Top ten gifts for solicitors

Fingers crossed over what Santa has in his sack for you? The Gazette takes a peek at the presents you need to set you up for 2002

A rainmaker: It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are three types of lawyers: finders, minders and grinders.

Rainmakers - those lawyers who are adept at the client schmooze and actively bring work into the firm - fit into the first category, and in the murky gloom of an oncoming economic slowdown, will become as rare and highly sought-after as the key to the partnership drinks cabinet.However robust business may be this year, the chances are that at some point in the coming 12 months, regular sources of income will, if they do not dry up, at least become shallower and harder to plumb.

Greg Abrahams, a director of private practice recruitment with TMP QD Legal, says: 'In the downturn, it's the rainmakers who everyone is eager to get.

In boom times, work comes to the law firms, but during the downturn rainmakers are essential to bring the work in.' If you can't poach decent rainmakers, grow your own - encourage your lawyers to dig themselves out from behind their desks, polish up their small talk, and start wooing clients.

Charm is the order of the day - grit your teeth and take potential clients to a musical, develop a sudden interest in art exhibitions, even follow the example of some US lawyers and take them to cookery and creative classes.

You may come out of the exercise with not only a nice Victoria Sponge, but also a bunch of new contacts, a fat contract for the firm, and glowing approval - and subsequent job security - from your senior partners.

Victoria MacCallum

An advocacy department: Mark Humphries - head of advocacy at Linklaters and former chairman of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates - told the Gazette recently: 'Law students today believe a lawyer is a lawyer and want to possess all the skills.'Just as big an issue is that many clients today maintain that a lawyer is a lawyer and that they should have all the skills.

Why, they ask, can't their solicitor handle their advocacy work? Either way, it seems wise for forward-thinking solicitors' firms to act accordingly.'I think it's important now for firms to have advocacy capability,' says Mr Humphries.

'Solicitors don't necessarily want to replicate the bar by taking on cases; what they would rather is to continue with advocacy for their own clients.' He says if firms are to offer the chance for solicitors to practise advocacy, then the training must go beyond the 12-months' experience route offered by the Higher Courts Qualification Regulations 2000.

'You can't learn advocacy in a year,' Mr Humphries says.

'You can be taught it in a year, but to be fully competent you need to go out there, make mistakes and learn from them.'For firms wondering whether an advocacy department is the right move for them, Mr Humphries sees the answer as fairly black and white.

'If a firm is looking to provide a full litigation service then there is no question to answer - you need such capability,' he says.

'The only question to ask yourselves is how well you do it.'Andrew Towler

An IT manager: The role of IT personnel has reached the stage where Clifford Chance recently issued a press release to announce that its international IT director was leaving.

Usually not even partners enjoy that sort of treatment, writes Andrew Towler.A couple of weeks earlier at the Solicitors Annual Conference, Orlando Cornetta, Linklaters' chief Extranet architect and a man who looked like he should still be doing his training contract, patiently explained to a room full of senior practitioners exactly how they should be handling IT.

He was very good and did not use too many long words.

'As a rule of thumb, most firms with fewer than 30 staff don't have an IT manager, but rather a partner who understands enough about computer systems to tackle emergencies,' says legal IT consultant Charles Christian.

'The problem is that technology these days is so pervasive in firms that there is far too much for a busy lawyer to be dealing with and consultants cost an arm and a leg,' he continues.

'What law firms need is someone on site to deal with problems there and then as they arise.'Mr Christian says that owing to the widespread use of e-mails, the potential viruses they transmit and the storage of clients' details electronically, there has never been a more relevant time to employ an IT manager than now.'IT staff can play a far wider role in law firms, as well,' he adds.

'They can monitor developments in technology and help guide the firm in their future strategy and decision-making.'

Risk manager: The more you think about legal practice, the more the need for a risk manager becomes, writes Jeremy Fleming.

Lawyers make judgements ever day which have the potential to expose the firm.

As Clive Pracy, City firm DLA's director of risk management, put it when he took his job just over a year ago: 'People are the biggest risk.'When it comes to professional indemnity, risk managers are virtually de rigueur, as they convince insurers that the firm is keeping a beady eye on potential internal hazards.

It marks firms out as pro-active in avoiding claims - result: cheaper premiums.With the use of conditional fee agreements only set to grow, and perhaps contingency fees following behind, being able to assess risk properly, whether in a personal injury action or commercial insolvency, is vital to a solvent practice.Processes, structure, compliance, mergers, investments - a risk manager could have a key role all over the firm.

It also links to another issue for 2002: whether to adopt limited liability status.

Finally, but no less importantly, a risk manager can also play a vital public relations role - especially in a shrinking market, where insolvencies and law suits can begin to fly, and law firms become vulnerable to the general flak.A risk manager can give the firm an idea of where to anticipate problems, how to deal with potential exposures, and, perhaps most importantly, when to duck.

A new office: One sector where there is no slowdown is in property: law firms' own property, that is, writes Paula Rohan.

The large number of firms that have upgraded their offices in the past couple of years will be joined in 2002 by the likes of Slaughter and May and Lovells, while Clifford Chance is working on its controversial Canary Wharf move.US firms in particular, even smallish ones such as Shook Hardy & Bacon, have been busy taking plush offices off the market ahead of expected expansion.But for those worried about prime London office space running out, there are always those who decide the capital is not for them.

Leeds-based Walker Morris has joined others in dismissing London offices as 'an expensive waste of money'.But of course, office moves are not just a London thing; they are happening all over the country.

Manchester firm Rowlands has a good excuse for relocating its branch in Droylsden: the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority has acquired the land so it can expand the Metrolink through the firm's reception.For some firms, though, the festive season is definitely having an influence on their concept of an ideal office.

'Floor-plates the size of football pitches, enough sleeping pods for dozens of late-night transactional lawyers, and a staff restaurant big enough to have a really good party,' is what Lovells managing partner Lesley MacDonagh is hoping for when the firm moves next summer.But surely the biggest continuing story for 2002 is the saga of Allen & Overy's search for a new office.

Will it be Spitalfields? Will it be Canary Wharf? Will it be Hackney? Will it all be over soon?

A currency calculator: For lawyers who say that maths is not their strong point, it might be just as well to address the issue if they get the wishbone in the turkey this year, writes Paula Rohan.

The Euro is set to be increasingly in their faces in 2002 whether they like it or not.'As from 1 January 2002 the Euro will become the most important fee-earning unit of currency after sterling for most English firms,' warns Geoffrey Yeowart, a banking and finance partner at City firm Lovells who is a leading expert on the Euro.'Any firm currently sending a bill to a European-based client in their national currency, such as Deutschmarks or French francs, will find that the cheque that they get back in the new year will be in Euros.'Another issue is the effect on firms' competitiveness if the UK jumps on the Euro bandwagon itself - or if it does not.

The Solicitors Annual Conference heard recently that UK-based international firms are safe as long as the government does not rule out the Euro all together.

As Blair et al seem to be eternally biding their time over a referendum, they may not have to hold their breath too much this year.

A captive insurance companyWith ominous noises of increases in premium prices across the board in the insurance sector next year, now is the chance for firms to head offshore and set up their own private insurance companies, writes Jeremy Fleming.

DLA set off on this path in advance of the September indemnity renewal date, and six more firms are currently in talks with broker Alexander Forbes, exploring the chances of building up a joint captive with protected 'cells' for each individual firm's risk.It is certainly no bad time to be looking.

Though the first two years of the open indemnity market - following the dissolution of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund - have seen sweeping savings on firms' indemnity policies, this is not likely to last.Apart from the fact that many insurers kept their prices lower at the outset to establish their positions in the market, there is the additional factor of the 11 September terrorist attacks in the US, which have hit most of the major indemnity players badly.Added to this, the competition in the market - though still very buoyant with 26 of the original 35 approved insurers still standing - is thinning out quickly.

Cox Insurance was last week the latest and biggest to pull out.So, expect to see a stampede of partners flying over to Guernsey or the Isle of Man this year, bent on taking more responsibility for their own firms' risks with a private captive insurer.

A passport: Europe has now been largely conquered by English firms; there are few places of note without an English presence and a few places of little note with one (Padua in Italy, for example?), writes Neil Rose.Many factors combine in favour of expansionist international firms.

The European Rights of Establishment Directive has taken a firm hold and even the more reluctant countries such as France and Spain have had to embrace it.

Eastern European countries hoping to join the EU are being forced to toe the same line if they do not want to breach their accession agreements, and the directive offers a template for cross-border practice globally.This links into work being done by the World Trade Organisation to liberalise requirements on foreign lawyers.

China had to promise reform as part of its accession agreement, though there are still restrictions which could be removed in the next 12 months.

The WTO works on the basis of the minimum regulation required to meet policy objectives; restrictions on foreign lawyers are likely to fall foul of this.So, where should the discerning international lawyer be packing his bags for in 2002? Korea is a good bet - better still if you can take in a few World Cup games - as is India, both of which effectively exclude foreign law firms and over which the top practices are salivating, while there are significant hopes of further liberalisation in Brazil, Slovakia, and Romania among others.

And who knows - the US may even play fair and give solicitors the same rights that US lawyers enjoy over here.

A non-lawyer partner: Lawyers sick of working with other lawyers need not despair: the time of the multi-disciplinary partnership (MDP) is approaching, and lawyers with foresight should keep their eyes peeled next year for potential non-lawyer partners, writes Jeremy Fleming.

The old joke of how an MDP between a solicitor and an undertaker would be a perfect example of horizontal integration may soon be true.Though MDPs are banned in the UK, the profession is not dragging its feet.

The Law Society has strongly endorsed MDPs, saying firms should be allowed a minority of non-solicitor partners as a first step.

An Office of Fair Trading report on competition in the professions earlier this year strongly endorsed MDPs as an efficient and cost-effective way for consumers to obtain professional advice.But MDPs are a victim of the re-elected government's ambitious programme: Though the government is committed to MDPs, enabling legislation will probably have to wait until 2003 at the earliest.Some firms are taking their futures into their own hands.

Last month, London practice Statham Gill & Davies sold itself to AIM-listed corporate professional services outfit Tenon Group for 7 million.

This year will be a good chance to prepare for the inevitable.

When MDPs emerge, nobody will be able to say they did not see them coming.

An employment lawyer/the Gazette: As sad but inevitable as the family squabbles on Christmas Day is the fact that next year will see redundancies in firms across the country, writes Victoria MacCallum.Recession, economic slowdown - a slump by any other name is still a slump and as it begins to bite, firms will have to prune their work-forces and cut down on their hiring.

Solutions? Firstly, make yourself indispensable.

Carve out a niche which means you can't be done without, whether it's bringing in the work, bringing in the coffee or bringing in much-needed gossip about competitors.

If this doesn't work, hire a good employment lawyer.

If you can afford it, go for the top tier such as Cherie Booth QC or Simmons & Simmons senior partner Janet Gaymer - and threaten your former employer with an unfair dismissal claim in the full glare of publicity.If you cannot afford to take advice, or you cannot find anyone to take your case on, consider retraining as an employment lawyer yourself.

Few firms, after all, are foolhardy enough to sack someone who has an intimate grasp of their employment rights.

If none of the above plans manage to save your bacon, make sure you keep up your weekly subscription to the Gazette, and scan the jobs pages with a religious fervour.