Firms' legal aliens

Non-lawyers, such as accountants, and marketeers increasingly pull the strings behind the scenes at law firms.

Paula Rohan reports on how the city has embraced this phenomenon

Whoever tabloid newspapers may claim really win elections most observers would not deny the combined contribution that Messrs Blair, Campbell and Brown made to Labour's landslide victory two weeks ago.

But the prime minister is not the only lawyer to be reaping the benefits of, respectively, marketing and money men; it has recently emerged that City law firms' financial and public relations directors are raking in six-figure, partner-level sums and are becoming increasingly influential.Thirty years ago, it would have been hard to spot non-lawyers in a law firm, not counting the inevitable pool of secretaries.

Things have moved on; firms are realising that they need that little bit extra to get an edge on the competition.

From secretaries to managers, firms cannot survive without their support staff, and the need is escalating.

Nick Cray, chief operating officer at City firm Lovells, says that international expansion has meant that support services have grown over the last decade.

Every aspect of the business must be co-ordinated.

'When you are looking at the different areas of a business, you now have to view them as a global discipline,' he explains.

'What you are looking for is an integrated business around the world, with areas like technology and finance operating from one system.' Lovells has identified seven areas of support staff - central management, business development, finance, office services, personnel, professional development, and technology.

Each has its experts, and firms are always on the lookout for the top talent.

'Ten years ago, firms were smaller and would appoint people because they talked the language the firm talked.

These days, firms realise they have to place more reliance on specialists.

The trust in non-lawyers has grown, basically because firms have matured.' One real culture shock for lawyers has been the growing realisation that to get the work in, they need to get their names known.

Self-promotion has meant bringing in some wily recruits, and the first marketeers to enter the field had a hard job ahead of them.

Many lawyers did not seem to appreciate that firms are businesses.

'You can't really blame them, though,' says marketeer Jonathan Fox, who was appointed chief executive of London firm Collyer-Bristow in March this year.

'Up until a few years ago, it was illegal to market a law firm - in fact, marketing was a dirty word.' The new breed of marketeers is having to write the script itself, he explains: 'If you are working for a big brand like Unilever, there are only so many new improved recipes, only so many new and improved brands of washing-up liquid you can talk about.

In law, it has never been done before, and there are no textbooks on it - it is a big challenge.'The phenomenon has caught on, and Mr Fox anticipates that the influence and numbers of marketeers will rise.

'I see this growing in terms of marketeers being seen as equals, sitting alongside partners and advising them,' he says.

One marketing director at a magic circle firm is rumoured to earn a partner-level 250,000.

'But with increasing competition, there is also going to be an increase in other areas, for example market research people, who will act as the Indians who provide the chiefs with the data they need to make the decisions.' It is not just City firms which are jumping on the bandwagon.

Worcester-based firm Morton Fisher drafted in former marketing guru David Albans as its new chief executive six months ago.

But like other non-lawyers heading up firms, Mr Albans was recruited more for his management skills than his marketing expertise, managing partner Maynard Burton explains.'It was not about abdicating responsibility, but about delegating it to a non-lawyer,' he says.

'We did it because we have good lawyers, but they are not necessarily good managers.

Since [Mr Albans] came in, the partners have a lot less hassle, and it has freed up their time.

He brings in a different perspective, as he sees things through the eyes of a professional manager.'Mr Burton predicts that the phenomenon will grow, for both established firms and new ones.

'The trend is towards firms expanding and becoming larger.

Mergers seem to be the order of the day, and the larger you get, the more beneficial it is to get someone like David in to manage things,' he says.

'But there are also new firms emerging, and it can only help them to appoint someone with the management know-how.' Management and marketing are two areas of importance, but firms are aware that it is one thing bringing the money in, and another when it comes to dealing with it.

This is where the finance specialists come in.

A recent survey by finance search and selection company Carter Murray found that firms are prepared to pay up to 300,000 for the right face at the top of their finance teams (see [2001] Gazette, 7 June, 1).

David Keddie, who heads Carter Murray, puts this down to firms recognising the need for a 'more commercial and corporate style of practice management'.

He explains: 'A heavyweight financial director is crucial to this end, often reflected by their equity partner status and income.

When business is good, a strong financial director is highly desirable.

When business is tough, they are essential.' City firm CMS Cameron McKenna has a 55-strong finance team headed by chartered accountant Peter Griffiths.

It is divided into five groups dealing with various aspects of the firm's financial operations: management information and billing; financial reporting and operations; partnership, treasury and remuneration; credit control; and tax.

This creates a strong partnership between the accountants and lawyers, and it is vital that the two interact, Mr Griffiths says.

'The firm is organised by practice groups headed by partners, and the teams sit down each month with the financial groups.

There is also more frequent consultation; for example, the management information and billing group will consult with partners on a daily basis about profitability and chargeable activity.

The lawyers are always liaising and working closely with the groups.'Despite being a different species, the financiers and solicitors get on 'very well', Mr Griffiths says.

'There is a growing acceptance that in a large organisation like ours, you have to bring in specialist practitioners that are looking at profitability and matters like that.' It works well for the accountants as well as the firm itself.

'Working for a law firm presents a different range of challenges,' says Mr Griffiths.

His experience at Camerons is vastly different to the years he spent with Big Five accountants Arthur Andersen, his previous employer: 'You are working more in financial management rather than a financial advisory role, looking at profitability and targets; it's all about developing a strategy.'It is not just accountants who are realising that there are a multitude of opportunities opening up within law firms; solicitors themselves are witnessing and taking advantage of the growth in non-fee-earning roles themselves, following the fashion in the US.

'Over the last several years, there has been a growing trend in England where lawyers are working not in a fee-earning role, but in a number of other support roles,' says Alexander Kleanthous, director of know-how at Baker & McKenzie.

While in the early 1990s a substantial number of lawyers taking on a professional support role were mothers returning from maternity leave and working part-time, there is an increasing trend for solicitors to opt for this as a positive career move.

'For some, it is a lifestyle choice, as they can work fewer or more regular hours.

But they often also find that they take on more interesting work, as it doesn't have the same frustrations as client work.

If you actually enjoy the law, you can get a lot out of it in a support role.' The work undertaken by professional support lawyers now varies from firm to firm and department to department, but broadly includes 'preparing precedents, keeping up to date with the law, finding out about legal developments, and providing expert services like training and marketing', Mr Kleanthous explains.

'The benefits for the law firm depend on how the professional support lawyers are used,' he says.

'But in general, the firm gets to capture knowledge and know-how, so they don't have to keep reinventing the wheel.

Knowledge management is a hot topic in industry as a whole at the moment, and it is something the legal profession has adopted.'Professional support lawyers can keep up to date with information in a way that busy fee earners can't, and the fact that law firms have come to realise this can clearly be seen by the increasing number of professional support lawyers and the increased status they've achieved.'With the Law Society slowly moving down the road to allowing multi-disciplinary partnerships (MDPs), it is perhaps good preparation for lawyers - fee-earning or otherwise - to be taking a broad view of other disciplines, the opportunities they present, and the experts that come from them.

The future could see solicitors working as equals alongside professionals ranging from quantity surveyors to patent agents.

But the fundamental differences will always remain, Mr Cray maintains.

'People like accountants will be looking out to run MDPs,' he predicts.

'But law firms will remain focused on what they are already interested in - serving clients and providing solutions to their legal needs.' This ethos is rubbing off on the non-lawyers, Mr Cray says.

Their role may be growing, but they will not lose sight of what is important.

'The departments are important because they support the business, and help it run commercially,' he says.

'But at the end of the day, they are not the business; the business is law.'With legislation on everything from MDPs to trial by jury up for consideration at the start of the government's new term, it is an attitude the profession hopes that leading triumvirate is adopting.