denotes premium content | Jul 7 2008 Managing Partner magazine archive
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 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 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 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 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.
