Charles Christian: adopt modern business methods
A common theme running throughout these columns has been looking into why some firms enjoy success while others appear to suffer unmitigated disaster when implementing what are apparently identical IT projects. One possible explanation, put forward by Andy Marshall, who until earlier this year was the chief executive of a large law firm in the West Country, is that it all comes down to the culture of the firm.

Mr Marshall divides firms up into four categories: the multinational mega-firms, the ambitious and able, the reluctant and reactionary, and the inert and incapable.


The first and last of these categories we can ignore: the multinational mega-firms exist on such a higher plane and have so much money sloshing around (there are two in London that have both recently spent more that £35 million each on new accounts and practice management systems) that their activities are almost irrelevant as far as the rest of the profession is concerned. As for the inert and incapable? Well, they will not be reading this column anyway and probably their strongest asset is that they still own the freehold of their office premises. (True story: one firm local to me recently sold its car-park to a developer and made more from that transaction than its lawyers managed in 12 months of fee-earning.)


This leaves the ambitious and able, who sometimes will be large firms, sometimes small; they may be general practitioners, commercial lawyers, volume conveyancers or have developed a niche specialism.


Whatever their profile, these firms are inevitably at the forefront of legal technology deployment projects because they realise IT can give them benefits in terms of improved business processes, increased productivity, increased profitability and better service delivery to clients.


Finally, we come to the reluctant and reactionary, who sadly constitute the largest single group. The partners in these firms know they ought to invest in IT but they are not quite sure why, other than that their more successful peers are doing so and, given the choice, they would much rather spend the money on a new car. The inevitable result is they approach IT projects in a half-hearted fashion and are always looking to cut corners, which usually means they skimp on training.


For these firms, probably the only way to get technology to register on their mental radar is to appeal to their partners' baser instincts. Do partners want to earn substantially more from the sale of their slices of the equity than they paid for them?


The answer must be 'yes', but the only way you can substantially create wealth in a modern firm is to adopt modern business methods - and technology is the facilitator that helps enable and deliver these new methods. We will look at just one aspect of this - financial reporting - next time.


Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions guide