Tag Archives: Business Improvement

May 07

ABS – Take time to know your investors; they will certainly take time to get to know you

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I attended the Modern Law Conference, which focused on the new world of ABS’s last week; a well attended and interesting event; particularly because there was a good number of unfamiliar faces there.  The most interesting session for me was the one involving a panel mostly of investors who have actually invested in law firms, which included:Allan Carton (Hi Res) SMS, Sept 12 - small v2

  • Iain Kennedy from Duke Street (Parabis)
  • John Llwelleyn-Lloyd from Espirito Santo
  • Jordan Mayo from Smedvig Capital (MyHomeMove)
  • Steve Arundale from NatWest
  • Trevor Howarth from Stobart Group

The two key messages from this for me?

  1. For whatever reason, and we discussed a few - it has taken a long time for each investor and law firm that has taken up external investment to establish enough trust and a relationship between investor and law firm to get all parties comfortable enough to do a deal that can work for all.  For both Parabis and MyHomeMove, there was a gestation period in the region of 6 years before any deal was done.  This may accelerate now. However, well considered business relationships take time in any business sector and it would be normal in any sector for a relationship between business and investor to take at least a year to develop.  Anyone acting hastily should be regarded warily.  A key conclusion was that law firms that want to secure investors within the next two years need to be initiating discussions now.  Lawyers need to recognise the role of investors in developing the business and their own role in what can become a quite different and faster moving business world once investment has been secured.
  2. Until now, the number of attractive investor deals has been very low.  Jordan Mayo of Smedvig commented that they had probably had discussions with up to 100 firms over the years … but have only done one deal!

A useful resume of other key points from the Law Gazette …

Law firms will continue to be unattractive to private equity investors until they improve how they present their financial situation and partners invest their own cash, leading investors said recently.  John Llewellyn-Lloyd, head of professional services at investment bank Espirito Santo, said external investment was the best way to ensure the future of firms, but potential backers were often put off by uncertainty over financials.

Llewellyn-Lloyd told the Modern Law conference that up to 8,000 firms will seek mergers or disappear altogether over the next five to 10 years. ‘Bank debt will be far less plentiful in the future – the professional services industry is going to see less debt and if partners won’t put their hands in their pockets you will have to go to external investors,’ he said.

‘But they need to feel there is a culture of internal investment. It’s very important to have your existing revenue generators all keen on owning shares in the business – if they’re not it’s highly unlikely they’ll be first in the queue for investment.’

Jordan Mayo, managing director of equity investor Smedvig Capital, said a number of firms had approached his company about additional finance, but market uncertainty and the firms’ business plans had prevented any deals. ‘We’ve spoken to 50 to 100 firms in the last year but have not invested in one yet,’ he added.

Llewellyn-Lloyd said it was inevitable that medium-sized firms would reduce in number in the coming years as non-lawyers enter the market and big brands dominate. ‘The legal profession has 20 times more firms than accountancy, which itself is still consolidating,’ he said. ‘There is no way to go but efficiency and consolidation – there are likely to be a handful of firms left in the middle market.’

More interesting commentary on this article here

Allan Carton

May 01

Launch of Greater Manchester Chamber’s Legal Sector Employer (EOS) Initiative

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GMCC Legal Sector EOS launchAround 100 people attended this launch at MMU Business School on 24 April, bringing together senior management from local law firms with Heads of local secondary schools and Sixth Form Colleges.

Go here to DOWNLOAD your free copy of the booklet that introduces what the Legal Sector Employer Skills Group (ESG) is hoping to achieve; aiming to help lawyers become more agile, competitive and sustainable, backed by significant Government funding under the Employer Ownership of Skills initiative which impacts widely on business development.

Working alongside Greater Manchester Chamber and the 9 legal practices leading the ESG, we are currently helping more local legal practices – of all sizes and focus – to get involved in this initiative.

Contact Allan Carton on 0161 929 8355 or acarton@inpractice.co.uk if you would like copy of the slides from the presentations or are otherwise interested in exploring this further.

Apr 28

NEW PUBLICATION: Targeting Profitability: Strategies to Improve Law Firm Performance

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Targeting ProfitabilityI wrote a chapter for this book, published recently by Ark Group in association with Managing Partner.

The book comprises 110 pages of condensed content and brings together the views of 14 respected experts in law firm profitability from the the UK and US outlining specific areas within a law firm that can be targeted to introduce improvements, adapt processes and training – to generate an increase in profitability.  The other contributors are Tony Williams, Toby Brown, Robin Dicks, Susan Saltonstall Duncan, Steve Gale, Phil Gott, Brian Helweg-Larsen, Partrick McKenna, Simon Nash, Michael Roch, Joel A. Rose, Richard Tromans and Ori Weiner.

My section “Shifting the IT Focus to Developing Integrated Business Solutions” reinforces a lot of what we are doing with law firms at the minute to help firms address strategic issues where effective use of IT is part of the solution.  So there is commentary here to explain the rationale and give some tips on how to ensure the success of initiatives that are critical to most law firms now to ensure the business is sustainable and profitable.  Initiatives relate to:

  • Management of the new role of the in-house IT team
  • Management reporting, KPI’s and effective performance management
  • Client relationship management (CRM) systems and ethos
  • Proactive Performance management (again) and HR systems
  • Introduction of “lean” business processes
  • Adoption of technology on risk management and compliance; and,
  • Adoption of managed and hosted IT services

DOWNLOAD - Free Exec Summary & Sample Chapter and Buy The Book Here >>

Allan Carton

Apr 12

Launch of Legal Apprenticeships a “watershed moment” for law firms and students

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Firms now have ‘alternative recruitment choices’, Skills for Justice chief says Alan Woods, chief executive of Skills for Justice (SfJ) has said law firms now have ‘alternative recruitment choices’ following the launch of the new Higher Apprenticeship in Legal Services on Monday.

Woods described launch of the scheme as a “watershed moment” which could change legal businesses “absolutely for the better”.

The new legal apprenticeship, developed by SfJ, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), CILEx, Damar Training and Pearson, is equivalent to the first year of a degree and offers school leavers a professional pathway to becoming a qualified fee-earner or paralegal.

The launch came at the kick-off to National Apprenticeship Week, the National Apprenticeship Service’s annual drive to celebrate and promote apprenticeships across all UK businesses and industries.

Acknowledging the dramatic changes being experienced by the legal sector, Woods said it would only be with the benefit of hindsight that we could understand their full extent.

Woods said: “We will of course await final publication of the legal education and training review to see how alternative routes to accessing the solicitor’s profession will work.

“What is really important is that there are now opportunities for legal services businesses to develop alternative recruitment choices, and they do create a quality path for young people to work appropriately at all levels” he said, adding that the new framework was “developed for employers”.

In a speech the following morning at a seminar hosted by Lord Neuberger at the House of Lords, Woods expanded on the benefit of the apprenticeships for businesses, highlighting the government’s investment in apprentice training and saying “apprentices can change your business absolutely for the better”.

The government covers the cost of training for all apprentices between 16 and 18, up to their nineteenth birthday. Additionally, the Apprenticeship Grants for Employers scheme offers £1,500 for small businesses, under 1,000 employees, if they take on an apprentice and have not already recruited one in the past year.

Source: The Solicitors Journal

Jan 29

Insights to inform your IT Strategy

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Check out these questions please as I’m sure you’ll want to hear what others have to say in these areas to help inform your decisions on IT going forward.

We’re getting good responses and revealing insights back from good IT people in legal businesses in this short, candid (just 5 minutes to complete) snap survey of legal IT Directors and Managers, but we can only share them with you if you take part.

GO HERE TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY >>

Completing this questionnaire really will take no more than 5 minutes, although I know even that is hard to find; but you can then sit back and wait for us to come back with a report on the compiled results.

Your responses will be treated in absolute confidence and we will provide you with that report on our findings within 28 days.

Allan Carton

Jan 24

Pointers to Improve Performance. Law Soc, LSB and MoJ Research highlights outsourced IT and better client relationship management.

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It’s worth checking out this recent substantial piece of research conducted jointly by the Law Society (E&W), Legal Services Board and Ministry of Justice with 2007 solicitors’ practices ranging from sole practitioners to large corporate practices, giving a representative snapshot of the legal profession.

Section 5 of the report on pages 51 to 55 summarises the authors’ key findings and conclusions.

However here are the key pointers I pulled from the report that resonate for me.   They are useful indicators to guide some of the work we’re doing with law firms; helping them to shift gear in developing a more sustainable business strategy and model going fowards, so I hope they help you plan your next moves too.

Two key areas worth exploring that can improve profitability:

  1. Outsourcing IT – where there’s a spectrum of options to choose from now
  2. Better management of existing client relationships – see below.

Some Key Findings:

  • 27% were niche firms – i.e. they conducted at least 90% of their work in just one work category with crime the most prevalent area of specialism followed in rank by Family/Matrimonial, Personal Injury and Property /Planning.
  • Mean turnover across the range was £4.2m but the median was £261,881, with 24% of respondents showing turnover of less than £100,000 and just 10% over £1m.
  • Measuring productivity as “turnover generated by each fee earner”, the statistically rationalised (see pages 22 and 23) mean was £102,933 and the median £82,091 – but with some fee earners earning more than £1m.
  • Firms undertaking commercial and personal injury work seem to have fared best to date.
  • Firms with 25% or more of their work in Property or Crime were more likely than others to report a drop in turnover by 10% or more.
  • Firms with 25% or more of their work in wills were significantly less likely than others to report an increase on turnover of more than 10%.

Through statistical modelling, the researchers concluded that better turnover per fee earner (used as the simplest measure of  productivity) is produced by firms where they handle more repeat clients.  75% or more repeat clients is equated to an 8% increase in productivity… (However … where 75% or more of clients were repeat clients, these firms were also more likely to report a decrease in turnover of 10% or more – so they haven’t got their approach to managing relationships, pricing and delivering value right!).

Firms involved in outsourcing their IT also perform better; associated with a 17% increase in productivity.  Fimrs actively using media advertising also fare well, being associated with a 10% increase in productivity. Membership of networks like Quality Solicitors was considered to have no relationship to improved productivity.  Firms with a workload that comprises over 50% Personal injury work are also more productive, but there are of course many issues associated with this going forward;

  • New firms are associated with a highly significantly lower productivity than other firms, equating to 31% less.
  • The most outsourced activities are: IT at 44% and Finance at 35%
  • 58% of firms reporting facing problems over the past 12 months, broken down as follows – obviously with some overlaps
    • 29% concerning compliance with regulations,
    • 23% on changes to legal aid,
    • 21% Finance availability (16%) and obtaining investment (10%),
    • 20% costs, including cost of staff (14%) and premises (7%),
    • 15% on competition from other solicitors and,
    • 10% on competition from non-solicitor organisations

Issues covered in the survey include:

  • What services are most commonly provided by solicitors’ firms and for whom?
  • How well have solicitors’ firms fared during the recession?
  • How productive are solicitors’ firms?
  • What are the problems faced by solicitors’ firms and by which type of firms?
  • How flexible are solicitors firms in changing the services that they provide?
  • How many and which type of solicitors’ firms are looking to seek external investment?
  • How many solicitors’ firms are undertaking legal aid work and how much?
  • How many current legal aid firms are planning to withdraw/have withdrawn from legal aid?

It’s a big document to download but a quick scan through the first 56 pages might be helpful … or just section 5 plus these notes.

Download this free report here [link to download is at the foot of this page] >>

I hope you find this resume useful.

Allan Carton

Jan 11

Employer Ownership of Skills funding for Paralegals for Greater Manchester Law Firms

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The Law Society backs Paralegal recruitment and development through Legal Apprenticeships

Funding is available through the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Legal Sector Employer Skills Group (ESG) to support law firms to employ young people to be trained as Paralegals, in line with nationally recognised Paralegal qualifications through the Apprenticeship Programme. 

We will publish more information here shortly about the “Higher Legal Apprenticeships” and other paralegal qualifications and career paths that are being developed now to take more young people into a rewarding career in the legal services sector – all of which is being supported by this Chamber of Commerce, Legal Sector initiative.  These initaitives will also enable participating legal practices to work more closely with schools to attract the right talent to fill these roles.

Funding available through the Legal Sector ESG will support initiatives that enable participating legal businesses to:

  • Create a collaborative, innovative and enthused working environment where development of young people can thrive;
  • Evaluate and recruit young talent who can learn and develop within the culture and ethos of their employer;
  • Provide legal and business training for paralegals to nationally recognised paralegal qualifications;
  • Develop a rewarding career path, enabling young people to achieve their full potential within the business;
  • Introduce the new mix of business skills needed to manage the development of paralegals throughout the business;
  • Introduce appropriate business structures and processes to enable the practice to maximise the value of paralegals to the business.

If you are interested in funding for these Paralegal Apprenticeship, secured through the Legal Sector ESG please contact Allan Carton on 0161 929 8355 or at acarton@inpractice.co.uk 

Jan 06

Test Drive 4 Key Initiatives for 2013 – CRM, KPI’s, Lean Thinking, IT

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As we head into a second critical transitional year for the legal sector, there is a driving need to be pro-active in developing any legal practice to meet the demand from clients to “do more for less” and to also maintain and improve profits.  These are challenges we are helping law firms meet in a variety ways for firms at different stages of development and with varying priorities. 

They are aimed primarily at medium sized and larger practices, but items 2 and 4 (in particular) are as realistic and appropriate for smaller (up to 35 people) practices, although the approach to implementation is different. 

The 4 key solutions we are working on across the country that you might want to consider as part of your strategy include:

1.  On Screen KPI Dashboards and Automated Management Reporting - giving fee earners, heads of departments and the senior management team easy access to the key financial, marketing and matter information (Key Performance Indicators) needed to drive performance of the business.  It enables fee earners to manage their own performance, record more time, bill more quickly, get cash in more quickly, progress cases faster and can radically improve the impact of  appraisal and performance management initiatives.  This fills a significant gap in performance management and delivers a quick return on investment.  The solution can also be moved to support any new practice or case management system you move to in the future.

Contact us to ask for a free online demo

2.  Client Relationship Management (CRM) – where getting closer to clients and introducers is essential for survival and success going forwards.  A variet of different initiatives here, depending on where clients are starting from, ranging from market research, through workshops with partners to implementing new systems.  We talk direct to clients of our legal clients and introducers of business to identify new business opportunities and strategies. We implement CRM systems that create the structure and tools to be proactive in developing relationships, where the starting point is to get an agreed single shared view to work with. 

Contact us to discuss how we have used client feedback to develop new business strategies and generate new business for law firms.

3.  Introducing “Lean Thinking“ to reduce operating costs whilst also improving clients’ perceptions of value and reducing work in progress - where we have brought in specialists in this area from business sectors to work with law firms … and it’s working well.  Clients have achieved radical improvements in internal operations and cleint communications, learning to roll the initiatives started in one department across the rest of the practice.

Contact us to request a copy of our FREE introduction to lean in the legal sector, “Lean for Legal Staff – The 7 Hidden Wastes”

4.  Radical Improvements in IT -  Infrastructure, Integrated applications, Processes and User Adoption.  Initiatives range from selection of new PMS solutions to implementing Microsoft solutions that incorporate legal-customised SharePoint and CRM solutions integrated with Office and Lync on premise and also in an affordable, securely hosted environment, incorporating full business continuity as part of the solution. 

Contact us to arrange a free demo of a hosted solution to see what it feels like

You can’t do it all at once, so which of these initiatives would produce the best returns for your practice and what is the best approach to making it happen successfully?

To find out more, just call Allan Carton on 0161 929 8355 to discuss how they might apply in the context of your particular business – or email acarton@inpractice.co.uk to set up a time for a preliminary telephone conversation. 

To take any of these forwards, please contact us to:

  1. Ask for a free online demo of the KPI dashboard and automated management reporting system.
  2. Discuss using client feedback to develop new business strategies and generate new business.
  3. Ask for a copy of ”Lean for Legal Staff – The 7 Hidden Wastes.”
  4. Arrange a demo of a hosted Microsoft-based IT solution.

Allan Carton

Nov 02

DOWNLOAD: It’s Official – The FT says clients want …

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An informative, concise 28-page report from the Financial Times to help understand what makes an effective client-adviser relationship, focusing on lawyers and accountants.  It taps into opinions on both sides of the fence; senior decision-makers on both the client and advisory side from 569 respondents. 
 
Conclusions confirm our experience in handling and helping law firms respond to independent reviews of client relationships over the years.  
 
Download, read and share it with your colleagues; but don’t stop there. Set time aside to talk to them about it.  What does this tell you to do differently, better or more going forwards?  
 
We can probably help you make that happen. 
 
 
Some of those key conclusions about what matters most for clients:
 
Clients want a more strategic, commercial dialogue with their advisers, particularly in a more complex, uncertain and global business environment. This isn’t a new issue: 87% of advisers already recognise that they need to develop a more commercial skill-set. But many firms have been slow to adapt to fundamental shifts in client needs
 
62% of client CEOs say that the impression of being a well-managed advisory firm is an essential pre-condition of selection; but creating a consistent client service and a culture of commerciality is next-to-impossible unless a firm is well-managed.
 
The only way to create the impression of being a well-managed firm is to become one, ideally through someone taking ownership and responsibility for delivering a more sophisticated and client-centric approach to client-adviser relationships.

To explore how we might be able to help your practice respond to the conclusions drawn here by implementing new initaitives, contact Allan Carton at acarton@inpractice.co.uk or on +44 7779 653105.

Oct 25

UK200Group Annual Conference 2012 – Lawyers Welcome

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The UK200 Group are the UK’s leading national quality assured grouping for independent chartered accountants and lawyers, who are looking to increase their law firm membership. 
 
Venue:  The Hilton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Dates:  21 to 23 November 2012
 
For background on the group go to the UK 200 Group.  You are invited to join their Annual Conference to experience how the network could benefit your practice. To find out who you are likely to meet, check out their Accountancy members and Law firm members listings.
 
This is an opportunity to explore new ways of developing your business and to create new connections that will help you generate new business through the people you meet.  They will mostly be accountants interested in developing working relationships with law firms, keen to collaborate with you.
 
The agenda can be downloaded below from our website.  Key highlights include speaking sessions, forums, Q&A’s and social gatherings with topics covering, for example: Business Strategy, Corporate finance, strategies to clarify thinking about the new world of business we are moving into post recession, profit improvement and successioin strategies for your clients … and much more.
 
To reserve your place or request more information – please go here
For more information contact Allan Carton.