Adapting for success

Key takeaway points:

1. No law firm benefits by taking an insular approach to their business. Having a range of strategic partnerships can really broaden your thinking and be transformational.
2. Don’t over-complicate leadership, ‘a one size fits all’ approach to all colleagues, regardless of their role, works just fine. 
3. Innovation is not the preserve of big business. Remember that what your business looks like now will not be the same in five years’ time, so keep focused on external developments and one eye on the future. 
4. Equip your lawyers to meet the challenges of the new legal world, or help move them out to a more traditional environment.

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Like many lawyers, I didn't set out to lead a law firm, but in 1997, only two years qualified, I was appointed managing partner of Thorneycroft Solicitors. At the time it was a small volume-led practice with ten staff. Today, Thorneycroft is now an Alternative Business Structure (ABS), has more than 160 staff, and is part of a group of six legal brands under parent company TS Group Limited.

Similar to many managing partners, I have had no formal management training. It's been quite a ride transforming from a single-discipline, high volume business into a multi-disciplinary group of legal services brands that included a credit hire business, a medical agency and two claims management businesses.

We are fortunate in that we have always run Thorneycroft as a business providing legal services, not simply a law firm charging by the hour. The announcement of major PI legal reform did give cause for some introspection, but we quickly overcame that by focusing on what being 'fit for purpose' meant, and by facing up to the reality of reform as quickly as was practically possible. After all, law firms today are people, process, and service businesses.

Strategic partnerships

I think our business-led approach meant we were already ahead of the curve. In particular, we were aided by a number of strategic partnerships that we had formed along the way, such as the one with insurance claims management business Bankstone in the late 1990s.

No law firm benefits by taking an insular approach to their business, and having a range of strategic partnerships can really broaden your thinking. In fact, approached in the right manner, and for the right reasons, strategic partnerships can be transformational. So successful has this relationship been that Thorneycroft now has a majority stake in the business.

Business relationships are just the same as personal relationships. Yet it's amazing just how many businesses choose a partner with which they share few similarities. You don't need to be carbon copies of each other but you do need to share some key characteristics. For us, we had each built successful businesses on the founding principle that the client was central to our business.

Sharing this key characteristic meant many of our systems mirrored each other, enabling us to join processes efficiently for the clients' benefit. Sharing the same values that put the client first also means that, while we operate as separate companies, the client does not notice the transition as their work moves from Bankstone to Thorneycroft.

Going into a strategic relationship with the right expectations that are understood and accepted on both sides is crucial. Our partnership was formed with the long term in mind, neither of our businesses takes a short-term approach and this was important so that we could manage expectations appropriately. We made sure that there was never a 'them' and 'us' scenario on either side.

We were also honest about the strengths and weaknesses of both businesses. We listened to each other's concerns, challenges, and ideas and then agreed a fluid plan that is working well for both our businesses.

Relationships that show signs of differing agendas and ego from either side will fall apart at the slightest sign of external pressure. This shared learning has been particularly useful when dealing with different regulatory approaches as set down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Ministry of Justice, and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Follow the experts

I've lost count of the number of management books I've read, and while I don't agree with all of them, I have learnt some valuable lessons from them. My 'go to' books are: Tomorrow's Lawyers by Professor Richard Susskind and Built to Last by Collins and Porras.

Richard Susskind uses the wisdom of former ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky to advise lawyers when thinking about the future, to plan for the legal market as it will be and not as it once was. The player advised 'skate where the puck is going, not where it's been.' This is an approach we've very much embraced.

The facts were that we'd built up a really solid reputation as specialists in one area by having the right experts and a customer focused approach, so by keeping an eye on where the market is heading and where the work might come from, why not replicate this in other areas?

As many law firm leaders will know, when you're based in the heart of a local community it doesn't necessarily follow that your reputation as a specialist will follow, to many potential customers you're 'that law firm in the town.'

So there has been a concerted effort to become much more of a community firm by playing to our strengths as a large local employer. As well as opening a second branch office, we've developed links with the local hospice and generally become more visible. Making a difference close to home is as important as what we're doing nationally and is reaping rewards for us by bringing in a steady stream of business across a number of disciplines.

We now have eight disciplines within the firm, and although volume RTA is still our largest income stream, we now have a private client department that five years ago was 5 per cent of turnover and now accounts for 25 per cent.

Get tech-savvy

I gave up fee-earning completely in 2011 to focus full time on the leadership of the businesses. One of the things this enabled me to do was to think more creatively about the role that technology could play in our business. I didn't want to dumb down but I did want to embrace technology to smooth the process. It's about having the right people in the right places for the work that needs them.

This is why we restructured the PI operation: we now have a new business team, a technology driven portal team, a non-portal team for cases that fall out of the process, and a large loss team.

Yet one of the most influential and cost-effective decisions has been the introduction of an app. I have to confess that I never thought an app could change my life but it really has. Ours was developed at relatively minimal outlay cost with In Case. Once we have taken on a client's case they are given access to the Thorneycroft app, which lets them experience real time updates on the claims journey. The app has been invaluable for helping us to eliminate clients calling ad hoc for an update, so as result we've significantly reduced the time we spend on telephone updates.

Another added bonus of this app has been that at every interaction a claimant is asked to rate that interaction, and so any interaction that falls below our expected levels is immediately flagged to the management team. We can then personally investigate the rating with the claimant via the telephone. This has given us the opportunity to track whether the changes in our business are working.

So successful has this been in PI that we've recently created an app for conveyancing clients which enables them to receive real-time updates from us and their estate agent.

Be a leader not a boss

The link between strong leadership, staff retention, and business success puzzles many but it needn't be over-complicated. In my experience, 'a one size fits all' approach to all colleagues, regardless of their role, works just fine.

Let's first of all be clear. Respect does not come from having a law degree or going to Oxford - you earn it. It can be earned in many different ways. Leading by example is a good start. Endeavouring to act how you want your team to act sets a strong blueprint for what is and isn't acceptable in the modern law firm environment.

I'm sure we've all come across a fearsome leader in our time, but getting people to act out of fear is a complete no-no. Not only does ruling by fear hinder creativity, it prevents people from achieving their true potential. Don't make people too afraid to try new things and make mistakes. Things go wrong, it happens in every business. Far better to encourage people to tell you when a mistake has been made and find out in advance of things going awry rather than when it's too late and things have really hit the fan. Pragmatism should be a byword in these situations; my usual initial response is 'OK, let's put this right' and then we move on and learn from it. What I know is that my team will continue to keep trying rather than just wait to do what they're told.

That's not to say it requires you to be a pushover, that won't work either. It all comes down to being a leader rather than a boss. It's the difference between depending on goodwill, rather than authority; talking about 'we' rather than 'I'; asking rather than commanding, and giving credit rather than taking it.

Unfortunately, the partnership structure and the sense of entitlement that engenders doesn't exactly form a great basis for strong leadership. It sends a clear message about what is and isn't valued in a firm. A far better way to treat all law firm members - they all contribute after all - is to set a basic salary, along with a level of incentivised performance based pay, and then on top of that a firm wide bonus to celebrate and share success. Talk of 'fee-earners vs fee-drainers' should be left in the past where it belongs and if people want to make such archaic comparisons, replace 'drainers' with 'enablers' and you may start to see things in a different light.

In fact we took the view that it's not the sole responsibility of the management team or senior partners to restructure the business so we set up a project team to include representatives from the whole firm. Not only was this important in getting all voices heard, those representatives played a crucial and trusted role in cascading information back to their respective teams and preventing rumour and uncertainty, which can delay, if not, derail a restructure.

A restructure can often mean moving individuals into different roles or getting them to perform additional tasks. It's not uncommon to hear a lawyer say 'that's not what I was trained to do'. That might be so but the reality is a deregulated market and increasingly savvy buyers of legal services. Equip your lawyers to meet the challenges of the new legal world, or help move them out to a more traditional environment.

Innovation is not the preserve of big business

The market dictates that we have to be more businesslike and we were quick to cotton onto that. We incorporated in 2003, which made me managing director rather than managing partner. Alongside this all of our trainees get business training - such as in project management - and our newly-gained ABS licence has allowed us to bring in non-legal owners to further drive diversification.

Diversification and innovation go hand in hand and so now we're looking beyond pure legal services offerings. With the broad range of expertise available within the wider group, I'm putting together a package of services that will give broad protection to the likes of construction and transport companies, including advice on issues such as compliance, health and safety, driver training and HR, and even carrying out drugs testing.

Rachel Stow is a managing director of Thorneycroft Solicitors Ltd
(www.thorneycroftsolicitors.co.uk)