Legal Mentors assist lawyers to take advantage of the increasingly competitive market for legal services. Whether it is because of impending de-regulation or just a desire to go for growth, legal firms are moving rapidly towards a more commercial approach to managing their practice. Legal firms rely on the team at Legal Mentors to guide them through the process of creating a new Vision for their practice; linking goals and activities to that Vision, to gain the buy-in of all staff and finally, to ensure that the intended progress is made.
Although partners met regularly, they had not found the time to look at their strategic direction for some time. This had resulted in a lack of focus and a fall in fee income.
The meeting took place over two days at a hotel near their offices.
Each partner was asked where they would like to be personally and where they would like the business to be in three years. Some surprising, but very useful, information was revealed, including the fact that two people wanted to be elsewhere by then!
There was then a session on fee earning and a consensus reached on what income was necessary (by work area) to allow everyone to earn the level they sought.
Day 2 looked at wider issues including staffing, management, internal communications, market awareness, and branding. The key decisions made were:
All of these decisions have been implemented and fee income is on target. Legal Mentors continue to provide ongoing support to the firm.
At Legal Mentors we don’t do the sort of work which may be described as training. You can train someone on the procedures of a legal process, but our ‘soft-skills’ sessions are called Workshops because they are guided sessions with the agenda decided in advance but the outcome depends on input and reactions from attendees guided by the facilitator.
Firms ranging from 30 to 90 staff have asked us to run the Workshop to increase awareness of client service issues and improve performance. We have run this workshop in firms in the West Country, the Midlands, Southern England and East Anglia.
We kick off with a general discussion about how client service can affect the clients’ perception of any client-facing organisation and the hear experiences of the staff in their everyday lives dealing with various organisations. We then relate this to client perceptions of a Law Firm and discuss what might be attractive or off-putting for potential and actual clients.
Then a number of ‘feedback groups’ of 8-10 people are handed topics to discuss.
Typical topics include “What it is really like working for XYZ Company”, “How we could improve client service”, “Cross selling opportunities”, “How we could improve our image” “What we could do to market the firm better”
The Partners had previously agreed to be present up to this point to show their backing for the activity, but now leave the room during these discussion sessions. This is to ensure frank and free discussion by the rest of the staff. However, everyone is assured that they are protected from criticism by Partners when the results are reported back.
The teams discuss the issues and then present a list of suggestions to the whole firm including partners who return for this session.
The outcome is often startling! The staff came up with lots of interesting feedback.
“The Partners keep us completely in the dark. We don’t know what is going on.”
“We have three High Street Offices so why don’t we open on a Saturday?”
“We are missing cross-selling opportunities because we don’t think about it”
“We should be doing more to publicise our company in the local press.”
“Why don’t we reward members of staff if they bring in business?”
“Why don’t we ask for referrals?”
“We are really ashamed of our web site”
“Why don’t we highlight our ‘green’ credentials?”
“Why do we waste money sponsoring that music festival (or sign on the roundabout??)
“What happens to those letters we often get from happy clients saying how well we looked after them?”
As a result, the Partners take the suggestions and promise wherever possible to act on them. The session can often transform the morale in a firm because, for the first time, staff feel part of the picture. All sorts of new client service initiatives can be initiated and continual measurement put in place to ensure standards are improved and kept high. A valuable result.
“We are very impressed with Legal Mentors’ Client Care Workshop, and particularly pleased with how everyone in the firm – all levels of fee earner and support staff – has been involved and inspired. We are already working on practical ways to improve our service to our clients, after just one session.”
Maud Davis, BlacklawsDavis LLP