This section covers succession, specialisation, mergers, selling a law firm, becoming a partner, and business structure
How to plan and execute the process of starting up a new legal practice that is compliant and financially healthy
How to set up your firm’s systems to provide the information that enables you to improve profitability and cashflow
How to avoid professional negligence claims, with examples of common problems and suggested solutions. Plus FAQs on PII
This section only covers SRA Accounts Rules and GDPR at the moment. Compliance for start-ups is covered in the Starting up...
How to protect your law firm from cyber attacks. What steps to take if your systems are hacked
How to recruit and retain a team that is both happy and highly effective, dealing with the HR issues along the way
In marketing, like anything, you need to get the basics right. Otherwise the time and money you invest in marketing will be wasted
How to win new clients, make the most of existing relationships, encourage referrals and generate new leads
How to approach creating a law firm website that works, from agreeing your objectives to making sure you get the results you want
Why lawyers need to know about social media, how to make the most of the opportunities and how to avoid potential pitfalls
How to use PR to build your firm’s reputation; and how to create cost-effective advertising – traditional and online – that delivers results
Becci Wicks, head of legal sector at Lloyds Bank UK, introduces the section. (Updated 9 October 2023)
Working in a law firm can feel like a treadmill. Many lawyers think about starting up their own legal practice, so they can choose their own strategy, colleagues, billing targets and work-life balance.
In this section of Law Firm Ambition, we have put together a set of essential reading to make starting up faster, easier and less risky. Throughout, you will notice a strong emphasis on keeping costs down until your steady monthly cashflow covers your monthly costs. When you start a new firm, spending money is the easy part. Getting a sufficient number of clients – and sufficient cashflow coming in each month – often takes much longer than people expect.
Starting up a law firm – first steps will help you to get the whole process started, including the key decision about whether to start up in the first place.
Start-up business planning provides you will a tried-and-tested framework for planning your venture.
Start-up compliance explains all the steps your new law firm will need to take before the SRA can authorise you to start trading.
Start-up operations and systems suggests how to approach the seemingly complex question of what software to license and what systems are worth putting in place from the outset.
Start-up finance and insurance helps you to work out the extent to which you may need external finance, as well as covering insurance – which is mandatory.
Finally, start-up sales and marketing explains how to approach the basic task of building up an excellent reputation, along with the options for more proactively marketing your practice.
Over the coming months, we'll be adding more content to support start-ups. We hope you find the site useful – join us on Linkedin to keep up to date as new content is added.