a year makes...
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 4 Issue 3: This issue marks a year since I officially took over the helm of Legal Marketing. And what a year it has been. Had I speculated back then that the largest shareholder in the Royal Bank of Scotland would be Alistair Darling; that city giant Clifford Chance LLP would lose its position as ‘worlds largest law firm by revenue’ following a five per cent decline in profits; and, that a swine flu pandemic would have us all living in fear of coughs and sneezes (and stockpiling hand-sanitising gel), my editorship of this publication might have been somewhat short-lived.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 2 Issue 5: It is with sadness that I am writing my last foreword as editor of FD Legal. I have been the editor for just coming up to a year, and in that time I have met many finance professionals working in law firms today. One thing that has impressed me about the conversations that I have had in that time is just how far the finance role in law firms has evolved.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 2 Issue 2: With Legal Marketing embarking on its second year hitting desks and, following a fantastic response from yourselves and others in the industry, we’ve decided to give it a bit of a boost.
More often than not, I struggle to shoehorn the number of articles we get sent into one issue every two months. I also speak to a significant number of people on the telephone, wanting to know when the next magazine will be coming out. We’ve therefore decided that since we have the demand, the content and the enthusiasm, we’re going to switch the magazine to monthly circulation.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 4 Issue 1: Welcome to the October/November issue of FD Legal.

There may be be 80 days until Christmas, but there are 17 days until my birthday (23 October – and I do accept cash, cheques, credit cards, food). This lead up to the big day always puts me in rather a reflective mood. And I see that it has been a year since my first issue of FD Legal, so happy anniversary to one and all at the end of our first year together. I hope that the changes we have implemented over the past year have improved your reading experience, and that the topics we covered hit your desks at just the right time. Let me know your views. There’s nothing like an anniversary to make you take stock!

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's Letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 2 Issue 1: In this month’s profile feature, Claire Hafner, finance director at Eversheds, raises two particularly pertinent issues for finance professionals in law firms today. The first is that the firm’s IT department reports into Hafner because “so much of what finance does is IT related”. With the emergence of the practice-management system, the link between IT and finance has become more firmly entrenched.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's Letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 2 Issue 4: A familiar criticism levelled not only at law firms, but at business organisations in general, is the lack of really effective cross-functional teamwork. Getting people to work together may be an ideal of the profitable business, but rarely will one find a company that can really boast a truly collegiate culture. Instead, businesses are more likely to suffer either large-scale internal indifference between various departments, or even inter-departmental hostility – for example, if one group is seen to be unfairly taking credit for the work undertaken by another.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 3 Issue 1: Welcome to the October/November issue of FD Legal. As the seasons change and autumn/winter has officially arrived – although whether one notices any discernible difference in the weather from the summer we’ve just had is up for debate – FD Legal is appropriately wearing a new look for the season.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 2 Issue 1: This month marks Legal Marketing magazine’s first year of publication – and what a year it’s been.
Since the first issue launched back in April last year, the publication has gone from strength to strength and it has been a pleasure to cover the huge range of issues and developments in what is possibly the most exciting area within the legal landscape at the moment. And that looks set to continue.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's Letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 2 Issue 4: WELCOME TO the October/November issue of Legal Marketing. First of all, I would like to introduce Lucy McNulty, who has recently joined us as editorial assistant. Lucy will be working across our portfolio of magazines and has already written a case study, which is featured in this issue. I’m sure you will join me in wishing her the best of luck in her new role.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - A climate of accord?
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 4 Issue 6: It was perhaps inevitable that the Copenhagen climate change talks in December last year would disappoint more people than they would please.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Does the legal profession do recession?
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 2 Issue 3: Talking this month with a senior manager at a mid-tier City law firm got me thinking. Few of us could have failed to miss the tales of financial doom and gloom hitting the newspaper stands over the past quarter. The collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market, leading to a so-called credit crunch, has resulted in something of a tremor across the financial markets. The Bank of England published warnings back in November that the UK economy could be slowing, and City analysts ever since have been variously forecasting the likelihood of an impending recession.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 4 Issue 2: Welcome to the December/January issue of FD Legal. I trust you are all suitably toasty under piles of Christmas cards and party invitations, clutching your steaming mugs of mulled wine enjoying the dulcet tones of Bing Crosby in the back ground. Or maybe, like me, you are wondering where 2009 has gone and frantically attacking your reams of to-do-before-the-holidays lists! The consensus seems to be that the lead up to Christmas has seen busyness-levels taken to a new high. Which can only be a good thing?
And an even better thing is that recent research into top 100 UK law firm finance directors1 indicates that, of those firms that participated, all firms in the top 100 have an FD or equivalent role. Back-office function? I think not!

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Business boosters
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 3 Issue 1: THESE DAYS it seems that not a day goes by without some bleak warning about the impact of climate change, effects of global warming and the general downfall of society adorning the pages of the morning paper. With the seemingly endless press coverage comes the growing realisation that if such stark predictions are ever to be banished from our broadsheets it is up to us to instigate the changes needed to make that happen – be it through volunteering for a charity or simply making the effort to take a trip to the local recycling plant once in a while.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 1 Issue 4: The past couple of months have been pretty hectic here at the Legal Marketing office in London.
Ark Group’s seventh annual ‘Strategic Marketing in the Legal Profession’ conference was a great opportunity to catch up with readers of the magazine – and new faces in law-firm marketing – to chew the fat about a number of issues.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - A nation of nit-pickers?
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 3 Issue 2: If the statistics are anything to go by, it would seem we have become a nation of nit-pickers, with a record number of us complaining to the UK Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in the past year. In fact, 4,340 complaints were made to the watchdog in 2007, a growth of 31 per cent since 2006.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Changing times…
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 3 Issue 6: 2008 was, for many, the year of the unexpected. A year dominated by an almost unforeseen economic crisis that bought many organisations and financial institutions to their knees, altering the business landscape irrevocably. 2009, so the financial experts say, will be worse. It’s not a comforting prospect.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 3 Issue 6: Welcome to the August/September issue of FD Legal. And welcome back from your summer holidays – if you were able to take them that is. Or actually enjoy your holidays without the constant beeping of your blackberry, the continuous application of hand gel and avoiding anyone coughing or sneezing (or maybe you were one of the unfortunate that got struck down with swine flu?)

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Back to basics
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 4 Issue 2: It has been rather an eventful time lately for the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who, as we go to press, is clinging to power amid increasingly widespread calls for his resignation, several ministerial walk-outs, a landslide defeat at the European parliamentary elections, a parliamentary expenses scandal and, of course, continuing recession-induced economic stresses. Some would argue his reaction has followed a predictable pattern. First deny any wrongdoing, second reshuffle cabinet, third reassure the voters and, presumably, fourth hope for the best.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Goodbye and farewell
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 4 Issue 5: The news of economic crisis in Dubai – triggered by the failure of bail-out plans for state-owned holding company, Dubai World – seemed proof, if ever it was needed, that the fiscal crisis of recent years has left few unscathed.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 1 Issue 2: Mention branding to any law-firm marketing director and you’re guaranteed to get a passionate response. Whether they are enthusiastically leading an image revamp or struggling to communicate the brand message around the firm, one thing is certain. For the majority of firms, brand is a vital contributor to successful market positioning and business development at every level.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's foreword
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 1 Issue 2: Welcome to the December 2006/January 2007 edition of FD Legal magazine. As the year draws to a close, it is worth reflecting on the results of PricewaterhouseCooper’s Annual Law Firms’ survey. Now in its 15th year, the survey reveals that 2006 has been an exceptional year for many firms, with average fees per partner and average profits per partner increasing year on year.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 2 Issue 5: THIS TIME last year, as all my super-organised friends and work colleagues relaxed with mulled wine, while toasting the fact that Christmas could come three-weeks early and they wouldn’t break into a sweat, I vowed to do this year’s gift shopping and other such festive preparations well in advance.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 1 Issue 3: This year I will have the pleasure in attending Ark Group’s seventh annual conference on strategic marketing for the legal profession. I will be joined there by speakers and delegates – some of whom have featured as writers within these pages – who will be discussing an enormous range of marketing topics, from key-account management to business and strategy development.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Money, money, money...
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 3 Issue 4: In the latter half of 2008, it seems not a day has gone by without some gloomy fiscal forecast dominating the world’s media. Indeed, as international financial organisations and multinationals flounder in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the ensuing credit crunch, stark predictions of global recession, widespread unemployment and general economic doom have now become commonplace.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Altering the agenda
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 4 Issue 1: This year more than 2,000 scientists gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the start of a three-day climate congress aimed at bridging the gap in climate change data that has emerged since the publication of the last UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007. Their message? Sea levels are rising dangerously quickly, at 3mm per year – a rate well above the 20th century average, the current ice prediction models that measure the rate at which ice is melting are not calculating data accurately, and even if greenhouse gas emissions did not increase above current levels, then global warming would still continue to increase for the next two decades. It is scary stuff.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Thought leader: Are law firms measuring what matters?
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 2 Issue 4: IF A law firm is to build competitive advantage, then every aspect of the firm must be aligned with achieving this objective and function to the highest level. This will require optimum performance by everyone.
One of the perennial questions that arises in relation to introducing a performance-based culture is: 'Yes - but how can we measure performance?'

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 3 Issue 3: Welcome to the February/March issue of FD Legal and I hope you are having a prosperous year so far. Did I sound hopeful there? I do hope so. I meant to. You see it’s my New Year’s resolution to rise above the ‘doom and gloom’ and focus on the positives.
So I’m sure you’re wondering how I have fared during January – the ‘new attitude’ answer is: ‘It could be worse!’ The honest answer is that, as 2009 stretches before us and we have at least another year of this (minimum) before the start of the upturn, well, it’s very difficult to maintain a positive outlook. I am trying, I promise.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 2 Issue 2: Since the last issue of FD Legal was published, firms across the UK have been revealing their half-year turnover figures. And the news has been largely positive, with several firms, including Ashurst, Bird & Bird, Herbert Smith, Nabarro and SJ Berwin, increasing fee-earner income by 20 per cent or more.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 4 Issue 3: The New Year blues has gently ebbed away and the outlook is looking good for the legal services market. Sure, the recession is not quite over yet but we have survived this far and it can’t be long before business starts picking up and the order books begin to look healthy again.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 3 Issue 5: Welcome to the June/July issue of FD Legal.

On your marks, get set… GO! Professional indemnity renewal season is about to begin. Have you started your applications? If not, you’d better get your skates on – because if you thought last year was bad, this year’s gonna be a doozy. Get in there early or risk taking a dip in the assigned risk pool (ARP). Prepare to be questioned, poked and prodded; and when going for ‘transparency’ think ‘the invisible man’…

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 3 Issue 4: Welcome to the April/May issue of FD Legal. I hope you all had a very happy Easter, and I trust, like me, you also marked the birth of legal disciplinary practices on 31 March 2009.
It is apt that this all happened around Easter; a time of resurrection and new beginnings (I’m ignoring crucifixions as, for once, lawyers aren’t the people’s choice to be strung up…). Easter was, in fact, originally a pagan celebration of rebirth, renewal and the coming of spring; which all ties in very nicely with the implementation of the Legal Services Act 2007 and the sunshine currently streaming through my window.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor’s foreword
Originally From FD Legal magazine vol 1 Issue 1: Welcome to the launch issue of FD Legal, the newest edition to Ark Group’s growing stable of legal publications. Against a backdrop of globalisation and commoditisation, and as law firms jostle for position and try to remain competitive, there has never been a more opportune time to shine a spotlight on that once marginalised back-office function, the finance department.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 1 Issue 5: As the year draws to a close, I cannot help but think that I’m saying these words a little too often – but it is with regret that I announce that another member of the Legal Marketing editorial board is moving on to pastures new. I would like to thank Andrew Powell for all his advice and help with the launch of this magazine, and wish him all the best for the future in his new role, following his departure from UK firm CMS Cameron McKenna.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Taking action
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 4 Issue 4: As I write this, I am sitting at my desk wrapped in a jumper and scarf. Outside the scene is notably dismal – it’s overcast and drizzling and, according to the weather forecasts, it will continue to be so for the rest of the week. It paints a somewhat gloomy picture, and makes my chosen subject seem rather fitting. But then ‘somewhat gloomy’ is hardly an apt description of the deeply upsetting experience of those suffering the symptoms of mental distress.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 2 Issue 6: With the New Year festivities now a distant memory and the determined optimism of early January beginning to wane, February can seem the perfect time to shelve most, if not all, plans to change various aspects of your lifestyle…at least until next year. And as February inches into March usually only a stubborn few manage to muster the last vestiges of motivation to avoid abandoning their New Year’s resolutions altogether.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 1 Issue 1: When David Clementi released his groundbreaking report on the state of the legal industry in 2004, he opened the door to massive change, which would have a knock-on effect on the way law firms conducted their business.
In a bid to drag firms into the 21st century and open up the market to increased competition, he proposed radical deregulation reforms, which will eventually enable non-lawyers to own, manage and finance law firms.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter: Ho, ho… oh.
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 3 Issue 5: Ready or not, the festive season is now upon us. Yet for many, Christmas 2008 comes not with the usual sense of holiday cheer and high spirits, but the rather more subdued job insecurity and general penny pinching that a recessive economy so often entails.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Editor's letter
Originally from Legal Marketing magazine vol 2 Issue 3: Until recently I’ve existed in my own, safe and happy little world. That is not to say that I haven’t been part of an extremely cohesive and well-matched team within our editorial department. We all get on, work closely together and help each other out. We’ve even been known to have a couple of cheeky shandies after work at our local pub. But I‘ve had autonomy over my own work, my own schedule. In particular, I’ve only had to worry about my personal press deadlines and other time-sensitive tasks. Quite selfish really.

Volume 1 Issue 1 - Letter from the editor: A new era...
Originally from Women Legal Volume 1 Issue 1:The A