Fit for the Future

Legal Week Student   What sort of world will the law firms of tomorrow inhabit? How will firms respond to changing client demands? What will the fundamental economics of a legal services business look like in ten years? What skills will be needed to succeed and where will they be acquired? These are some of […]
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A New Model of Partnership

Managing Partner magazine   Being a partner isn’t what it used to be! The economic climate, impending deregulation, ever rising client demands, attitudinal changes (both in society and among young professionals), the apparent obsolescence of the historic charging model and the impact of IT on process efficiency are all catalysts forcing change in many firms. […]
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Leading by Example

“Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.” Jesse Jackson Leading a professional services firm can be an unenviable task but strong leadership, setting a clear sense of purpose and direction for the business, has never been more important. What is also crucial is that leaders, by their […]
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Walking the talk

Legal Marketing Magazine   Perusing law firms’ corporate communication materials and browsing their websites is a pretty mundane pastime. In truth there are only so many ways in which even the most eloquent of wordsmiths can say the same thing over and over and over again. Taken at face value we live in a world […]
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Out of this World

Managing Partner Magazine   The past year has seen unprecedented turbulence for the legal profession, but is perhaps simply a portent of what is to come. Longstanding rules of competition and client relationship management have been cast to one side. A new, resolutely commercial, approach is to the fore, which is an anathema to those […]
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Pitch Perfect…

Published in PSMG Magazine   When business is tight, maximising the opportunity afforded by pitches, presentations and proposals is quite rightly an area of intense focus for firms. But what are the simple guidelines which, if followed, can help to improve win rates? Success in winning business is, first and foremost, about selecting the right […]
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“The Road is Long” Merger Masterclass

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Many managing partners regard the delivery of a successful merger as their gold-standard achievement. In one act they see themselves able to demonstrate, for the entire world to see, that their firm is going places, has ambition, and is prepared to move decisively and determinedly to achieve its goals. […]
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“Hitting the Ground Running” Business Development Masterclass

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Many firms are coming to terms with a very uncomfortable truth: that growth is the only way out of the perilous position in which they find themselves. In many cases, costs have been pared to a point at which any further marginal reductions will have limited impact. Furthermore, the […]
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Running a different race

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Henry Ford Consensus among professionals can be difficult to achieve but on two issues there is widespread unanimity – the business world in which we operate has fundamentally changed and the pace of change will continue to accelerate as a world […]
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Primus Inter Pares

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Observation and experience over the past 20-plus years have led me to formulate the ‘First Law of Professional Firm Management’. It can be simply stated and I have found it to be true in firms of all sizes, shapes, hues and colours. It is most strikingly accurate among partners […]
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Opening up

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Every firm has huge untapped potential in the form of hidden knowledge about clients, relationships, experience and technical issues. If unearthed and shared, this could create a step-change improvement in business performance. Generally it is not a paucity of systems that prevent firms from capitalising on knowledge. This is […]
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Time for a Reality Check

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” Max DePree The words of Max DePree, the renowned leadership guru and member of Fortune magazine’s National Business Hall of Fame, should resonate with the leaders of professional service firms as they adapt to a new business paradigm. Developing an understanding of how competitive landscapes […]
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Thought Leader: Competitive Strategy

Published in Managing Partner magazine   “If you are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, then you are a fool and certain to be defeated in every battle. If you know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won, you will suffer a loss. If you know your enemy and yourself, you will […]
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Survival of the Fittest

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who survive, it is those who are most responsive to change”. Charles Darwin As 2008 draws to a close, battle weary management teams are retiring to reflect on the events of the past year and contemplate what the future may bring. In a year where the […]
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The Devil in the Detail

Published in Legal Marketing magazine   When asked by managing partners to stress-test the revenue growth projections in the business plans of practice groups my approach is straightforward. I ask group heads to explain, in detail, where their revenue will come from based on four segmentations – by geography, by sector, by service line and […]
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Some Observations on Law Firm Leaders

Published in Leadership Development in the Legal Profession   Over the past 20 years, I have observed a range of leaders and leadership styles in professional service firms. Over this same period, there has been an exponential increase of interest in the subject of leadership, and the crucial role that it plays in the success […]
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Mind Over Matter

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Ignore the importance of cultural fit at your peril when merging firms. Culture clash is one of the most common reasons mergers fail. Within professional services, where the importance of common values and behaviours in creating cohesive firms is indisputable, getting the cultural aspects of a merger wrong can […]
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Talking with one voice

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Integrated marketing communications is the name; clarity and consistency is the game. Students of marketing communications are inculcated with the need to create compelling, consistent and clear messages that can be directed at an array of targeted delivery channels. In considering communications (whether internal or external) it is crucial […]
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The Law Firm of the Future

Published in Law Firm of the Future supplement report by Managing Partner and Legal Marketing magazines   Views on the shape and focus of the law firm of the future are widely divergent, but invariably pessimism is expressed by many as to how the profession as a whole will fare over the next decade. The common […]
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Leading the Edge

Published in KMLegal magazine   A key component of building the bridge between theory and realisation in the utilisation of knowledge assets lies in improvements in a broad range of leadership capabilities within the KM function itself, according to Andrew Hedley. If law firms are to be effective in building a competitive advantage through knowledge […]
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For What It’s Worth…

Published in KM Legal   One of the hot topics of the moment (and, in all likelihood, the foreseeable future) is the impact of external investment into the profession as a result of the Legal Services Act. The knowledge strategist will recognise that any assessment of their firm for investment appraisal purposes will involve thorough […]
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Crunch Time!

Published in Professional Marketing   A downturn sorts out the wheat from the chaff! It’s not a nice thought, either for those affected or even the bystanders, but it’s largely true. A coherent argument can be made that a period of recession is a necessary part of the creation of a healthy market. Those that […]
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Decisions, Decisions…

Published in Managing Partner magazine   “Why else does a managing partner exist if not to make decisions?” This was a comment recently made at a conference I was chairing. Three things immediately struck me. Just how much autonomy do managing partners have in their decision-making? What issues affect decision-making in professional firms? And how […]
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Powers of Persuasion

Strategy series opinion piece published in Managing Partner Magazine   When Dale Carnegie said: “There is only one way to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it”, he struck at the essence of the art of persuasion. In Verbal Judo George Thompson reinforced this view: “The […]
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Driving Growth – As the gravy train grinds to a halt…

Masterclass article published in Managing Partner Magazine   Following a number of years in which revenue growth has been achievable without too much effort, there will be many management teams with the misplaced belief that they have a strong business model. In truth, during the bull years, the volumes of work available means that all […]
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