The legal profession is no longer the sole preserve of lawyers.

Not only are accountancy firms snapping up lawyers to set up legal arms to compete with the City's best practices, but accountants -- and other non-lawyers -- are being snapped up by law firms looking for managers.

The day of the management professional is here.The growing trend of law firms employing non-lawyers in senior strategic and administrative roles has gathered pace this year.

Among the most high-profile appointments have been those of accountant Christopher Honeyman Brown as Alsop Wilkinson's chief executive, and business administrator Peter Gore as national director of administration at Eversheds.

And Simmons & Simmons has elected its finance director, management accountant Alan Morris, as managing director from 1997.Mr Morris says these appointments are a reflection of law firms becoming more businesslike.

'They've recognised that management is a skill like any other and that being a good lawyer doesn't mean you're automatically a good manager,' he says.

But, he adds, there is nothing magical about a non-lawyer doing the job.

It is skills and experience that count.But lawyers are perhaps unlikely to have gathered those.

Mr Gore, who has worked in strategic roles for brewers Courage and surveyors DTZ Debenham Thorpe, says his experience gives him an ability to second guess -- a skill lawyers do not always possess.

'I think there is a recognition that some of us can bring real financial benefit to the practice by being able to add value to the support staff.

Most managing partners are unlikely to have that breadth of experience.'The financial benefits for firms that employ professional managers also help to explain the trend, says Mr Honeyman Brown.

'It tends to be the stars -- the rainmakers -- who are promoted to managing partner and most firms cannot afford to do that.

If they can find a manager with the right range of experience and expertise, it becomes a straight cost-benefit analysis.

If you've got the equation right, the costs should be a fraction of the benefit,' he explains.

Mr Gore agrees: 'A major benefit is releasing these extremely valuable people back to earning fees.'The crucial role for all three men appears to be the strategic one.

Mr Gore is assisting with Eversheds' drive to make the firm a single business, as opposed to the current collection of self-sufficient local offices.

It is similar to the job he performed at DTZ, where, he says, partners had to be dragged kicking and screaming into incorpor ation and why his particular skills suit Eversheds' needs.

'Anything that came from the centre was an anathema to DTZ partners and had to be proposed in a very discreet way,' he recalls.

'At Eversheds, we are also at a stage where anything put forward is done using the powers of persuasion.'Formerly with accountants Binder Hamlyn, Mr Honeyman Brown arrived at Alsop Wilkinson on 1 April 1996 with knowledge accrued from being a member of a professional partnership as well as heading up Binder's private business services, where he specialised in helping larger law firms.

Charged with the operational management of Alsop's business, he speaks repeatedly of the need to set agendas.

It is his responsibility, he asserts, to help set these agendas and implement them.

'An agenda keeps firms moving forward,' he says.

'Such momentum gives them a purposefulness people enjoy.'Mr Morris is similarly focused.

He says: 'I will have to ensure the business is running effectively and profitably and that we achieve the things set down in our business plan.' Mr Morris believes he brings a different point of view to the business.

'My experience, background and training enable me to look at certain things from a different angle and ask questions, often out of ignorance as much as anything else, which get people thinking how we can do things differently and better,' he explains.

Mr Honeyman Brown adds that it can be easier for an outsider to point out what hard decisions have to be made.All three believe the trend of non-lawyer appointments is likely to continue.

'I don't see any reason why it should not, but it is down to the performance of those now in place,' says Mr Honeyman Brown.

'If they can deliver a sharper business performance and get those firms clearly moving forward, then their competitors will sit up and think.'Mr Morris believes the best approach is a management team of lawyers and non-lawyers.

He adds: 'I suspect you'll get more and more firms run by people who have a claim to be professional businessmen as well as professionals within their own discipline.'Mr Gore warns that the major stumbling block is culture differences.

'If firms are to get the most out of professional managersthey've got to let them manage the business on behalf of the partners/owners.

At the moment, the owners are usually very closely involved in the management.

People from a corporate background -- who have functioned with delegated responsibility and specific duties -- are not used to that.'