Issue 27 December 2016 ISSN 2050-5744
The Business of Law
Richard Susskind “When we are firmly in the 2020s, I cannot imagine a prosperous legal business not embracing some form of AI.�
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MODERN LAW
Editorial Contributors Adam Bullion Head of Marketing Infotrack
Morag Hiskett Marketing Manager CILEx Law School
Andy Poole Legal Sector Partner Armstrong Watson
Norman Kenvyn Founder & CEO VFS Legal Funding
Beverly Landais Marketing and Business Development Director Saunderson House
Paul Moonan Managing Director Restore Scan
Christian Eagle Lead Partner Ralli Solicitors
H
Polly Hill Associate Ralli Solicitors Robert Cross Legal Services Board Project Manager
David Simon Chairman Triton Global
Ross Weldon EMEA Marketing Specialist Clio
Ian Barlow Financial Counsel BMS Funding Ltd Jessica McMahon Marketing & Events Planner Informed Financial Planning Julie Brannan Director of Education and Training SRA Lesley Graves Managing Director Citadel Law
WELCOME
Richard Burcher Chairman Burcher Jennings Sarah Roberts Marketing Executive Eclipse Legal Systems Sarika Sangar Marketing Executive Conveyancing Data Services
Lloyd Ellison Director of Account Management Tikit
Susan Fairbrass Marketing and Client Relationship Manager Geodesys
Maurice Power Managing Director Ferguson Litigation Funding
Tricia Hermans Barrister Falcon Chambers
ello and welcome to this issue of Modern Law Magazine, the first issue of 2017 and my first issue as Editor. I’m looking forward to carrying on all of Charlotte’s great work, and I hope this year will be the best yet for Modern Law.
As I’ve settled into my new role, I’ve been doing a lot of planning for the future of this magazine, something absolutely necessary in order for it to live up to its “Modern” moniker. And as we kick off a new year, it is even more appropriate that this issue also looks ahead. While 2016 brought potentially tumultuous changes in the legal sector, with Brexit and government reshuffles creating great uncertainty, this edition examines what firms may face in not just the next twelve months, but even further in the future, as new technologies arrive to revolutionise the market. Among these technologies is Artificial Intelligence, an area Professor Richard Susskind, whom we interviewed in this issue, is a leading expert in. Susskind discusses the changes in AI in the law over previous decades, and how it will evolve in the future to become a valuable asset for law firms. We examine the role of AI in law in even more detail in the magazine’s accompanying Artificial Intelligence supplement, in conjunction with Matter, where we spoke to the AI innovators who are setting the standards for the technology. In order to best prepare for the future, it’s important to learn from previous successes, so in this issue we also reflect on the 2016 Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards and the evening’s big winners. The Chair Judge of the awards, Chris Bull, gives his in-depth analysis on the event in the News, explaining what legal professionals can learn from those who were recognised, and I’m looking forward to seeing who has taken those lessons on board at next year’s Awards. Not everything has to change of course, so as always we have a variety of columns from our expert Editorial Board, who give their insights and analysis of the current and future state of the legal sector. We’re always looking for writers, so if you’d like to comment on an issue or opportunity in the industry, or if you have any feedback on this issue, please get in touch via the details below. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of Modern Law, and that you have a happy new year as well.
Issue 27 December 2016 ISSN 2050-5744 Editor Brendan Gurrie
Editorial Assistant Liam Lambert
Project Manager John Margett
Events Sales Kate McKittrick
Brendan Gurrie, Editor, Modern Law Magazine. 01765 600909 | @ModernBrendan | brendan@charltongrant.co.uk
Modern Law Magazine is published by Charlton Grant Ltd ©2016.
All material is copyrighted both written and illustrated. Reproduction in part or whole is strictly forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. All images and information is collated from extensive research and along with advertisements is published in good faith. Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this publication was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.
December 2016
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MODERN LAW
CONTENTS NEWS
INTERVIEWS
07
EdiTorial Board
17
7 Chris Bull talks news
Following the 4th annual Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards, Chris Bull examines how the awards shine the spotlight on NewLaw.
12 Richard Susskind
Modern Law interviewed Professor Richard Susskind, an expert in the field of AI in the legal sector and author of several key texts in the area, about how the use of AI in law has changed since its first implementation, and about how AI is already changing the legal profession.
17 Nigel Priestley
Nigel Priestley won the prestigious Lawyer of the Year Award at the 2016 Modern Law Awards in November. Modern Law sat down with Nigel to discuss the work that contributed to his win, and how Ridley & Hall are fighting to improve the delivery of care for looked-after children.
21
21 The SQE: rigorous, fair, and transparent
Julie Brannan, Director of Education and Training, SRA
23 Calling all Alternative Business Structures: Have your say
Robert Cross, Project Manager (Research), Legal Services Board (LSB)
23 Can After the Event Legal Insurance (ATE) Be Available for an Arbitration Claim?
Matthew Williams, Head, AmTrust Law
25 What are the potential advantages/disadvantages of training as an apprentice, as opposed to more traditional entry routes?
Morag Hiskett, Marketing Manager, CILEx Law School
27 Third party funding cost claims in ICC arbitration can now be recovered
EDITORIAL BOARD contributors
Maurice Power, Managing Director, Ferguson Litigation Funding
27 How do I go about specialising in acting for a particular sector? Part 2 Andy Poole, Legal Sector Partner, Armstrong Watson
29 Fixing for Certainty AmTrust Law
An AmTrust International Division
Richard Burcher, Chairman, Burcher Jennings
29 The impact of the GDPR on the legal sector
Paul Moonan, Managing Director, Restore Scan
31 Earn While You Learn
04 Modern Law
Jessica McMahon Cert CII (FS), Marketing & Events Planner, Informed Financial Planning
December 2016
MODERN LAW Issue 27 December 2016 ISSN 2051-6495
EdiTorial Board
FEATURES
31 The Times Are Changing
FEATURES
51
David Simon, Chairman, Triton Global
57
33 The Fundamentals of External Funding
Ian Barlow, Financial Counsel, BMS Funding Ltd
33 Making a Name for Yourself Online
Ross Weldon, EMEA Marketing Specialist, Clio
35 The Hands-On Approach
Polly Hill and Christian Eagle, Associate and Lead Partner, Commercial Dispute Resolution, Ralli Solicitors
35 Shaping client experience through team coaching
Beverly Landais, Marketing & Business Development Director and Business Coach, Saunderson House
44 Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards 2016
57 Trends in Tech
49 Potential Cash Challenge for Legal Firms in 2017
59 The Future of Conveyancing
37 Flood risk – are you getting the full picture?
Susan Fairbrass, Marketing and Client Relationship Manager, Geodesys
37 Modern Marketing
Sarah Roberts, Marketing Executive, Eclipse Legal Systems
39 Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat - so what does that mean for the Legal Sector?
Norman Kenvyn, Founder & CEO, VFS Legal Funding
39 Flooding is now top of the Government’s Agenda
Sarika Sangar, Marketing Executive, Conveyancing Data Services
41 Practical steps to reviewing and implementing a cloud solution
Lloyd Ellison, Director of Account Management and client engagement specialist, Tikit
41 The early bird catches the worm Adam Bullion, Head of Marketing, Infotrack
43 Legal professionals as guiding lights
Tricia Hemans, Barrister, Falcon Chambers
Steve Arundale addresses the concern from firms about improving their cash flow, as well as the dangers of cyber attacks, and how firms can protect themselves.
51 Regional Focus: Cambridgeshire
The fourth annual Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards took place on 10th November at the Hurlingham Club, London. Liam Lambert takes a look at the winners, and summarises the prestigious event.
Modern Law spoke to Grace Brass, Cambridgeshire & District Law Society President and Family Law solicitor at regional firm Tees Law, about how the region’s prosperity is affecting legal services, and the importance for law firms to keep up with an everchanging community.
Adam Bullion explores how society has embraced technology and how technology needs to be employed to reduce the time between instruction and completion.
61 Case Study Eclipse Legal Systems
56 Defending Against Ransomware
Gotelee Solicitors selects Proclaim Case Management to benefit from immediate process enhancements
61 Case Study Setfords Solicitors
55 Question: Why aren’t law firms more innovative? Answer: Lawyers! Our resident Tech commentator Charles Christian writes…
Roy Russell highlights his views on the technology trends in the legal sector in 2017, examining how threat and records management are set to dominate, with AI, in the vein of commoditisation, striving to make a bigger play.
Dispersed law firm Setfords Solicitors attracts £3.75 million investment as demand for a “better way of working” grows
10 MINUTES WITH 62 10 Minutes With...
Matthew Claughton, Olliers Solicitors
As new ransomware strains emerge every week, Mike Batters explains how law firms can effectively manage the potential business impact of these threats.
43 Do Litigation Funders mark the dawn of a brighter future for Personal Injury lawyers?
Lesley Graves, Managing Director, Citadel Law
December 2016
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NEWS
Chris Bull TALKS NEWS Following the 4th annual Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards, Chris Bull examines how the awards shine the spotlight on NewLaw. ake a look online for the tag NewLaw or #NewLaw. It is, obviously, pretty close to the title of this fine publication and I think that is significant; both focus hard on the accelerating transformation of the legal world and, to use another phrase, one I introduced in the 2013 Ark Group book, Law Firms in the Digital Age, ‘the death of difference’. That referred to the speed at which law firms were becoming like other businesses, and are now subject to the same trends and forces as every other sector. The NewLaw term was coined back in September 2013 by consultant Eric Chin, who works with Australia-based George Beaton in legal consultancy, Beaton Capital. George Beaton himself has since written extensively about NewLaw and the characteristics that distinguish this new generation of reinvented legal service businesses.
T
In Beaton’s latest book, Remaking Law Firms: Why and How, he defines three categories of NewLaw business models: new law firms, Legal Process Outsourcing/Legal Service Organisations and Legal Staffing Providers. These new models are contrasted with the traditional BigLaw route (a phrase that is commonly used in the US, especially to describe the conventional large law firm partnership model), but Beaton particularly wants to highlight the ability of those incumbent BigLaw firms to transform themselves, borrowing many of the most progressive elements of the NewLaw model and becoming ‘remade’ law firms. Some of this terminology is still new to the UK legal market, but the concepts are certainly not. At the 2016 Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards event held at The Hurlingham Club on 10th November, we celebrated and shone a spotlight on a wide range of pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs who are, indeed, remaking our legal market. As Chair of the judging panel, it was a substantial, but very worthwhile task, reading and considering the record number of exceptional nominations and being there on the night to congratulate many of the winners. The essential purpose of the awards is to recognise and celebrate the people who are actually out there designing and building ‘Modern Law’, or NewLaw, the legal world of the future.
Embracing the modern
It is noticeable that almost nobody, in the UK legal market at least, baulks anymore at the ‘Modern’ appellation in our title. We can all remember when a nod to tradition seemed like the best way of presenting anything to lawyers, complete with images of libraries, wigs and gavels. Now, there is a thirst from legal businesses to find out what their peers, in all segments of the market, are doing well, and also to stake a claim to be leaders in successful, progressive change. The roll-call of Modern Law 2016 award winners and shortlisted nominees underlines the position of the UK as the fastest moving and most forward-thinking legal market in the world today.
It is noticeable that almost nobody, in the UK legal market at least, baulks anymore at the ‘Modern’ appellation in our title
Our ABS of the Year, Gunner Cooke, is a prime example of what Beaton and others refer to as the archetypal NewLaw Firm, with a model that separates work winning from work doing, and is
December 2016
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NEWS
As Chair of the judging panel, it was a substantial, but very worthwhile task, reading and considering the record number of exceptional nominations and being there on the night to congratulate many of the winners substantially more agile and efficient than the traditional BigLaw structure that so many of the firm’s lawyers have left behind. Twice highly commended Keystone Law were one of the strongest overall performers at the awards, and are another paragon of these NewLaw Firm models, whose fame has spread far enough to be regularly cited by US commentators as NewLaw champions. The awards also celebrated the emergence of modern models of highly specialised (some would say ‘boutique’) firms, often expanding well beyond the boundaries of what a conventional law firm offers, to create multi-disciplinary businesses. These include Pam Loch’s Loch Employment Law (highly commended Corporate/Commercial firm) and sister company HR Advise Me, offering a full service HR advisory package. Another highly commended nominee (runners-up in the ABS category) were Ferguson Financial Solicitors, a company that provides a multidisciplinary recoveries service in cases of fraud, mis-selling and overpayment. A third specialised firm took away the business growth award. ARC Pension Law was founded as recently as 2015, pulling together a team of expert pensions law specialists in London, in a classic case study of the NewLaw trend for successful lawyers to create tightly focused new vehicles that emphasise the fundamental service clients want, without the paraphernalia and overhead of BigLaw.
NewLaw Marketing
New approaches to business development and attracting clients are a NewLaw signature; adapting the consumer and customer approaches of other industries and applying them to legal clients, and separating out the activity of winning work from that of doing the work. A key component of success in this sphere is creating a strong and differentiated brand identity, rather than relying on the dubious appeal of a century-old compound firm name and an entirely undifferentiated proposition. Surely, the paradigm of this brand-building in the consumer law space is the business led and created by our deserving Lifetime Achievement winner, Andrew Twambley. InjuryLawyers4U has succeeded in building a trusted brand where others have failed, in a challenging and congested market. NewLaw approaches to marketing and selling legal services weren’t just recognised by our big lifetime award, however. Stephens Scown scooped the Best Marketing Campaign award for their innovative and very un-solicitor-like ‘camper van’ integrated campaign; not the first time it has been recognised nationally this year. BLM were rightly handed the Client Care initiative award for their comprehensive adoption of customer relationship best practice, using moments of truth behaviours, client analytics, a BLM Corporate Connect loyalty programme and Customer Advocacy rewards scheme. An individual award winner for business development, Ian Morris at Edwards Hands and Lewis Solicitors, has a range of innovations to his name, including hiring a full-time manager for Introducer relationships.
employee ownership scheme. Organisations such as Keystone Law have reinvented the law firm business model in the last few years. Other award winners are blazing a trail in their employment and resourcing practices, in particular in promoting apprenticeships. Lyons Davidson (who took the Private Client team of the year) have more than tripled the number of apprentices within their business this year, and are the Skills for Justice Employer of the Year. The infamous reluctance of some BigLaw firms to invest in developing all of their people, especially in hard times, is in stark contrast to our Training award winners, Hugh James, whose Learning at Work Week programme got 90% of their people involved in some learning activities, and highly commended MyHomeMove, whose focus on measuring the results of their customer service training is a leading indicator of an area that legal services will have to invest more in over the next few years. The penultimate award of an impressive roll-call of legal stars at the Modern Law Awards was a special moment, for me reading the citation, for the recipients, and for all the attendees. Whilst the 12 solicitors firms and barristers chambers we recognised for their Outstanding Achievement in representing the families of the 96 Hillsborough victims undoubtedly deserved that award for their brave, lengthy and committed fight and the historic verdict they achieved, we were also recognising the unique collaborative network of expertise and support they developed and brought to the case. Collaboration is another of the watchwords of the NewLaw world; overturning the inward-looking, ‘full service’ and instinctively competitive ethos of BigLaw. In a short piece, it is impossible to do justice to the scope, quality and success of not just our Modern Law award winners and runners-up, but the other hugely impressive nominations. Elsewhere in this edition of the magazine, we do feature some of the award winners in more detail, however. Overall, the 2016 awards demonstrated without a shadow of doubt the emergence of a transformed legal industry, pioneered by many of Modern Law’s regular contributors, subjects and readers and driven hardest, fastest and furthest here in the UK. Chris Bull is the Founding Director of Professional Services Advisory Firm Kingsmead Square.
Modern business models
Challenging the conventional assumptions that legal businesses need a partnership model, permanent and office-based staffing, graduate intake, and performance management and remuneration driven by hours and fees targets is a recurring theme amongst our UK innovators. Stephens Scown, also winner of Law Firm of the Year, have been widely lauded for their introduction of an
08 Modern Law
December 2016
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INTERVIEW
Richard Susskind Modern Law interviewed Professor Richard Susskind, an expert in the field of AI in the legal sector and author of several key texts in the area, about how the use of AI in law has changed since its first implementation, and about how AI is already changing the legal profession.
Q A
Can you explain what you think lawyers means when they talk about ‘AI’?
I’ve always said that there are two ways to define AI in law. The first is ‘architectural’, in terms of the tools and techniques used. When I wrote my doctorate on AI and law at Oxford in the early/mid 1980s (a lifetime ago), the technological fashion was for rule-based systems and logic programming. Today, different methods, like supervised machine learning and deep neural networks, are very popular. But these terms mean little to lawyers. For most legal practitioners, my second type of definition, ‘functional’, is more helpful. When lawyers speak about AI in functional terms, they are talking about what these systems actually do, what tasks they undertake. And, very broadly speaking, when lawyers refer today to AI (and they are doing so frequently and increasingly), they are preoccupied with systems doing work that in the past we thought required human lawyers – such as document review in litigation, due diligence, drafting documents, and analysing contracts. A couple of years ago, technology-assisted review in litigation was not called AI. Today it is. But that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that machines are performing more and more legal tasks.
Q
When developing the world’s first commercially available AI system in law, The Latent Damage System, did you see resistance to AI within the sector, and what benefits did it bring to legal professionals who utilised it?
A
Because of deeper challenges facing the legal profession (most notably, problems of inaccess to justice for citizens and the demands for lower cost service from General Counsel), AI is not regarded with the scepticism that I met in the 1980s. Today, AI is coming to be seen as one important way of offering affordable, decent quality legal help. In the 1980s, the small community of people around the world working on AI and law were thought to be peripheral, eccentric, and of limited commercial relevance. As you say, I co-developed (with Phillip Capper, now a partner at White & Case), the world’s first commercially available AI system in law. It operated in the law of limitation – it asked its users a long series of questions and then told them the date after which their action could no longer be raised because it was time barred. It reduced research times from hours to minutes and, to this day, Phillip will say that the final system was better (quicker and less fallible) than him; and he was the leading expert in the area of law, the head of the law faculty at Oxford University! Although our system generated great publicity when we launched it in 1988 (all four main daily broadsheets carried quarter page stories about it), most lawyers didn’t believe that their own work would be taken on by such systems. And they were right. Until now.
December 2016
Although skeptics say this first wave of AI had little impact, its underlying techniques are still used today; for example, in document automation systems and in online legal services offered by law firms
Q A
What were the features of ‘first wave’ AI, and how did law firms utilise this?
The system we developed, the Latent Damage System, was an example of what I now call the ‘first wave’ of AI systems in law. In this first wave, the knowledge and reasoning processes of human legal experts were codified in complex decision trees, around which non-expert users could navigate. We called them rule-based expert systems. They put questions to users and were able to provide legal answers and draft legal documents, often at a higher standard than human experts. But these systems were costly to build and maintain (our system had over two million paths through it). And they held little attraction for law firms because they reduced the time taken to do legal work, which was not appealing in an era dominated by lavish hourly billing. Although skeptics say this first wave of AI had little impact, its underlying techniques are still used today – for example, in document automation systems and in online legal services offered by law firms. More, the multi-billion dollar tax compliance industry (personal and corporate tax) is built on first wave legal AI.
Q A
What are the differences with the ‘second wave’ of AI, and how are law firms employing it?
There is now a second wave of AI and their developers reject the early idea that the way to get machines to solve legal problems is for them to copy the best human experts. Two types of system are crucial. First are those that can analyse huge bodies of legal materials. This is the world of machine learning, big data, and predictive analytics. Some systems can already make better predictions than expert lawyers. For instance, Lex Machina, drawing on data from more than 100,000 past cases, has been said to be able predict the probability of success in US
Modern Law 13
INTERVIEW
People who need legal help will ask questions of their systems, not human lawyers, and will be given legal answers and well-drafted documents patent litigation more accurately than litigators. A related family of systems, supervised machine learning systems, can search through massive litigation bundles and identify relevant documents more precisely than junior lawyers and paralegals. Similar techniques, as I said, are used for due diligence. Then there are systems that answer questions and solve problems in an apparently intelligent manner. The best illustration is IBM’s Watson, the system that appeared in 2011 in a live broadcast of an American TV quiz show, and beat the two best-ever human contestants. This is a system that can, effectively, answer questions about anything in the world; more rapidly and accurately than any human being. Inspired by early success in the use of Watson in medicine, several law firms and legal suppliers are now collaborating with IBM on its deployment in law. For everyday law in the 2020s, this will be of immense impact; people who need legal help will ask questions of their systems, not human lawyers, and will be given legal answers and well-drafted documents.
Q A
What benefits can AI implementation bring law firms?
The broad aim of using AI in law is to provide new and improved ways of making legal expertise available to clients. I think there are four broad categories of benefits to be derived. In summary, artificial intelligence can: (1) help reduce the costs of many legal services by replacing expensive human labour with a wide variety of standardised systems; (2) enhance the quality and consistency of legal service, by using systems that often outperform human lawyers; (3) be a direct source of profit, when systems are delivered via online legal service, for example; and (4) differentiate a firm, perhaps by delivering systems that no-one else is. In truth, the first is most important in an era when clients are demanding ‘more for less’. At the same time, firms who are reluctant to invest should watch that they don’t leave themselves at a competitive disadvantage by not embracing AI while their competitors forge ahead.
Q A
What challenges might law firms face when employing AI systems?
There are at least three important challenges that lawyers will need to confront. The first is technical; these systems are not easy to develop, so that firms who choose to develop their own, rather than buy from suppliers, will have to engage top
Because of deeper challenges facing the legal profession, AI is not regarded with the scepticism that I met in the 1980s
notch AI developers, data scientists and process analysts. The second is commercial; AI systems can be costly to develop and most firms are reluctant to invest heavily in what might appear to be speculative development projects. The third is cultural; understandably, some lawyers will resist the development of systems that undertake legal work. On the one hand, they might feel threatened; on the other hand, they might doubt whether reliable systems can indeed be developed.
Q A
Are enough law firms currently utilising AI, and how do you see this changing in the coming years?
It’s early days and the second wave of the technology is in its relative infancy. In the UK at least, I am happy that, amongst the larger law firms, there is sufficient interest and activity. I worry more about medium and smaller firms who often regard the most advanced technologies as beyond their pockets. I think this is mistaken, because many of the technologies here are open source or reasonably priced. More, these systems, if used strategically, can help smaller firms compete with the largest. In the long run, however, when we are firmly in the 2020s, I cannot imagine a prosperous legal business not embracing some form of AI.
Q A
How will the roles of legal professionals change with the proliferation of AI?
‘Proliferation’ is too strong, at least over the next few years. Although there is a lot of noise and activity, we are a long way from AI technology being pervasive in the legal world. I regard the impact of what we call ‘increasingly capable machines’ as being an incremental transformation rather than a big-bang revolution. That said, your question is a good one. In the 2020s, legal professionals will have a simple choice – compete with machines or build the machines. By competing with machines, I mean that human lawyers will be doing things that machines cannot. By building the machines, I mean recognising that there will be AI solutions in the future for many of the problems that bring clients today to their lawyers; and so the way to meet clients’ needs and stay competitive will be to be involved in building these AI systems. This means, and this is a central theme of my book, Tomorrow’s Lawyers, that legal professionals will not just be legal advisers, they will also be legal knowledge engineers, legal data scientists, legal technologists, and legal process analysts. Now, many lawyers will say that they didn’t go to law school to be any of these. But I think lawyers need to be more client-facing. If there are new ways of meeting clients’ needs, ways that are cheaper, better, quicker, and more convenient, that require us to become technologists, then that is what we should do. One of the Big 4 firms has said that by 2020 they want 20% of their tax experts to be technologists. Their clients want tax technology solutions to their tax problems. The choice is clear – demonstrate that the non-technology-based approach is better or become a leader in tax technology. So too in law.
Q A
Are there any facets of the law that humans will always remain responsible for?
This takes us back to question of competing with machines. When machines today can make predictions, identify relevant documents, answer questions, and even handle emotions at a higher standard than human beings, it is reasonable to ask if people or systems will be doing our legal work in decades to come. And yet, many lawyers insist that their work cannot be
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December 2016
INTERVIEW
When we are firmly in the 2020s, I cannot imagine a prosperous legal business not embracing some form of AI replaced by machines. They say that computers cannot think or feel and so cannot exercise judgment or be empathetic. This claim usually rests on what, in our book, The Future of the Professions, my son and co-author, Daniel Susskind, and I call the ‘AI fallacy’ – the view that the only way to get machines to outperform the best human lawyers will be to copy the way that human lawyers work. The error here is not recognising that the second wave of AI systems do not replicate human reasoning. We saw this in 1997 when IBM’s Deep Blue system beat the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. It did so not by copying the thought processes of grandmasters but by calculating up to 330 million moves per second. So too in law; human lawyers will be outgunned by massive processing power, huge amounts of data, and remarkable algorithms. As machines become increasingly capable, they will steadily eat into lawyers’ jobs. The best and the brightest human lawyers will last the longest; those experts who perform tasks that cannot or should not be replaced by machines. But there will not be enough of these tasks to keep armies of traditional lawyers in employment. Lawyers will need to diversify to survive, as I suggested earlier.
I worry more about medium and smaller firms who often regard the most advanced technologies as beyond their pockets
Q A
How else does the legal profession need to embrace technology in order to keep up with other sectors?
In the research that Daniel and I undertook – looking at medicine, audit, tax, education, architecture, consulting, journalism, the clergy, as well as law – we found that lawyers have been slower to embrace technology than most other professions. We may have the edge on the clergy but we are trailing behind others, not least the accountants who are now, of course, investing heavily in legal services. I think we have run out of time in this interview, so I will restrict myself to one observation – our law schools should be taking legal technology and legal AI much more seriously. Sadly, they are currently generating 20th century law graduates, whereas we need a much more technologically enthused and engaged body of young lawyers for the future.
December 2016
Professor Richard Susskind Professor Richard Susskind was a pioneer in AI and law in the 1980s. Today, he is President of the Society for Computers and Law and IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England. His book, The Future of the Professions, co-authored with his economist son Daniel, explores the impact of AI on the professions generally.
Modern Law 15
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INTERVIEW
Nigel Priestley Nigel Priestley won the prestigious Lawyer of the Year Award at the 2016 Modern Law Awards in November. Modern Law sat down with Nigel to discuss the work that contributed to his win, and how Ridley & Hall are fighting to improve the delivery of care for looked-after children.
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What are some of the benchmark cases that contributed to your landmark win?
As a law firm, we’ve developed a speciality in dealing with kinship carers. These cases relate to questions such as, ‘what is a looked after child?’ We even had a case that went to the court of appeal, which established the criteria for whether a child has been accommodated or not. We were also involved in a case that established that local authorities couldn’t pay special guardianship allowance that was less than the fostering allowance. Another case also established that you can’t discriminate against family and friends foster carers, so they are entitled not just to the basic fostering allowance, but also to the uplift foster carers receive.
I think you’re going to see the government introducing more cutbacks; they’re being quite robust, and I don’t think that is going to change
What sets us apart is that we understand the interface, not just with care proceedings, but also the ability to do judicial review to benefit our clients. When cases become complex we have strong links to specialist Counsel capable of battling for our clients in the High Court. We had one case wherein a couple in Hampshire adopted an extremely damaged child. The adoptive mother was originally from Dublin, so they went to Dublin, where the Irish Authorities don’t have the therapeutic support available in the UK. After trying everything possible, they brought them back to the original local authority, Poole. Questions arose as to who had responsibility, and where exactly the case should be heard. It came to a very successful solution, whereby the child remained in a placement in Kent that was being funded by the Irish Authorities. That meant a lot to them. Another case was rather tragic. It involved a fourteen-yearold girl who had to be sectioned in order to find her suitable accommodation. It highlighted that so many children who come into adoption have such significant issues, and there is a real shortage of specialist accommodation for them. Local authorities are under pressure, but equally, those who have adopted are finding themselves scrambling for support. We’d like to be a voice for the adopters, who feel like they have been let down.
Q A
What benefits does specialisation bring?
We had to ask ourselves how a large high street solicitor survives in 2016. We decided you could be in a large lake, where there are masses of fishing rods, or you could be in a small pond where you are the only rod chasing the fish. We chose the latter. Here we are, a Huddersfield high street firm, now acknowledged as the leading firm dealing with issues relating to adoption. Our clients know that if they come to us, we will understand and we will not judge. We can listen, but we can also challenge local authorities and make them understand that there are legal duties they have to fulfil. We developed parallel websites: the Grandparents Legal Centre and the Adoption Legal Centre. People can find visiting a solicitor to be a daunting thing, so we implemented these sites as a way of creating a softer approach.
December 2016
Nigel Priestley Nigel Priestley, Senior Partner at Ridley & Hall Solicitors, is a Community Care and Adoption solicitor. Nigel’s work has been celebrated and he is a leading expert in kinship care, adoption breakdown and care proceedings. He has been involved in landmark decisions as a result of Judicial Reviews he has brought. Nigel is a Trustee of FRG (Family Rights Group)
Modern Law 17
INTERVIEW
Sometimes, you have to make life hard for people in court, the judges for example, because there is no other way. I wouldn’t have it any other way
Q A
What led Ridley & Hall to specialise in care proceedings?
I have been on a children’s panel since 1985, and I fell into kinship care when I saw that legal judgement could really change the lives of family and friends carers. This may not be the greatest analogy, but it’s a little like crossing a minefield. We went forward, tapping the ground, and if it didn’t explode, we went another yard forward. None of this comes without developing a thick skin and the willingness to be different. On occasion, it feels like a Clint Eastwood film. Yesterday I was in a city in the Midlands, and it was like when Eastwood rides to the top of a town, and people say, “who’s the stranger?” There are certain expectations in court, and you are there to challenge the expectations. Sometimes, you have to make life hard for people in court, the judges for example, because there is no other way. I wouldn’t have it any other way. The people we represent feel like they aren’t being heard, that the law isn’t listening. They can find themselves caring for a child, without understanding that child, or the nature of the support that’s available. Care proceedings are at an all time high and there’s a shortage of foster carers, and either those children go to family and friends carers, or to adoption.
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During your career, what have been some of the most impactful changes to the legal sector, particularly in regards to kinship care and care law?
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All firms like ours have been impacted by the government’s approach to legal aid, where they have felt they can constantly cut up the cake and still expect us to make a living. The challenge still remains as to whether people can still be properly represented. Despite that, we have been able to use the legal aid that’s available and find other lawyers to work with who have brought about change.
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What are some of the key considerations that lawyers must have when dealing with cases involving children and their caregivers, which may not be so necessary in other cases?
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We have a government that believes adoption is the best solution for many children, and we’ve had a series of court decisions that have challenged whether or not that is the case. What I put forward, working with others, is an attempt to keep children living with ‘family’, in the broadest sense of the word. That’s not to say adoption doesn’t have a key role, but the government, up until recently, has provided funding for adoption support that hasn’t been available for family and friends carers. Perhaps at times, due to the pressure of the job, lawyers don’t always understand what the duties of local authorities are. It’s about fighting for families who have often been written off. Sometimes there is a standard set for grandparents and kinship carers that is a counsel of perfection, when most parents and grandparents are just trying to do their best. We need to look at getting the best way to care for those children whilst hopefully keeping them within their families.
Q A
Is the government doing enough to ensure the wellbeing of looked-after children, and how can they improve this?
The government has a real problem: the combination of drugs, mental health issues and domestic violence has meant that children who are coming into the care system have significant
18 Modern Law
Ridley & Hall Ridley & Hall is an award-winning firm of solicitors, based in Yorkshire, but with a national profile. We are passionate about making a difference to peoples’ lives by being innovative and forward thinking. We care about helping our clients to solve their legal problems. emotional damage. Quite separately, the government is looking at the question of support for CAMHS (Child Adolescent Mental Health Services). There is an issue regarding the quality of service provided by the NHS for children with mental health issues. You can almost count the number of specialist providers on one hand. The need is vastly greater than the support services available. So the government has created the Adoption Support Fund, but they’re now trying to cap it. Who is actually going to provide specialist support, which is also quite a lengthy process? In the NHS you might have a program for six or eighteen weeks, but these kids can be very damaged, so they’ll need support well beyond eighteen years.
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Are lawyers doing enough to help their clients understand the legal system, particularly when dealing with children and caregivers who don’t have that experience?
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Most of the lawyers I deal with in the care sector are genuinely committed to this. There is an issue regarding whether they have a narrow way of thinking. Are they aware, and are they prepared to fight for the services that ought to be provided? What tends to happen, and this is an absolute scandal, is that when family and friends care is put forward, grandparents are not party to proceedings. The local authority says that they’ll make £300 or £500 available for those people to get some general advice, but if they go to a solicitor’s office for that advice they might not see someone who specialises in that area.
Q A
What changes do you predict the legal sector will see in the next five years?
Based on its track record, I think that the government is going to try and reign in further spending on care cases. Within care proceedings, there has always been a model where the child is represented by their guardian and a solicitor. There are questions now being raised as to whether the child needs a lawyer. It’s not an area of law that’s going to bring people to the barricades until there is another Baby P. I think you’re going to see the government introducing more cutbacks; they’re being quite robust, and I don’t think that is going to change. They always characterise us as fat cat lawyers, but most of the lawyers who work in care cases really do care. This isn’t the kind of work where you drive away from the office in a brand new Aston Martin.
Q A
What is next for Ridley & Hall Solicitors?
I hope we will remain a firm that is imaginative and light on its feet as the legal market changes. We have an understanding about the market, but what we need to do more is cross-sell. There are issues around wills, and much more. Thinking imaginatively is how you use core expertise to grow a business. I’m sixty four, but I’m still on a journey. It’s a great privilege to have won the award, but I’d like to say to other lawyers: ‘Never stop learning’. The current climate is one wherein you can never rest on your laurels.
December 2016
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EDITORIAL BOARD
The SQE: rigorous, fair, and transparent T
he solicitor brand is well known and well regarded. And that means it is an increasingly-popular career choice.
Although we specify how solicitors must train, new routes are emerging. Equivalent means and apprenticeships are modern versions of the old “earn as you learn” paths. New routes will yield a real diversity dividend, helping those from broader backgrounds enjoy a rewarding career. This is important, as a diverse profession is not only representative of the communities it serves, it is also competitive.
The challenge of tackling variable standards
Yet this evolution of the system, although offering some limited flexibility, means we cannot be sure that standards are high and consistent. We do not know if qualifications are comparable; multiple courses and exams mean standards can vary significantly, and there is a lack of transparency and benchmarking. For example, LPC and GDL pass rates range from 50 percent to 100 percent, and it is unclear why there is such a discrepancy. This is not the international norm either. We recently looked at the most important jurisdictions worldwide. Around eight out of ten have a common assessment as part of their legal qualification routes, including New York, Germany, France and India. So how do we respond to this challenge? We need to make sure that with so many routes to qualify, we produce solicitors who achieve the high standards the public, and the profession, expect.
Responding to feedback
We have carried out a lot of careful and detailed work on this over the years. When we first set out our high-level ideas for the Solicitors Qualify Examination (SQE), it sparked a lot of debate. There was support, but also challenge. Many respondents felt they needed more detail about how the process would work before reaching a firm view. Since then, we have taken on board a wide range of opinions and gathered more evidence. There are a number of areas where we have either developed or changed our thinking in response to feedback, such as committing to a period of work-based learning, and for a degree or equivalent being required to qualify.
• A degree or equivalent qualification. • A substantial period of workplace training. • Meeting our character and suitability requirements. • Passing the SQE. The SQE itself would provide an assessment that is rigorous, fair, transparent and consistent. We are proposing it will be in two parts. The first stage would involve assessments of legal knowledge, research and writing. After a period of work-based learning candidates would take SQE stage 2, consisting of five practical legal skills assessments. We are consulting on the detailed elements of the SQE, but our overall aim has to be a thorough assessment of a candidate’s ability to use their legal knowledge in transactions or litigation, to research and analyse legal issues, interview clients, undertake advocacy and draft legal documents. Importantly, we are proposing much wider opportunities to gain that vital work-based experience. That would address the training contract bottleneck, while completing SQE stage 2 after workbased experience would tackle what is known as the ‘LPC gamble’ - where people spend up to £15,000 in up front costs, without a guarantee of a training contract. We want to ensure high, consistent standards are attained, regardless of the route taken to qualification, the university attended or the candidate’s background. Trainees would benefit because the assessment would be fair and consistent, there would be a wider range of ways to qualify and the cost of training should come down.
The importance of getting this right
Making sure we set high standards is too important to rush. Our priority is getting this right. That is why we are engaging so extensively. And why we are making sure we are responding to feedback, continuing to incorporate your ideas and developing our evidence base. We are still listening. We will be discussing SQE proposals at events around the country and you can join our virtual reference group to feed through your comments, as well as submitting a formal response. We look forward to hearing your views.
Ultimately we think the evidence still points towards a single, independent assessment for all aspiring solicitors as the best way forward.
The details of our proposals
Importantly our second consultation, as promised, sets out a fuller picture of how our proposals all fit together. The four building blocks of qualification we are proposing are:
December 2016
You can respond to the consultation at www.sra.org.uk/ consultations. It runs until 9 January. You can also join the SRA’s virtual reference group at www.sra.org.uk/t4t. Julie Brannan, Director of Education and Training, SRA.
Modern Law 21
EDITORIAL BOARD
Calling all Alternative Business Structures: Have your say
Can After the Event Legal Insurance (ATE) Be Available for an Arbitration Claim?
The Legal Services Board will shortly be launching a survey of all alternative business structures (ABS) to understand more about how they operate, the use of external investment, and their views on regulation. We explore why it’s important that your business responds.
TE has evolved from a product that was predominantly used in combination with conditional fee agreements to facilitate the bringing of personal injury claims, to one that is now used in a much wider range of disputes, including commercial disputes, both national and international.
n 6 October 2011, ten years since the idea was first proposed, a law firm was granted the first ABS licence in England and Wales. A licensed conveyancing firm was granted an ABS licence to provide ‘reserved instrument activities’ in conveyancing, regulated by the Council for Licenced Conveyancers. Five years on from that and there are now nearly 800 ABS, regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, and the Intellectual Property Regulation Board. They provide services in all parts of the legal services market and to a wide range of legal services users. This represents a slow revolution in how legal businesses structure themselves.
Parties increasingly have options available to them on funding and cover, and another option may relate to the forum for determination of a dispute. Commercial agreements are likely to include a dispute resolution clause. Parties often opt to arbitrate (rather than litigate through the courts). There can be various reasons for that, one of which may be a desire to keep a dispute confidential. Alternatively, arbitration may be the appropriate route for international disputes as provided for by treaty etc.
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Building on a survey of ABS we conducted in 2013, we are seeking to understand the views and experience of this diverse group of businesses. We already recognise the many positive benefits that ABS have brought to the legal services market in terms of innovation, customer services, and strategic thinking. However, while some in the sector continue to focus on the risks of ABS, there is more that needs to be done to illustrate the benefits of involving non-lawyers in the management and ownership of law firms. The LSB has a strong track record of using its research findings to drive change in the regulation of legal services. For example, we used the findings of the 2013 survey of ABS to support changes in the SRA ABS licencing process, and our joint research with the SRA on innovation in legal services resulted in them developing SRA Innovate - http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/innovate/srainnovate.page. These examples demonstrate the benefits of participating in research to help shape future reforms.
Want to take part?
Your business will shortly receive an email invitation to participate in the survey and a link to the survey online. This email will be addressed to your head of legal practice or head of finance. We estimate that the survey will take around 10-15 minutes to complete. If you want to register your interest or haven’t received an email please contact robert.cross@legalservicesboard.org.uk
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The relevant arbitration rules are likely to give rise to the potential for cost shifting at the arbitrator’s discretion. That in turn gives rise to applications for cover for adverse arbitration costs. An arbitration process can have similarities to a court process, but there are also differences. For example, selection and makeup of the arbitration panel/arbitrator, significantly limited potential for appeal, and a lack of a cost assessment process. Insurers will take these and other factors into account when deciding whether, and at what price, to offer terms. The recent decision in Essar Oilfields Services Ltd v Norscot Management Pvt Ltd[2016] EWHC 2361 (Comm) is of interest. The arbitrator decided section 59 of the ICC rules allowed him a wide discretion to determine and award ‘other costs’. Exercising that discretion on a fact specific basis, he included in an award the costs the claimant had incurred on third party funding and the success fee. That decision went in a polar opposite direction to the recent changes in the law on recoverability of ATE premiums and success fees in the courts. The award was challenged on the basis it was said to be outside the tribunal’s powers but was upheld on appeal. If the rationale in Essar is followed, there appears to be no reason why an award could not in principle include the cost of an ATE premium. It remains to be seen what developments there will be. Watch this space! Matthew Williams, Head, AmTrust Law.
Robert Cross, Project Manager (Research), Legal Services Board (LSB).
December 2016
Modern Law 23
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EDITORIAL BOARD
The apprentice’s advantage What are the potential advantages/disadvantages of training as an apprentice, as opposed to more traditional entry routes? he buzz around apprenticeships is becoming harder to ignore, but some employers, especially in the legal sector, have not considered what this government-sponsored initiative might mean for them. In the long term, legal apprenticeships could change the way in which individuals are prepared for a career in legal practice, by moving the educational focus from the traditional university degree route to work-based learning. The most obvious and unique benefit of apprenticeships is that the cost of training is funded through a government scheme. Large employers draw down funding for training through the apprenticeship levy, while smaller employers can get 90% of the cost of training and assessment paid by government. Employers with fewer than 50 employees can get training and assessment paid in full. On the raw figures, the case for using apprenticeships as an alternative to full time university study is strong. For the intending legal practitioner, the cap has now been lifted off university tuition fees, which in most cases will mean that a law degree will cost a learner £27,000. If the learner wishes to become a solicitor, add to this the cost of the LPC. At the large, private, foreign-owned law schools, this is typically around £15,000. So that’s £42,000 for a self-funding learner before living expenses are included. And of course, there’s no guarantee of a job either. Contrast that with an apprenticeship route, whereby
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the government actually funds an apprentice’s training to become a solicitor to the tune of £27,000. Of course employers don’t necessarily want apprentice solicitors. Paralegal apprenticeships, for which CILEx Law School is the largest national provider, offer a great route into the profession for learners and employers. For the employer, a Paralegal Apprenticeship creates a valuable technician level member of staff, schooled in the employer’s own systems and ways of working. Apprentices are rewarded by becoming part CILEx-qualified and gaining two years’ valuable experience that many LPC graduates are desperate for. A further advantage of apprenticeships is that the associated government funding can be used to train staff already on the professional ladder to CILEx qualification to complete their training in the context of a Chartered Legal Executive Apprenticeship. This apprenticeship can also be used as a continuation from the Paralegal Apprenticeship. The advantages do come with some complications and procedural rules, which make prior discussion and planning absolutely essential. CILEx Law School can help with this aspect of workforce planning to ensure that employers fully realise the advantages of employing a legal apprentice. Noel Inge, Managing Director, CILEx Law School.
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Third party funding cost claims in ICC arbitration can now be recovered
How do I go about specialising in acting for a particular sector? Part 2
Maurice Power examines the High Court ruling that a party can recover costs of third-party funding. eptember saw the High Court rule (Essar Oilfield Services Ltd v Norscot Rig Management Pvt Ltd) that a party can recover the costs of third-party funding awarded following an ICC arbitration, held over the breach of an operations management agreement in the oil industry.
Continued from his column in Issue 26 of Modern Law Magazine, Andy Poole explains how to apply the research and planning of specialising into marketing.
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Judge Waksman QC ruled that Norscot Rig Management had been forced to seek external funding to continue a case against Essar Oilfields Services. The sole arbitrator, Sir Philip Otton, had ruled in December 2015 that Norscot was entitled to the costs of litigation funding which it had obtained in order to bring the arbitration. The funder had made an agreement with Norscot in 2011 of £647,000 for the arbitration. This agreement entitled the funder a fee of 300% of the funding or 35% of the recovery, if the case was successful. For these costs Norscot sought £1.94m from Essar. The issue of third party funding, whether it is permissible, and if the extent to which the costs of that funding can be recovered at the end of proceedings, has generated much interest in the arbitration world in recent years. The High Court has now confirmed that the costs of obtaining third party funding in ICC arbitrations in England are in principle recoverable from the opposition by a successful party to those proceedings. Such an outlay can be classed as “other costs” under the Arbitration Act 1996. The judge outlined that it was in the power of the arbitration tribunal to award such costs. It can be questioned whether the costs of third party funding are characterised as a ‘cost’ or whether they should be viewed as a damage that should be pleaded and proven in the arbitration itself. It is now likely that other funded claimants with English-seated arbitrations will seek to recover their funding costs, the success will lie with the tribunal. If the paying party disagrees with the tribunal’s decision on this question, this judgment suggests there may be a limited amount it can do about it. This will in turn raise further questions about the need for disclosure of funding arrangements at the start of proceedings to enable a respondent to be aware of the ultimate costs it is facing in seeking to fight a claim. Maurice Power, Managing Director, Ferguson Litigation Funding.
n the previous edition I covered the research and planning phases of launching a new sector specialism. Based on both my own sector specialism in acting for law firms and also advising law firms on their own strategies, I will cover the marketing aspects in this edition.
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My key points for using sector specialist knowledge in order to take on and help additional clients are: 1. Ensure that all identified prospects are included in your CRM software so that you can monitor your interactions with them and so that they will receive your communications, taking care to comply with Data Protection Act requirements! 2. Prepare a business plan to analyse the sector, your competitors, your own firm and to conclude on the most appropriate steps. The plan may include the following marketing activities, but will certainly have objectives, tasks and timescales so that success is achieved and is measurable 3. Meet regularly with the identified business partners as noted in the last edition. They should be a good route for new instructions for you. As a specialist myself, I would never dream of referring a law firm to a non-legal sector specialist 4. Prepare and distribute sector specific newsletters. These should show your knowledge of the sector rather than being salesbased. They should also be circulated on a set regular basis. I find having set dates each year useful to ensure that our publications are continually prepared and published 5. As well as reading the sector publications, get to know the editors and offer to write articles for them 6. Ensure that your website is appropriate and that there is a section dedicated to your sector specialism(s) 7. Obtain testimonials from your satisfied clients. Add them to the dedicated website page and use them in pitches for new business 8. Ask your existing clients for referrals to other businesses within their sector 9. In the early days, it may not be possible to obtain speaking slots at large conferences, but it may be possible at more local events; whatever, ensure that you attend as many sector events as possible 10. Put on your own events for the sector. I have found that smaller scale events on a regular basis with the same key decision maker attendees works best 11. Do something different to your competitors that allows you to make contact with your prospects and demonstrates your thought leadership; surveys may hit the mark 12. Ensure that your team delivers a consistent message and is kept up to date with developments in the sector. There is no point in saying that you are specialists if there are any weak links in your team and your client delivery therefore shows otherwise Done well, sector specialisms really can pay dividends for both the supplier and the client, but achieving those benefits requires a huge amount of dedication and consistency. Andy Poole is the Legal Sector Partner at Armstrong Watson, specialising exclusively in advising law firms. The Law Society has exclusively endorsed Armstrong Watson for the provision of accountancy services to law firms throughout the whole of the North of England.
December 2016
Modern Law 27
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Fixing for Certainty A recent LexisNexis report has revealed law firms who implement fixed fees score higher for satisfaction among clients. Why might some law firms still be reluctant to use fixed fees? his comes as no surprise to us at all, since all such research (including the perennial Altman Weil Law Firms In Transition report) consistently demonstrates that cost certainty, manageability and predictability is extremely high on a client’s list of priorities.
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The problem is that law firms dislike fixed fees, and with good reason. They tend to be synonymous with poor realisation, writeoffs and difficult conversations with the client at the end of the job. As a result, most practitioners’ default setting is to try to avoid giving fixed fees. In doing so, price uncertainty rests substantially with the client rather than the firm. Whilst this is an understandable aspiration, and one that we as a profession have been able to largely get away with in the past, this is increasingly unacceptable from the client’s point of view. Since it is the client that holds the purse strings, and given that there are firms out there getting much better at providing fixed fees, it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to realise that if you don’t start finding a way to profitably offer the same thing, you will lose competitive advantage and revenue. We are, in fact, huge fans of fixed fees from the law firm’s perspective. Why? Because, quite simply, if executed correctly, they can provide the mechanism for not only satisfying the client’s desire for budgetary certainty, but can also better remunerate the firm than even 100% realisation of full headline hourly rate. The reason for this is that clients will often knowingly, happily and willingly pay a premium for certainty, even if it means trading off the possibility of a lower fee on a pure time basis. This sounds easy in principle, but is in fact extremely difficult and requires a deep understanding of pricing psychology and buying behaviour. It also requires a sound empirical understanding by the firm of the price risk profile of the job, and the ability to consistently communicate those dimensions to the client in a way that enables them to make an informed choice as to where they want to sit on the price risk continuum. It sounds challenging, and it is, but there are a number of triedand-true methodologies. For those willing to make the effort, the financial rewards and client loyalty and market competitiveness benefits are considerable. Richard Burcher, Chairman, Burcher Jennings.
THE IMPACT OF THE GDPR ON THE LEGAL SECTOR estore Document Management says legal practices already considering the implications of the EU’s 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should not rely on Brexit to negate their responsibilities for complying, because it is likely the UK will still need to agree comparable legislation if it is to trade within the EU.
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As part of any EU agreement reached it is likely that the UK will still be obliged to adhere to EU data protection laws which carry tough penalties (of up to €20 million) for any business caught breaching the strict set of criteria laid down by the GDPR. Traditionally, UK lawyers tend to generate an enormous amount of sensitive documents with lifecycles that could be particularly vulnerable to data breaches at various stages of that cycle. Making the document lifecycle as efficient as possible while being assured of its security at all stages is a crucial aspect of maximising profitability for many legal businesses. But how do legal businesses review GDPR legislation and revise their whole document management system whilst keeping up with client expectations of faster service and instant information? One answer would be to outsource document management for the entirety of the document’s lifecycle to include digital storage and secure shredding. This is because organisations will have a duty, under GDPR regulations, to protect all personal information from misuse and should securely discard data once it is no longer required in order to protect data subject rights. Many of the larger legal practices would find it difficult to manage the churn rate of documents, data protection issues, and end-of-life without a professional data management company working alongside them. A document and data management company, like Restore Document Management, takes the hassle out of the myriad challenges presented by data processing. Such challenges include: data searches, sharing, storage, transfer, updating, capture, curation and information privacy. A complete information lifecycle process can be set up – from Cloud data back-up where information is available at the touch of a button, to near storage document management where information is accessible within hours, to deep, specialised storage of archive papers, and efficient, responsible, secure end-of-life disposal of all data or documents as required by law. Keeping lawyers on track by providing them with the right paperwork to their desk at the right time, whilst assuring compliance with either GDPR or its UK equivalent, is the ultimate goal of any creditable data and document management company. Ironically, by handing over responsibility for document security, logistics and GDPR compliance to an outside partner, the legal practice can take back control over its information with total peace of mind. Paul Moonan, Managing Director, Restore Scan.
December 2016
Modern Law 29
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Earn While You Learn
The Times Are Changing
What are the potential advantages/disadvantages of training as an apprentice, as opposed to more traditional entry routes?
What will be the single biggest change to the legal sector in the next decade?
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raditionally, bagging your dream job in the legal profession meant a strict education that continued way past high school.
You typically leave school and head straight to college to study for your A Levels. Once these have been obtained, you enrol into your chosen university and work for 3 years in the hope of graduating with a Law Degree. Of course then there is the Legal Practice Course, which is subsequently followed by searching for a ‘Training Contract’ within a legal firm. How old are you now? There are other routes such as a Graduate Diploma in Law conversion course, but an alternative path which is becoming ever more popular is apprenticeship schemes. The legal sector is changing rapidly, which means that government backed vocational qualifications are now available for employers to offer to individuals who are looking for a career in the legal profession. As an individual, I would like to class myself as an ambassador for promoting apprenticeship schemes. I have worked in the financial services sector for almost 7 years, and started (as you probably guessed) as an apprentice. During my time, I have noticed that it is still very popular for individuals to feel that the traditional route of university is the only way to get their foot in the door. Even in different sectors, the pros and cons of apprenticeships are similar. Some class the biggest advantage being that apprenticeships are free, and with university costs increasing, it is progressively more difficult for some people to take the traditional route, even if they want to. The practical experience you obtain during your apprenticeship is also invaluable. Not only does it help build a respectable CV, it helps apply theory to practice and builds up knowledge and skills. The motto ‘earn while you learn’ is still a strong appeal. A number of individuals are motivated by money and being able to earn an income whilst you train at the same time is an influencing factor. Of course the minimum wage for an apprentice is minor, but some firms will pay more. The qualifications you can obtain through an apprenticeship should be carefully considered. In some areas, an undergraduate degree is a specified requirement, therefore university is your only option.
fter the “judges versus the people” furore, what is the future of the courts, and indeed of an independent judiciary? I hope that right-thinking people will recognise the need for the continued use of traditional oral arguments in court. I nevertheless believe that we shall see further strides in developing remote but interactive working between courts, litigants and their lawyers, so as to cut down the amount of time and paperwork that has to be assembled for attendances before a court.
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On the same theme, one is tempted to answer this question by referencing the current enthusiasm for Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is promised to be the panacea for all those uncertainties that the law throws up. Who wouldn’t relish the thought of a silky-voiced chatbot spelling out the pros and cons of a rival’s interpretations of the Limitation Acts, for example? While I can see that AI is likely to provide a number of shortcuts in legal research, with instant access to a body of learning on any given subject, I don’t believe that this will bring about the biggest changes to legal life in the 2020s. It takes the inquisitiveness and energy of a team of lawyers to sift through competing claims and theories, and get to somewhere nearing the truth. It’s a process that requires the forensic nous of an experienced judge to finally determine. Thus, AI can only go so far. A computerised judge will not do! No, I think that the biggest change to befall lawyers is going to be the structures in which law is practised. We have already seen the barriers come down in relation to exclusive law firm practice and the “ownership” of such practice. There is no need for law to be handled in ivory towers of legal wisdom and exclusive expertise. Legal knowledge is one of a number of bodies of knowledge that contributes to general commercial skills and advisory functions. The proliferation of General Counsel in industry has highlighted the effectiveness of input from lawyers, when legal advice and skill is provided in combination with other experience and backgrounds. I believe therefore that we will see a significant growth in multidisciplinary working, with far fewer professional practices providing legal advice as a standalone. David Simon, Chairman, Triton Global.
Apprenticeships can also be considered as a demanding learning style, remember there is a job to fulfil alongside qualifications to obtain. One thing to remember is that everyone learns in different ways. The benefits of studying in today’s environment means there are a number of ways to enter the profession you desire, but remember to consider each option. Jessica McMahon Cert CII (FS), Marketing & Events Planner, Informed Financial Planning.
December 2016
Modern Law 31
ARE YOU FUTURE PROOF? WEDNESDAY 8TH MARCH 08.30 – 09.15
REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST
9.15 – 9.30
CHAIRMEN’S WELCOME Chris Harris, MD, Lawyer Checker Tony Piccirillo, Partner, AVRillo
9.30 – 10.15
KEYNOTE ADDRESS - Where is the UK housing market heading? Speaker announced soon
10.15 – 11.00
PANEL 1 – Client Care: Breaking down barriers Andy Foster, Panel Member, Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) Darren Cox, Ombudsman, Legal Ombudsman Sheila Kumar, Chief Executive, Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) Graham Murphy, Product Manager, The Law Society Paula Higgins, Founder & CEO, HomeOwners Alliance
11.00 – 11.45
MORNING REFRESHMENTS
11.45 – 12.45
PANEL 2 – Managing your firm Paul Saunders, Managing Director, Legal Eye Rob Hailstone, Founder, Bold Legal Group Eddie Goldsmith, Conveyancing Association Emma Vigus, Director, Professional Indemnity, Howden UK Group Limited David Knowles, Head of Financial Crime, Paycasso
12.45 – 13.30
PANEL 3 – Innovation: shaking up the conveyancing market Mike Ockenden, Director, Thornby Associates Mark Montgomery, Customer Strategy & Marketing Director, My Home Move Additional panellists to be confirmed
13.30 – 14.30
LUNCH
14.30 – 15.30
PANEL 4 – Best Practice in Conveyancing Richard Rickwood, CEO, Friday’s Move Stephen Murray, Business Development Director, PSG Sarah Tucker, Your Move Additional panellists to be confirmed
15.30-16.20
Panel 5 - Leading the Field Tom Bridge, Director of Conveyancing, Keoghs Additional panellists to be confirmed
16.20-16.30
CLOSING REMARKS Chris Harris, MD, Lawyer Checker Tony Piccirillo, Partner, AVRillo
16.30
CLOSE
CONTACT
Sponsorship enquiries please contact Kate McKittrick | kate@charltongrant.co.uk Event enquiries please contact Ellie Campbell | ellie.campbell@charltongrant.co.uk T: 01765 600909
*programme subject to change
Etihad Stadium, Manchester
EDITORIAL BOARD
The Fundamentals of External Funding
Making a name for yourself online
When considering External Funding, what questions should law firms ask themselves and the funding provider?
Are law firms doing enough to bolster their online presence, and what can they do to improve this?
sk yourself a very simple question: Why do we need funding? 90% of the time it’s cash flow, what with the need to pay marketing fees, disbursements, staff, and even the VAT Man BEFORE we get paid. It seems like everybody wants paying on day one, while we at the law firm are paid last!
lthough there are no definitive statistics, it is safe to say that law firms are not doing enough to enhance their online presence. The reality is, lawyers are trained to practice law, not to promote themselves online. But with the ease of use of many social media platforms and website builders, lack of expertise is no longer an excuse. If time is an issue then you should look to outsource, as these are essential activities in the promotion of any law firm. Below are four tips to improving your online presence:
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Who can offer us a sensible funding solution? How quickly can we achieve our goals? Our local banks do not understand the Legal Commercial World. They want Personal Guarantees, and on top of that they then want a high rate of interest while paying us pennies on the client account. Maybe I should become a banker? The clever legal practitioner will then consider: Are there funders out there who do understand the Legal Commercial World? We all read the Gazette and see large sums being available for multimillion pound cases, but most of us just want a hand with funding marketing fees or disbursements - even the WIP being funded would make a big difference. Well the answer to the previous question is ‘Yes!’ There are funders in today’s market who fund the “normal” firm, who understand such things as stage three delays in medicals that mean a case takes slightly longer to settle than planned. They also understand firms can spend years on Clinical Negligence cases before a case is settled, and do NOT want to recover pennies in the pound on their bills because the TPI knows the law firm is desperate for the cash flow.
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Build a website and don’t neglect it
If you don’t want to get too technical, use a solution like Wix or Squarespace, which will allow you to create impressive websites without any knowledge of HTML. However, it’s not enough to just start a website, it needs constant attention to take account of Google’s constantly changing algorithm. A blog or news section is a great way to keep your website fresh.
Communicate where your clients congregate
62% of adults have a Facebook account and over 270 million people have Twitter accounts. Your prospective clients are using social media and you should be too. Pay attention to other influencers in the space and do as they do. Start posting, engaging, and re-sharing their content to reach the audience you want.
Make a name for yourself
We would love to finish this piece with a sales line, tell you how to contact us, and let you know we provide funding at 0% interest with no admin fees. But instead, we will only say that any firm looking for funding can drop us a line, and we are happy to supply them (without obligation or cost) with details of every funder who is in the market.
Make your online presence that of a thought leader in your area of law. Aim for at least one blog post a week, then break that post into a series of tweets that you can schedule to send throughout the week, repurpose the post in a longer format on LinkedIn Pulse. Approach some of the many legal blogs and websites and offer to contribute guest blog posts, increasing your exposure and building your presence online.
Ian Barlow, Financial Counsel, BMS Funding Ltd.
Make time
There are no quick fixes to building on online presence for your law firm - it is a commitment that, once agreed to, will prove incredibly beneficial to attracting potential clients. Set aside two hours a week, write a blog post, schedule social media posts throughout the week to promote it, and then keep an eye on activity with a tool like Hootsuite. If your website, profiles or blogs are not updated, the information becomes stale and your company could go unnoticed. With a little bit of time and effort, you can keep your firm at the top of Google’s search rankings, and at the top of potential clients’ minds. Ross Weldon, EMEA Marketing Specialist, Clio.
December 2016
Modern Law 33
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EDITORIAL BOARD
The Hands-On Approach Are legal professionals doing enough to help clients understand the litigation process, and how can this be improved? he simple answer is that there is always room for improvement. There is a lot of pressure on Litigators to ensure that they send sufficient details to their clients, but there can be a tendency to bury information in engagement letters and terms or lengthy advices. While they may satisfy the Ombudsman, it does not mean that your client has a better understanding of the process, which can be daunting to some who may be embarrassed to ask what they consider to be a stupid question. Therefore cutting out legal-ese and being approachable helps clients understand the process more easily, and lets them feel that they can ask questions freely. There can be no substitute for meeting with your clients and adopting a hands-on approach. This ensures that they are aware of the process and not only what is required of them and their obligations, but also that they are aware of what you are doing at each stage. Not all clients have been through litigation before, and you need to measure the amount of detail provided against their experience. If you are not local to your client then it is good practice to diarise the need to call your clients regularly and always ask if they have any questions. While sending emails regularly is part and parcel of the job nowadays, they do not necessarily map out the process. Flowcharts certainly can help for certain parts of the process, and we always like to provide a flowchart when embarking on the detailed assessment process, as it is not straightforward for those that do not engage in it on a daily basis. A big part of the litigation process is a client’s understanding of costs in terms of the liability for their own costs, the risk that they may not recover all of their costs from their opponent, and the risk that they may have to pay some or all of their opponent’s costs. Solicitors need to keep this at the forefront of their minds and review regularly throughout the litigation process. The not-verywell received Precedent H facilitates this exercise to a certain extent, when they are served at the early stages of litigation and provided to a client.
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Christian Eagle, Partner, and Polly Hill, Associate, Commercial Dispute Resolution, Ralli Solicitors.
Shaping client experience through team coaching or me, nothing is more important than truly understanding activities and actions that can deliver a more satisfied client. In a highly complex and competitive business environment, the firm that puts shaping a stand-out client experience at the heart of its business will be more successful overall, attracting and retaining the best talent and winning the most professionally satisfying and profitable work.
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What of the role of marketing in shaping excellent client experience? I firmly believe strategic marketing is produced through marketers acting as the voice of the client inside an organisation. We’ve heard for years that clients seek more than technical excellence in professional advisers. We know commerciality, team work, strategic insight and the ability to see the world through the client’s eyes are paramount. But how exactly do you achieve this often elusive goal? Firstly, marketers must question their own assumptions and test the validity of long-held views about the nature of clients’ needs and wants. When focusing on delivering what is urgently required every day, it is hard to challenge yourself and others around what might be done differently or better to improve client experience. Yet I believe this is the only way to innovate and create change to truly benefit clients. What better way to start than by carving out time to think? Forget the meticulously planned ‘away day’. How about a ‘stay day’ - a couple of hours in a quiet room with colleagues willing to participate in team coaching around the goal of shaping client experience. Gather facts and figures, seek out client feedback, and check out recent relevant external reports. Just don’t delay the goal whilst pursuing perfect information. Step back and step up to the hard task of contemplating how you can work differently. Ask each person “how can we use what we’ve learned to move our firm closer to true client-centrism?” Perhaps even more importantly, “what can you personally do to get this firmly on the agenda of senior management?” Keep going until ideas dry up and then ask “what else”? It is amazing how this simple yet powerful coaching question can energise people into bolder, more innovative thinking. At the end of the session, sweep up and evaluate ideas, then get stuck into action planning. Seldom do we have the opportunity to step back from the maelstrom of everyday working life to consider strategic issues from a client perspective. And yet, how else can marketers become more valuable to their firms than by listening, interpreting and translating the client’s voice, while pushing forward practical initiatives to advance the strategic agenda of a sharply-managed firm? Beverly Landais, Marketing & Business Development Director and Business Coach, Saunderson House.
December 2016
Modern Law 35
EDITORIAL BOARD
Flood risk – are you getting the full picture? Susan Fairbrass explains the importance of discussing flood risk with Conveyancing clients, and how difficult it can be to get a clear idea of the searches made necessary by this risk. he risk of property flooding often crops up in conveyancing articles, but when we look at the pattern of conveyancing searches being ordered, we notice that around 80% of orders we receive do not include a thorough flood assessment and details on insurability.
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Law Society Practice Note
The Practice Note on flood risk was updated recently (February 2016) and full details can be found on the Law Society website. The Practice Note highlights that different parties will have different appetites for risk, but that conveyancers should consider: 1. advising the client to establish the terms on which buildings insurance, including flood risk cover, is available; 2. advising the client to discuss the level of risk with a building surveyor or flood risk assessment consultant.
Ensuring that you have the full picture on flood
Modern Marketing Are law firms utilising a large enough variety of marketing techniques to promote their practice? n the ever-changing legal landscape, law firms need to be quick to adapt and to adopt a holistic approach to marketing campaigns. The client journey often begins online, and the last few years have seen clients become much savvier when selecting and buying legal services. As a result, the number of practices with an in-house marketing team is on the rise; however, budgets are still somewhat conservative.
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Although law firms are slightly more restricted when working within a regulated industry, there are a few key concepts that need to be implemented and executed more efficiently:
Social media
Most firms are participating in social media one way or another, and some have developed sophisticated strategies to ensure they truly engage with both prospects and clients. However, the fact remains that most are only using it as a one-way channel to distribute content.
Confusion can arise because a number of different searches include information on property flooding. The information provided ranges from basic flood screening as part of an automated environmental report, through to a full assessment, insurability and consultant opinion in some of the standalone flood reports and more comprehensive environmental reports.
Additionally, law firms need to step away from focusing on conversion in a traditional sense – i.e. turning a prospect into a client. Generally speaking, conversion can be defined as persuading a potential client to interact with an aspect of the website, and as such, there are now softer objectives, such as subscribing to a newsletter or attending an event.
Please see http://www.modernlawmagazine.com/singlepost/2016/11/21/Flood-Risk---Are-You-Getting-the-Full-Picture for a summary of coverage in a number of different residential conveyancing searches.
Responsive websites
Identifying the likelihood of risk
As mobile-only internet is becoming increasingly common, law firms need to ensure websites are optimised and that content can be easily downloaded on a mobile device, yet many firms are still only in the planning stage of this process.
The Geodesys website provides you with a search alert tool that screens properties and land for all conveyancing risks. If there is a likelihood of flooding, then suitable recommended searches will be highlighted within the Geodesys product list to aid conveyancers in their choice of search. Susan Fairbrass, Marketing and Client Relationship Manager, Geodesys.
2015 saw Google release an algorithm update to penalise nonresponsive sites, with the aim to phase them out of the top search results pages.
Multichannel marketing
The overall experience across all platforms needs to reflect the service on offer and business branding. As part of this, multichannel marketing is crucial for law firms with regards to image and interfacing with clients; but consistency is key, and this is hugely underestimated within the legal sector. For example, a lot of firms have a beautiful office in a prime location, yet a poorly designed website and an inconsistent brand message.
ROI
A recurring theme among the legal sector is difficulty in measuring the success of a marketing strategy. Firms are often collecting the data but don’t take it any further. It’s crucial to analyse and act upon those results to derive meaningful business insights, and a thorough analysis of a marketing campaign is invaluable in enabling firms to develop better methods of client and prospect engagement. Currently, many law firms are missing these key opportunities to expand and develop practices. Sarah Roberts, Marketing Executive, Eclipse Legal Systems.
December 2016
Modern Law 37
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat - so what does that mean for the Legal Sector? he holiday season, a time of fun, family, fizz, food, fancy dress, tinsel and baubles (though probably not snow as we do live in England, but you never know?). However, for the partners of most law firms, it may not be quite so relaxing.
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December is a time when some firms pay year-end bonuses whilst January sees VAT and Partners tax liabilities needing to be paid, which are over and above the usual cash flow for the firm. That’s not an issue, as these costs will have been accrued, but what about the actual cash flow needed to ensure these payments can be made? It’s frequently forgotten that the Christmas holiday continues to cover a longer period of time. Gone are the days of a day off for Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year. Nowadays this is likely to stretch, for many, from close of business, probably a half day, on Friday 23rd December, re-emerging on Tuesday 3rd January. Even if that is not the policy for your firm, you can almost guarantee that the people you need to talk to will not be around, especially those who authorise payments. From a business perspective, this is a nightmare scenario. Case finalisation that would normally take days now stretches to weeks, sometimes months. The Defendant’s law firm (especially their insurers) may use the holiday season to slow the process, protecting their own cash flow, and the progress of a case can grind to a halt - it always seems particularly so if you are finalising/ waiting for the payment of your bill of costs. As for the NHSLA, even when payments are ‘in the pipeline’, their internal budgets constraints could mean that payments halt until their new financial year in April. Obviously, most firms take the above into account, balancing the actual cash flow of the business with easily accessible solutions, such as their overdraft, to bridge this gap. For those who have not, or cannot, this can be financially painful (and short term VAT and/ or Tax funding is a highly expensive interim solution). VFS has provided a range of innovative, bespoke, low cost funding solutions for law firms for over 5 years. These enable the firm to avoid cash flow issues by releasing the cash due to the firm on bills that have been issued. This gives you the cash immediately and, because it is case specific, you can choose the case(s) you want to fund with the advance only repaid when the settlement is received. This can get the law firm over any holiday cash flow hiccups and, if the bill is paid in a timely manner, then just repay with no penalty.
Flooding is now top of the Government’s Agenda ecember 2015 was one of the wettest months the UK had ever seen. It brought with it evacuation from homes, precious items destroyed and thousands of people left in despair. According to the Environment Agency, over five million people live or work in properties considered to be at risk of flooding. The turmoil has continued this year: January saw Storms Frank, Desmond and Eva destroy an estimated 16,000 houses in the UK, causing over £5bn in damages. Flash flooding in June caused chaos for public transport, causing landslides and leaving thousands stranded across the country.
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The problems are now so serious, that this month MPs decided our flooding strategy needs a major overhaul. Although more money was already being spent on managing flooding risks, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) warned that it is “unlikely to deliver sufficient protection in future decades”. EFRA also recommended significant changes in the way that flood protection is dealt with, and are looking into an incentive scheme for farmers by next July. Furthermore, they have also proposed that developers who defy planning rules and increase the risk of flooding should be held responsible. The Committee considers that natural ways of stopping floods, such as tree planting and using logs in rivers to slow water flow must be a key part of protecting the nation, as climate change intensifies rainstorms. EFRA urge that the Environment Agency be stripped of its responsibility for flooding, and replaced by a dedicated floods authority and a national flood commissioner. The government’s National Flood Resilience Review (NFRR), published in September, increased the projections for extreme rainfall and moved to protect critical infrastructure. However, it was criticised for lacking a long-term strategy and ignoring flash flooding, which alone threatens 3 million homes. Neil Parish, the Conservative MP who chairs EFRA, has said, “We propose a radical alternative to the NFFR’s limited solutions to the current fragmented, inefficient and ineffective flood risk management arrangements. Our proposals will deliver a far more holistic approach to flooding and water supply management, looking at catchments as a whole.” Ensure that your clients are taking the flooding risk as seriously as the Government. CDS offer a variety of flooding searches to ensure they are protected. Sarika Sangar, Marketing Executive, Conveyancing Data Services.
So have a merry Christmas and, of course, a prosperous, cash flow positive new year. Norman Kenvyn, Founder & CEO, VFS Legal Funding.
December 2016
Modern Law 39
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Practical steps to reviewing and implementing a cloud solution loud computing offers many benefits to law firms; it is easy to scale up and there is no capital cost attached to running and maintaining servers. Additionally, a fixed, subscription-based nature of cloud service provision is attractive to law firms who are looking to get a grip on rising IT costs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Law firms must balance meeting the specific requirements of their clients and partners with the potential for cost savings and staff productivity. Here are some considerations when thinking about a cloud-first approach:
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1. Assess issues. Are you looking to provide more access to data and applications on the move? Is your current on-premise data center poorly located, perhaps in a high-risk location? Does it have resilience challenges? Have you got the data backed up in another location? Would all employees in all locations of the world be able to access cloud-based data? 2. Security of data is paramount. Larger cloud vendors in the legal sector invest heavily in the latest and greatest security to address risk continuously, and it can be hard to match this onpremise. However, it is vital that law firms do not take anything for granted and conduct their due diligence. 3. Compare cloud versus on-premise. This should encompass both cyber security and physical security. What happens if someone loses their laptop? What are the outage rates of your potential cloud providers? The difference between a 99.9% uptime ratio and one cited at 99.999% may seem negligible, but that outage translates into vital billable time and customer service issues. 4. Evaluate your firm’s appetite for cloud. Does it have any data or applications in the cloud already? Are you comfortable that cloud provision is safe and secure and does your law firm have the kind of culture that would work with a cloud-first approach? 5. Call in the experts. Some clients may mandate where their data is held, so a Hybrid model of some Cloud and On-premise solution may be a more suitable option. Third party support can offer you strategic advice on what will suit your law firm. The law sector is not known to be on the bleeding edge when it comes to technology. However, law firms who effectively manage a cloud-first strategy can steal a march on their rivals by offering improved productivity and higher levels of service. Lloyd Ellison, Director of Account Management and client engagement specialist at Tikit.
The early bird catches the worm How does early adoption of technology put businesses ahead of their more reluctant competitors? he old saying ‘the early bird catches the worm’ is proving to be increasingly accurate, as early adopters of technology reap the benefits of increased productivity and efficiency, charging ahead of their competition. While television took decades to reach a billion users, the smartphone demonstrates rapid global adoption of technology, with even the notoriously less tech-savvy taking part. So why are we reluctant to adopt new technology in our professional lives, yet feel so comfortable running our daily lives from the palm of our hand?
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Instinctively, people are averse to change. We become comfortable with the familiar. I recently read the 2016 LexisNexis Bellwether Report which noted that over 90% of those surveyed believed ongoing investment in technology is a ‘must’, but also showed that only 37% are acting on this. As technology continues to advance rapidly, early adopters are leveraging their advantage. The notion of early adopters is not new, but was coined by Everett Rogers in his 1962 book ‘Diffusion of Innovations’. Rogers’s principles of adoption can be applied as easily to technology as they can to other major changes throughout history; just picture where society would be now without early adopters of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. These forward thinking individuals have been the driving force of change for centuries. So, how does this apply to your role as a legal professional? In what can still be considered a manually intensive industry, adopting innovative, progressive technology empowers you to control the way you work. In conveyancing particularly, issues such as time pressure, keeping costs low and having to justify value can lead to a challenging work environment. However, through being able to work in an efficient environment where everything is being done to challenge the ways in which the conveyancing process has typically been conducted, businesses will see evolution. Correcting processes for more productive workflow can alleviate many a pain point, including long hours, excessive workloads, and stress. Automating arduous processes can give rise to a competitive advantage in a crowded market of legal suppliers. To grow your business, taking calculated risks can provide bountiful rewards by freeing up time, allowing you to focus on client relationships instead of tedious administrative tasks, and growing workplace culture by challenging and evolving current processes and working smarter, not harder. Adam Bullion, Head of Marketing, Infotrack.
December 2016
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Legal professionals as guiding lights Are legal professionals doing enough to help clients understand the litigation process? itigation is messy business. From surprise witnesses, to last minute applications, it is difficult to predict the ways in which the drama will eventually unfold. Whether a client is suing someone or being sued themselves, when approaching a legal professional with a dispute, the client will almost certainly ask how they can achieve the best result and what can be done to get them there.
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The answers to those questions, with all the necessary caveats and qualifications, may leave the client feeling slightly at sea as the prospects of success shift with each new emerging fact, application or court order. Nonetheless, it is the legal professionals’ role to take the client through the process at the earliest opportunity, hypothesising on the outcome based on their experience and expertise. But are legal professionals doing enough to help clients understand the litigation process, and how can this be improved? Most legal professionals will explain the various stages involved in the litigation process, giving an overview of the steps which will need to be taken. Clients will also need to be prepared for the frustration of delays, adjournments, and interim hearings along the way. It may be a mistake in some cases not to involve clients in the making of tactical decisions, particularly where discussing such matters could enhance the client’s understanding of the process. Legal professionals already go to great lengths to help clients understand the costs involved in conducting litigation. Explaining the litigation process would no doubt facilitate this objective. For example, if a client understood the track allocation process from the outset, this could de-mystify the limits to recoverable costs imposed by costs budgeting in the multi-track. In addition, legal professionals need to continuously adapt their practices to identify and meet the needs of vulnerable clients who are at a disadvantage because of factors that affect their access to, and use of, legal services. This might include engaging independent third party support for vulnerable clients, considering the clients’ preferred communication methods, ensuring adequate training of staff, and having methods in place for appropriate feedback to be given. As a service industry, there is a constant need for the delivery of advice and other assistance offered to be tailored as much as possible to each client’s respective needs. While legal professionals are doing a great deal to ensure a high quality of service is provided, the ways in which the litigation process is explained to clients should be continually reviewed and adapted. Tricia Hemans, Barrister, Falcon Chambers.
Do Litigation Funders mark the dawn of a brighter future for Personal Injury lawyers? he death knell for legal aid has long gone and for 10 years or so it didn’t matter. The reliable cash flow that legal aid provided claimant personal injury (PI) law firms was replaced with the cash bonanza provided by CFA’s where firms could double their money with recoverable success fees and draconian costs rules were nigh on non-existent.
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Those were the good old days for claimant PI lawyers, where the most basic of litigation caseloads yielded high returns, even those with underperforming staff. The insurance sector were the underdogs working under tight margins, low hourly rates and fixed fees. Change came that saw the end to this disparity and the claimant sector was hit hard on cash flow and profitability as fixed costs were introduced into RTA and then extended into EL and PL. A major rule change or two later plus hard-hitting case law saw the end to recoverable success fees followed by reasonableness then proportionality arguments to slash costs further. Banks got tougher on their risk appetite for PI lending on WIP value and cash flow management remains under their microscope. The cost of court fees and disbursements adds to the heavy financial burden placed on the claimant sector. Insurers draw out claims lifecycles, making it harder to litigate and turn WIP to cash easily. So where are we now as claimant lawyers are being starved of cash from all angles? Litigation funding has made its mark in the commercial arena with Burford Capital in the high-end market and Augusta Ventures in the SME market. The foundations of case law are being built to establish a party’s right to recover interest and charges under a disbursement funding loan in Jeffrey Jones and others v The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and Coal Products [2012] EWCH 2936 (QB) and Angela Jade Powell v Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Court No OSY02236, 01.01.2016. As a result, litigation funders are now creeping their way into claimant PI. When used correctly, litigation funding can place a claimant lawyer in an advantageous position, litigating unfettered by cash flow constraints. Add this to the Government’s shelving PI reforms (for now), and I see a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the claimant sector against a backdrop of years of adversity. The future’s now just a little bit brighter thanks to innovative funders and bold PI lawyers. Lesley Graves, Managing Director, Citadel Law.
December 2016
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Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards 2016 The fourth annual Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards took place on 10th November at the Hurlingham Club, London. Liam Lambert takes a look at the winners, and summarises the prestigious event. n November 10th, the fourth annual Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards were held at the spectacular Hurlingham Club, London, as professionals from across the sector gathered to recognise talent and success in entrepreneurship, market development, business management and best practice in the modern legal services arena. 450 guests convened from across the UK for an evening of food, music, entertainment and celebration. Upon entry, attendees were welcomed with a drinks reception, kindly sponsored by Emma Waddingham Consulting, and the room was electric in anticipation of the awards presentation.
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Rewarding Excellence
This year’s winners were decided by an esteemed Judging Panel, Chaired by Chris Bull, Founding Director of Professional Services Advisory Firm Kingsmead Square, and comprised of cross-industry professionals, including: Chantal-Aimee Doerries QC, Chair of the Bar; Alicia Alinia, Slater and Gordon UK LLP; Christina Blacklaws, Cripps; David Bott, Bott & Co; Robert Bourns, Law Society of England & Wales; Matthew Briggs, The Law Superstore; Diane Burleigh OBE, JUSTICE; Karl Chapman, Riverview Law; Casey Flaherty, Procertas; Stephen Gold, Stephen Gold Consulting; Joanna Goodman, Writer and Editor; John Hyde, The Law Society Gazette; Nick Jarrett-Kerr, Edge International; Rachael Khiara, Khiara Law LLP, Kieran Magee, TRUE Solicitors LLP; Rosemary Martin, Vodafone and Barry Wilkinson, Wilkinson Read & Partners. Once seated, guests were wowed by a troupe of highly-skilled magicians, before they were treated to an excellent three course meal, with table wine sponsored by Stewart Title Limited. Following dinner, the host for the evening, Canadian comedian Tom Stade, took to the stage to deliver a stand-up set, before announcing the nominees, highly commended recipients, and overall winners of each award. Early on, gunnercooke LLP won the award for ‘ABS of the Year’, while the highly coveted Law Firm of the Year was awarded to Stephens Scown LLP, who also received the award for ‘Best Marketing Campaign of the Year’, for their Love Where You Live campaign, that focused on the firm’s Devon and Cornwall roots to make them stand out. ‘Chambers of the Year’ was awarded to 39 Essex Chambers, and Nigel Priestley, Ridley & Hall Solicitors, took home the prestigious award for ‘Lawyer of the Year’, recognising his services within the field of kinship care and care proceedings. 39 Essex Chambers then picked up their second award of the evening, when ‘Barrister of the Year’ was awarded to Alison Foster QC. Awards were also presented to Olliers Solicitors (Crime Team of the Year), Tideway (Corporate/Commercial Team of the Year), Howard Kennedy (Property Team of the Year), Thomson Snell and Passmore LLP (Personal Injury Team of the Year) and Lyons Davidson Limited (Private Client Team of the Year).
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Andrew Twambley, Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award
The winner of our lifetime achievement award has bestrode the world of personal injury like a colossus Embracing the Future
The legal landscape is evolving every day, and many of the night’s awards recognised an ability to adapt to such changes, both in terms of training employees, providing the finest client service, and utilising the latest technologies. The highly competitive ‘Innovation of the Year’ award was presented to My Home Move, for launching the eWay online casemanagement service, while Zena Soormally of Simpson Millar LLP scooped ‘Rising Star of the Year’, and BLM and Gulland Padfield took home the award for ‘Client Care Initiative of the Year’. For founding anti-counterfeit company INCOPRO, Wiggin secured the award for ‘Best Use of Technology’, while the ‘Business Growth’ and ‘Outstanding Commitment to Training’ awards were presented to ARC Pensions Law and Hugh James Solicitors, respectively. ‘Business Development Professional of the Year’ was awarded to Ian Morris of Edward Hands & Lewis Solicitors, meanwhile Citadel Law and Burcher Jennings were recognised for ‘Supporting the Industry’ (for 1-25 and 26+ employees respectively).
Celebrating the Exceptional
The highly anticipated award for ‘Outstanding Achievement’ was presented to representatives from the 12 firms and chambers that made up the Hillsborough Inquests team and secured justice for the families
December 2016
FEATURES
Pop London wrapped the evening up with a selection of modern hits and popular classics
of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster. The Hillsborough teams were recognised for breaking new ground in terms of collaboration, teamwork, co-operation, and diligence in the face of adversity, and were met with a standing ovation for their exemplary work. Chris Bull said: “The teams who received our Outstanding Achievement award acted on behalf of the families of 96 victims who died during the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, securing an ‘Unlawful Killing’ verdict that helped close a dark chapter in British legal, law enforcement, and sporting history. It is hard to imagine any other award winners, as the response from our awards audience on the night so clearly underlined.” The final award of the evening was the prestigious ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’, which was given to Andrew Twambley, whose Injury Lawyers 4 U marketing consortium established new levels of professionalism for PI marketing on a national scale, and has combated negative perceptions of injury lawyers. Chris Bull said “The winner of our lifetime achievement award has bestrode the world of personal injury like a colossus. As the man behind InjuryLawyers4U, from the first meeting of interested parties in 2002 and the first TV ad going out, to becoming one of the legal market’s best known brands, Andrew cajoled, flattered, pestered and drove the concept forward. I don’t think anyone should assume that receiving our lifetime achievement award implies that he is going to stop being a thorn in the side of the forces of conservatism, and a champion of personal injury and the ordinary people who need help, any time soon.” After the awards presentation, the evening’s entertainment began, and the winners and attendees took to the dance floor with live music from Pop London. Guests also had the chance to get their photos taken wearing wigs and props, in a vintagestyle taxicab photo booth kindly sponsored by InfoTrack. A silent auction, organised by Impulse Decisions LTD and sponsored by Apex Medical Records, also ran throughout the night, raising over £8,000 for Barth Syndrome Trust and Samuel’s Charity.
A team of magicians wowed attendees as food was being prepared
The Hillsborough teams were recognised for breaking new ground in terms of collaboration, teamwork, co-operation, and diligence in the face of adversity, and were met with a standing ovation for their exemplary work
Kate McKittrick, MD of Charlton Grant Ltd, publisher of Modern Law Magazine, said seeing the Hillsborough Inquests team win was “humbling”. She said “the standing ovation they were given shows how important it is to recognise great work in the legal sector, and that’s exactly what we’ve achieved tonight. I can’t wait to see what 2017 brings so we can celebrate again next year”. Liam Lambert is Editorial Assistant at Charlton Grant. Modern Law would like to thank all who attended, nominated and sponsored, for making the evening possible. For more information, and to register your interest for next year’s awards, please visit www.modernclaimsawards.co.uk, or get in touch with Ellie Campbell via ellie.campbell@charltongrant.co.uk or 01765 600909.
December 2016
Representatives from the Hillsborough inquests teams received the award for Outstanding Achievement
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FEATURES
Winners ABS of the Year
Business Growth Award
Law Firm of the Year
Business Development Professional of the Year
Winner: gunnercooke LLP Highly Commended: Ferguson Financial Solicitors Sponsored by Eclipse Proclaim Winner: Stephens Scown LLP Highly Commended: Keystone Law Sponsored by Spectra Legal
Chambers of the Year
Winner: ARC Pensions Law Highly Commended: Keystone Law Sponsored by S&G Response Winner: Ian Morris – Edward Hands & Lewis Solicitors Highly Commended: Krissi Fletcher - Photofile Sponsored by Geodesys
Crime Team of the Year
Winner: 39 Essex Chambers Highly Commended: Parklane Plowden Chambers Sponsored by Bar Squared Ltd
Winner: Olliers Solicitors Highly Commended: Bindmans LLP Sponsored by Legal RSS
Lawyer of the Year
Corporate / Commercial Team of the Year
Barrister of the Year
Property Team of the Year
Rising Star of the Year
Personal Injury Team of the Year
Winner: Nigel Priestley - Ridley & Hall Solicitors Highly Commended: Maria Ludkin - GMB Trade Union Sponsored by TLA Medico Legal Winner: Alison Foster QC - 39 Essex Chambers Highly Commended: Timothy Straker - 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square Sponsored by Olliers Solicitors
Winner: Zena Soormally - Simpson Millar LLP Highly Commended: Helen Forster - Heptonstalls LLP Sponsor: Legal Eye
Innovation of the Year
Winner: My Home Move Highly Commended: Bates Wells Braithwaite Sponsored by Med Chambers
Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Winner: Stephens Scown LLP Highly Commended: Bircham Dyson Bell LLP Sponsored by Scala UK Ltd
Client Care Initiative of the Year
Winner: BLM and Gulland Padfield Highly Commended: Edward Hands & Lewis Solicitors (Part of the EHL Group) Sponsored by Checkaprofessional
Outstanding Commitment to Training
Winner: Tideway Highly Commended: Loch Employment Law Sponsored by LawSure Insurance
Winner: Howard Kennedy Highly Commended: Shakespeare Martineau Sponsored by PSG
Winner: Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP Highly Commended: Fletchers Solicitors & Winn Solicitors – Litigation Team Sponsored by VFS Legal Funding
Private Client Team of the Year
Winner: Lyons Davidson Limited Highly Commended: The Family Law Company Sponsored by The Law Superstore
Supporting the Industry 1-25 Employees Winner: Citadel Law Highly Commended: Lawyers Inc. Sponsored by SmartSearch
Supporting the Industry 26+ Employees
Winner: Burcher Jennings Highly Commended: CILEx Law School Sponsored by Ferguson Litigation Funding
Outstanding Achievement Award
Winner: Hugh James Solicitors Highly Commended: My Home Move Sponsored by TM Group
Winner: The Hillsborough Lawyers Sponsored by CostsMaster
Best Use of Technology
Winner: Andrew Twambley Sponsored by Doctors Chambers
Winner: Wiggin Highly Commended: inCase - Lavatech Sponsored by ISO
gunnercooke LLP were awarded ‘ABS of the Year’
46 Modern Law
Lifetime Achievement Award
Guests were treated to a prop-filled taxi-cab photobooth
December 2016
FEATURES
Attendees arrived to a champagne reception
Chris Bull welcomed guests to the event
Stephens Scown LLP picked up Law Firm of the Year
Tom Stade entertained guests with a hilarious performance
Zena Soormally, winner of Rising Star of the Year
Sponsors
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December 2016
Modern Law 47
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Potential Cash Challenge for Legal Firms in 2017 Steve Arundale addresses the concern from firms about improving their cash flow, as well as the dangers of cyber attacks, and how firms can protect themselves. Predicting profits
In advance of its 2016 Legal Conference series, the Bank secured the opinion of 249 delegates who were asked to predict business performance in 2017. Of those surveyed, 73% represented firms with revenue above £1.5m. Generally, firms are still bullish about their ability to grow revenue, with 63% claiming that fee income will increase in 2017. However, that level of confidence has reduced by 18% since 2015. 57% of firms predict that profits will remain flat or reduce, and less than half of the firms expect profit per equity partner to increase. Given the potential for reduced profitability, it may be appropriate for firms to focus on the contribution of the partners with the study suggesting that only 39% of firms currently link profit share to partner performance. Performance management shouldn’t be an issue if the 79% of firms with a detailed time recording system undertake effective analysis of business efficiency. Whilst 36% of firms expect their bank account position to improve, that is 10% lower than last year, and 11% are suggesting that their bank position will deteriorate during 2017. Analysis of lock-up gives rise to concern regarding the cash position of many firms in 2017, with only 22% of firms believing that WIP days can be improved (down from 35%), and only 7% of firms suggesting that they can reduce debtor days (down 32% on the previous year). A potential excuse for the inability of firms to improve debtor days is that they are already on top of this business practice, but we see little evidence to support this through the conversations we have and the financial accounts we see. What can be seen from this study is that firms are generally less confident about their business performance in 2017. Given the timing of this survey, it is difficult to conclude that Brexit is the sole cause of this sentiment, and many firms were experiencing a more challenging trading environment prior to the referendum outcome. In response to this survey, we would suggest that firms employ a more rigorous approach to cash management, continue to focus on lock up and debtor payment specifically, and put triggers in place to aid them in the early identification of cash flow challenges. Poor cash flow is the principle reason for business failure, and legal firms should be alive to this risk.
An unwelcome challenge
Of further significant risk for firms, and something that they continue to experience, are losses associated with cyber fraud. The problem is not specific to the legal sector - all businesses are at risk. It is no longer a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’ they will experience a cyber attack. The consequences of an attack extend
December 2016
The consequences of an attack extend beyond financial loss, which in itself can be catastrophic, but damage to reputation and brand are long-term problems, and are often irreversible beyond financial loss, which in itself can be catastrophic, but damage to reputation and brand are long-term problems, and are often irreversible. Firms can take some basic initial steps to help protect themselves: Embed accountability Make sure the firm has a data protection officer who takes their responsibility to enforce the firm’s prevention policy and incident response seriously. Put an incident response plan in place With scams like ransomware, time is of the essence, so knowing what to do quickly in the event of an attack can make a major difference. The plan, just like any disaster recovery exercise, needs to be regularly updated and changed to reflect the current climate. Many of the problems and losses that we see could have been prevented, and are often associated with bad governance, human error, or poor behaviour. This furthers the point that - notwithstanding the robustness of your IT security systems - if your people don’t understand the risk, understand your governance rules, and employ a good degree of common sense, then your security profile is permanently at risk. For many firms, the best form of defence, along with investing in the right infrastructure, is to create a human firewall. Hammer home to your partners and staff the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of cyber security, and then continue to test their understanding and application. With firms working so hard in recent years to re-establish financial stability, the risk of failure from cyber related fraud is an unwelcome challenge which, in most cases, can be easily prevented. We encourage all firms to devote some time to understanding cyber threats, and possibly keep Cyber Essentials Accreditation at the front of their minds. Steve Arundale, Commercial Head of Professional Services, Large Corporates & Sectors, Royal Bank of Scotland / NatWest.
Modern Law 49
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REGIONAL FOCUS: Cambridgeshire Interview with Grace Brass Modern Law spoke to Grace Brass, Cambridgeshire & District Law Society President and Family Law solicitor at regional firm Tees Law, about how the region’s prosperity is affecting legal services, and the importance for law firms to keep up with an ever-changing community.
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What are the main challenges the Cambridgeshire & District Law Society faces at the moment and why?
Some of the important challenges we face relate to the remarkable prosperity of the city of Cambridge and the surrounding area. Business activity is expanding rapidly and so too is the market for legal services. This environment not only presents challenges, but also great opportunities for CDLS and its members, so they are challenges we all relish.
As well as economic activity generated by shoppers, tourists and students, Cambridge and its satellite towns (including the new community of Cambourne to the west) are benefiting from a technology boom that gave rise to the apt nickname ‘Silicon Fen’. Key locations are the Cambridge Science Park just north of the city and the Genome Campus a few miles south. Some law firms have been established in and around Cambridge for generations, whilst the growth in recent years has attracted national firms to the city. Several smaller firms in outlying towns have amalgamated, including Limbach Banham and Irena Spence & Co, which merged earlier this year into the expanding regional firm Tees Law, where I work. Incoming firms have added to the supply side, including in my specialism of Family Law, but they have also enriched the overall mix of legal skills. The plethora of technical and medical companies means many new arrivals service those specialist areas and don’t create conflict. So, to sum up, CDLS has a challengingly diverse membership in excess of 800 to serve.
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What are your core aims during your tenure as President of the Cambridgeshire & District Law Society?
That’s a very pertinent question, as I’m now over halfway through the first year of my March 2016 to 2018 stint as President, but I’ll start by looking at the rationale for my appointment. I suppose that was influenced by my experience of working in Cambridge for some years, knowing the people, and my previous active Law Society links. Plus, I do like to have fun. Since taking on the role, I’ve naturally refined my objectives and how they might be achieved, but in general terms I want to help law firms and individual members to engage with one another and with the regional client base. To an extent this is to continue the excellent work of my predecessors, but as networking evolves we must keep ahead.
I’m hugely optimistic about the future prospects of the legal profession in and around Cambridge, and will be doing my best to contribute to that, both as CDLS President and as a practising solicitor in the city
It is quite unusual for a CDLS President not to be a partner in their firm, but maybe I can turn that situation to everyone’s advantage. I hope I can continue to find the time to use a combination of social media and our programme of events to build support via as many avenues as possible, for the benefit of the profession and its corporate and private clients.
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FEATURES
The alternative business structures regime caused some disquiet and remains controversial, and I’m concerned about the continuing creep of services provided by unqualified will-writers and conveyancers I reckon most of my colleagues in Cambridgeshire would agree that their working life is no doddle. There are lots of pressures and nobody wants the old ‘all work and no play’ adage to apply to them. So, I’m constantly aiming for the right blend of training value and social enjoyment in what we offer to our members, with something for everyone on the calendar.
As I’ve already said, there is a huge diversity of law firms in our congregation and a matching diversity of individuals. We’ll never please all of them all of the time, but to succeed we must please all of them at least some of the time. Feedback, opinions and suggestions from our members are always encouraged and taken on board for subsequent occasions.
We offer varied networking and professional activities to complement regular events such as our annual dinner in March and summer garden party, which this year included a wine-tasting competition. We’ve also held our first-ever welcome event for trainees. Our annual lectures at the University are topical: this year driverless cars, next year robots and the law.
So, inclusiveness and a willingness to listen are crucial tenets of our modus operandi, if I may be a stereotypical old-school lawyer for a moment and throw in some Latin. That means catering to small firms with a handful of partners and to major firms with dozens. It also means welcoming legal professionals from all corners of the judicial system.
Q A
How have the needs of members changed over the last 3 years?
The economic success of the Cambridge area that I’ve already referred to has had quite a big impact in this period. For firms it has meant increased overall demand, but also a need to put themselves out there to avoid losing out to more visible firms. As solicitors were once barred from advertising, this hasn’t come easily to more traditional firms, but it’s vital now. Promoting or advertising a firm to help supplement the natural flow of repeat business and work from referrals and recommendations is one aspect of competing. Another is through differentiation and market positioning. This may involve developing a joined-up strategy on such matters as fees, office locations and (particularly for smaller firms) specialisms. In a complex world, it is difficult for small firms to cover all aspects of the law. Through CDLS, members can get to know who specialises in what at other firms in the area. This can have obvious mutual advantages. In general, Cambridge law firms are thriving, with recent bumper cohorts of trainees. Tees Law has taken on two Cambridge graduates this year. If local prosperity has a downside, it is the rising cost of accommodation, which in Cambridge has escalated during the past three years in terms of rentals and purchase prices. This has made it hard for firms to recruit staff at some levels. I hope that CDLS networking channels can help some members in the search for suitable housing. Commercial premises are also in demand, and high operating costs are putting pressure on firms to generate the income to cover these. Increasing volumes of work is helping many firms, but there has also been focus on the question of ensuring that billable hours are calculated in a way that ensures a viable income, as well as transparent value to the client.
Q
How do you and the team at the Cambridgeshire & District Law Society ensure the society maintains its relevance to the profession?
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At the heart of our strategy to maintain relevance to legal professionals in and around Cambridge is the objective of inclusiveness. There is the old saying that ‘you can’t be all things to all men’. Here at CDLS we’re conscious of the pitfalls of attempting it, but we intend to be just that in the sense of serving all the men and women in our membership.
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To ensure inclusiveness in the oversight of CDLS as well as among its membership, we draw members of our committee from as many firms as possible. That also includes barristers. We invite representation from the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division and offer targeted courses that are designed to deliver continuing professional development.
Q A
What are the aims of the Law Society 2020 Discussion and what do you hope it will achieve?
The Law Society recognises that it must remain relevant to its members and that the legal landscape is going to look very different in the next 3-4 years. In order for the Law Society to survive it must be seen to be effective in championing members’ interests to the regulators, to government and to the public. The 2020 discussion is about how the Law Society can best equip itself for ensuring that it is dealing with the upcoming issues in the members’ best interests. The legal profession is having to deal with constant criticism and infringement from third parties. The Law Society is regularly condemned for appearing ineffectual at being heard or making a difference. The Law Society can often appear to be navel gazing and overly London-centric. I hope that the discussion will pull out for the Law Society the areas of representation that members genuinely need help with now, and will do so even more in the future. Generally, as a profession we can be quite apathetic with consultations. I hope the Law Society uses the responses to the discussion to really set out a plan with identifiable aims. Members want to feel that they are getting value for money and the Law Society is no exception to this.
Q
How important is the role of regional law societies in representing, supporting and promoting the needs of practitioners on a national level?
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There are various ways in which local and regional law societies play a vital part in terms of influencing and later implementing policies decided at a national level. Notionally defining the Law Society as the brain of the profession, the regional organisations are the nervous system through which the brain is informed of what is being felt in various parts of the body. A wholly centralised organisation cannot easily formulate responses to government consultations about legislative changes. The Law Society’s views rightly carry considerable weight in such situations, but it needs input from all around England and Wales to ensure it fairly reflects legal opinion nationally. Regional societies are the ideal conduit for this.
December 2016
FEATURES
Inclusiveness and a willingness to listen are crucial tenets of our modus operandi When legislative changes or Law Society policy updates occur, again regional societies are there to ensure, in conjunction with the legal press and other means, that lawyers in all areas have the information and training they need to put the changes into effect at the sharp end. Thus the Law Society is the heart, and local societies form the circulatory system. Issues that arise in one area may also surface, concurrently or subsequently, in others. Take court closures as an example. This has been a national exercise, with courts in King’s Lynn and Bedford among those affecting the East Anglia Region Local Law Societies Group, to which CDLS has lent support in reacting to the practical consequences of the proposals.
Q
How do you think solicitors are perceived by the public? Do regional law societies have a part to play in building relationships on this level?
A
My own experience suggests that the public generally perceives solicitors positively, more so than, say, 15 years ago. There has been a lot of helpful change in the past three decades. I feel solicitors are now seen as more approachable. Since 1987, the ability to advertise legal services and the upgrading of many firms’ premises have probably helped on that score. Replacement of the Law Society Regulation Board by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2007 was another helpful move. Self-regulation worked quite well, but the trend in financial services and other areas has been away from that model, and I think the public, at least my clients around Cambridge, have more confidence in a system that is clearly independent. I believe it is part of CDLS’s role to put across to clients and prospective clients the benefits of dealing with professionally qualified people on matters of legal importance; independent regulation reinforces that, though I find that most people recognise that the ethics of the profession mean that the client’s best interests will always be put first and foremost. The alternative business structures regime caused some disquiet and remains controversial, and I’m concerned about the continuing creep of services provided by unqualified will-writers and conveyancers. Solicitors have upped their game, though, and to highlight that fact I recently gave a talk at the Women’s Institute on the issue and about the Legal Aid cuts.
Q A
Do you feel that the Cambridgeshire & District Law Society has a voice in wider conversations with the Law Society?
Grace Brass Cambridgeshire & District Law Society President Grace Brass is a Family Law solicitor at regional firm Tees Law, which has offices in Bishop’s Stortford, Chelmsford, Royston and Saffron Walden as well as Cambridge. She qualified in 2008 and for six years represented the Junior Lawyers Division on the Law Society Council.
Q A
What does the future look like for the legal profession, on a regional and national level?
I’m hugely optimistic about the future prospects of the legal profession in and around Cambridge and will be doing my best to contribute to that, both as CDLS President and as a practising solicitor in the city. This optimism is underpinned by the ongoing prosperity of the area, likely to be helped by transport improvements, including three more train stations.
I’m in no doubt that the CDLS does have a voice in wider conversations with the Law Society. That is not to say that channels of communication are open at all times on all matters; it is up to me as President to ensure that we make the effort to get our voice heard on any issues of local or national importance.
On a wider front, I suspect there are some threats looming, and again allude to the provision of some legal services by nonqualified persons. Another possible threat, depending on the extent to which firms embrace the technology, comes from the nation’s increased use of the internet. Lawyers face the same threat as banks and retailers that have high premises costs.
Where appropriate, we do have access to the ear of the Law Society through attendance at the annual conference at The Law Society’s Hall in Chancery Lane, where there are formal and informal opportunities to make a point and talk things through. In addition to that, a CDLS council member represents our area at the Law Society on a national level.
The expansion of consumer choice is no bad thing, but both regionally and nationally we need to respond to this by accepting the role of the internet and social media and presenting a friendly countenance on-screen as well as when we meet clients face-toface. Clients will almost inevitably shop around and high fees or poor service may be punished online.
December 2016
Modern Law 53
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Question: Why aren’t law firms more innovative? Answer: Lawyers! Our resident Tech commentator Charles Christian writes…
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ne of the complaints I regularly hear from tech companies, particularly those dipping their toes into the legal market for the first time is “Why aren’t law firms more innovative?”
And it is a good point as simple business principles that the rest of the commercial world has grasped, from at least the time of Adam Smith (1776) or, if we are being more generous, Henry Ford (1912), seemed to have passed by the attention of most members of the legal profession. Which brings us back to the answer I suggest in the title of this column, namely the reason why law firms are not more innovative is because they are generally exclusively owned and controlled by lawyers. Interestingly, the issue is not that years of exposure to law means the lawyer’s brain is inherently hostile to and incompatible with technology. Today however, there are very few lawyers who can’t find there way around at least a smartphone, an iPad, email, instant messaging, web browsers and basic office applications – not least because it is pretty much impossible to survive in modern life without having these basics! And that’s without going into the fact having a Luddite mindset is not going to help your career prospects in a modern law firm. Lawyers are, by and large, intelligent people. It’s always struck me that if they paid as much attention to mastering office tech as they do into mastering the gadgets, navigation, comms and entertainment controls of the cars they buy, they’d actually be even more fluent in technology than they already are! No, the problem with lawyers is they don’t see the bigger business picture… They still think in terms of “IT Strategies” (along with recruitment, marketing etc. strategies) putting them into separate silos whereas they should be viewing the business from a broader, holistic perspective. To use a phrase popular in the 1990s, law firm management (whatever form it takes) needs to have a “joined-up” approach to management so all the six key elements of modern law firms - legal expertise, overall management & vision, financial management, HR resources, marketing/business development and IT & support services - are viewed together.
The problem with lawyers is that they don’t see the bigger business picture Unfortunately, far too many law firms still have a disjointed approach to management disciplines, with the result that it is a comment lament among IT managers that they are “always the last to know” – and often find themselves blamed for so-called “computer disasters” they had no control over. To take the two examples again: the procurement, staff training and rollout for an all-new case management system can easily take weeks, if not months, although I know of some firms who have taken years and still not got it right! And this could lead to a considerable disconnect between the efforts of marketing/bizdev to win new clients and the firm to actually be able to service them in a profitable fashion. Similarly, had IT known about the branch closures plan, then it wouldn’t have “wasted” its budget on new comms links. Incidentally it’s not just law firms who do this; a number of high street banks have recently wasted millions on refurbishing branches that were promptly closed down. All of which brings us back to the importance of joined-up thinking. Yes, of course you still need a formal IT strategy if you are going to maintain any control over tech plans and budgets. (And yes, one Top 30 City firm did once have a situation where eight departments were running Windows PCs and two were using Apple Macs.) But, any IT strategy also needs to be an integral part of the overall practice development plan, so everyone is pulling in the same direction. And lawyers? The message is simple: law firm management is not some hobby you undertake in between fee-earning. It needs to be taken seriously, which mean lawyers need to either beef up their own management skills or else hire and delegate management to professionals who already have these skills. Charles Christian is Editor-at-Large of the Legal IT Insider newsletter and also blogs about Tech at www.gonzo.news and on Twitter at @GonzoNewswire.
To take a simple example: there is no point in an IT department investigating ways of improving network and communications links between branch offices if the overall management vision is to close down the branches and centralize. Similarly, if a firm’s new marketing/bizdev strategy is to focus on winning low margin/high volume, then the IT team need to know as soon as possible so they can start evaluating, procuring and implementing suitable case/ matter management software, so the tech is in place for when the new business starts (hopefully) rolling in.
December 2016
Modern Law 55
FEATURES
Defending Against Ransomware As new ransomware strains emerge every week, Mike Batters explains how law firms can effectively manage the potential business impact of these threats. he threat of ransomware is constantly evolving, with rapidly changing methods of both targets and encryption. Two recently evolved strains (as of Sept 2016) have gone beyond targeting traditional Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets & PDF documents, as has been common to date.
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One specific emerging strain, named Mamba, is utilising whole disk encryption technology to encrypt both Operating System and data, thereby preventing users from starting up clients or servers. A Bitcoin ransom then follows to get the decryption code and be in a position to recover the system to an operational state. A second variant of ransomware, referenced as Cerber, now targets database servers such as Microsoft SQL, MySQL & Oracle, first killing the database server process and then encrypting the actual database files.
Held to Ransom
In both of these situations, organisations are exposed to very significant risks. Both data loss and operational disruptions are highly likely to occur, and by affecting core databases or whole servers, these issues are far more likely to impact the entire organisation for a longer period of time, therefore increasing costs incurred. So, putting this in to perspective and giving you an example of what this means: a database server is hit by ransomware at 1pm which hosts the core business services such as its CRM, case management or Process Management tools. The whole machine is encrypted, everyone involved within the business immediately loses the ability to work effectively, whilst the business operation, the client experience and sales revenue are each severely affected. There are two choices at this point: 1. Pay the Bitcoin ransom, these are typically reported as being $1,000+ per affected server. There is no real guideline regarding time elapsed from payment through to the decryption key being released. 2. Restore the machine from backup. This takes at least a few hours to complete (providing you have the necessary infrastructure in place, which isn’t often the case) and the backup taken will usually be from the previous night, thereby involving 4-5 hours’ operational data loss. Simply put, this is work which needs to be repeated. Neither choice is a good situation for any business to find itself in, being out of operation, paying out a ransom and/or losing data, then recreating work. Beyond these direct implications, customer, partner and supplier confidence needs to be considered, as competitors may potentially take advantage of the poor publicity you will subsequently receive. The combined effects of any ransomware attack is a risk that legal firms simply cannot afford to take. Traditional anti-malware solutions have failed in protecting inbound e-mail and systems against the “new breed” next generation malicious cyber-attacks. However, and it’s a big ‘however’, there are solutions out there that
56 Modern Law
Traditional anti-malware solutions have failed in protecting inbound e-mail and systems against the “new breed” next generation malicious cyber-attacks will protect your business over and above just traditional AntiVirus. These include: 1. Proofpoint’s TAP (Targeted Attack Protection) technology has been proven to detect and stop e-mail borne threats over and over. Just last week, 1667 UK customers were protected from such attacks as we’ve described above. It is unlikely others were so lucky. 2. Forcepoint’s Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) provides a unique resiliency, proven to block 100% of Advanced Evasion Techniques (AETs), which continue to evade other traditional firewall technologies. 3. SentinelOne uses an innovative approach to endpoint protection, including several layers of attack prevention to combat cyber attacks. Combined with other technologies, this software offers the potential of a comprehensive and robust protection strategy. 4. StorageCraft Backup technology has been deployed in a number of Top 500 law firms across the UK by legal IT specialists NETprotocol, encompassing full backups every 15 minutes, on-site back up to disk, plus offsite replication and native deduplication. While prevention technologies are strategically important, no single defence is infallible and so data recovery remains vital. Traditional backup technologies run daily backups, once or twice per working day, however the impact of rolling back to the previous close-of-business backup is too great. The managed backup solution provided by NETprotocol can run full server, exchange and SQL database backups every 15 minutes with rapid restore functionality, so in the event of a ransomware attack, the data loss involved in rollback is absolutely minimal; and the rollback process couldn’t be quicker or more effective. So to answer the question that so many IT professionals are asking today - it is most certainly possible to formulate an intelligent and resilient protection strategy which will keep your clients’ data safe as these new sophisticated strains of ransomware continue to emerge. Yes, the right knowledge and expertise will be required, but it is also safe to say that the benefits and costs of doing this far outweigh the risks posed by ransomware attacks like Mamba or Cerber in the future. Mike Batters is Technical Director and Founder at NETprotocol.
December 2016
FEATURES
Trends in Tech Roy Russell highlights his views on the technology trends in the legal sector in 2017, examining how threat and records management are set to dominate, with AI, in the vein of commoditisation, striving to make a bigger play. Threat management will play a key role in security efforts
With the continued onslaught of cyber-crime in all its various guises – phishing, ransomware, whaling, smishing and so on – security will be high up on the agenda in the legal sector. In addition to traditional reactive security measures, law firms will look to actively make pre-emptive security a priority. To support this requirement, legal technology vendors will embed threat monitoring and management into the core business applications that firms use. Linking big data with behavioural intelligence based on system history, such tools will create, study and monitor the finger print of every single user and alert the organisation to unusual actions and activities. These threat management solutions will very accurately highlight the usage patterns of employees based on their role in the organisation. Consequently, any peculiar or untoward activity will be relatively easy to spot to potentially identify attacks in process and even improve the ability to detect future breaches.
Records management systems will grow in importance and functionality
Records management is becoming essential for regulatory compliance and data security, driven to the forefront of firms’ agendas by the impending arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The ability to automatically apply company retention policies to physical files, electronic documents and email correspondence based on good governance practices in both controlled and uncontrolled environments, from a range of device types, as well as inside and outside the corporate firewall, will become essential. Historically, records management has been viewed as a burdensome elective process, relying upon users to manually apply the correct retention policies to their individual records. This has rarely been effective. To support the more widespread use of records management in view of the business imperatives, software vendors will make their systems more affordable and processes more user friendly and intuitive. For example, in recent times we have seen the rise of separate record management systems that can auto-categorise and automatically apply retention policies, thus eliminating manual effort. Unfortunately, to date these types of solutions have been very expensive. The new breed of
There’s a significant amount of work to be done in defining the ethical and legal boundaries for AI, before the technology can truly be utilised for delivering legal services to clients with minimal human involvement records management systems will provide such functionality as standard. They will also provide full management of many types of data repositories, both physical paper and electronic based, including tight integration with document management systems, network file shares, SharePoint repositories, and other data stores.
Artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives will continue, but in the vein of commoditisation
AI is garnering interest in the legal sector, but a closer inspection of the tools and apps being made available reveals that they are presently more similar to commoditised legal services in the form of packaged, low cost modules, for areas such as wills, contracts, pre-nuptials and non-disclosure agreements for the benefit of consumers. Undoubtedly, AI offers tremendous potential and some large law firms have launched initiatives to leverage the technology. However, there’s a significant amount of work to be done in defining the ethical and legal boundaries for AI, before the technology can truly be utilised for delivering legal services to clients with minimal human involvement. Until then, in 2017 and perhaps for a few more years yet, we will continue to see incremental innovative efforts to leverage the technology, but in the vein of commoditisation, similar to what we have seen in the last 12 months. Roy Russell is CEO of Ascertus Limited.
Proclaim® is the only Practice e v Ha Management Software solution Endorsed by the Law Society. you heard? CALL 01274 704 100 www.eclipselegal.co.uk/lawsociety lawsociety@eclipselegal.co.uk
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Searches
SDLT
AP1
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The Future of Conveyancing Adam Bullion explores how society has embraced technology and how technology needs to be employed to reduce the time between instruction and completion. ooking back, it’s probably fair to say that the processes associated with conveyancing haven’t changed dramatically, other than the failed HIPS scheme almost 10 years ago.
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Conveyancers themselves would admit to sharing similar frustrations with the process. Presently, conveyancers are visiting a plethora of websites to complete matters. That means rekeying the same information repeatedly into unrelated systems that look completely different. And with each site requiring a different log in and password, it’s simply inefficient when compared to the technology in our personal lives. Consider how we manage our day-to-day lives now. We’re living in a 24-hour society. We have a myriad of useful apps on our smart phone or tablet, and this is technology that we enjoy using. It’s these experiences that change our expectations, to the point where we now demand more. Having been exposed to clever and intuitive technology we now have an elevated expectation of instant results. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the conveyancing process, a process that some consider as being suffocated by regulation. Conveyancers’ frustrations are clear; there are simply too many steps in the process to manage risk, too many forms to complete, there is too much rekeying of data, and too much time spent managing clients who don’t understand the conveyancing procedure. Taking into account all these frustrations, we simply need functional, enjoyable technology that ensures the process is made smoother, faster and easier.
Providing the industry with the ability to complete all relevant searches, transfers, form submissions and completion of contracts electronically within a single website means that conveyancers will start saving time from the moment the quote is issued, and we all know that time is money
December 2016
Conveyancers’ frustrations are clear – there are simply too many steps in the process to manage risk, too many forms to complete, there is too much rekeying of data, and too much time spent managing clients who don’t understand the conveyancing procedure The simplest answer is to use technology that reduces the time between instruction and completion, keeping both the conveyancer and homebuyer happy. Companies that offer technology for the conveyancing industry need to focus on incorporating all steps of the process, including the submission of SDLT and AP1 forms and Contract Packs, in order to make it easier to manage, and reduce the stress of a transaction for both the conveyancer and their client. It’s this thinking that led to InfoTrack creating eCOS (electronic Contract of Sale) which combats the time consuming process of copying information into a contract, as well as dealing with the slow and unsecured way in which these documents (including the TA6 and TA10) are handled. eCOS is a fully electronic process that conveyancers can take now advantage of and be seen by their clients as truly forward thinking. Providing the industry with the ability to complete all relevant searches, transfers, form submissions and completion of contracts electronically within a single website means that conveyancers will start saving time from the moment the quote is issued, and we all know that time is money. Utilising one website where all aspects of the process link together eliminates the rekeying of information, reduces the possibility of human error and simplifies a variety of tasks. Not only is that more efficient, it is surely more enjoyable. The future of conveyancing is very much based on the need to change, and that’s why it is so important to adopt efficient technology. In a crowded market of legal information suppliers, there are certainly innovators, so conveyancers must start looking objectively at technology solutions that deliver not just one aspect of their process but against all their needs. Adam Bullion is General Manager of Marketing at InfoTrack.
Modern Law 59
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Gotelee Solicitors selects Proclaim Case Management to benefit from immediate process enhancements ull-service Suffolk law firm, Gotelee Solicitors, is implementing the Law Society Endorsed Proclaim Case Management solution from Eclipse Legal Systems.
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The leading firm offers a full range of legal services and has a reputation for its professional work and its personal Darren Gower approach with a broad range of clients, from individuals and families to companies and local authorities. Gotelee will be implementing ready-to-go Proclaim Conveyancing and Personal Injury Case Management systems, enabling both departments to experience immediate process enhancements. Furthermore, the firm will benefit from Eclipse’s exhaustive list of ready-to-go integrations with a variety of complementary third party providers. Gotelee will take advantage of Proclaim’s integration with the Land Registry Business Gateway (LRBG) to allow the Conveyancing team seamless access to the Gateway,
directly from the Proclaim desktop, and will enhance the risk control element by using Proclaim’s integration with the online service, Lawyer Checker. In addition, the Personal Injury team will have access to the MoJ’s RTA and EL/PL Claims portal via a seamless Applicationto-Application (A2A) method, enabling staff to manage claims entirely through the Proclaim desktop. Alistair Lang, Chief Executive Officer at Gotelee, comments: “Having researched the legal software market for some time, we came to the solid conclusion that Proclaim was the best placed solution, enabling us to take full advantage of new process and efficiency gains. Additionally, the sheer scope of Proclaim integrations will ensure we consistently provide a high quality and transparent service for our clients.” For further information, please contact Darren Gower, Marketing Director at Eclipse Legal Systems, part of Capita plc, via darren.gower@eclipselegal. co.uk or call 01274 704100. Alternatively, visit www.eclipselegal.co.uk
Dispersed law firm Setfords Solicitors attracts £3.75 million investment as demand for a “better way of working” grows etfords Solicitors, which works with consultant lawyers on a fee-share basis, has secured a £3.75 million investment from BGF (Business Growth Fund) to support its expansion plans. The funding will be used for the recruitment of additional legal consultants and head office staff, technology enhancements and investment in digital marketing.
BGF introduced Setfords to Steve Richards, who has now been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman. Steve is the former CEO of Interflora and Virginware, and current Chairman of musicMagpie and No1 Traveller.
Founded in 2006 by Guy Setford, the company has grown into a nationwide firm with over 160 consultant lawyers, and a 60-strong infrastructure team based at its Guildford head office, providing industry-leading back office and administrative support to the consultants.
CEO Chris Setford added: “After a terrific year for the firm interest from lawyers in the Setfords way of working has never been greater, and this investment will allow us to grow at the rate required to meet demand. Dozens of other lawyers have expressed an interest in joining us and we’re very excited about the growth we expect to experience working with the BGF.”
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Setfords was the first business in the UK to roll-out the consultancy network model across all major areas of law, including property and family law. Over the past ten years it has invested in a robust infrastructure that allows lawyers to work flexibly, in many cases from their homes or clients’ offices, helping to keep overheads low so that savings can be passed on to clients. Lawyers enjoy a fee-share of up to 80% of what they bill. Setfords recently opened new offices in Chancery Lane in London, and in the last financial year revenue rose by over 20 per cent to more than £8m.
December 2016
Guy Setford said: “We have experienced significant growth over the past 10 years, and established a brand and business model that is trusted by independent lawyers and clients. We will continue to grow, recruit and invest in our infrastructure. BGF’s funding allows us to pursue our plans without disrupting the current model or management team, and we look forward to drawing on our new chairman’s experience and that of the BGF.”
Ben Kirby, an Investor at BGF who will join the board of Setfords, commented: “As a relatively young law firm, Setfords has already built a nationwide footprint under the leadership of CEOs Guy and Chris Setford. Through a combination of innovative thinking, smart technology and a great brand, the company is well-placed to become an even bigger business and we are delighted to be supporting their ambitions.” For more information call 0845 450 6135 or visit https://www.setfords.co.uk.
Modern Law 61
10 MINUTES WITH
Matthew Claughton Q A
Did you expect the legal services sector to change so drastically when you started working in it?
When I started working at Olliers in early 1988 I had no expectations at all. I just wanted to be a criminal lawyer. Getting hold of a brick sized mobile phone a year or so later meant that we could provide 24/7 police station cover, and whilst the prospect of being called to a police station in the middle of the night might fill some with dread, I loved it. At the time, we were moving from typewriters to word processors; computers were still a long way off. We had no fax machine and on many occasions briefs were hand delivered (often on the way home from work!). Firms were much smaller, the ambition was to achieve partnership and the idea of a law firm being a limited company, an LLP or an ABS meant nothing to me.
Q A
What has been the key positive or negative impact of liberalisation of legal services?
In many respects liberalisation of legal services has been a huge positive. For many models liabilities can be limited, external investment is possible and law firms can plan and grow in a way that reflects the needs of a modern business. External expertise can make a huge contribution to a business model. And yet, the beauty of the traditional partnership model is that the buck stops with the equity partners, who are also the most senior lawyers with the most to lose; a scenario that ensures the interest of the client remains paramount. A liberalised legal services marketplace must never lose sight of this.
Q A
I would like to think that somewhere along the line someone told me that the client’s interests remain paramount and the biggest asset you have is your staff
Q A
Have you had a mentor and if so what was the most valuable advice they gave you?
I wish I had. Along with a partner, I acquired Olliers at a very young age. Neither of us had ever worked anywhere else. We were young and we learned by our mistakes. Over the years I’ve learned not to rush into things and to seek advice from those more experienced than me, especially where a big decision has been involved. It’s also important not to let issues fester or for problems to build up. Over the years I think I’ve been reminded of these issues on a few occasions. Solid advice came several years ago from our bank manager, who said that “turnover is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king”. We’ve certainly tried to adhere to that one! From a client perspective, prioritising (and avoiding) complaints is of huge significance. And, I would like to think that somewhere along the line someone told me that the client’s interests remain paramount and the biggest asset you have is your staff.
Who inspires you and why?
As a criminal lawyer I am inspired by those around me, whether work colleagues or fellow solicitors and counsel I encounter. I never cease to be amazed at the dedication and commitment of crime practitioners, not only within my firm but throughout the profession. As a Managing Director I am forever looking at those who succeed in business. I am particularly interested in those who have built something from scratch and in how they have dealt with growing pains throughout their business life. It does not matter what kind of business they are involved in as long I am inspired by what they have done and I see something that I can bring to the Olliers business model.
Q A
If you were not in your current position what would you be doing?
I have often wondered what I would be doing were I not a criminal lawyer and whether I would be any good at it. I am passionate about criminal law, but since qualification I have always had a management role. Whatever I did, I think it would be important for me to be involved in the management and planning side of the business. I like watching Grand Designs (and I have owned a couple of Saabs!), so maybe I’d be an architect.
Matthew Claughton is Managing Director at Olliers Solicitors.
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62 Modern Law
Decemeber 2016
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