Business: hard core of senior lawyers club together to block modern working practices

Small and medium-sized law firms in the Midlands are struggling to maintain competitive advantage and respond to market trends because of their partners' unwillingness to adopt modern working practices, research has revealed.


Based on interviews with senior management at ten mid-sized practices from across the region, the report by business support company Strategic Alliance found that the two biggest issues the firms faced were planning for the future and managing poorly performing partners.


While eight of the ten said their firms had an overall strategic plan, only six actually communicated and managed its implementation effectively. In the other four, fee-earners were not being made aware of their practice's strategic direction or how they contributed to it.


The research also revealed that those firms with a large number of partners often struggled to introduce and implement the structures needed to make their practices successful in the future. These firms had a hard-core of partners who clubbed together to block the implementation of new working practices, such as partner appraisals and recruitment initiatives that may have negatively affected their own interests.


Richard Brennan, managing director of Strategic Alliance, said to remain competitive regional firms needed to ensure that the best interests of the firm rather than of the individual partners were served.


Mr Brennan said: 'Partners get comfortable with what they're doing - there used to be a view that you worked hard to become a partner, then when you made it you could take your foot off the pedal, but that's not how it is now. Partners are expected to lead from the front and to be rainmakers as well as mentors to their team.



'The need for more rounded skills to ensure the smooth running of a practice coupled with today's speed of business does not allow for the machinations of large partner groups.'


He added: 'These firms are failing to recognise the competition they face from magic circle and large national firms moving into the area. In the past couple of years seven or eight have moved into the region and this puts pressure on local firms.'


Mr Brennan warned that with a shrinking talent pool and a more transient workforce it was more difficult to attract and retain high-calibre people, and firms without a well-communicated strategy and clear career progression would lose out.


Richard Follis, president of Birmingham Law Society and partner at Alexander Harris, said he was not surprised by the conclusions. 'One of the most salient points raised is that while starting out with good intentions many of the firms that took part didn't "go the distance" in terms of delivering on business plans,' he said.