A day of collaboration, sharing and learning
LPM’s editor, Aftab Bose, recaps the LPM Conference 2022 – an event that broke the mould and explored new ways to facilitate the exchange of ideas in the UK’s SME legal community.
The rapid pace of disruption that we witnessed during the pandemic has slowed to an extent. SME law firms have settled into a new normal where the defining challenges have remained constant over the last 12 months – recruitment, compliance and security, optimising tech investments, settling into hybrid working patterns, and finding a sense of purpose to match evolving social and economic values.
The LPM Conference 2022 brought over 60 leaders from the UK’s SME legal market to better understand these challenges – not by listening for hours to experts, but by exchanging ideas with each other in a set of interactive and informal yet facilitated conversations.
Experts were present too, but they made it a point to deliver their insights in concise talks of 15 minutes. Vicky Price, chief economic adviser at the Centre for Economic and Business Research, kicked the day off with a lightning talk on the UK’s economic landscape, and how inflation, rising costs of living and broader geopolitical events could prove sources of pressure on law firms this year.
We had a panel discussion on risk and compliance at midday – where Digital Law’s managing director and cybersecurity expert Peter Wright talked about strategies to tackle ransomware, data protection and crypto, while the SRA’s anti-money laundering policy associate, Andrew Bryan, set the regulatory context for these challenges. And rounding our day off was Angela Monaghan, purpose and impact manager at Bates Wells, with a 15-minute brief on how law firms can generate momentum – internally and amongst clients – to build more socially responsible operations.
Mixed into the day were plenty of chats, laughs and intense discussions on the way forward for this industry. A big thank you to everyone who came and participated, and a special thanks to NetDocuments, 3Kites, Actionstep, CTS and Legl for partnering with us and facilitating the day’s conversations. See you next year!
