Does the route to a management tooled-up and skilled legal profession lie via creation of a costly, new tier of middle managers - 'a new type of legal management professional' - because we persist in believing that some good lawyers just cannot manage, as Jane Jarman speculates? (See [2006] Gazette, 1 June, 10). I suggest that rule 5 of the draft new code of conduct for solicitors will not engender better management habits until:

  • The (alternative) concept that 'the best lawyers are good managers' is championed from the top, whether by practising or purely managing partners; and it is from the top that there is scope for management pro-fessionals and/or lawyers-turned-managers to proselytise; and


  • All fee-earners (from trainees to partners) are trained in management skills and that having them is necessary for career progression, and that avoiding/embracing them will be sanctioned/rewarded. 



    • Desired culture change will not happen if outsourcing is proffered as the solution to the dearth of management skills within the profession.


    Jo Riddick, Pitmans, Reading