Prof Laura Empson of Cass Business School writes in her book “Leading Professionals” that professions are filled with insecure over-achievers with the occasional narcissist.Read More

Most firms have a sentence somewhere on their website that sets out their aspiration.  It usually includes the words “pragmatic”, “trusted”, “preferred”, “client” and “commercial”.  Some firms would say this is their Goal, others use the word Vision, Mission or even Strategy. Whatever they call it, it serves as the lodestar to which the firm...Read More

It is a fundamental rule of cybernetics that a controlling mechanism has to be more complex than the mechanism it is trying to control. It therefore follows that any remuneration scheme set up by a partnership with the hope of controlling partner behaviour is doomed to failure. Partners are too complicated to control; they are inherently...Read More

Lawyers pride themselves on their client responsiveness. Emails are replied to quickly, voicemails are followed up as soon as possible.   When doing this lawyers are typically either reacting or responding.  Too few are engaging. What’s the difference, and why does it matter? If you’re waiting for the client to contact you, you’re either reacting or...Read More

I still remember one of our clients describing the culture of law firms as being a “meritocracy of sales people”.  He said that being a good lawyer now matters far less to a firm than the ability to win work. He wasn’t particularly pleased, but he’s probably right. Once you get to a standard of...Read More

You’re not the cheapest in the market, so what can you say when the client wants to talk about cost?   Here are five possible responses to the most common pricing discussions:Read More

This Blog is very practical. What about potential clients who have never given you work?  How can you open the floodgates? This blog written to give you the exact words to use to ask a possible client or introducer for work, when nothing is forthcoming despite frequent coffees/lunches and ad-hoc discussions.   The typical scenario is...Read More