Innovative solutions – a law firm profile

While the uncertain economy has seen many law firms working doubly hard only to stand still, Manchester law firm Rowe Cohen has seen its turnover increase by over 60 per cent to £13 million in the past year. Managing Partner examines the background to this success to see what lessons other professional firms can learn from Rowe Cohen’s formula.

From this unexceptional start, the firm now boasts 16 partners, over 250 staff, a turnover in excess of £13 million, spacious offices in the heart of Manchester’s legal ‘village’ and a second office in London’s west end. This growth has been achieved organically without any suggestion of acquisition or merger.

“Our turnover has more than doubled in the past two years alone,” says Ivor Rowe. “Happily, our reputation is growing in direct proportion to our size and people in business and industry, and within the profession, have started to take notice of us. To achieve this level of growth we’ve needed to regularly win instructions from institutions and businesses that we haven’t previously dealt with. We’re now the seventh or eighth largest firm in the region.”

Managing the firm as a business

“Undoubtedly, one of the main things that sets us apart is that we run the practice like a business,” adds Rowe. “In addition to regular partner meetings, we have a management board that meets every two weeks to decide on strategic business issues. We took a decision from the outset not to become another faceless corporate law firm but to identify and specialise in niche areas that had growth potential. We wanted to push past the traditional boundaries for law firms. We recognised the different skills in managing wholesale services to the more handcrafted services. It is important they all complement and blend with each other. It seems to have worked.

“As time went on we realised that the firm couldn’t continue to grow on the expertise or drive of just the founding partners, so we set up the board in order to play to the different strengths of all the partners involved.”

Partner Graham Small, who sits on the management board, is keen to point out that only matters of strategic business interest are discussed at these meetings. “We have an inclusive management style and avoid talking about things like administration, quality assurance, day-to-day marketing issues and internal structures.” Instead, he says: “We focus on ways to approach new business and discuss directions in which we feel the practice could grow. That might mean discussing new sectors to target, new services to offer or strategic alliances we feel we should pursue.”

The partners all agree that taking external advice has also been key to the firm’s success. Four years ago, it appointed chartered accountant Anthony Leon as financial consultant to the firm and were delighted when he also accepted the role of non-executive chairman last year.

“This is quite a remarkable firm,” says Leon. “The individuals involved are quite unique in my experience because they are prepared to take advice. One of the drawbacks of being in a profession that sells consultation and advice for a living is that there is often a reluctance to buy it in.

“The legal profession has its fair share of inflated egos, the sort of people who think their legal training and knowledge encompasses every aspect of commerce. To their credit, the partners of Rowe Cohen don’t suffer from the belief that they have a monopoly on business acumen. They’re prepared to listen to advice from other professions.”

Unusually for a mid-sized firm, Rowe Cohen also has a full-time, dedicated quality assurance manager who is guiding the practice through Investors in People and LEXCEL.

“As we grow it is essential that the foundations and building blocks remain solid,” Simon Cohen says. “By having someone whose job it is to ensure that everything to do with running the practice is managed well – monitoring everything from fee-earners time allocation through to case management systems – we are able to grow with total confidence. Knowing that this management process is under control gives the partners freedom to practice law and the management board freedom to focus on strategic decisions.

“We don’t believe in fee-earners wasting valuable time worrying about day-to-day business issues.”

Hiding lights under bushels

The firm has also invested in PR and marketing over the past three years and has noticed the benefits of a heightened profile.

Founding partner Ian Lewis says: “There are those in the profession who still frown on marketing and publicity, as though promotion is somehow inconsistent with the gentlemanly professional virtues of self-effacement and personal modesty. We see no conflict whatsoever between our professional principles and legitimately promoting the firm’s interest.

“It’s simply a matter of letting people know who we are, what we do well and how to reach us. If we do something noteworthy or interesting we have no compunction about publicising it.”

The partners also believe that the firm’s heavy investment in state-of-the-art IT and case management systems, and top quality people to operate them, is paying dividends. Lewis says, “If electronic tools are available to manage essential data more quickly, more efficiently and more reliably, it seems absurd to cling to less efficient methods. Again, in this sense, we see ourselves as a business. What possible excuse is there for operating a business less efficiently than possible?”

Hand picked

The firm takes the recruitment of partners particularly seriously. Most of the more recent partnerships have been created on the recommendation of existing partners in the belief that there is no substitute for proven ability and reputation.

Rowe Cohen’s Manchester office has the advantage of having a regional legal fraternity numbered in thousands from which to draw, although increasing numbers of candidates are attracted from elsewhere around the country. “In prosperous times like these, the ‘cloth cap and satanic mills’ cliché doesn’t hold much sway,” says Lewis. “Candidates weigh up their career options, remuneration package, lifestyle choices, commuting times and family resources and make an informed decision. Our recruits from the south-east don’t seem in any particular hurry to go back.”

Growing pains

The Rowe Cohen partners believe that taking on-board another firm with different guiding principles and, perhaps, a less businesslike culture could dissipate their winning formula rather then enhance it. The firm has rejected merger proposals and is disinclined to grow by merger or acquisition simply because of the cultural upheaval such a move would entail.

Careful management of existing staff is seen as one of the essential prerequisites of rapid growth. “Our extremely selective recruitment policy has meant that we’ve had to handle potentially over-worked staff very sensitively,” says Simon Cohen. “Again, it comes down to trust. If you are asking someone to put in a lot of extra effort until a recruitment brief is filled they have to trust that you are not exploiting their willingness and enthusiasm. It’s also important that everyone feels they have a stake in the growth and success we’re achieving. Ultimately, they have to believe that the growing pains are in their interest, too.”

Training

One of the firms most recent but most successful investments has been in partner training. A structured training programme has been carried out by external advisers aimed at improving the partner’s relationship marketing skills. “Everyone in the profession likes to think they’ve got their networking skills finely tuned, but the reality is very different,” says Small. “Joining a golf club or the round table is not necessarily the answer.

“We’ve learnt how to network more effectively, how to handle our clients even better and how to structure ‘pitches’ for new work. We’ve all taken something out of the programme, although to be honest, we all dragged our heels a lot at the beginning.”

The service profile

“Much of our increased fee income has come from building on our core areas of strength, namely personal injury and corporate/commercial litigation,” says Lewis, “but we are constantly looking over the horizon for new opportunities to offer specialist expertise and trying to keep one step ahead of the competition by identifying future markets.

“For example, we had Human Rights expertise long before it became fashionable and have also set up other niche departments dealing with data protection, carriage of goods and public inquiries.

“We have a healthy and growing demand for our services in the Commercial Property, Employment, Trading Standards, Statutory Licensing and Health and Safety sectors, too.”

Rowe Cohen has also made a point of carefully cultivating a number of large national professional associations and trade organisations. The opening of a London office was part of the firm’s long-term business strategy because international clients and many national organisations still regard representation in London as essential.

The future

The firm’s aim is to be the natural first choice law firm for a broad range of legal specialisms. The partners are committed to continuously improving the services and facilities on offer and providing tailored, innovative, sometimes unconventional, solutions to client’s problems. The partners feel that this approach has been the single, most evident reason for their success.

Twelve years of sustained growth has produced a clearly identifiable philosophy, keenly focused objectives and singular clarity of purpose. Underpinning this sense of purpose is awareness that the firm’s performance could not have been achieved without strong client relationships based upon understanding, trust and communication. Partner involvement is seen as crucial.

Lewis believes the firm’s formula for success is very simple: “We have identified trends in the market place and have been innovative in meeting these needs. We have kept focused on our goals and, most importantly, give clients value for money, providing hands-on partner involvement whenever it’s needed.

“We didn’t set out to be one of the most dynamic firms in the country but we certainly intended to be one of the most innovative. In the event, innovation has been the key to our growth. The irony of this apparent contradiction has not escaped us.”

For further information, please contact Ian Lewis at Rowe Cohen on 0161 830 4600 or Ruth Shearn at ruth@rmspr.co.uk.