denotes premium content | Oct 8 2008 Managing Partner archive
Volume 4 Issue 2
Features
Let’s make support effective!
Law firms, like other professional practices, have made significant investments in support services to fee earners. There is also, in our sector, a growing interest in improving cost effectiveness in this area. Glynne Roberts, of WDS Consulting, highlights some truths behind ineffectiveness and outlines how practices might review aspects of their support services. Significant gain potential is there for the taking but some challenging questions may need answering.
Profiting from increased competition and new markets
Competition is an accepted part of legal professional practice. The forces of deregulation and new technology are set to alter the shape of competition in the legal services industry. In this article, Ben Horton of FirstLAW explores the purchasing priorities of clients and lawyers, and the response to the concept of the first regulated on-line legal services marketplace.
Rethinking the law firm business model
Talk of a global recession may be overly pessimistic, but it is clear that the world economy is, at the very least, slowing down. Now is a good time for law firms to take a long and hard look at business practices to ensure they are positioned to weather any downturn. David Thorpe, European general manager of Elite Information Systems, advises a back-to-basics approach.
The case for KM
In spite of their notorious hostility to change, the potential benefits knowledge management promises firms operating in a sector as knowledge intensive as the legal industry are palpable. Simon Lelic, editor of Knowledge Management magazine, talks to representatives from CMS Cameron McKenna, Mondaq, Perceptive Technology, ResSoft, Sherwood PSF Consulting, Smartlogik and TFPL, and discusses the impact KM has had on the industry.
Using IT to reduce costs
Martin Tolhurst Partnership is a provincial firm that chose a difficult time to upgrade network. The millennium had just passed and legal practices were undergoing a period of upheaval with widely publicised changes to legal aid and civil litigation, not to mention the growth in other organisations that were offering the public advice on subjects that have traditionally been the preserve of the high street practitioner. Stewart Thompson, the IT manager at Martin Tolhurst Partnership, discusses how the new system has slashed costs and improved the way the partnership works.
Why strategic planning does not work!
While some claim that profit-per-partner is growing (and for some it has been) don’t be fooled, it is not going to last much longer for those playing the game by following the same old rules. Patrick McKenna of Edge International discusses how law firms should actively challenge the traditional concepts of management and embrace a new approach to the time old problem of strategic planning.
