Last Event Summary

 

 

 

Opening Remarks / Brands

Professor Stephen Mason – Professor & Director of Strategy, Legal Services Institute

Professor Stephen Mason opened the event by saying that “Que sera sera” is not a good strategy. He stressed the need for client focus and spent a little while talking about the difference between reputation and brand and that “independence, ego and autonomy” was not conducive to brand development. He referred to Chrissie Lightfoot’s mention in her book that “brand isn’t everything but everything is the brand”. He gave a timely reminder too to focus on “profitable” relationships and not just relationships.

 

The Importance of being Bold in a Tough Economic Climate

Elliott Moss – Director of Business Development, Mishcon de Reya

Professor Stephen Mason opened the event by saying that “Que sera sera” is not a good strategy. He stressed the need for client focus and spent a little while talking about the difference between reputation and brand and that “independence, ego and autonomy” was not conducive to brand development. He referred to Chrissie Lightfoot’s mention in her book that “brand isn’t everything but everything is the brand”. He gave a timely reminder too to focus on “profitable” relationships and not just relationships.

His approach contained four steps:

1. Know what you stand for – Interviewing clients was the starting point. The firm’s values were then clearly articulated – intelligent business thinking, principled thinking, connected and advisers not just lawyers – and wrapped up in a coherent mission “It’s business but it’s personal” and shown to underpin all subsequent programmes and actions.

2. Clients first – Ask clients what they like and then make it interesting and useful. He stressed the need to combine innovation, legislation and client need. I felt he underplayed a rather key element here – the product/service development process that resulted in six distinct products being launched including Protect for insurance, Enl.ghten for mobile knowledge, Enable to allow HR people to “DIY” and Change Review for the Companies Act.

3. Do less but go big – After an 18 month internal pre-sell they spent £300K on one initiative (FT Deals and Dealmaker to bolster the corporate reputation) which resulted in 22% more people being more likely to choose the firm. He also outlined a number of other association strategies with links to organisations such as London Chamber of Commerce (for lobbying on behalf of clients), Smarta (an equity stake in the entrepreneur market), Walpole (to support their luxury brands market clients) and Quintessentially (to provide concierge services to private clients). He mentioned a three times return on investment.

4. Think of the future script (Legal Services Act) – There was a nod to the CSR programme (supporting Kiva microloans and Coram kids charity) and “Mishcommunity’s” discretionary fund which staff allocated each month.

 

Powering Business Development through Innovative Technology & New Media

Charles Christian – Editor-in-Chief & Managing Director, Legal Technology Insider

Almost his first words were “Buying technology is no substitute for a business development plan”. Charles talked about the generational change and reminding us that we once worked in the technology sector when mainframes were the norm and PCs hadn’t been invented. He touched on cloud computing (mentioning that Clifford Chance has indicated that it plans to put all its systems in the cloud by 2015) and talked about the huge opportunity to re-engineer and re-envision the way that law is done. There was considerable comfort for smaller law firms as he indicated that larger firms with legacy systems might be at a disadvantage as they are less flexible in adapting to the new ways of working.

There was a mortal blow to the social media nay-sayers when he reminded us all that every technological development (faxes, emails, Windows, web sites, touch screens etc) had been accompanied by “it’s not relevant to law firms”. He also reminded us of the frequent client bugbear about the lack of good communications with solicitors. “Social media is just another communication tool – it’s a cost of business just like energy – you have to have it, so get over it” he said. Charles also confidently predicted that something else will come along to replace Twitter soon.

 

Evaluating Solicitor Consortiums – (Collective Marketing vs. Single firm Brand Identity)

Neil Kinsella, Guy Barnett, Saleem Arif, Gary Yantin, Prof Stephen Mayson (Chair)

The panel discussion comprised Russell Jones & Walker, Blakemores, QualitySolicitors and HighStreetLawyer. The concept of panels was explored – Qualitysolicitors explained that as the first national UK brand to bring small firms together from the 170 member firms now they planned on having 300 by October 2011 and a market share of 5%. Fixed fees, Saturday opening and W H Smith store access are part of the offer.

The debate centred around brands for awareness and brands for ensuring consistent delivery of quality advice. The fact that 70% of the public can’t name a law firm was mentioned and that some of the other values of consortia were covered, these included, referrals, management of digital / Google and social media campaigns, brand reputation and consolidated back office.

Using the example of different types of food specialist food store and supermarkets, the point was made that different parts of the market needed different propositions at different prices.

 

Recognition – Master or servant / Optimising your Profile

Nick Freeman – Managing Partner, Freeman & Co

Nick started with a reference to Jack Straw’s comments that there are too many lawyers – 1 for every 400 in the population and that it’s easier to find a lawyer than a doctor.

Whilst criticising marketing and PR consultants, Nick explained how his “obsessive interest in road traffic regulations” enabled him to distinguish himself, establish a niche, attract significant media interest, gain a voice and develop a host of celebrity clients. Recognising “the brutal fact that celebrity sells” he provided numerous anecdotes about his cases and described the ‘KeepOnDriving’ service allows Mondeo Man to access the sort of legal advice traditionally only celebrities can afford.

 

What Corporates look for in a Law Firm

Kevin Green – Head of Legal, UKISA IMT Counsel, IBM United Kingdom

Kevin started by explaining that the issues discussed at the conference earlier in the day: brand, expansion, transformation, client focus and differentiation were the same as those debated in-house at IBM Legal too. He then explained what being a Globally Integrated Enterprise (GIE) means in terms of economics, openness (in systems and approach) and expertise. He described how the global matrix structure of the legal team mirrored that of the commercial operations with personnel at global, regional and country level to enable seamless and fast escalation where necessary, and that there is a central deals team that travels out across the globe to provide support on negotiations.

He explained that the IBM shareholder is the client of the legal team and that the in-house team was the conduit for the relationship with outside counsel. He was at pains to stress that the focus was on cost-effectiveness rather than lowest cost – despite the constant pressures to reduce the cost of legal services – and that not all law firms they used needed to have global reach. He stressed that outside counsel must really get to know how they operate and that there must be a good relationship and fit. He talked about the schemes they operate for trainees and secondments that enable this understanding to develop. He stressed “we really have to know our professionals” – proving that the relationship was definitely a two way thing.

The need for innovation to enable them to do more with less, use economies of scale and access resource tools was mentioned. He explained that IBM does not operate a lawyer panel and chooses counsel on a “horses for courses” basis whilst considering the all important relationship and fit. He also advised “to treat your client as you would a friend – open communication and mutual benefit”. Eye catching features from external counsel he had seen included thinking differently about fee structures (the billable hour is dead) and differentiating services whilst understanding the new economic environment. Kevin advised that law firms need to be “the first name to pop into your head”.

 

Leadership & the Essential Skills for Successful Business Development
(The Psychology of Developing Business)

Keith Liddiard – International Programme Director, Netlaw Edge

The final session was billed as “Leadership and the essential skills for successful business development” by Keith Liddiard, International Programme Director at NetlawEdge. Keith explored the impact of physiology on emotion, feeling, thinking and thus behaviour and results. He then performed a live demonstration on a delegate by hooking him up to a heart rate monitor and trace that showed where the brain was in cognitive (frontal cortext) processing and then showed results during coherence and chaos situations, as well as showing how quickly simple breathing techniques could be used to restore coherent functioning. Keith mentioned there are 34,000+ words in English Language used to describe various emotional states which gave a different perspective on the relationship issue.

 

Closing Remarks

Professor Stephen Mason – Professor & Director of Strategy, Legal Services Institute

Professor Stephen Mason provided a short round up of the main themes of the day: focus (don’t try to do too much), “it’ll never catch on” (but did), no surprises for clients and the need to grab opportunities (do what no one else is doing). He advised firms to “dare to be different” and not just to follow the herd.