LPM Conference 2023
FEATURES
Deputy editor Suzanna Hayek analyses the findings from polling conducted among the attendees of LPM Conference 2023, with comment from leaders within the SME legal sector
LPM editor Reem Khurshid provides a roundup of the day's roundtable discussions and panels discussing solutions to key challenges faced by the SME legal industry.
Cyber insurers have numerous security requirements that law firms need to meet before they offer terms — and high premiums for those who fail to provide evidence of a robust cyber policy. Brian Boehmer, partner at Lockton, discusses how firms can meet these standards and improve their cyber resilience.
ISSUE IN BRIEF
This year, LPM and its partners — Access Legal, Accesspoint, CTS, LexisNexis, Lockton, Practice Evolve, Tessaract.io and Xperate — brought together more than 85 delegates from over 75 law firms on 3 July at The King’s Fund in Cavendish Square to meet, mingle and explore fresh approaches to many of the existing and emerging challenges in the SME legal market.
The agenda for the day was set in collaboration with members of the LPM community and backed by our flagship LPM Frontiers 2023 research into strategic trends in the UK’s SME legal sector. Seamlessly integrated within our unique conference format, this enabled delegates to bring their most pressing challenges and priorities to the table and discuss them with their peers. Core issues in the talent, operations, regulatory and technology spaces were discussed in depth within intimate, revolving clusters of delegates, with conversations being facilitated by our event partners’ representatives.
Opening the conference, Martin McTague, national chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, delivered the keynote on practical guidance for SMEs on weathering the economy. Later in the day, from the Information Commissioner’s Officer, Paul McKee, team manager of the personal data breach service, and Anjuli Cash-Sendles, lead case officer, offered a deep dive into lessons learnt from data breaches and how firms can avoid potential pitfalls in their data management.
In the second half of the conference, delegates were split into two streams. For LPM’s ‘Exploring risk and compliance’ stream, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) held a sharing circle on keeping up with and preparing for future regulatory changes with Susan Humble, regulatory specialist at RIAA Barker Gillette, and Paul Philip, chief executive at the SRA. Another circle discussion on indemnity insurance was led by Linda Lee, regulatory lawyer at Weightmans and chair of the Professional Indemnity Insurance Committee with the Law Society. In our ‘Tech innovations in law operations’ stream, delegates took part in discussions on data and artificial intelligence (AI), client-facing technology, identifying quick automation wins and auditing firms’ existing technology assets.
Delegates were also polled on a range of questions to share their hopes and concerns for the future direction of the SME legal landscape — including what impacts generative AI may have. This supplement analyses the findings of this polling, offers a glimpse into the day’s panels and discussions, and includes expert commentary from our event partners. A big thank you to everyone who attended, contributed and made this event possible — we hope to see you all again next summer!
