Monthly Archives: March 2011

Mar 16

Accountant, Andrew Taylor joins the team

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We have continued our expansion with the appointment of Andrew Taylor as a Financial Management Consultant.  Andrew has experience as Finance Director at a variety of law firms and has been advising professional service firms on financial and business management for over 20 years.  As a qualified accountant (FCCA), he is able to advise on a wide range of strategic and operational issues including financial control, costs and cash management; review of reporting systems and overall business improvement.

Andrew’s arrival further strengthens Inpractice UK and its specialist merger team which advises legal clients on all aspects of a merger; from a high level strategic approach to the practicalities of consolidating databases to facilitate mergers on any scale.

Key areas of expertise include profit improvement , focusing on measures to improve financial managementa nd financial due dilgence on mergers.  Experience that law firms can tap into at this time of change in the legal market includes: a) Managing partnership growth from a turnover of £7.5m to £14.0m in 5 years with corresponding growth in profitability; b) Sale of professional practice business to a quoted PLC,  handling preparations for sale, due diligence and integration into the PLC business; and, c) Successful integration of acquired business into a PLC, merging existing and another acquired business into a £30m multi-site, UK wide business.

Commenting on his decision to join Inpractice UK, Andrew Taylor said:  “I’m delighted to join the team.  By working with law firms to increase margins and profits through critical review and a focus on KPIs, Inpractice UK is fast establishing itself as one of the UK’s leading legal consultancies.  I am very much looking forward to working with our clients to help them improve their financial processes and, where appropriate, to prepare them for and guide them through  the merger process.”

Andrew’s arrival is the next piece in the jigsaw in terms of creating a one stop shop for the UK legal sector.  He has a hands-on approach and the ability to quickly assimilate business needs and transform these into practical, profit enhancing measures.  With a track record for improving performance, his appointment is a very positive development for the business.

Andrew is a member of the Inpractice UK specialist merger team and involved in transition of traditional legal practices to LLP, Limited company and Alternative Business Structures (ABS’).  In addition to Allan Carton and Andrew Taylor, this team includes recently appointed IT specialist Damian Griffiths, technology expert Andrew Simmans, Richard Blasdale, a specialist in IT systems selection and implementation and Rita Maguire, a HR and personal development consultant.

The legal services marketplace is continuing to consolidate and further M & A activity is a definite marker on the horizon.  Our team is continuing to expand and we are well positioned to serve the needs of our clients moving forward.

Mar 10

£50,000 Incentive for Innovation – just launched

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Most law firms are looking at new ways of delivering legal services, where innovation will lead to radical change in some areas of operation in forward-looking law firms; internally and client-facing.  The best ideas will come from your people … or your clients if you talk to them enough about ways to improve and modernise your service.

Would you deal your people into this initiaive from Barclays? It might prompt them to dig a bit deeper with clients and colleagues for your benefit?  But you only have until 27th April 2011 to do it – so you need to make a quick decision.  Are you prepared to let them spend time thinking about this?

Barclays Business – Take One Small Step Competition (launched 7th March):

This is a Great Britain-wide business competition with cash prizes worth £50,000 on offer for nine regional businesses that can best demonstrate passion, ambition and a great entrepreneurial idea.  The competition is run through two-stages.  A panel of judges will initially select three finalists per region, but the overall winners will be chosen as a result of a public vote held on the competition’s website.        

Initial entries will be assessed against the following criteria:

  • Originality.
  • Suitability.
  • Likelihood of success.
  • Quality and attention to detail in the application.

The brief for business ideas is open – it could be a lifelong ambition or a recent brainwave. It could be a personal experience or a distant dream. Even a revolutionary concept that changes the world. It is an open invitation, and anyone with a great business idea and the drive to make it happen could win.

Interested applicants must submit an online entry at the competition website. They also have the option of uploading a video to support their entry. These videos must: 

  • Last a maximum of two minutes.
  • Be less than 100MB.
  • Not include illegal content.

Initial entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges, who will come up with a shortlist of three finalists for each of the 10 regions. The overall winners in each region will be decided by a public vote on the competition website. 

Contact us for more information on how to apply if you are interested.

If this doesn’t fit for you, are there other ways you can motivate your people to come up with new ideas to challenge old ways?  Could you run your own internal competition.  You may offer smaller prize for the winner but winnning ideas could be worth a lot to your practice.

Allan Carton