Making it easier to grow your law firm

Search

  1. Home
  2. Strategy

Strategy

This section covers succession, specialisation, mergers, selling a law firm, becoming a partner, and business structure

Finance and accounting

How to set up your firm’s systems to provide the information that enables you to improve profitability and cashflow

Avoiding claims. Insurance

How to avoid professional negligence claims, with examples of common problems and suggested solutions. Plus FAQs on PII

Compliance

This is a new section and only covers SRA Accounts Rules and GDPR at the moment. Compliance for start-ups is covered in the Starting up section.

Cyber security

How to protect your law firm from cyber attacks. What steps to take if your systems are hacked

Managing people

How to recruit and retain a team that is both happy and highly effective, dealing with the HR issues along the way

Marketing basics

In marketing, like anything, you need to get the basics right. Otherwise the time and money you invest in marketing will be wasted

Winning more clients

How to win new clients, make the most of existing relationships, encourage referrals and generate new leads

Your website

How to approach creating a law firm website that works, from agreeing your objectives to making sure you get the results you want

Social media

Why lawyers need to know about social media, how to make the most of the opportunities and how to avoid potential pitfalls

PR and advertising

How to use PR to build your firm’s reputation; and how to create cost-effective advertising – traditional and online – that delivers results

Starting up

How to plan and execute the process of starting up a new legal practice that is compliant and financially healthy

Strategy - overview

 Jon Davies, who is part of the Travelers UK leadership team, introduces the Strategy section. (Updated 12 January 2021)

 

Law firms face unprecedented change and competition. Business as usual is simply not an option.

Covid-19 has accelerated to move online, while causing all sorts of disruption and uncertainty. Law firms have had to adapt rapidly.

For partners used to focusing on legal skills and the ability to build relationships, it's a new world that demands a new approach. A greater focus on marketing and business development is a start, but continued success may require a fundamental reappraisal of the firm's strategy.

Key sources of revenue are being commoditised while the pressure to innovate adds costs. Operating as a small or medium-sized full-service firm may no longer be a sustainable model – firms may need to look towards developing a specialist practice – or at least a brand that helps set them apart from the competition.

Many firms continue to consider selling the firm, or finding a suitable merger partner.

While the threat from new entrants and trend towards alternative business structures (ABSs) may not yet have fully emerged, firms should be reviewing their culture and business structure. Is the traditional partnership still viable, or does it reinforce a damaging focus on short-term profit?

With clients demanding better value, should the firm be offering alternative fee arrangements instead of pricing based on billable hours?

These are complex issues, so you need the right advisers to support your decision-making. Choosing the right firm of accountants is a good first step. A good accountant can also make all the difference when it comes to having good financial systems and MI, leading to high utilisation and minimised lock-up.

Lastly, law firm success is all about the team you put together. So how can you retain and motivate talent? And, related to this, how can you develop the leaders of the future as part of your succession planning?

Over the coming months, we'll be adding expert views on other key strategy issues your firm may need to address.

We hope you find the site useful – join us on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep up to date as new content is added.