The Challenges Of Leadership Are Different To The Challenges Of Management

Published in Managing Partner magazine March 2016 Law firm leaders face many challenges and carry huge responsibilities. Decision making that will define the future of their firms, for better or for worse, rests on their shoulders. They must develop, evaluate, shape, and articulate a vision and strategy in ways which engage and motivate others. They need […]
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Team Morale Is Directly Linked To The Ability To Deliver Differentiated Client Services

Published in Managing Partner magazine November 2015 In previous articles, I have written about how the lack of any meaningful differentiation between law firms on criteria that are of value to clients leads inexorably to price-driven competition. When we can see no difference between the services on offer, we buy the cheapest available. The same […]
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Investing in the Partners of the Future

Published in Managing Partner magazine December 2014 / January 2015   There was a time when, in order to be invited to join a UK partnership, the prerequisites were good lawyering skills, a long tenure at the firm and to be seen as a ‘good egg’ by the other partners. An aspiration for partnership was […]
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Answering the Big Strategic Questions with Honesty and Objectivity

Published in Managing Partner magazine November 2014   There are a small number of key strategic questions which any firm must be prepared to discuss, honestly and objectively, if it is to best equip itself to address future opportunities and mitigate threats. This will mean engaging in a partnership-level dialogue, which will be uncomfortable for […]
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The Law Firm Merger: A Leader’s Guide to Strategy & Realisation

Published by ARK Group April 2014   THE LEGAL services market has undergone unprecedented change over the last decade. The Great Recession has been a catalyst to accelerate the pace of this change. At its core are structural changes in the profession and the deregulation of the legal services industry, leading to a fundamental reshaping […]
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Leading a Shared Vision For a Law Firm Merger

Published in Managing Partner magazine April 2014   In a strategy which is merger based, it is important that there is a clear vision of the future, which is easily understandable and provides a strong rationale as to why merger is the best option – illustrating both the opportunities that will be created as well […]
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Merger Chrysalis

Published in Managing Partner magazine March 2014 If you are tasked with delivering a merger, you have a huge amount of leading, persuading, cajoling and encouraging to do in order to realise your objective. Your audiences are both internal and external. Within your firm, you are responsible for understanding the mood of the wider partnership […]
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Driving for Growth

My Editorial Advisory Board blog for Managing Partner magazine http://www.managingpartner.com/blog/driving-your-law-firm-towards-more-aggressive-growth Activity levels are on the increase in the UK legal market. Has the corner been turned? Can we now be more confident that the much-vaunted green shoots of economic growth have finally taken hold? For the past twelve months, a growing swell of firms have […]
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Engaging the wider partnership in the merger process

Published in Managing Partner magazine December 2013   The manner in which the leadership team engages, communicates and builds consensus with its wider partner group is one of the most important opportunities and challenges in any merger. Without a strong collective will, focused on achieving a positive result and overcoming the inevitable challenges that will […]
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A merger can be a ‘Trojan Horse’ opportunity to transform your firm

Published in Managing Partner magazine November 2013 Don’t worry about the implementation, that’s tomorrow’s problem. Just focus on getting the deal done” figures high on the list of comments which betray the naivety of those negotiating mergers. Of course, it is also fair to say that such sentiments are understandable given the context of the […]
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Management opportunities and challenges in a merged firm

Published in Managing Partner magazine October 2013   Firms won’t become more commercially successful by being better at the law but, rather, by running a better legal services business. More proficient strategic thinking and better management, team working and communication are vital to ensuring sustainable performance enhancements, improved efficiency and increased revenues and profits. It […]
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Right-sizing your merged law firm

Published in Managing Partner magazine   A merger provides a host of opportunities to right-size. Some arise directly from the merger itself. Others will be realised because ‘all bets are off’ in a newly-merged firm, providing a window to implement efficiencies that were previously denied. Right-sizing is generally assumed to mean moves to reduce costs […]
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How to win Partners’ Hearts and Minds for a Proposed Merger

Published in Managing Partner magazine An interesting point is reached in any merger discussion, at which the negotiating teams must set aside issues of market dynamics, strategy and positioning. Plans for operational change, efficiency improvements and rationalisation must also be sidelined. Even the development of compelling propositions to attract new clients and expand existing relationships […]
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Want to disrupt the industry? It’s time to run a different race

My guest article for LexisNexis The Future of Law blog. http://lexislegalintelligence.co.uk/intelligence/blawg/2013/06/want-to-disrupt-the-industry-its-time-to-run-a-different-race/ We have seen many examples of efforts to improve efficiency and to reduce costs since the start of the great recession. We have witnessed firms conduct restructurings, enter into outsourcing arrangements, implement process reengineering, invest in IT and knowledge management systems, reshape partnerships and […]
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Develop a Strategic Framework for Merger Communications

Published in Managing Partner magazine It is all too easy for those focused on the consummation of a merger (and with a deep knowledge of the transaction) to assume that its strategic logic will be selfevident. It is always wrong to presume that the benefits flowing from the union will be apparent to the combined […]
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Plan Ahead To Get Ahead (Part 2)

Published in Professional Marketing Magazine Alongside the setting of the firmwide strategy, planning should be conducted at the next level of detail whilst still considering issues in broad terms. These second tier plans will nest within the overarching strategy framework, both aligned with and subservient to it. Planning at this level allows the broader leadership […]
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The Power of Using Values to Drive Post-Merger Integration

Published in Managing Partner magazine Ignore the importance of cultural fit and strong shared values at your peril when merging firms. Cultural dissonance is one of the most common reasons that mergers fail to deliver their expected returns. Within law firms, for which common values and behaviours are crucial to creating cohesion, getting these aspects […]
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Fit For Purpose

Published in Managing for Success, the magazine of the Law Society’s Law Management Section The legal services market is witnessing an unprecedented level of merger activity. The legal press is full of news of firms either in discussions or announcing a deal, but there is also a swell of activity behind the scenes of firms […]
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Dealing with Deal Breakers in Merger Discussions

Published in Managing Partner magazine   In any merger discussion, there will be a limited number of areas which have the potential to be deal breakers. These range from issues of strategic significance to those of timing. In the first category are questions which challenge the longer- term logic of a deal which has few […]
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Why merge? Forces driving consolidation in the UK legal services market

Chapter 3 of The Law Management Section Merger Toolkit A merger is a means by which a strategic objective may be achieved; it is not a strategic objective in itself. This is, perhaps, an obvious statement, but one which seems to elude many management teams when discussing strategy and the options available to them. A […]
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Strategies to unlock the merger dividend

Chapter 11 of The Law Management Section Merger Toolkit Panjat Pinang is one of the most popular traditions in Indonesia. It is a unique way of celebrating the country’s Independence Day and involves, quite literally, climbing a greasy pole. Tall nut trees are felled, denuded of all branches and bark, and placed vertically in the […]
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A merger is an opportunity to bring about positive cultural change

Published in Managing Partner magazine A firm’s culture is both one of its core defining characteristics and, for better or worse, a driver of its longer-term performance. Changing a deeply-embedded culture is one of the most challenging and transformational opportunities for any leadership team. At a time of merger, it is one way in which […]
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The Innovation Advantage

Published in The Future of Legal Services – Expert Analysise THIS ARTICLE is concerned with the ways in which innovative approaches have already changed the nature of law firm practice, and how they will continue to do so at an accelerating pace in the future. In particular it will consider service innovation and how firms […]
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The Loneliest Job in the World?

“Being prime minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.” Margaret Thatcher Leading a firm in a turbulent and threatening market requires a certain type of person – someone who is comfortable in their own skin and prepared to make fair, objective and sometimes very difficult decisions. It is also a role […]
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Service Quality and Reputation Management Strategy

Published in Business Continuity Planning and Management for Law Firms   AS BENJAMIN Franklin so wisely said: ‘It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it’. His words should be a wake-up call for managing partners that have placed their trust in the fingers-crossed method of […]
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