As some firms struggle to survive, there is no better time than the present for lawyers to develop the extra skills they may need to prosper.

From ‘cocktail party’ training to better writing skills to a three-year doctorate in legal practice – just what skills should solicitors and law firms be investing in to survive the recession?

Junior business minister Lady Vadera was shot down in flames when she tentatively referred to the first ‘green shoots’ of recovery, leaving firms to make their own judgement calls on just how deep the recession will be and how they should respond.

For many, one target for economies will be training. During the last recession training budgets were slashed, and there is a risk some firms will do that again says Tony Williams, founder of the management consultancy Jomati and former Clifford Chance managing partner.

But, he adds: ‘You have a choice in this market. If activity is down, you need to make yourself more attractive going forward.

‘Firms need to carry out a very clear, hard-nosed review of their training programme. Decide what your clients will be doing in the future, what services you should be providing that will be relevant, and how you can differentiate yourself from your competitors. Once you have answered those questions, you can then decide what training is relevant, not the other way around. Individuals should be thinking about honing their skills, not sitting in the office willing the phone to ring.’

To some extent training departments have only themselves to blame if their budgets are cut. ‘Those that didn’t put in place measures to demonstrate the value they bring to the firm during the good times tend to be seen as an overhead, rather than a benefit when times are hard,’ says Williams.

There is a multitude of external providers to make you a better lawyer and a more efficient firm, while academic bodies are developing innovative courses, including a new doctorate in legal practice at Nottingham Trent University and a certificate in legal practice management at Manchester Metropolitan University.

A total of 46 of the top 50 law firms are now engaged in structured training programmes offered by the College of Law. While the courses are predominantly delivered in London, the college is seeing a growing interest in the regions, particularly in Birmingham and Manchester.

Its director of business development, Sarah Hutchinson, says the message they are picking up from firms is that they do not want to make the mistakes of the last recession, when they made swathes of associates redundant and then found themselves without good lawyers when the upturn came.

She says: ‘Silver circle firms have been saying they want to re-skill their people – banking is dead, so what do we do with our highly qualified banking lawyers? Two or three of our biggest clients are using our post-qualification training programme to retrain them in restructuring and insolvency.’

One firm which has worked with the college in tailoring a course to meet its requirements in the face of the recession is City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner. Frances McLeman leads the firm’s financial market conditions group, set up at the end of last year to co-ordinate its response to the downturn.

‘This includes whether we have the right associates with the right skill sets and where we need to be positioned as a firm,’ she explains. ‘An important part of that has been running training programmes designed to increase the number of lawyers who have a familiarity and understanding of restructuring and insolvency processes.

‘We initially ran one for the corporate department and then extended it across the firm, supplementing it with a series of ‘know-how’ databases for the different practice areas.’

She says the firm has also identified a number of individuals from the tax, real estate, finance and corporate teams who have been seconded to the restructuring and insolvency team. ‘The skills they learn in both those areas – which include understanding strategy and commercial and financial issues while working under tight timelines that require a lot of project management – will stand them in good stead when they go back to their own work groups and for the rest of their careers.’

However, for some of the biggest firms, their narrow focus means it is harder to move their people around the office. Clifford Chance is the first magic circle firm to announce a redundancy programme, affecting up to 80 lawyers in its 1,000-strong London office. There is to be a separate review of business services, which includes training, human resources and marketing.

Julia Clarke, Clifford Chance’s global learning and development partner, says: ‘We are not that good at moving people around quickly but, inevitably, our lawyers in the finance, capital markets and corporate areas are receiving training on how they need to adapt.

‘We are also looking closely at how we can do things more efficiently and cut costs. We are trying to use more internal resources to deliver courses, as well as using technology so that, for example, training in our global management appraisal scheme can be delivered from London.’

She says the firm’s commitment to training staff to be the best in the market helps boost morale in difficult times. ‘We acknowledge that part of the training will be of value to them wherever they go. The training helps them progress within the firm, but we don’t pretend that everyone stays here for their whole career.’

When it comes to individual training, the College of Law offers junior lawyers programmes which people can take at their own speed – at their desk via the internet, but which are supervised one-to-one by a trainer. Six modules, offered in conjunction with the International Bar Association, ultimately lead to an LLM in international legal practice, at a cost of £9,500. So far, there have been more than 230 registrations since the beginning of 2008, 45% from the UK, with most aged between 26 and 32 – though one Chinese lawyer is 86.

Hutchinson says: ‘I don’t think firms will be so quick to slash and burn on training and development this time round. It underpins quality practice and firms need to retain their quality staff. But training has to be focused. If it involves 200 people in a lecture theatre, there is much less of a business case for retaining it.’

The demand for training has led to the development of a wide range of consultancies.

Earlier this month Martin Richardson, a legal academic who ran Berwin Leighton Paisner’s education and training, launched FivepointZeroOne, named after the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct rule on effective management and supervision. It uses webinars to deliver accredited training courses to fee-earners and support staff, with an emphasis on managing professional risk. They run for an hour at lunchtimes, with the last 10 minutes devoted to real-time interaction with a tutor.

‘It is extraordinarily dangerous to cut or reduce training when it is so important for the survival of, certainly, smaller firms,’ says Richardson. ‘If you have people with less to do, train them now to be ready for the upturn because, when it comes, they will be too busy.’

Accountant Robert Mowbray has worked with lawyers for 20 years, as a principal with Macintyre Hudson and now as a principal with Taylor Mowbray, a consultancy aimed at improving law firms’ profitability.

He says heads of training are telling him their budgets are under enormous pressure, ‘which is daft when people have time to do it’. Training should focus on improving people management skills, time recording, billing, cash collecting, pricing, client relationships and business development – ‘any lawyer who develops those extra skills will be bulletproof’, he says.

Winning new businessAs the economy worsens, the ability to win new business becomes increasingly central to the life of a lawyer.

Jack Downton, a retired colonel in the Royal Marines, runs The Influence Business, which offers training in effective networking, engaging presentations, successful negotiations and winning business, using professional actors in role plays.

Ask him how good lawyers are at networking and he answers promptly: ‘Not, in a word. Some are excellent, but many others aren’t. Before the recession, work was coming in so fast that they didn’t have to go out and look for it. Now, networking is more important than ever, which is a cultural shock for those who don’t find it comfortable.’

He says networking or ‘cocktail party’ skills are not covered in lawyers’ basic training. ‘Lawyers tend to get mixed up between networking and selling. They want to come away with instructions, but networking is about getting someone to know and trust you.

‘The biggest pitfall is that people think they have to be interesting – which can equate to being a crashing bore – rather than being interested in the person they are speaking to.’Alongside key issues such as client relationship management, there is also the need to brush up on specialist knowledge.

Data protection specialist Dr Chris Pounder, who ran Pinsent Mason’s data protection training arm, launched Amberhawk information law training consultancy last September with solicitor Sue Cullen.

‘There is going to be a lot happening in this field this year,’ says Pounder, ‘and lawyers have to keep up-to-date or risk slipping behind. It is also a time for firms to carry out internal housekeeping measures that have been put off for far too long.’

Survival guide-As the profession’s representative body, the Law Society has set out an agenda to help the profession ‘survive and flourish’, says chief executive Des Hudson, including providing the latest insights into marketing, business development and achieving profitable growth. Its Junior Lawyers Division is running a series of free online seminars on credit crunch-related issues for students, trainees and solicitors with five years or fewer PQE.

Hudson says: ‘It is likely that businesses will have to navigate a more complex regulatory maze this year as regulators impose greater scrutiny in response to the economic downturn. Firms will want to turn their attention to training their staff to offer credit crunch-appropriate services. They will also need to re-examine how they deliver their services to maximise profits, because businesses will use the economic downturn as an opportunity to push for better value from their legal advisers.’

Sapna Fitzgerald, chair of the Commerce & Industry Group, says the mood among members is one of being ‘overwhelmed’. While there is some limited recruitment, there are also redundancies, recruitment freezes and pressure to cut costs while taking on additional work, she says.

The C&I Group runs training courses and Fitzgerald is one of the speakers at an event titled ‘How to build your career as an in-house lawyer’ on 3 February, which will take into account the current climate.

She says: ‘The pressure to show what we bring to the party is always there, but it is even more apparent at a time when costs are such an issue. The market also has an impact. For example, your focus moves from reviewing and drafting contracts to dispute resolution and insolvency issues, as suppliers or customers get into difficulties, so training is vital to make sure you have the right skills to meet your company’s changing needs.’

While local authorities are warning of redundancies, Suzanne Bond, chair of Solicitors in Local Government, says demand for legal work is unlikely to diminish, given the government’s regeneration and planning proposals and the inevitable increase in pressure on children, housing and community services.

However, she says: ‘In the current climate, you have to make yourself marketable, not only by improving your legal skills but also by taking management courses to progress your career.’

Not all improvements cost money. Tony Williams recommends that specialist lawyers use any spare time for research. ‘General counsel say lawyers come to see them claiming to be specialists, but don’t know what they are talking about – that will just get you blacklisted for wasting their time.

‘Another important area, which is often forgotten, is keeping in touch with contacts who have been fired. It can be awkward because you are still acting for the organisation from which they have been fired – but it doesn’t stop you being a sounding board on a personal level. And they may remember that when they get a new job.’

That support will be welcome across the professions and generations. As Mowbray says, the downturn is a ‘rude awakening’ for young lawyers after 10 years of a growing economy. But, he says: ‘It is part of everyone’s education to live through a recession.’

Further education

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Solicitor Gillian Parkinson (pictured), team manager in Gloucestershire County Council’s planning and highways department, invested £10,000 and four years in completing an MBA. ‘It is a lot of money in today’s economic climate,’ she acknowledges, ‘and it is challenging balancing work, study and family. But I felt I needed to have wider skills and it has made me more marketable. It would also be very valuable for someone in private practice. It gives you the tools to analyse your business, your performance and your people management skills, as well as ways to cut waste and improve the services you offer.’

Nottingham Trent University is offering a new three-year professional doctorate in legal practice, which costs £15,000. It has been adapted from a Nottingham Business School model, with input from Nottingham Law School, and involves lawyers working with social scientists and educationalists in an innovative programme which incorporates cross-discipline contact and pure academic and practice-based research.

Course designer Dr Kevin Flint says: ‘Lawyers generally don’t go beyond MA level unless they go into the academic side, so there isn’t a history of lawyers doing courses like this. We are trying to break through that barrier.’

Jane Ching, head of professional development at Nottingham Law School, says the course is designed for working lawyers, whether in private practice, the court services, in-house, local authorities or other legal services. It is likely to attract those in their early 30s, mid-career with a masters degree or equivalent.

‘It’s a very good time to do this course,’ she says. ‘The incoming Legal Services Act means solicitors are going to have to think about where they want to position themselves.’

The implications of the Legal Services Act are also acting as one of the main drivers behind Manchester Metropolitan University’s new year-long legal practice management certificate.

Course director David Amos says: ‘It’s taught partly by people in the business school and partly by people in the law school, as looking at leadership and management issues and applying them to legal practice. Students also prepare a practice portfolio on how they can use what they have learnt in their firm.

‘The classic student will be three to four years qualified, doing well as fee-earner but wanting to move into a more managerial role.’

The course has the support of the Government’s higher-level skills pathfinder fund, so the fees in the first year will be about £500.

Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist