Law firms can turn changes in the legal market and new technologies to their advantage by embracing business systems. Rupert White introduces a Gazette analysis of business process management


At the Gazette IT Forum in November last year, one speaker said something that pushed this management special into being. In response to someone praising the efficiencies gained from business process management (BPM), especially for pressured legal aid firms, he said most firms on his level do not know what a business process is, let alone how they should be managed. It was obvious some kind of explanation of business processes and their management was needed in the Gazette.



What is BPM? Tim Hastings, chief executive of Midlands law firm Nelsons and author of the case study below, gave a useful explanation: 'Each aspect of a business is assessed from the ground up to see how and where efficiencies and improvements can be made. It also involves deciding whether some of these processes can be automated or outsourced.'



The following articles build to a neat jumping-off point for learning more about it.



Also in this management special, consultant Bill Kirby gives an IT perspective on law firm processes, and Tara Trower, lawyer and co-founder of a virtual law firm, looks at how practices can re-engineer themselves with BPM.