Managing Partner archive

Volume 6 Issue 4

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.

For the largest firms, life is sweet, as global recognition is reinforced by sheer physical presence. For mid-tier firms, however, the competition is fierce and sustaining profitability has become a fight for differentiation among firms of the same size, offering inevitably similar services. Meanwhile, the struggle for many smaller firms has become even more fundamental, as conveyancing and personal-injury work disappears into a bulk market, and high street solicitors find themselves doubting their very survival.

In such an environment, magic-circle firms have long enjoyed dominance but, beyond size, what really characterises a firm like Clifford Chance? Many a client would be hard pushed to say. Not that other firms are much better. Take a trawl through any number of law-firm websites and the services quickly melt into one business proposition, with barely a linguistic anomaly to distinguish one website from another.

Thankfully, it is not all bad news. Prospects are good for those prepared to meet the challenges head on, embracing rather than fearing change, and making the most of the opportunities presented by even the hardest landscape.

Among these are the firms working hard to integrate marketing into the core culture of the business and for many, it is a long while since it has been seen as a support function, focused merely on delivering the headed notepaper or latest brochure. Marketing directors are getting closely involved in partner training, client-relationship development and even internal HR processes, as firms acknowledge that the people they recruit and retain are essential ambassadors for the firm’s business proposition.

In this issue, marketing representatives from Taylor Wessing, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Baker & McKenzie and Addleshaw Goddard talk about their marketing strategies and the extent to which law-firm marketing has evolved as firms adopt business-management strategies and corporate structures. Their ideas reflect a sea change in law-firm thinking, the effects of which will impact the marketplace for many years to come. In particular, the successful use of marketing could alter the line-up of law-firm league tables as those that successfully differentiate themselves make essential strides to overtake the competition.

If you would be interested in hearing more from those who have provided comments for this month’s marketing feature, you will be pleased to hear that they will be speaking at more length at our strategic marketing conference, which will be held on 29-30 September at the Hilton Olympia Hotel, London. For more information, or to see a brochure for the event, contact James Renton at jrenton@ark-group.com or contact the conference team on 020 8787 2700.

Caroline Poynton
Editor

Features

Marketing Q&A - The crucial difference: The role for marketing in the survival of the smaller firm Free
A lot of marketing features focus on strategies suitable for larger firms looking to expand or internationalise their services. What happens, however, when marketing becomes an essential tool in the fight for survival? Caroline Poynton asks Mark Slade, partner at Fidler & Pepper, for the lowdown on marketing and the smaller firm.

How to get ahead in marketing Free
Marketing is still a fairly new concept for the legal profession, but times are changing as rapidly as the competition is intensifying. Caroline Poynton talks to marketing representatives at Taylor Wessing, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Addleshaw Goddard and Baker & McKenzie about their marketing strategies and just how far they’ll go to secure competitive advantage.

Lawyers and marketing: Slow to learn and quick to forget? Free
It has been a tough year for law firms with increased competition, a continuing state of economic uncertainty and the pressures of more demanding client expectations. In such an environment, firms should be making the most of the many marketing opportunities now available to the legal profession but, as Nick Jarrett-Kerr of Edge International argues, it remains an area much underrated and abused.

Key account management: The cutting edge of business-to-business client development Free
Consolidation in the marketplace has created a fierce battlefield for firms competing for the biggest clients. For those who fail to think ahead, it will be a long-term struggle for short-term survival, and many will fall by the wayside along the way. Professor Malcolm McDonald, professor of marketing and deputy director at the Cranfield School of Management, argues the case for key account management in this difficult landscape, explaining how it can turn hardship into opportunity and profit.

The whys and wherefores of the relationship partner Free
For many lawyers, who have worked for so long within the individualistic culture of the partnership model, firm-wide client management is an elusive dream, rarely fulfilled. Ian Reaves, partner in charge of client development at Hammonds, argues that the answer lies with the relationship partner, a position that can drive a firm and its people to new heights of success and profitability.

Legal technology: Opportunities, implementation, strategy Free
This month’s marketing Q&A with Mark Slade of Fidler & Pepper raises some pertinent issues in regard to legal technology. Smaller firms have quite different commercial imperatives, with numerous challenges leaving many fighting for survival rather than competitive advantage. The conveyancing and personal-injury cash cows of the high street solicitor have all been eroded by competition and the growth of the bulk market, and it is feared that many will disappear over the coming months and years.

Making the intranet the “place to be” Free
What do you do when your intranet is out-of-date, under-utilised and doesn’t meet the needs of your organisation? You redesign it, says the Law Society’s head of knowledge management Fiona Parkinson, and knowledge architect Sarah Benfield. They explain how the introduction of a common information system and a crystal-clear taxonomy is finally making the Society’s intranet a crucial resource.

Nice doing business with you: A new form of legal service delivery in a competitive age Free
Lawyers Direct was launched in August 2002. The company manages over 50 highly experienced consultant lawyers available to law firms and in-house legal departments on an hourly basis and at very short notice. Managing Partner talks to the company’s managing director, James Knight, about the challenges faced by this unique business.

Regulars

All change on the legal front Free
Admittedly, law firms are beginning to use an array of marketing strategies to win that all-elusive competitive advantage, but the profession as a whole is still criticised for being in the slow lane, lagging far behind industry in the race to adopt marketing and sales as an integral part of the business culture. Caroline Poynton talks to Mike Jones, the first appointed sales director of a UK law firm, about his role and how he might just change the legal perception of sales.