Legal practice

Make more of the voice of your clients

The voice of your clients – and others you deal with – has potential to play much more of a leading role in the ongoing development and evolution of law firms. How to harness the voice of the client An “agile” business – as more and more firms recognise the benefits of being one – […]

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Taking the next steps on your client onboarding journey

By Allan Carton and Frank Manning of Carton & Co. Lawyers need digital onboarding now because clients’ expectations of easier digital transactions and communications ramped up during the lockdowns – and because we see now that working digitally can radically improve efficiency of our operations and productivity. Based on my experience as a user of […]

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Future Legal Worlds 2050: into the unknown

In June 2021, the Law Society of England & Wales published its report Future Worlds 2050: Images of the Future Worlds Facing the Legal Profession 2020-2030. This project was “set up to bring an exceptional group of thinkers to the table for raw, frank and honest discussions around future client needs, to postulate the legal […]

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The end of the law firm office?

Alex Heshmaty asks Belinda Lester, founder of Lionshead Law, and Annie Joseph, a trainee solicitor at a top 100 UK law firm, to consider some of the key opportunities and challenges that remote working poses for lawyers. In a world of social distancing, the coronavirus pandemic has lent fresh impetus to the work-from-home movement. Law […]

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Juriosity: building a legal marketplace

Juriosity.com was launched in partnership with the Bar Council of England and Wales in 2018. In its current form, the platform provides a directory of practising barristers and other legal professionals and a self-publishing platform enabling barristers (and other approved contributors) to publish short articles on legal developments, cases they have been involved in (or […]

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An Uber model for legal services delivery?

Some commentators have been asking whether law firms and other legal service organisations should adopt an Uber-like model for legal service delivery. From a narrow technological point of view I think is safe to assume that this could well happen. Looking at some of the less benign aspects of the model in practice, it seems […]

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The case for offering free legal advice – in 2018

Long, long ago (2012) I wrote an article on this topic for the Newsletter and asked firms who had said that they were willing, in principle, to give some free initial legal advice, whether they thought it was worthwhile. Broadly, most of them did. You can read this article at http://bit.ly/INL1201venables. This year I again […]

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Becoming a highly successful small law firm

Richard Hugo-Hamman, Executive Chairman of LEAP, gives his advice on how small law firms can become more successful Building a successful law firm requires thought and planning but above all it requires action. 89% of all law firms have between one and five partners and, like many small businesses, they are often under-resourced with many […]

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Where next for alternative legal services providers?

There have been two distinct waves of foundings of alternative legal services providers (ALSPs): one from 1999 to 2007, including outsourcing companies such as Integreon, Axiom, Relativity, Consilio, Exigent, Pangea3 and Lawyers On Demand; and then another from 2010 to 2015, including the new wave of tech companies such as Neota Logic, Ravel Law, ROSS […]

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Ensuring the long-term growth of your law firm

Richard Hugo-Hamman, executive chairman of LEAP, discusses change and how to use technology to keep ahead of the curve. Your law firm is a business, growth and profitability is paramount. You want to see your client base grow and your profits increase. More importantly, you don’t want to go backwards just because you are so […]

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10 considerations when starting your own law firm

The continuing advancement of cloud technology and the new ownership regulation means it has never been easier to start a law firm. Mobility, simpler and lower cost technology and widespread acceptance of remote working is motivating legal entrepreneurs wanting to start their own practice. What law to practice Your brand should be determined by your […]

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Legal services market – who are you afraid of?

I first wrote on this subject for the Newsletter in early 2013. My views have changed quite a lot in the four years since then. I believe we’ve seen that big is not always better, that well run, customer-focused, local law firms can survive and that trying to roll up 200 separate law firms under […]

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