Branching out

Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett's decision to launch its training division epitomises the desire of some practices to diversify with companies offering non-legal services, says Michael Gerrard

Law firms, by and large, are content to concentrate on providing straight legal advice, but a handful of practices are developing their profiles by offering other complementary services.

Mid-tier Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett has become the latest addition to this innovative band with the launch of its Openbrief training division early last month (see [2002], Gazette, 16 May, 4).

But this is a far from packed field, and one which is dominated by national players such as DLA and Addleshaw Booth & Co, which boast human resources (HR) and corporate lobbying consultancies among others.

Last year, north-west practice DWF claimed to be the first law firm to offer clients a recruitment service.

In each case, the parent law firm maintains that such a strategy will ultimately aid its core legal businesses, through cross-promotion of services.

Nearly every firm of a decent size will claim that it already offers legal training and some are even willing to offer human resources and IT training.

But these often differ from what the likes of Lupton Fawcett are doing in that these services remain within a partnership and are often aimed principally at existing clientele through seminars or presentations and briefings, usually on 'hot topics' and in-house training.

This traditional approach is one which the likes of DLA are keen to move away from, according to the director of the firm's training arm DLA Advance.

Nicholas Edwards says those attending seminars as often as not have their minds on other things while subjected to often tedious presentations.

He says: 'The problem with traditional presentations and briefings is that people tend to come along when they have nothing better to do and will cancel if something better comes along.

Often it is as if they are going along for the drinks and the food afterwards.'

The newest enterprise, Openbrief, is headed by Jilly Curteis, a training consultant with some 20 years' experience in the field and considerable experience of the legal sector.

It aims to provide training in IT, law and so-called soft skills, such as management technique to clients, non-clients and even fellow lawyers.

She says: 'Of course larger firms are OK when it comes to training facilities, but it is the smaller firms who are struggling when it comes to accessing training.

'What is on offer is largely general in nature, so we are looking for something more customised towards the legal world.'

The firm also sees this enterprise as a way of promoting Lupton Fawcett - both to shore up support from existing clients, who have already been offered training services for several years, and to expand the client base.

Ms Curteis adds that for non-law clients, the aim is to help decide how to handle legal issues internally, and to judge when the time has come to call in a solicitor.

Openbrief is seen as a way for the 28-partner firm to make a mark in the crowded and competitive Leeds legal sector, dominated as it is by national firms such as DLA, Pinsent Curtis Biddle, Hammond Suddards Edge, Eversheds, Addleshaw Booth & Co, and local big-hitter Walker Morris.

According to managing partner Kevin Emsley, the firm lacks the capacity to compete for the big-ticket work, but maintains that Openbrief could help to attract the smaller-scale work.It is also seen as part of an integrated approach to co-ordinating work with other professionals.

Mr Emsley adds: 'We know that to be a solicitor these days, it is not enough to just offer legal services; people need to understand the context in which this advice is made.

'The legal sector is moving towards more deregulation, and so you are going to have to be more entrepreneurial to attract new business.'

If Openbrief proves to be a success, then the managing partner sees no reason why other services such as human resources, and information and communication technology could not be offered as part of the Lupton Fawcett brand.

This has been the course followed by DLA, which formed its training arm, DLA Advance, a decade ago and has in recent years added to this with corporate communications and human rights consultancies.

It may be on a larger scale, but the aim is the same as Lupton Fawcett.

Lord Tim Clement-Jones, head of corporate communications arm DLA Upstream, sums it up: 'This firm has a vision of offering a broad range of services as a way of differentiating ourselves from other law firms.'

He adds that increasingly solicitors are no longer just legal technicians, but are taking on the wider brief of business advisors dealing with the whole cycle of business and regulatory strategy.

This is why apart from training, the firm has sought to establish itself in the human resources and corporate communications fields.

DLA Upstream is based in offices in London, Scotland and Brussels, and aims to provide communication and lobbying advice for political developments throughout the European Union.

The human resources consultancy was only established last November after merging with consultancy business MCG.

The new entity - DLA MCG Consulting - specialises in all areas of employee relations and management.

But the latter enterprises depended on the success of DLA Advance, which in turn was the brainchild of Paul Nicholls, an employment lawyer and former London managing partner who died in October 2000 after collapsing at the firm's offices.

This division now offers more than 140 courses, and draws upon experts and speakers from beyond the immediate pool of the firm's lawyers, but it took time to grow.

Mr Edwards says his late colleague ensured that Advance kept going for many years before it turned a profit, as he saw the advantages it brought beyond the bottom line.

He adds that this could be a reason why other firms have not taken this route.

'Lawyers are not necessarily commercial people, whereas Paul had that commercial feel.

In a law firm, you are dealing with partners' money, therefore to put high investment in such a venture is quite difficult.'

Other firms will argue that in terms of training, human resources and other services, they can offer the same services as the likes of DLA, but organise and present themselves in a different manner.

For example, training is one area where Eversheds has not spun off its skills.

Chris Piggott, a solicitor and trainer at the firm, devotes all his time to training colleagues, clients of the firm and other parties the intricacies of employment law.

He argues that the difference is that he works within a business unit that is part of the firm's HR group rather than a separate division and that such centralisation can bring benefits.

He claims: 'We feed off the fee-earners and they feed off us.

If we set up a separate training entity, you would lose the cross-over and input from trainers, fee-earners and human resources consultants all sitting down together.'

Few firms at present have developed separate business offshoots and opinions as to their benefits vary, but given the rapid changes to the profession over the last decade, this could become a well-trodden path in the future.

Michael Gerrard is a freelance journalist