Breaking boundaries

Like death and taxes, change is one of the certainties of business life. That wasn’t always the case for the legal industry – for a long time there was little change at all. But in around a decade, legal has gone from being a dusty ‘one-horse town’ in terms of technology and commercial thinking to talking about artificial intelligence, driving profitability, and how to attract young, diverse talent. Firms are even thinking about the opportunities of emerging technologies such as driverless cars for law firms (did someone say ‘moral coding’?)

Change isn’t always good. Firms have to fight off digital criminals who are better equipped than ever to steal money and sensitive data, while also facing a compliance countdown towards the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

This is a crazy pace of change and many in the market find it challenging. At our LPM London conference last month we polled our audience of decision makers who said the challenges of the next two years will be more serious than in past years. So SME firms know change is coming and fast – but do they know how to change? Those that weren’t at the conference can find out in our LPM London write-up on p36.

SMASHING SILOS

The world has changed enormously since the last LPM London conference, and if SME firms want to thrive they need to change as well. But there are considerable barriers to break if firms want to achieve success – an especially fitting theme in America Square, the venue for 2017’s LPM London conference, which holds part of the City of London’s Roman wall.

The key message from this year’s conference was that, much like the City’s citizens demolished their wall when it became a hindrance, firms must knock down outdated assumptions, processes or structures if they want to change and build towards a better future. And the need to break barriers to change is perhaps more pressing than ever – firms are becoming increasingly affected by regulation, technology and client and talent expectations (not to mention Brexit).

BREAKING AWAY

Today’s lawyers spend much less of their working life at their desks. For several years now, law firm workers have been able to work from home and occasionally from client sites – but now expectations are increasing. Employees working remotely want the same access to their firm’s practice and case management solution that they’d have at their desk.

Millennials joining the workforce also have an expectation of mobile working – although some partners from the baby boomer generation may be resistant to the need for that way of working. There is, however, a growing realisation that firms need to keep up with rivals when it comes to flexibility if they’re going to offer competitive service levels and attract talented staff.

UPWARDLY MOBILE

Businesses in the UK are becoming increasingly agile by adopting technology that makes them more adaptive and flexible. SME law firms have traditionally been resistant to such change, but are now recognising the need to adapt to their surroundings if they want to survive in an ultra-competitive, post-
Brexit market.

Tikit’s sales director Richard Higgs and product and development director Adrian Jones say that consumer demands have changed enormously in recent years and firms need to look at becoming more agile if they want to attain competitive advantage.

OWN GOALS: POSTLETHWAITE

Law firms are often more resistant to employee ownership than other business types – perhaps because the idea of receptionists receiving the same bonus as fee-earning lawyers is just too different for partners to accept. Five years have passed since the introduction of alternative business models opened the gates to employee ownership schemes, but just two law firms are full members of the Employee Ownership Association – and both are
SME practices.

The firm at the smaller end of that list is Postlethwaite – a London-based practice that itself specialises in employee ownership law. Managing director Robert Postlethwaite (pictured centre) established the firm in 2003 after working as a partner and head of employee share schemes at a
top-100 firm.