Knowledge is power
Leaving a solicitor’s understanding of your firm to chance is not conducive to either continuous development or competitive advantage. If you really want to ensure your law firm operates effectively as a business, and one that grows in line with its people, it’s essential to align individual professional skills and technical expertise to the firm’s strategic objectives.
We can help you to create this alignment, enabling solicitors (and support staff), who may otherwise find these concepts alien, to engage with them and realise the opportunities they present. We will encourage your people to understand how your law firm works in its commercial environment, as well as the importance of working within clear business objectives. Harnessing understanding and alignment in this way creates a virtuous, self-sustaining circle of buy-in, communication, motivation and enthusiasm.
Tailored Training
Our flexible, individual approach means that we can develop and structure training workshops that are truly bespoke to the needs of your law firm.
We’d be happy to discuss how we can resolve your specific issues and help achieve your ambitions.
Contact us today to discuss how we can help you.
Sample workshops – just a few of the ways we can help you to transform your law firm:
Strategic Leadership
Specifically designed to underpin and support your strategic objectives by developing leadership and organisational skills wherever needed. Key questions answered include:
- What do we mean by strategy, the strategic planning process and why do we need to plan?
- What is competitive advantage; how do we attain it and how do we keep it?
- What is meant by leadership, the levels of leadership and how can leadership models help?
The Workshop will also identify:
- The steps needed to develop a strategic business plan – whether for the firm, team or individual solicitor or support team member.
- How to understand and align firm and team structures to support the strategic business plan.
Commercial awareness and understanding the professional market
It’s essential that all partners/directors, managers, fee earners and support staff understand the effects of commercial pressures on your current business model. Having proven especially effective and popular in the current climate, these workshops can include:
- An overview of the external market; the economic environment and learnings from other professions and industries.
- The changing financial environment and the effects on professional firms.
- Understanding how professional firms are financed; profitability drivers and the need to work more efficiently and profitably.
- How to change the emphasis from fees billed to profitability, what this means for the way we work and the move to value pricing models.
- The impact of changing client needs and delivering services accordingly.
Financial Management
We know that an increased understanding of the finances underpinning your firm is essential to safeguarding future profits. We’re also acutely aware of how the move towards more innovative value pricing models and fixed fees, particularly when combined with reduced client spending, means firms must look more closely at profitability. Our workshops will give you a clear understanding of the key drivers behind effective financial management.
- How the law firm is currently funded and the funding opportunities provided by new business models.
- Financial and capital management of the law firm.
- The management of the operating cycle by managing lock-up and identifying key improvement areas both as an organisation and as individual managers/fee earners.
- The importance of pricing and planning work more efficiently and then effectively managing all client matters to maximise profitability.
- Financial controls and presenting financial information in a more user-friendly format to obtain buy-in from all levels.
Risk & Regulatory Management
The Legal Services Act 2007 and the introduction of outcomes-focused regulation means all solicitors now operate in an even more regulated environment. So, assessing and managing risk in terms of reputation, profession, regulation and finance is essential to the running of an effective, efficient law firm.
We answer your key questions:
- What is risk and how should it be interpreted?
- What does the new regulatory environment (post Legal Services Act) mean for law firms and how they organise themselves?
We can also help you to understand:
- Key areas within the new codes of Conduct and how they underpin strong client relationships.
- How to assess the risks of conducting a client matter: identifying their objectives, potential vulnerability and then scoping and pricing the matter properly.
- The importance of good communication and record-keeping.
Enabling excellent client care
Good customer relationship management (CRM) brings benefits to every aspect of the law firm. Meeting (or exceeding) the expectations of current clients brings referrals, impresses prospects and encourages professional partners to refer their clients. We will show you how to:
- Assess what a quality service means to your client base, your law firm and your teams, in line with regulatory requirements.
- Translate the theory into practical measures that enable excellent client care.
- Develop practical best-practice ideas, systems and processes at every stage.
- Lead by example, think ahead and anticipate potential problems.
- Understand clients’ aspirations and frame an appropriate firm wide response – the cross-sell opportunity.
