Law firm profile: Donns Solicitors, Manchester

Donns Solicitors has experienced impressive growth over the past five years with a 600 per cent increase in its client base. In the Inner City 100, which recognises the fastest growing companies in the UK, Donns was ranked 64th – it was the only firm of solicitors featured. Caroline Poynton takes a tour of the offices and talks to the firm’s managing partner, Hilary Meredith, about the development of Donns, its past success and where it goes from here.

Today, Manchester is a thriving legal centre with a wealth of top-class law firms providing a real challenge to the supremacy of London firms. A typical ambition of the traditional firm was to buy into the London scene at the earliest opportunity. However, this trend appears, in many cases, to be in reverse, with many London law firms showing a keen awareness of the importance of opening an office in the regions.

Donns is a national practice based in Manchester and is ranked as one of the UK’s leading personal injury law firms. Senior partner, Raymond Donn, founded the firm 33 years ago.

In 1999, Donns decided to specialise purely in personal injury law and has experienced a period of exceptional growth ever since. Success has been marked with some awards along the way. In 2000, Donns e-file-access system won the Insurance Times award for ‘Technology Initiative of the Year’ and in 2001, Donns secured the Duke of Westminster Award recognising business excellence.

Firm structure

Seventy-five per cent of the practice involves the before-event insurance market. Donns undertakes road traffic accident cases on behalf of insurers and brokers alike and remaining cases are handled within the following specialist departments:

After-the-event insurance including employers liability and product liability;
Clinical negligence;
Catastrophic injury for individual clients and members of the armed forces wherever they may be based worldwide.

The management structure is unusual for a law firm. There are 13 partners (nine of which are women) as well as a management team comprising: managing partner, Hilary Meredith; senior partner, Raymond Donn; the firm’s director of finance; the director of quality and another partner, Paul Ackroyd. This team meets once a month to review statistics and make the day-to-day decisions on the running of the practice. The management team reports back to the partners at their quarterly meeting.

Donns has also created a director level that includes directors of claims, quality, finance, marketing and operations, and IT. Each department has a section head, head of department and partner in charge. Meredith says the system works well although, “it is more akin to an insurance-type industry rather than a traditional solicitors office and operates on a typical PLC like structure.”

Donns’s rapid growth saw the firm moving to new offices in Manchester city centre in 2001. Office space increased by more than 100 per cent and required an investment of more than £1m. While this move demonstrated a growth strategy that Donns hopes to continue well into the future, Meredith was also concerned that, “the quality and standards of the practice did not slip”. As she says: “It took a real team effort to ensure the firm maintained its high standards,” and one of the resulting strategies employed by the firm has been in its training programme, which has also won various awards. The firm now has a dedicated group including a director of quality, training manager, training rooms and a team of trainers.

Recruitment and retention

As with all firms, Donns is committed to employing the best-qualified people, both from external sources and through the recognition and progression of its existing employees. This latter point is well illustrated in the staff retention rates at the firm, which have improved by five per cent in 2000 and a further six per cent in 2001. Indeed, there are some members of staff that have been with Donns throughout their careers. For example, Kath Yard has been with the firm for 30 years rising through the ranks from junior secretary to become a senior personal injury claims handler. Donns has rewarded Kath for her loyalty and commitment with a new contract in which she works four days for a five-days-a-week salary package.

Stephanie Tatton heads the training team that works to maintain and develop this record. Her role includes enhancing and maximising the skills and abilities of staff within the firm. She is also responsible for reviewing and monitoring staff training and development to ensure that all employees have the best opportunities to meet their personal ambitions and goals.

A recent initiative has been with youngsters hoping to follow a career in law. Donns has introduced a training programme giving school leavers the opportunity to learn administration and legal office-management techniques. A few candidates are then chosen to take up office junior jobs within the firm. The initiative has proved very successful this year with Meredith saying: “The programme enables youngsters interested in a future in the legal profession to gain valuable insight into how it all works and to find out more about their chosen career.”

The working environment

Many law firms are particularly keen to promote their modern, open working environments, dispelling the myth of the old-fashioned partnership with open offices, non-hierarchical management and team outings becoming the norm of the modern practice. Meredith is similarly keen to emphasise the “innovative and rewarding” culture at Donns. Staff surveys have not been carried out but Meredith says that: “Feedback from team minutes suggests that staff feel the overall standards of training have improved and that staff recognise the investment made by Donns in their own development”.

Certainly, on my tour around the firm, the idea of promoting a happy yet productive team environment was thriving, with departments working closely together in open-plan, open-door offices. I was also a personal witness to an impressive ladies bathroom including shower facilities and, an added bonus for us ladies, hairdryers, shampoos, etc. Apparently, according to a reputable source, Donns also holds an annual competition for the best decorated Christmas desk – all apt examples of a more relaxed approach to the working environment where the well-being and morale of employees is paramount.

Technology

The management and working infrastructure at Donns is paralleled by a real enthusiasm for the latest technology and Donns is clearly enjoying the benefits of adapting to the modern landscape. As Meredith says: “Technology is going to be the key to the future of legal services. The whole role of a solicitor is changing dramatically and needsto change to keep pace with the ever-changing legal market.”

Donns has spent £1m on technology and the firm’s commitment to improving its service to clients moved up a gear when it opened its files to clients via the internet. Many, if not most firms, have implemented some systems to improve office efficiency and firm profitability but few, (as our KM 2002 survey demonstrated), have yet opened up those systems to clients. Donns’s e-file-access system, however, is designed to be used by individuals and insurance partners and since its launch has received on average 1,200 visitors per month, many of which have been outside office hours.

Meredith explains that the aim of the system is to: “Enable Donns to ensure that its resources, both in terms of people and finance, are focused on progressing claims as swiftly as possible.” This will be achieved through encouraging clients to progress claims online in the first instance, rather than call with a query that could easily be resolved without necessitating telephone contact. Not only does it improve office efficiency but also client satisfaction.

A problem that has faced many law firms in a changing environment is creating cohesion between the partners and the IT department. There has often been a lack of understanding between the two and IT directors can be left frustrated and ostracised by a resistant and immovable partnership. Meredith speaks in glowing terms of the firm’s IT department headed by Manda Tiernan and she is keen to emphasise that the IT team has been integral to the success of the “e-file-access system and the firm as a whole.” Perhaps this ‘meeting of minds’ can be explained when Meredith says: “One of the most frustrating aspects for a client bringing a personal-injury claim is the traditional air of secrecy that surrounds the legal profession.” The e-file-access system was designed to throw open the doors and allow clients to read their files and notes at any given time. Perhaps it also demonstrates the open culture that is being promoted within the firm where the IT department works with, not for, the partners.

Looking into the future, much of the business strategy will be building on past success and using the firm’s growing reputation in personal injury as a stepping stone to the next phase of business development. In terms of particular projects, Meredith says that the firm will be expanding its accident-management call centre with a view to enabling insurance companies to outsource their claims-handling business. During my tour, I was shown into this very department and sure enough the brand new office is full of empty desks waiting to be filled. Obviously, Donns has no intention of standing still.

Hilary Meredith is managing partner at Donns Solicitors, Manchester. She can be contacted at: 0161 8343311 or e-mail: lawyers@donnslaw.co.uk