Strategy, New Thinking

Survival is not Compulsory: Legal Firms

During the last recession or major blip in the market-place I worked with a variety of professional service businesses including Lawyers, Accountants, Property Developers, IFA’s, Actuaries, Civil Engineers etc. 

Most of my work was enabling these professional service providers to take a good look in the mirror and critically evaluate the service provided to their customers.  This article will focus on Legal Firms.

What’s it like doing business with your Legal Firm?

Reflecting on ‘what is it like to receive our service’ was not always welcomed.  Many Lawyers believe that their service is special, and people will not shop around their competitors.

Law Society: Culture Change and Customer Focus Presentation

I can recall visiting with a very successful legal practice in Edinburgh situated in one of the most desirable business locations near the city centre.  I was meeting with the Managing Partner and a colleague.

The week before our meeting, they had seen my presentation on Culture Change delivered at a Law Society of Scotland event. Sixty lawyers had attended and we explored the tangible elements of culture change, and how customer focus and service were applicable to the legal fraternity.

The Firm employed over 100 staff with 19 Partners and several satellite offices throughout the Lothians. 

James, the Managing Partner was very keen to sharpen the competitive edge of his business and he wanted to introduce a Quality culture.  His colleague Fiona was to be responsible for the roll out and they wanted to get started with a form of staff engagement and improvement.

Both James and Fiona had read my book, ‘Creating Culture Change’, together with some journal articles of mine, and they were keen to assess how I could help them.

How much of what you offer is a commodity?

Before I asked questions about what they wanted to achieve in tangible business terms…… I told them that this Firm was not a stranger to me as I had used the business to draw up a contract for me with a sub-contractor.  I was happy with the work and would give them further work in the future when required.

Not the Firm’s reputation – it was the vacant parking bay!

James seemed very happy to hear this and then he immediately asked – “What was it that drove me to his Firm of Solicitors?  Was it the reputation of our Firm or perhaps the track record of one of our Partners?” 

My response shook James:  “You know how difficult it is to park in Edinburgh – I found a parking space outside your office.  That was the reason I came into your reception and asked for a meeting to meet a Lawyer to draft my contract.”

The awful truth in this instance was I knew there were three legal Firms in the Crescent and there happened to be a vacant parking bay just outside their door.

James was visibility shocked.  I did not want to offend but my response had been truthful. “Look Philip, you cannot suggest our services are no more than a commodity.  Look at our reputation, our standing, our position in the legal community.”

But I had made a very sound point.  In my non-legal manner I had assessed that the service provided by one Lawyer was roughly similar to that provided by another.  Some have specialism’s but generally speaking, house purchase, Trusts and Wills, Matrimonial  & Family Law, Legal Aid, Intellectual Property and all the other services are broadly the same set of services provided by the average Lawyer.

We all expect quality to be built into the product especially with the Law Society providing guidance and Governance.  The ordinary punter requiring Legal Services expects the technical aspects of the Law to be identical, whoever is the provider.  So perhaps as providers – the only differentiator is price and responsiveness.

The initial discussion was revisited and repeated many times.  We used it when we ran a joint presentation to all the Partners in James’s Firm.  We used it as a shock tactic to ensure the Partners explored alternatives ways of viewing their business.

In part, many of the partners had not viewed their business as a ‘business’.  They practised Law and they charged fees for their advice.  They were Gentlemen first and a commercial undertaking second.

Legal Firm: Commerciality & Profitability

They gathered together as a legal entity but they were not a business in the traditional sense – relying on each other.  They even billed separately and they did not see their clients as customers.  Some even thought that the commercial aspect of their business was very tacky – especially when the Commercial manager asked for referrals to Private Clients for the possible cross-selling of Insurance, Pension and other Services on behalf of the Firm.  

No Man is an Island: Multi Disciplinary Support

I regularly rely on the input of other professionals and during this time I was working with Andrew Adamson on Marketing and Customer Relations.  Rod Mitchell, an expert in Marketing, also provided lots of input from his work with BT – where we was a specialist in sales and marketing strategy.  We met under the “Culture Change” Umbrella.  Andrew went on to create a very successful Web Design and hosting business www.webadvertisng.co.uk  and become a Director of www.HorseTiger.com  with Rod.  We worked together in business and socially all being members of the same Rugby Club in Edinburgh.

Andy has since provided endless thoughts on the design of our various websites and how to get our message across to potential customers.

During the last recession or major blip in the market-place I worked with a variety of professional service businesses including Lawyers, Accountants, Property Developers, IFA’s, Actuaries, Civil Engineers etc. 

The Change that Made a Difference to Legal Firm's Business Performance, Profitability & Survival

James’s Legal Firm committed to an Internal and External branding exercise and after much discussion employed people ‘in house’ to develop their communications expertise. The result was a five stage approach to radical change & improvement

Stage 1: Partner Briefing & Strategic Intent

After initial meetings with the partners, we discussed and debated with them on the importance of strategic planning and culture change.  As part of this process, all examined the role of Leadership that they played in their Firm and even committed to and completed some fairly advanced psychometrics examining their various styles and how this impacted their communication and team work.

Attitudinal change was the issue and because we used minimal jargon, good sense and a focus on improving the Firm’s edge, even the most traditional Lawyer committed to the process.

We used a variety of tools with the Firm. One session used a variant of the Boston Consulting matrix to examine the portfolio of services offered. We identified those in decline and those needing investment, those requiring research and development, and those services which consumed significant resource with zero or low returns to the bottom line which required to be shelved.

Strategic Matrix

In the diagram below is one example of how a group of staff viewed the portfolio of services offered by the Firm.  Examining this model, it soon became evident that it reflected the true state of affairs for the Firm; they needed to invest in more of their ‘Bright Idea’ services in order to win new business loyalty in the ‘High Flying’ quadrant.  For an in depth analysis visit the article below.

See the Article – Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail››

From Recession to Recovery:  Structure Follows Strategy

It is obvious that the form of organisation the Firm had to take must be constantly assessed against its strategic purpose.  Opportunities and threats from the political, economic and business environment, trends and shifting patterns in consumption and demand for services will all shape the Legal Business.  Those that can welcome and incorporate change and implement it quickly will survive this Recession.

Surviving the Recession & Riding the Recovery

Those Firms that adopt a self critical approach assess and address where they are failing, change the culture to a strong business recovery mode, will remain in business.  Those Legal Firms that do not take action will be left by the wayside like so many in the 1990’s and the early years of the Millennium.

Further to this strategic approach, the Firm sought ratification of the strategic matrix through the partners and committed to developing new business models and ensuring that their portfolio of services was totally focused on what the market required.

Goals & Objectives

We identified core goals and objectives and set in place a communications strategy to communicate to all staff.  Further, we created a storyboard of the core message and trained Partners to deliver the presentations in small groups of ten.  We used small groups to aid discussion and to explore how staff could contribute to this process.

Stage 2: Employee Involvement & Improvement

We created two Improvement Teams in order to undertake both the strategic analysis as well as a cultural survey undertaken by myself.  I fed back the report to the Partners and we agreed that the organisation had to focus on the two areas where the Improvement Teams had been identified.  This would require training the Improvement Teams in Quality Improvement and strategies for Cost Reduction.

Communications & Marketing

At the same time, the Firm had committed to furthering their PR and media activity and resourced this from a young team of in-house staff.  The Firm was to set up a quality management system conforming to ISO standards and was one of the first in Scotland to win ISO accreditation and Investors in People Certification.

Further Improvement Teams were focused on Data Integrity, Discipline & Performance management, Appraisal for Partners downwards etc

Stage 3: Create a Powerful Team to Facilitate Progress

Our focus here was on providing input to support the Firm in influencing and presentational skills.  In particular we worked on ‘pitching’ for various contracts, and this included fairly intrusive feedback using role playing sessions and video feedback.

We believed that there were potential clients where the Firm did not have a track record.  By developing and designing very precise ‘Pitches,’ the Firm was able to win much new business rather than continue only to appeal to existing clients.  We used an analytical process to map the sales process, identify weaknesses in our approach, correct them, rehearse and ensure authenticity and honesty in our presentation.

They developed a very keen sense for new business development bringing new challenges to everyone. Teams were to be driven by Partners and there was a very strong emphasis on equipping the Firm with the internal ability to administer training.  From this, the Firm won CPD points for their development of their people.

Stage 4: Installing Change Management into the Culture

We focused on developing Training Modules of 2-3 hours duration which could then be facilitated by skilled Facilitators in the Firm.  Bear in mind, a large proportion of these Facilitators were senior Lawyers and Partners who recognised they had role in driving change and improving profitability of the Firm.

We trained Partners in Facilitation using the best of ‘learning strategies’ and created a whole series of Training modules that could be viewed using IT as well as attending half-day events. These included  tailored input on:

• Performance Improvement
• Communications & Team Working
• Process Improvement
• Leading Teams
• Customer Focus and Winning New Business

Stage 5: Implementation & Review

The Firm developed an Implementation plan based on quality and process improvement, staff development, Partner Development and IT development, and committed to regularly review progress every four to six weeks.

Staff were requested to attend in small groups to review progress.  Facilitators ensure that every member of staff has developed a specific action plan for change in their work area which will impact, customer loyalty, responsiveness, speed of processing, error free work, profitability and cost containment.  This was to be an ongoing event – and would become a dominant part of the Firm’s culture. 

Summary

We have used variants of this model with other Lawyers, IFA’s, Engineering Firms, Accountants and Consultancy Businesses as well as big ‘Blue Chips’ in Europe and the USA. 

It is relevant to any service provider, whether you occupy a position in a Dental, Medical, Property, Financial or any professional services organisation.  It works quickly as long as it is driven from the top and the focus is on implementation, rather than mere talk.

PDF of Culture Change in Legal Firm article››