Law firm profile:

Simon Rous, managing partner, Bevan Ashford, EPL

Despite the economic uncertainties of recent months, Bevan Ashford has enjoyed a particularly successful year with profits per equity partner up by 41 per cent (The Legal Business 100, 2002, published in Legal Business, September 2002). Caroline Poynton talks to Simon Rous, managing partner at Bevan Ashford’s EPL profit centre, about the firm’s successes and challenges and about how his own career has developed during his 17 years with the firm.

Bevan Ashford is one of the largest regional law firms with 85 partners, 600 staff and an annual turnover of over £30million. The firm is split into two profit centres with Birmingham, Bristol and London (Chancery Lane) (BBL), comprising one and Exeter, Plymouth, London (Northumberland Avenue, Taunton and Tiverton) (EPL), the other.

Both EPL and BBL have offices in London. Chancery Lane supports the BBL health and PFI work while Northumberland Avenue services the EPL corporate deals.

Simon Rous’s career began in 1974 with Clifford Turner, now Clifford Chance, and he has worked in London, Paris, Saudi Arabia, New York and London again until his mid-thirties. Living in central London with young children (who wanted to ride their bikes and have pets), he came to a crossroads: whether to become a commuter or move out to live and work in the country. Having grown up in a rural environment and with a cottage and relatives already in the West Country, Rous decided to make the move from the City and join a local firm.

Ashfords, as Bevan Ashford was then known, came to Rous’s attention through the influence of Sir John Palmer, at the time President of the Law Society and senior partner of Ashfords. They got on well and Palmer recruited him to the firm. Considering that he had worked in corporate for nearly ten years, Rous found himself working in the private client department. He bought a farm on Exmoor and enjoyed his country pursuits.

However, the old life was not to be forgotten and corporate clients soon started to make their way to Rous’s door. Before he knew it, “I found that my following was entirely corporate”. As Rous puts it: “I made friends with local accountants such as Ernst & Young, who were quite pleased to find someone with my expertise around and deals started to happen.”

In about 1990, Rous was asked to become managing partner. With little beating about the bush, Rous made it clear that: “I don’t have any experience in management, but they said it didn’t matter, so I agreed.” And, how did he find this new world of management? “Very, very demanding. Very exciting and rewarding, but exhausting. With corporate deals, you could go home and switch off. In management, you take it home with you, you live with it, eat with it, sleep with it. It’s far more intrusive into your life because its your own business that you’re running.’ A major challenge was balancing a hectic amount of work with the pastoral care of fellow partners and fee earners. This has partly been resolved by senior recruitments and promotions to take on more client work. Since the restructuring, Rous has also been able to share and delegate many of the day-to-day management duties, thus enabling Rous to better manage the corporate deals, his strategic role on the board and his efforts for the firm’s external PR.

Back in the early days, Rous says that a major challenge was to integrate the management of the EPL offices: Exeter, Tiverton, Taunton, Plymouth (and later their London office at Northumberland Avenue).

As often happens between separate offices, there were some traditional rivalries that were clearly counter-productive for the business. Rous suggested: “A new management structure that was on a departmental rather than office basis”, for example, commercial property lawyers from all offices would work as one team. The hope was, that this would bring an end to all inter-office rivalry.

Rous admits that it took some time to implement the new structure – some employee cuts were made and a number of senior partners decided to go into retirement. Rous believes, however, that it was the obvious and sensible move to make. “It was a switch from feudal to modern corporate management where each person has to contribute and be rewarded on a fair basis.” By 1994, the transition was complete.

They had created a department driven board, which Rous believes was a great achievement. Central to the re-structuring was the appointment of a chief executive, someone who would be neutral and driven by business rather than anything else. Their choice was an accountant, Chris Hawkins.

Rous clearly admires the work that Hawkins has achieved over the years, although he says that Hawkins, largely through modesty, is often missed from press releases and has enjoyed little media attention. Despite this, Rous recognises that he has been the driver for many of the firm’s efficiencies and has proved so successful in the role that, seven years later, the Birmingham, Bristol and London (BBL) profit centre followed their lead and recruited a non-legal chief executive, Ann Conway Hughes.

Asking what qualities differentiate Bevan Ashford, EPL from the competition, Rous says: “The commitment of the team to their clients and each other.” Rous is clearly proud of the people in the firm and says that there is a “will do, can do” atmosphere that permeates the practice. The corporate structure encourages and demands a progressive outlook as teams work across departments and regions. There is a modern, centralised approach to IT and Rous is particularly keen to mention that many of the firm’s deals are done by laptop making them less dependent on the firm’s geographical location. Rous explains that the firms library delivers 35 different online and CD Rom reporting and precedent services via the intranet so they can be accessed by Bevan Ashford EPL lawyers wherever they may be working, in the office or abroad.

On an individual level, the corporate restructuring has also engendered a spirit of meritocracy with transparency of performance comprising a key characteristic of the day-to-day working environment. A company intranet records everyone’s time, billing and cash collection. Everyone can read this information and other legal management tools in real time. A junior trainee, for example, could check to see if Simon Rous is up on budget for the month. “The good thing is that it is a declaration throughout the whole team that none of us is sacrosanct and all of us are here to work together.” This self-auditing function also means that there is little need to go round bullying people to do more work as their efforts are there for everyone to see. Rous says that it is not unknown for a partner to ask to take a lower cut in pay based on their poor performance over a bad year, “indicating a staggering level of good morale in the firm.”

Much of the above could explain why Bevan Ashford EPL has enjoyed a 41 per cent increase in profit per equity partner in the past year. However, many firms have struggled despite a legacy of strong management. Is there anything else that Rous believes has contributed to the past year’s success? “Profitability isn’t just about the business that comes in, it’s also about good cost control.” Rous says that Chris Hawkins has been instrumental in this area, ensuring that money is spent efficiently, that departments are all working profitably (if not, then does one need pruning?) and that the firm has the right number of employees. Too many staff members and there’s too much salary to pay, too few and the client is left unhappy.

Rous thinks another criteria for success has been the diversified business. Bevan Ashford EPL is a full-service business that includes corporate as well as private client work. This means that the corporate director, who needs help with his inheritance tax planning for example, need not be referred to another firm. As Rous says: “keeping private and corporate smooths out the peaks and the troughs, and keeps the clients close.”

Rous also believes that Bevan Ashford EPL has successfully built a reputation for quality. The firm addresses a very diversified market both geographically and in terms of its service offerings. However, the characteristic that Rous believes clients see above all else is a quality firm that’s “hungry” to take on new challenges, that: “Doesn’t just stick within the template but always pushes at the edges.”’ As a regional firm, it also has a huge price advantage. A client has a choice between paying City rates of £450 an hour or £150 an hour for lawyers with roughly the same qualifications but based in the regions. The firm’s reputation for quality and price is also no small boast particularly when the market takes a downturn.

Rous admits that one of the challenges the firm has, and will probably always face, is attracting top recruits from London firms. “There’s a herd instinct for people to stick to the metropolis, especially when times are hard, so our ability to sell ourselves has been incredibly important.” The challenge is continual and while the firm is well-used to such difficulties, its rapid growth combined with long lead times to recruit staff has led to enormous pressures on support services that have been resolved with long hours and the exceptional commitment of the firm’s core management and support team.

Although Bevan Ashford EPL has a London office, it works hard to attract good people to the regions. Convincing someone to make the move is not always easy, but for many, as with Rous, it will be a lifestyle decision that the firm knows it can sell to potential recruits. “We say that you don’t have to live in central London, you can live somewhere like Exeter where the schools and amenities are good, where you’re close to the coast and the moors, and only two hours from London by train. You can enjoy equally interesting international work and live somewhere nice.” Although the firm cannot offer the same salaries as London firms, there are lower overheads – housing is a little cheaper as is the cost of living.

A profit-sharing scheme is one of the methods of retaining people and employees can earn a “very generous bonus based not only on individual, but team performance”. Equally, the firm has a transparent criteria for promotion that can be read on the intranet. In this way, all employees know what they have to do to move to the next level, whether that be winning clients, gaining expertise in a certain specialisation or reaching certain billing levels. Rous says: “It makes people feel that they’re in control of their destinies and are not trapped in a position.”

Training and development are seen as equally crucial, and courses are held every week day over lunch. Every department has a senior person who arranges training and ensures that everyone gets their CPD points. If anyone goes away on a course, they have to present what they’ve learnt to the team. As well as legal training and development, the firm holds regular courses in association with Exeter University, in areas such as negotiation, public speaking and presentation skills. The hope is that, while enabling individuals to make the most of their potential, such efforts reinforce a team spirit throughout the firm. Support personnel also receive relevant training and are encouraged to gain further qualifications.

On a final note, Rous is keen to mention that retaining people is about engendering a fun working environment. The firm holds Christmas and summer parties as well as end-of-week drinks. Having only just returned from a team weekend surfing, Bevan Ashford EPL clearly sets few bounds on team nurturing possibilities.

So, what about the future? The incremental growth of past years has been based on a forward-looking philosophy and competitive pricing. Rous expects this to continue well into the future. He feels it unlikely that Bevan Ashford EPL will open offices all round the country as the current firm-wide belief is that you don’t need lots of offices to have a widespread mix of clients. Rather: “We will maximise our ability to go out and do deals with laptops. Being able to do the deal there and then is very powerful and clients love it. I don’t see any limit on that. As long as we have one or two big centres, a platform in London and the ability to travel, you don’t need much else.”

As for his personal position, Rous will remain in his current role for at least another ten years. “I think the only way that my role will change is, as my team gets bigger, I will delegate more and do more supervision, team morale and PR work, and probably less on the side of drafting shareholder agreements until four o’clock in the morning.” With the coast and the moors just next door, who can blame him?

Simon Rous is managing partner at Bevan Ashford EPL. He can be contacted at s.rous@bevan-ashford.com.