Mark Slade is Managing Partner of Fidler & Pepper Solicitors. He qualified as a solicitor in 1989, and became a partner in 1990. Up until 1999 he ran the Domestic Conveyancing department. In 1999 he gave up the conveyancing side to concentrate on running the web business.

In April 2002 he took over as Managing Partner.  His hobbies include fast old cars and surfing. He is married with three daughters, and is very, very tired.  He wants to travel the world, meet all kinds of interesting people and be kind to small furry animals.

How would others describe you in three words?
This has taken a long time to work out - I know different people will look at me completely differently:

Determined.  Arrogant.  Approachable.

What has been your best professional moment to date?
When we found out we were in the Sunday Times top 50 best small companies to work for. 

What has been your worst/most embarrassing professional moment to date?
Before I qualified I went on a hearing for assessment of a file for someone else. They'd forgotten to keep a copy of the file so I was doing something I'd never done before, without the necessary documents to answer any questions. After about 10 minutes of questions to which I had no answer the judge threw the file at me literally and ordered me to come back again with the person who owned the file.

Tell us about one surprising thing you’ve learned since becoming Managing Partner?
The amount of personal worry you have to absorb, and also the power of sharing that worry with your partners - in terms of how helpful it is to discuss the problems with them.

If you hadn't chosen Law, what do you think you'd be doing with your life?
Something business and IT related - on-line businesses - possibly linked to cars - I'm a real petrolhead.

If we looked in your desk’s top drawer, what would we find?
A mess containing one-off documents I'll never need, business cards, a shaver, stapler, and paperclips.

An adbridged version of this article appeared in the May issue of Managing Partner Magazine.

Helen Hamilton-Shaw is director of services with leading law firm network LawNet.  She reports on the role played by IT in strategic and practical terms amongst the network’s independent law firm members, which range from £2m to £15m turnover.

Information technology is set to be a game changer as we enter the new era of post-LSA markets, where commoditised services are likely to push an increasing number of legal service transactions online. 

For the mid-sized, independent firms that make up LawNet, we are seeing customer-facing offerings that range from online wills to mobile apps targeted at employers. 

But while online sales may be the headline grabber, it’s just as likely to be the backroom infrastructure and practice management solutions that are exercising management teams, according to our research.

It’s certainly the case that your IT must support your business in the delivery of excellence to clients.  If your systems don't match up, the client experience is likely to be damaged.

Using technology to achieve efficiencies and reduce costs has massive potential for law firms and I anticipate they will be making much more of this in future. 

Similarly, there are risk and compliance advantages.  An Information Technology plan is an essential part of our required ISO standard, the LawNet Quality System, and similarly on the Lexcel joint accreditation route we offer, but that’s a minimum requirement for any firm worth its salt these days.  Any decent system will make it easier to evidence compliance; and intranets make it easier to circulate policies and procedures to keep staff up to date and properly briefed.

Many of the resources and services we provide to LawNet member firms are online or IT based – whether it’s webcast training for professional development; our portal for risk management processes; or serviced offerings for document archiving, online precedents, case law and marketing communication software. 

My job involves a degree of second-guessing to develop new services that will be ready and in place when our firms realise they need them, but we also regularly research with members to better understand their challenges.  

We usually drill down to the most relevant contacts through our 28 specialist groups, which are dedicated to sharing inter-firm information on both professional and practice issues.  These include a practice management and IT group, which we canvassed recently to identify common themes. 

Infrastructure

In terms of physical equipment, a number of our firms have made the move to cloud solutions and will be sharing their experiences at our next practice management IT day, although the majority in our survey sample were fairly evenly split in their choice of virtualised or local servers, with software provided on a local PC or through their own server. 

For  Martyn Bateman, practice manager at Breeze & Wyles in Hertfordshire, the last year has seen the virtualisation of user desktops with thin client desktop terminals linked to a main server.  He said: “This is ensuring consistent functionality across the firm, has much reduced our help desk time and is proving more efficient.”

At Harvey Ingram - recently merged with Borneos to create a £20m firm with 350 staff operating across the Midlands and Home Counties - integration and consolidation of systems from the two firms has been the main focus for the past year.  According to Tim Percival, business development director, IT has to be at the heart of the firm’s strategy:  “Growth, different sites, consolidation - all factors that cry out for IT solutions and inevitably much of our focus has been internal over the last 12 months.  The quality and speed of inter-office connections was a crucial factor, but most important was the recognition that IT is crucial to integrating the businesses and an appropriate level of investment is essential.” 

The firm has undertaken a penetrating review which has helped them to set out a route map for the next 18 months, and will completely refresh the infrastructure with new switches, pipes and server provision.  Tim added: “Our issues are the same as smaller firms within LawNet, albeit ours may be a little more complex because of our size and geographic coverage.  We all need a robust, secure system which can cope with the future commoditisation of legal services, good client services, and connections into social media and the outside world.”

At Mogers in Bath, managing partner Steven Treharne has gone for virtual servers.  “If we were bigger or smaller, cloud solutions would have been a cost-effective option. Instead, we’ve taken a five to seven year approach - our new servers will work for us in that timeframe, after that we can probably go for cheaper options which will suit the business at that time.”

Mobile working

Also on the agenda at Mogers is a move to mobile working, with laptops that can be docked throughout the building, taking the shift away from dedicated desks and fixed PC’s, in a move that’s intended to enable better use of physical space as the firm grows.

In the open plan, single floor offices of George Davis in Manchester, the shift has already taken place.  The firm is operating on a considerably reduced floor space with its customer-focussed team approach.  Making the shift from traditional department divisions has led to a bench seat working environment – a version of ‘hot desking’ – with a communal approach to computer equipment.  The firm reports a huge boost to productivity since the changes, with billings up 17% after nine months, compared with the previous year. 

These shifts are being reflected in firms across LawNet, although change is at an early stage according to our research, which shows that only 15% of fee earners are using laptops, and the figures is almost non-existent for support functions.    Similarly, in terms of remote working there is a huge variety in attitudes.  In our research, the number of staff enabled for remote working ranged from 100% to just 1%.

Software

When we asked our firms how they are putting this hardware to work, customer-focussed case management and practice management systems were high on the agenda.

In today’s market, there are many high performance, integrated all-in-one solutions for practice, case and customer relationship management as such systems have shifted from the specialist sphere to become an essential part of the overall business strategy, for our firms at least.  They can see that it’s a way of putting the client at the centre of things to ensure a consistently high quality experience.   

At Harvey Ingram, they are about to implement a new practice and case  management system to provide a unified system across their sites.  “The final decision has yet to be made, but the most important thing is the lawyer interface and providing a familiar desktop to ease the transition,” says Tim Percival, “Also, we will look at the business processes such as expenses recording and time billing, to see how we can re-engineer them.  There’s no sense in simply replicating old practices.  It’s an opportunity to improve all round.”

But there’s a word of warning for those on the path to change from Mogers, having introduced a similar system in recent months.  Says Treharne:  “The financial investment is one small part.  What we underestimated was the time we had to invest to get a system that truly satisfied our ambitions.  It’s been tough, but now we have the right platform for the future, including our next step of going paperless.”

The paperless office is already well established at Fidler & Pepper in the East Midlands, where managing partner Mark Slade is also an accomplished software designer.  One of the first firms in the country to embrace online solutions, they introduced a fully functioning online case management back in 1998 and have significantly updated since.  According to Mark Slade, it’s been a game changer.  “These IT developments have taken us from our roots, as a traditional high street firm, to become a bigger player, playing quite a different game.” 

Web developments

Such innovations can indeed be a major differentiator in the online experience for customers, as this sphere of interaction becomes increasingly important.  Gone are the days when you put a passive ‘who we are’ website online and promptly forgot about it.  For every firm, it’s about how they can set themselves apart through a customer-focussed online presence. 

At Vanderpump  & Sykes in North London, their analytics showed that page views were increasingly being made on smartphones, so they developed a mobile version of the site, with large buttons, less text and simplified navigation.

For Mogers in Bath, their web presence has taken them into international markets, with a specialist expat offering, and they recently launched an iPhone App for employment law updates.  But for managing partner Steven Treharne, what is most important is fronting the website with the real people that make up the firm.  “We focus on relationship-driven advice and for our model to be successful post-LSA, we must have excellent people and they have to be front of house.  Relationships are made ‘person to person’ and our website does not use clichéd photo stock images for that reason.”

Keeping things fresh is also vital.  North West firm Cullimore Dutton totally restructured their web site last year with an improved content management interface to allow easier news updating and other content and have seen a boost in their Google search rankings as a result. 

The firm is also making use of the Certainty wills register, one of LawNet’s package of online outsourced services to improve customer interaction.  James Goddard, associate with Cullimore Dutton said:  “This is a great opportunity to reach out to potential clients and a strong marketing opportunity with our existing client base, to offer the new service and ensure that they are up to date with their own wills.”

Online legal services

The delivery of online legal services is certainly growing, but the picture is still taking shape. It’s over a year since we signed an agreement with Direct Law’s Epoq service to offer their online drafting solutions to our member firms.  At Mogers, the Epoq product is being considered as an internal resource, to enable more junior staff to follow a script.  As Treharne says:  “We can’t directly compete with the huge commoditised firms that are coming, nor do we want to.  We’re a mid market firm and need to be focussed and play to our strengths, but we have to be conscious of the cost of production”

Elsewhere, other firms such as Breeze & Wyles are seeing good results and are planning to use the Epoq products online as a direct service for clients.  Said Martyn Bateman:  “We have been working on improving our website functionality for clients, such as the ability to complete wills and contracts directly through the website.  A secure verification system is next, so that clients can access more of their data online.”  Others are developing their own bespoke solutions.  Harvey Ingram has devised a range of online products with added-value customer services wrapped around them, including a telephone helpline service.  The firm reports good results for its most recent online employer product, which has attracted a number of interesting new clients.

Electronic CRM

The other important focus reported by firms is in customer communications – including email marketing – as they recognise the clear marketing advantages delivered by more sophisticated database content, as well as the right delivery solution.  

Breeze & Wyles are looking at how to improve client communications with a news distribution system that links directly to the contact database.   Nicholsons are weighing up the options for a CRM add-on for marketing communications, and at Mogers, the marketing plan for the coming year includes a bigger role for social networking. 

“We tinker currently,” says Treharne.  “We are looking at how customers want us to communicate with them.  That may mean more email marketing, but we need to clean our data first, segment properly and fill in the gaps. It’s a big opportunity, but internal efficiencies need to drive developments, to give reliable data over time.”  

Back at LawNet head office, an improved online presence is top of my list too.  We are approaching the completion of a new internal network communications solution.  It is effectively a country-wide intranet and will enable us to deliver training and document sharing, as well as the growing array of risk management tools we are developing for members.  It will also extend the LawNet community online and it is a big project for us.

Alongside, I’m developing other services which I hope will helps firms to keep pace in the fast-shifting legal sector.  These include serviced client satisfaction and performance benchmarking, and an online Learning Management System - something we hope to offer to enhance staff retention, training and compliance.

Whatever comes next, information technology looks set to be high on everyone’s agenda.  As Harvey Ingram say: “Our route map equates to a significant investment for us over the next 18 months, but we’re confident we will see the right return.”

Edward O’Rourke, Corporate & Commercial Partner, Ashton KCJ

Edward is the Head of the Corporate & Commercial Team. He is an experienced panel lawyer, principally acting on behalf of global banks and has also acted for both the region's largest businesses and small start-ups. Edward's experience of commercial contracts includes agency agreements, franchise operations, distribution agreements, joint venture relationships and a wide range of trading terms and conditions.

He can also advise directors and shareholders on their rights and duties and dealing with succession planning. He is Chairman of the Company Commercial Committee of national law group LawNet.

How would others describe you in three words?
Stupid adrenalin junkie.

What has been your best professional moment to date?
Building a team.

What has been your worst/most embarrassing professional moment to date?
As a trainee leaving client files on the roof of a car and driving off (files were retrieved complete with tyre marks).

Tell us about one surprising thing you’ve learned since becoming Partner?
Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas.

If you hadn't chosen Law, what do you think you'd be doing with your life?
Mountain rescue.

If we looked in your desk’s top drawer, what would we find?
Lunch.

Ray Crudgington is managing partner of LawNet’s newest member firm, Grant Saw LLP in south east London – the fifth to join in the past 12 months.

 Employing 20 lawyers and with five partners, Grant Saw provides legal services to a private and corporate customer base across south east London and the Docklands and has ambitions to significantly increase its share of commercial work.

Ray explains why they chose to join LawNet:

“Now seemed the right time to join LawNet for us.  We’ve got serious ambitions to grow the firm and want to significantly increase our share of commercial work.   By joining LawNet we see it as offering us an opportunity to grow, by learning from other larger firms, sharing resources and cutting our internal costs through group discounted services.

Over the last few years we have made a concerted effort to expand.  We moved into some modern offices in 2003, got our first web site running in 2005 and then secured Lexcel in 2007.  We did all that and then, like most of the sector, went into recession survival mode for a while.

But then you look around and see the changes coming in around ABS and everything that we’re all contending with and we started thinking about how strategic partnerships might provide value.  We want to ramp up on both contentious and non contentious commercial work, and particularly company commercial, and need to find the route to achieve that.

We had had some discussions with LawNet once before, but we were in the process of merging with another firm and it didn’t feel the right time.  We were in a state of change, not sure what we’d look like at the other end and certainly a smaller player by comparison with others in the network.

We investigated other networks and collaborative initiatives, and trialled one for a year to see how it might help our ambitions.  In the end we reached the conclusion that it wasn’t going to be right for us.

So that’s when we came back to talk to LawNet.  There are larger firms than us in the network, and that matches our aspirations.  Seeing what we get, we were really impressed.

Lawnet appears to be lawyer driven.  We like the not-for-profit model and the fact that any surplus gets ploughed back into member services.   The collective bargaining power brings real cost benefits; and these are all firms that we wish to be associated with.

We want to be around bigger firms to learn from them.  There’s a risk in being one of the larger fish in your own pond, that you start thinking the others on your patch are your competition, but you need to have a bigger picture and look at what is being done at the level where you are really competing.

We are very committed to best practice and think it is vital for our future success.  Customer service is important – if we do things well, the client will see the benefit.  But we need to explore new ways of doing things and that’s where it becomes important to speak with other law firms and other lawyers in a non competing environment.   The chance to do that is limited elsewhere.

We want to share resources and grow.   That’s what we’re looking to achieve by being part of LawNet."

More about the author:

Ray Crudgington: Managing Partner and Head of Commercial & Probate Departments at LawNet member firm Grant Saw LLP.  Ray qualified as a solicitor in 1991 after graduating from Leicester University and training with a major City firm. Since qualifying he has dealt mainly with company/commercial work and commercial property. He joined Grant Saw at the end of 1997 following several years with a Central London firm and is the head of the firm's commercial and probate departments. Ray is the Honorary Solicitor for the South East London Chamber of Commerce and a member of The Law Management Section of The Law Society.

This article first appeared in the November edition of Professional Marketing Magazine. View the original article here~ Client Engagement_PM Magazine. For further details please go to www.pmforum.co.uk

Is client engagement at the heart of your firm’s strategy? Perhaps it should be. Helen Hamilton-Shaw, director of services at LawNet, the national network of mid market law firms, explores why LawNet firms are bringing engagement higher up the agenda.

Everyone is talking about client engagement - it’s one of the current buzzwords of the profession.  But other sectors have been taking engagement seriously for a long time. Client or customer engagement first entered the rhetoric in the early 00’s and many successful global businesses now focus much of their efforts on developing and monitoring engagement levels. LawNet member firms are increasingly pushing the topic up their agendas; and as a members-owned network, engagement of our members is one of my key focuses as well. It seems we are all chasing the holy grail of actively engaged clients!

 
WHAT IS IT?

Definitions for the term ‘engagement’ are still evolving and range from simple marketing, loyalty and satisfaction schemes to more strategic approaches, which put the client at the heart of the company or firm, enabling the development of deeper relationships and experiences. In a law firm context, it is about firms looking holistically at the interactions they have with their clients and shifting the focus away from the historical, transactional nature of individual matters, towards building long term beneficial client relationships. It’s about looking at the lifetime value of that client to your firm.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Analysts at Forrester published a report recently declaring that we had now entered ‘The Age of the Customer’ which is fundamentally shifting the competitive framework of every industry. Primacy in the traditional competitive arenas of manufacturing capabilities, distribution strength and knowledge superiority are no longer enough to secure success.  Instead in this new age, “the only sustainable competitive advantage is knowledge and engagement with customers”.  The legal profession will not be immune to this shift. Your clients are somebody else’s customers and they will come to expect the same level of service and relationship from their professional advisor as they do from other providers. 

In addition to this global shift, the legal profession itself is in a period of dramatic change with increased pressure and challenges ahead. Whilst the official introduction of ABS’s might still be around the corner, other changes are happening already and firms cannot afford to be complacent. The market for mid-tier law firms is being squeezed at both ends and is more competitive than ever. In these conditions staying close to your clients can be an effective defensive strategy.  As Lindsey Farrelly, solicitor and business development manager at LawNet firm, George Davies in Manchester says, “There is more competition than ever in the mid tier. We need to keep close to our clients and turn them into lifetime customers. Client engagement is a way to differentiate ourselves from our competitors”.

The business case for investing in a client engagement strategy is pretty compelling. According to international research company Gallup, organisations which excel at engagement outperform their competitors by 26% in gross margin and 85% in sales growth.  In a market where the competition for clients and fees is ever increasing it’s hard to ignore statistics like that.

WHERE IS THE VALUE?

So  how do engaged clients differ from unengaged clients? The theoretical difference is clear, as outlined in Figure 1 describing the four categories of client engagement as defined by Gallup. What does this mean in practice?

Feedback from LawNet member firms suggests that they see a clear benefit in engaging clients through higher retention rates and ultimately increased fees.

As Farrelly explains:  “If you employ a transactional focus with a client, then that’s the kind of relationship you get back from them and you’re unlikely to hear from them again.  Over 60% of the files we open are for existing clients. We focus our energies on building relationships with these clients so they come to see us as a “collaborative partner” as opposed to just another supplier. These clients then also recommend us to others.”

By truly engaging with clients you develop more meaningful relationships which can be beneficial for everyone. “Engaged clients,” according to Brendan O’Brien, partner at Hertfordshire based LawNet member Breeze & Wyles, “are happy clients who wants to receive your advice and assistance.  They are also more likely to appreciate the true value of your advice.”

The strategic goal of many firms embracing engagement is to reach the sought after status of ‘trusted advisor’.  As Farrelly says: “Once you engage with clients, you are able to learn more about their business and anticipate their needs.”

HOW TO DO IT

A survey conducted in 2010 by agency Claydon Heeley asked individuals exactly how brands could build better relationships with them. The overwhelming answer was that they should “Listen to what customers have to say – and act on it.”

This is exactly the approach being taken by LawNet members IBB Solicitors, a 30 partner firm in West London. “Engaging clients is something a lot of firms talk about, but the phrase ‘client-focused’ has become almost banal. It’s easy to say, but not easy to convince clients that you deliver,” says Abby Winkworth, Partner, Marketing & Business Development.

“IBB has introduced a range of activities to put the client at the centre of everything we do. This includes dedicated client partners, a focused client relationship review programme for our top clients, client engagement surveys and six monthly client questionnaires. Overarching all this activity is a drive to focus on really listening to our clients. But more than just listening, it has to be active listening. There’s no point gathering all that information if you do nothing with it. So as actions come out of those conversations, we act on them and most importantly once we’ve made changes we then tell the client that we’ve done what they asked.

“One of the most controversial moves was to make one person truly responsible for the client internally. This is more than just an administration role collating information from satisfaction surveys. This person has authority to raise issues at team meetings and push for changes and improvements. They are the voice of the client, and they get listened to.”

This all represents a shift in the focus of the firm into the realms of engagement and is about having real dialogues with clients, putting their needs at the top of the firm’s agenda.

And the result of this commitment?  “It’s early days for some of these activities,” says Winkworth, “but the indications are that clients really value the feeling of greater depth in our relationship as a direct result of our engagement strategies, which is helping us to achieve our goal of reaching ‘trusted advisor’ status.

“We’re constantly tracking performance  across the firm and use that data to drive improvements in the way we run our business. We’re also gathering plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the return on our investment, including work generation across departments and clients.”

Listening and service are key. As IBB say, it’s not enough to just ask “is everything all right?” They are continually asking “is there anything more I can do for you?” Whilst it might seem a subtle change, it’s a fundamental shift in approaching client relationships.

East Anglian LawNet firm, Kester Cunningham John has introduced a firm wide project “Exceptional Client Experience” to prioritise client engagement. For Hannah Rutterford, partner, treating clients as individuals is a fundamental and never assuming you know what the client wants ensures you communicate and listen throughout: “Involving your client at every step is crucial to ensuring you are constantly meeting their needs and providing a ‘custom-made’ service, therefore keeping you ahead of your competitors.

 “An engaged client is one who is confident they have been listened to, is involved and informed throughout the process, is at the heart of the process and whose aims and achievements have been met no matter how many times they may have changed on the way. “

The client experience is central to improving client engagement. Think about all the touch points you have with clients. What is their experience like at each point? How can it be improved?  The client experience needs to pervade the firm. An internal client champion can be a great way of ensuring that the client can be “heard” internally.

To achieve client engagement you need client understanding at the core. You can’t possibly hope to build a meaningful relationship with your clients if you don’t know them.  The recent research by Managing Partner Forum found that having an in-depth knowledge of their business, was the most highly rated factor underpinning deep relationships for clients.

Firms could learn much from other sectors. For David Gilroy, sales & marketing director at Conscious Solutions, who work extensively with customers in professional services, client engagement means staying close to your clients and developing a two-way conversation with them.  “Key Account Management programmes, client surveys, client research, asking them what they want are all important to building deep relationships.  For example, in our world we ask our clients how often they want account reviews; some want monthly, some quarterly, but the key is that we actually ask.”

CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT

 If you can’t measure something then you can’t improve performance, so it’s important to track engagement activities across the firm. Online that might include clicks, open rates, interactions, impressions, retweets etc.  Offline; measure referrals, attendances at events, cross-selling and files opened as well as qualitative feedback received through meetings, and individual conversations.  

DELIVERING VALUE

In order to deliver value to your firm you need to take a strategic approach to your engagement activities ensuring you really focus on the people you want to engage with. Many firms have had to overcome the usual internal challenges related to introducing change and new ways of working. But the traditional view that work will just arrive through the door is simply not true in the increasingly competitive landscape. And with even greater change and competition on the horizon, engagement and developing valued relationships with your clients is something that cannot be ignored.