How can we help make more commercially minded lawyers?
As a non-lawyer (I refuse to use the terms fee-earner and non fee-earner, or 'fee-burner' as I heard it called recently), I find it frustrating that many lawyers lack commercial awareness, that is the ability and desire to really talk to clients, find out what they want, what they will do with it, how much they expect to pay and then deliver it that way.
Having worked in many other industries before venturing into law, it was a shock to the system to find that many of my new colleagues had never worked in any other firm, let alone in any other type of business, and those questions were rarely even considered.
The problem is this: the world is changing, fast, and if law firms want to keep up they have to change fast, too. This, as I have discovered from conversations with many firms, is a big ask. The English law firm is almost an institution, things have remained the same for decades: clients come to you, their children come to you, their children’s children come to you. It is this way because that’s the way it has always been. So it is understandable to a degree that the 'it’s worked for a hundred years, why change it now?' attitude exists. The problem is that the rest of the world has moved on.
At my firm we thought we’d found the perfect solution. If we want to educate our lawyers as to the importance of marketing (putting the client at the centre of everything we do), to make them more aware of the need to compete in an increasingly competitive market and give them the tools to do so, we have to catch them young and help them start off on the right track before they develop the 'ivory tower' mentality. So we had the bright idea of having each of our trainees do a seat in Business Development (much like the Gazette's Masked IT Man's suggestion to put trainees in IT for a week). Perfect… except that it's not permitted by the Law Society because it's not legal training, so it cannot constitute part of the legal training contract.
So I would like to start a revolution: let’s get it included in the LPC, and let’s equip these youngsters with the knowledge and skills to understand the competitive market they are entering. Let’s train them to put the client at the heart of everything they do, to be effective networkers – after all, people buy from people. You can technically be the best in your field, but if you can’t look someone in the eye when you speak to them, or you hide behind emails and shy away from people, you’ll never gain their trust. And who wants a solicitor they don’t feel they can trust?
The other reason this would be a good move is that lawyers tend to look backwards, not forwards. Many legal relationships are based on transactional matters, where lawyers perform a necessary task and then may not be needed again for months (or even years, in the case of private individuals). This means that lawyers look at clients in terms of the transaction at hand instead of the lifetime value of the client, and developing a strong and lasting relationship, which will ultimately prove to be more profitable.
So let’s start giving tomorrow’s partners the knowledge and skills to be more commercial and to look at the business of servicing clients – not just practising law.
Lisa Pearson is business development manager for Manchester firm George Davies Solicitors
Comments
Teaching business development
What a great idea! Young lawyers should have their eyes opened to business development (i.e. relationship building) from the earliest stage of their careers as possible (especially if they aspire to work in private practice). They need to understand that building relationships is as critical (if not more so) to their careers as the ability to deliver on the technical side of the law.
Let's grab them young and teach this new generation the skill set that will bring them successful and satisfying careers!
Lawyers can do law but little else
I don't agree with you. Great theory, won't work in reality in my opinion.
The way a mind needs to work to be a good lawyer is the sort of mind that just can't "do" commercial concerns or management.
IMHO, best leave law to the lawyers and business management to business managers.
Andrew Woolley
http://www.family-lawfirm.co.uk
The practice of law IS a business
In today's environment, if lawyers want to become a partner (or in some cases just to retain their jobs), then they must have the networking, relationship building, and business development skills to bring in work. If they ignore this reality, and only learn "the law", then their future options will become increasingly limited...
Lawyers can no longer merely learn the law. The practice of law IS a business, and it's about client relationships.
Just why on earth should
Just why on earth should employed lawyers find work for the firm?
It is like a coal company asking the miners to find the coal, dig it up, then sell it and give the proceeds to the coal company whilst just receiving a wage for labour. Great for the coal company, not so great for the miners!
If the firm wants to market, it should pay for it-preferrably to the lawyers doing ithe marketing but usually one is expected to market "if you want to get on"- the biggest con imaginable.
Yes of course its about client relationships but they will usually be stolen from the employee by the employer, if they are allowed to developat all.
It is high time employed solicitors had a union to look after them.
Partners Young And Old Must Know Be Able To Market And Sell
I wouldn't just focus on young lawyers to develop.
Senior Partners can also develop selling and marketing
skills.
And they should be coaching junior staff as part
of their role (and being rewarded for their success
and skill at doing this).
Everyone at a firm should be looking to develop
the business and find clients. That's what keeps
the cash coming in.
And firms should engage all staff in this process.
That's why there must
be a team bonus system in place.
This must sync with a plan
that is put in place each year
to focus on the
important things a company needs to do.
Andrew Woolley makes a good point
about specialists being employed.
I do think it is possible for most lawyers
to improve their skills and knowledge
significantly (and other staff).
The more they do, the better positioned they
are to do well by having valuable skills themselves
and not having to rely on others.
http://www.GreatLegalMarketing.co.uk
Comrades We Can Go Forward With Confidence.
Boyd you would have done so well in the Soviet Union. Anyone can do anything was their view and if it went wrong it was not because of the inherent unsuitability of the worker but because of his belligerence or counter-revolutionary views. Then the gulag beckoned for the poor wretch who wasn’t up to it.
I am sick and tired of the crypto-Marxists who think anyone can do anything. These people believe that the law is not really a specialised profession but a conspiracy against the laity and their policy, aided by useful idiots in the Law Society or those wanting to be gonged, is to hand profit making parts of the law over to non-lawyers. I confidently predict that this will lead to utter chaos for the Rule of Law.
Wake up Boyd, the little employee solicitor is never going to be able to compete against Tesco with their huge club card intelligence system which very accurately assesses the needs of their customers.
article
So junior lawyers should start doubling as field sales executives in addition to meeting their often daunting fee targets? Perhaps in the meantime the HR managers can train up and do a few billable hours' worth of legal work on the side to widen their own skill-base: it's only fair.
They Still Have Bakers Where I Live So Solicitors Can Thrive
Tesco have been going for years
with their club card.
But there are bakers
where I live and they do well.
They are better quality, more convenient
and they are friendly. So Tesco and others do not kill
off all other trade.
Solicitors can find their own niche and
ways of competing. Now is a good time
to look at how.
As for the Soviet Union...it's not a system
I know much about but... I do know that
if you start out defeated you are never
going to win.
A positive attitude doesn't mean that
you are happy clappy about everything.
Just that you approach negatives with
a positive manner.
And as for "comerade" I am quite happy to be
called comerade. I believe it means friend.
My family is half-French and
it comes from the word "camarade" - originally
being used in the French Revolution*
So, choose your camp comerades.
Fight and win
or
go home and give up.
* (If you believe Wikipedia)
'Tesco Law' Threat
I have a Waitrose, a Sainsbury's and a Tesco where I live and no baker, butcher, greengrocer or fishmonger. They have all gone.
agree 100%
I graduated from the LPC and went straight in to a firm that heavily controlled by its business managers. Working closely with them I feel I have gained invaluable business development skills which has lead to the success in my work as a lawyer and I cannot agree with you more on the importance of teaching business development to all budding lawyers.
Afterall, law is a business.
Granted, a law firm IS a
Granted, a law firm IS a business but it’s all too easy to get it out of proportion.
Firms which can’t manage the bread and butter stuff – turning out good service to clients at competitive rates – just won’t make it in the marketplace. That’s just good old natural selection.
High quality work coupled with good service is the best form of marketing for a small firm. Those who want to go further, (and the cynic in me says make up for their substantive shortcomings) can do so if they so desire. But clients don’t typically go to lawyers for their dynamic entrepreneurship.
Good idea, but..
.....please don't advocate for yet more material to be added to the LPC!
Lawyers need to stick to law
Having been in the profession (in a finance capacity) since 1979 I have long given up trying to comprehend why solicitors think they know how to run a business when so often they flout the Solicitors Accounts Rules and so often try (and on occasions succeed) in persuading administrative and finance staff to cary out instructions which are clearly in contravention of said rules.
It is clearly evident that many consider that they have met their obligations by gaining a pass in the accounts paper and having little or no regard subsequnetly - it is not surprising that soliciotrs feel over burdened by regulation.
Evidence of this comes with the weekly raft of interventions and SDT reports where obviously a high proportion of firms cannot manage their business properly and seemimgly are unable or unwilling to employ competent personnel to do it for them leaving the solictors to provide the resoources for which they qualified.
They should stick to law and ensure that they have the proper resources available from those who are best (and probably better) qualified to effect the efficient management of their business.
Put up or shut up!
How easy it is to criticise when you hide behind "Anonymous". While I am regularly horrified by the number of disciplinary cases reported in the Gazette (the printed version of which now seems to contain little else), it is completely untrue and unfair to say that "obviously a high proportion of firms cannot manage their business properly" and regularly flout the accounts rules. The so-called raft of cases is actually a tiny number compared to the total number of solicitors. The vast majority of us provide a good and, above all, honest service to thousands of clients.
I disagree with the notion that lawyers aren't businessmen and can't manage finances. However, there is a divide between those who see the law as a business and those who simply don't. Just look at the posts so far - I was, sadly, not surprised at the view that it is somehow not an employed lawyer's job to find work for the firm. It is everyone's business to find work if they can in order to keep their firm profitable and viable and to preserve everyone's job (not just their own). But then, as an employer, no doubt I am only saying that to line my own pockets.
The successful firms are those which combine business acumen and hard graft with their professional responsibility to their clients and their moral obligation to all their staff. And for such firms to thrive and survive the threat of Tesco law, that does mean that its qualified staff should do their bit to promote the firm, not just by providing the best service they can but also spotting opportunities and networking where they can. The alternative is that only those firms which pay substantial referral fees will have any work at all and all other solicitors will work for supermarkets.
It is about time that the LPC taught useful skills like business development and networking skills as these are the only way in which the profession as we know it will survive in changing times.