One thing the Gazette IT forum shows is that minnows are poised to pounce, says Karen Jones
As people are different and individual in their choices - their coffee, their cars, their preferred dance style - it became obvious at the Gazette's roundtable that law firms are becoming more different too.
The media can no longer pigeonhole you into neat little boxes and sit back, self-satisfied, saying 'We've got your number'. Profit-per-partners charts dominate most bigger law firms - are we up, down, static?
The problem with the dominance of those charts is that they are a record of past performance and the position now. They are not an indicator of future potential.
What the roundtable demonstrated was that all law firms, whether small, medium or large (to put you back in a box for a moment), are capable of great things. So, whether you like tango, disco, freestyle or salsa, you must swing your hips to a different tune, a tune not dominated by your size or place on the profits-per-partner charts (if you are there), but by where you want to be in three to five years' time.
The Gazette roundtable panel disagreed on many topics and had their eyes opened on others, and everyone had a viewpoint. But some of the issues being discussed have always been around, and perhaps roundtable is an apt name for the day - issues in love, life and the universe arguably stay the same.
Whatever the reason for this constancy, it is time to assess your future potential, to do some navel gazing, or maybe say 'bah, humbug!' to running like a business - do what you want, it is only money after all.
But as the larger firms consider their future potential, they should take a peek in the rear-view mirror. The smaller law firms are not constrained by profit-per-partner charts, nor do they have anything to lose in being experimental.
They can see the markets in the niches and seize the dance floor while the larger players are strutting their stuff. The next techno wave you see might be from a small law firm to a big one - and wouldn't this be a great fantasy headline: 'Clifford Chance merges with One-man-and-his-dog & Co'?
Karen Jones is managing director of JPC, publisher of the CityTech and CityWealth newsletters (www.j-p-c.tv)
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