Modern Law Magazine - Issue 29

Issue 29 April 2017 ISSN 2050-5744

The Business of Law

Sam Airey Weightmans

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MODERN LAW

Editorial Contributors Adam Bullion Head of Marketing InfoTrack

Kevin Ferriby Managing Director Informed Financial Planning

Ayesha Khan VFS Legal Funding

Martyn Jennings Chief Executive Burcher Jennings

Catherine Calder Solicitor & Director of Client Care Serjeants’ Inn Dr Hugh Koch Clinical Psychologist and Director Hugh Koch Associates Ed Wood Chartered Financial Planner Saunderson House Geoff Hornsby General Manager, EMEA iManage Graeme MacLachlan Regulatory Associate Legal Services Board (LSB) Jacqueline Harvey Underwriter AmTrust Law

Maurice Power Managing Director Ferguson Litigation Funding Noel Inge Managing Director CILEx Law School Paul Moonan Managing Director Restore Plc Sarah Roberts Marketing Executive Eclipse Legal Systems Susan Fairbass Marketing Manager Geodesys

WELCOME ello and welcome to the latest edition of Modern Law Magazine. This is a very special issue, since it’s all about you! The single most important asset in your firm or company is its people, and this is where we will be shining the spotlight for this issue. Regardless of which area or areas your firm operates in, developing a content, optimised and seamless team is the only way to ensure you are providing the best possible service to your clients, and this will also greatly improve the growth of your firm in terms of culture, reputation and quality.

H

The saying goes that a happy worker is a productive worker, but after putting together this issue of Modern Law Magazine and hearing the thoughts of its various contributors, I would suggest this is entirely contingent on first establishing a happy and productive workplace. That is why these pages contain articles on topics ranging from mental wellbeing to company culture, which may give you some inspiration on how you can build an even happier workplace, as well as insights on subjects including business modelling, software utilisation and training and development, to help you ensure said workplace is also as productive as it can be.

An example of an area that many law firms lack efficiency in is compliance, and in particular anti-money laundering procedures.

This is why Modern Law has teamed up with SmartSearch to produce a special supplement, examining the way AML checks are set to change with the introduction of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The supplement reveals that the attitudes and approaches firms take to their compliance is often reflective of their approach to the other aspects of their business, and these parallels became clear as the two publications developed.

Julie Brannan Director of Education and Training Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

As usual, our expert Editorial Board will also weigh in on the current hot topics in the business of law, and as usual we welcome any and all suggestions, comments or feedback, as these go a long way to ensuring our own workplace remains a happy and productive one.

Tickets are still available for this year’s Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Conveyancing Conference, taking place on 23rd May at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester. The event is sure to be one of the most important dates of the conveyancing calendar, as firms will have the chance to ask themselves if they are future proof. It’s an important question in a constantly more demanding market, so book your place to discover how your firm can rise to meet your clients’ expectations.

Issue 29 April 2017 ISSN 2050-5744 Editor Brendan Gurrie

Editorial Assistant Poppy Green

Project Manager Ellie Norrie

Events Sales Kate McKittrick

Brendan Gurrie, Editor, Modern Law Magazine.

Modern Law Magazine is published by Charlton Grant Ltd ©2017.

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.

April 2017

01765 600909 @ModernBrendan brendan@charltongrant.co.uk

Modern Law 03

MODERN LAW

CONTENTS NEWS

INTERVIEWS

07

EdiTorial Board

13

07 Jaidee Spear talks news

How is the legal profession addressing its gender imbalance at partner level?

Jaidee Spear, Edward Drummond & Co, reports.

13 Sam Airey

Sam Airey, HR Director at Weightmans, spoke with Modern Law about the way recruitment in the legal sector is changing, and how both candidates and employers are adapting their approaches to work and employment to ensure the sector is taking in the best possible people and skills.

16 Andrew Twambley

Andrew Twambley was the winner of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards. Modern Law spoke to Andrew about the work that contributed to his big win, and about everything that must be done going forward to create a better future for the personal injury sector and the injured people it represents.

23

23 New approach to continuing competence

25 The LSB’s new guidance for regulators on encouraging a diverse workforce

Graeme MacLachlan, Legal Services Board (LSB)

27 Taking advantage of technologies

Sarah Roberts, Eclipse Legal Systems

27 Engaging and employing Noel Inge, CILEx Law School

29 Hidden benefits

Martyn Jennings, Burcher Jennings

29 How can law firms utilise emerging technologies to cut costs?

EDITORIAL BOARD contributors

Julie Brannan, Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

Paul Moonan, Restore Plc

31 Digital Transformation and the Workplace Geoff Hornsby, iManage

31 I’m looking to get ATE cover for adverse costs in a commercial claim. How much is enough?

Jacqueline Harvey, AmTrust Law

33 Celebrating the first 100 years

Catherine Calder, Serjeants’ Inn

AmTrust Law

An AmTrust International Division

04 Modern Law

April 2017

MODERN LAW Issue 29 April 2017 ISSN 2051-6495

FEATURES

EdiTorial Board

35

33 Intelligent technology challenging your conveyancing process Adam Bullion, InfoTrack

35 Improving Employee Engagement & Productivity

Dr Hugh Koch, Hugh Koch Associates

35 Who will inherit your pension?

Ed Wood, Saunderson House

37 Supporting all sizes

Susan Fairbrass, Geodesys

37 What could 2017 hold for Litigation Funding?

Maurice Power, Ferguson Litigation Funding

39 Pagination, profits and problems in personal injury Ayesha Khan, VFS Legal Funding

39 Partnering with planners

Kevin Ferriby, Managing Director, Informed Financial Planning

45

50

42 Phishing your own employees could prevent a disaster

50 Regional Focus: Ireland

As the frequency of phishing attacks only continues to increase, Matt Rhodes, Quiss Technology, explains how it is training, not technology, that will help law firms ensure their employees can identify and appropriately respond to malicious emails.

Modern Law extended its regional focus to the Emerald Isle and spoke to Stuart Gilhooly, President of the Law Society of Ireland, at a time when the country’s legal sector is undergoing a number of structural and cultural shifts, many of which run parallel to changes in the UK sector.

43 Fighting fraud and how technology can help

55 Don’t let the fickle finger of fate find your single point of failure

Stephen Murray, PSG, who recently spoke at the House of Commons on fraud and anti-money laundering, discusses how firms can protect themselves from financial crime through training and technology use.

45 Mental Health Matters in the Legal Community

Elizabeth Rimmer discusses mental health within the legal community, and how the sector needs to come together to better understand mental health and raise awareness in order to create a healthier working environment for legal professionals.

47 Inside InfoTrack

An inside look at how InfoTrack’s company culture has played a crucial role in building a business that continues to grow and perform for law firms across the UK.

48 Calling time on the traditional partnership

The traditional partnership model in a law firm is not suitable for making the most of a partner’s skillsets, argues James Knight, who explains why he believes alternative structures can improve workflow, service quality and satisfaction within firms.

April 2017

FEATURES

Our resident Tech commentator Charles Christian writes…

57 Modelling for the future

Simon Goldhill argues that a traditional model and a traditional attitude to service quality are outdated in 21st century society, and that firms need to be aware of the needs of their clients and of working capital.

58 Transition or transform?

Choosing the right cloud solution for you

Gavin Russell, Wavex, discusses the questions law firms should ask themselves before choosing to upgrade their IT systems.

60 Case Study – Informance

Limitless BI for legal HR departments

61 Case Study – Eclipse

Eclipse implements bespoke Proclaim Case Management Software solution at HD Law

61 Case Study – Nalytics

‘Nalytics’ set to transform law firms

10 MINUTES WITH 62 Alison Foster QC

Modern Law 05

Over 20 years of Medico-Legal excellence (Tier 1 MRO) Market Leading Service Unrivalled in-house Medical Expertise D e d i c a t e d Te a m s f o r H i g h V a l u e C l a i m s

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NEWS

Jaidee Spear TALKS NEWS How is the legal profession addressing its gender imbalance at partner level?

Jaidee Spear, Edward Drummond & Co, reports.

Background

There is a wealth of evidence which points to a gender imbalance at partner level in the legal space. Various studies over recent years have demonstrated that the percentage of female partners within leading legal practices does not reflect the gender demographic in the qualified lawyer population overall.

Since 1992, women have accounted for more than half of new entrants into the legal profession in the UK, occupying around 57% of associate positions today, and yet for the majority of City and International Practices, less than 25% of partners are female.

Indeed, in some practices this figure is significantly lower, with less than a fifth (19%) of partners at Top 10 law firms being women.

As law firms have become increasingly focused on this disparity, they have taken steps to address and remodel their approach to gender diversity, with 80% of firms setting diversity as a strategic priority. This ongoing programme is not without its challenges, but can be approached with optimism as the senior teams of leading practices embrace and promote change, realise the benefits of a balanced workforce and lead the way in modernising attitudes to gender diversity in the workplace.

Legal practices have always sought to demonstrate thought leadership, to be at the cutting edge of change, and here is an opportunity to do so in the most fundamental way; through improving their own working practices to the benefit of all and leading by example.

Contributing Factors

In order to effect real change, it is important that firms consider the root causes of gender imbalance at partnership level. Of course, a wider societal context where ‘mothers’ and ‘breadwinners’ were traditionally accepted as the primary roles of women and men respectively, continues to impact women in the workplace. The structure and working practices of law firms were, inevitably, built around frameworks for delivery of work to clients that supported these outdated social stereotypes, did not reflect a modern ethos and, like a large ship at sea, take time to change course.

Women are statistically less likely than men to put themselves forward for promotion to partnership, both at their current firm or in moving to a new one. There are a variety of potential explanations for this: • A male junior lawyer is less likely to see structural obstacles for attaining partnership, and is therefore more likely to be aiming for it from ‘day 1’. In this way, the goal for men is clearer and therefore easier to attain.

Women are statistically less likely than men to put themselves forward for promotion to partnership, both at their current firm or in moving to a new one

• Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that men and women are often not evaluated in the same way during the partnership promotion process. An awareness of this disparity, alongside the issues listed above, leads many women to self-select out of partnership altogether.

April 2017

Modern Law 07

NEWS

Leading firms are committed to redressing the balance, recognising that their clients expect it and that full business optimisation demands it. As such, those firms who do not accept the paradigm shift will risk being outflanked • Female associates tend, on average, to underplay, or at least overplay less, their business plans. In short, some male applicants appear to be more willing to overplay their hand in order to secure the next promotion; backing themselves to make it work and comfortable that this approach is one that is acceptable or, indeed, expected.

• Women are still more likely to feel caught between obligations, on average shouldering more of the responsibilities at home than their male counterparts. Although it is now commonplace for parents of either gender to work full-time, women are disproportionately affected by situations where a parent is required to take time out of work to prioritise family life.

• Although law firms are finding increasingly helpful ways to measure productivity, a key, indeed often primary, metric for most remains ‘fees billed’. This can disproportionately impact female lawyers, especially mothers who depend upon flexible working options more frequently than men.

• Whilst law firms are setting gender equality targets, the (relative) lack of positive female role models who are able to demonstrate success in partnership whilst living a ‘balanced’ lifestyle, creates a negative cycle, or perhaps, more accurately, a lack of a positive cycle.

The Cost 1. From a talent/training point of view, there is a prevailing sense of wasted opportunity, where the failure to convert female associates into partners at the same rate as their male counterparts speaks to an inherent inefficiency in the partner production pipeline. There is a strong case to make that, with the current levels of imbalance, many law firms are failing to optimise their talent pool with some ‘less able’ men almost certainly taking the place of ‘more able’ women*.

2. Law firms attempting to deal with this imbalance are frequently thwarted ‘on the ground’ by the assumption that much of the challenge rests outside of the firm’s control (e.g. the ‘laddish’ culture of certain industries etc.), where senior management teams, whilst ethically committed to promoting diversity, are also in chain to partners/practices operating within the pragmatic constraints of securing the next key client, delivering the next deal, developing their practices, today. In short, the presence of seemingly ‘easier wins’, which a management team can focus on to maximise performance, in comparison to the knottier challenge, and seemingly uncertain outcomes, of time spent wrestling with the issue of gender balance (and, indeed, diversity as a whole) is in itself a key problem to overcome.

Essentially, however, this fear of change is where the real risk lies. Leading firms are committed to redressing the balance, recognising that their clients expect it and that full business optimisation demands it. As such, those firms who do not accept the paradigm shift will risk being outflanked.

3. Clients of law firms, especially larger organisations, are increasingly interested in understanding their suppliers’ approach to diversity and equality, with many now including this as a category for supplier assessment. What’s more, an increasing number of women lead businesses and/or play a pivotal role in the selection of external legal advisors. There is an obvious challenge for law firms in developing and maintaining relationships with these decision makers if unable to demonstrate a positive approach to gender equality.

08 Modern Law

4. Lawyers are not commodities; they are intelligent, interesting and committed people who have worked hard to improve themselves and become experts in their field. That these individuals should operate in an environment that limits them is at best underwhelming and, at worst, raises real questions about the values of our society. In this way there is arguably a moral, as well as commercial, imperative to change the way we work; both for the benefit of each individual lawyer and for the example that the legal profession sets for wider society.

5. Some of the challenges facing female lawyers are relevant to men too. Statistics from the 2017 Modern Families Index show that 38% of men would take a pay cut to improve their worklife balance, and 44% of fathers have lied or bent the truth to their employer about family-related responsibilities that cause them to take time off work. In this way, we see that there are men who might have chosen a very different structure for their professional lives if society and commerce allowed it. As such, we make the fairly obvious point that true equality will remove obstacles and open up options for all: creating a more flexible, and happier, workforce as a whole.

Efforts to Change and Drivers for Success

Law firms are identifying and implementing new strategies to rebalance the gender split at partnership level. A key focus is on providing a platform that facilitates a manageable work-life balance, without removing development prospects. Law firms’ investment in technology to encourage agile working aims to allow lawyers of all seniority to work remotely, both individually and in a group. Flexible working hours have also been widely introduced, alongside a range of training around unconscious bias.

A common attempted ‘short cut’ to creating a more equal gender split for a particular firm can be to simply recruit more female lawyers at partner level to help bolster numbers within the practice.

This can be an effective route to changing the demographic of a firm, both immediately and in the longer term (perhaps unsurprisingly, statistics show that firms with more female partners tend to subsequently promote more females to partnership), though it is generally only effective in the long run if accompanied by a cultural repositioning to reflect a commitment to change.

The UK’s largest law firms arguably face a stiffer challenge than their more ‘fleet of foot’ smaller competitors when it comes to promoting gender diversity at partnership level. These firms can suffer ‘diseconomies of scale’, with size and organisational complexity both increasing cost and slowing decision-making on issues that have far reaching consequences from a HR and delivery perspective. It can be hard to compete with the relative speed and agility of smaller firms.

However, whilst it may take larger law firms longer to implement new policies, when they do, they set an important precedent for other firms, and the business community as a whole. This is a responsibility that these firms take seriously and, over the course of the past few years, the Top 10 UK practices have increased investment in gender diversity, aiming to improve the partnership route for females. *We use the terms ‘less able’ and ‘more able’ loosely here since one might argue that ‘ability’ is partly a function of the structure in which one operates, in which case an imbalance in the system might in fact make men, on average, more ‘able’ to succeed as partners. If anything, however, this gives the point more resonance in highlighting the difference between equality and equity.

Jaidee Spear, Associate, Edward Drummond & Co.

April 2017

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INTERVIEW

Sam Airey Sam Airey, HR Director at Weightmans, spoke with Modern Law about the way recruitment in the legal sector is changing, and how both candidates and employers are adapting their approaches to work and employment to ensure the sector is taking in the best possible people and skills.

Q A

What have been some of the most significant changes in the legal sector’s approach to recruitment?

I think it is the use of technology, and this has caused people to recruit more directly. When I first joined Weightmans in 2000, its recruitment was incredibly reliant on agencies as a means to get to candidates. Obviously we do still work with agencies and we have good relationships with good recruitment agencies, but clearly with social media, jobs boards and LinkedIn, it is now much easier to have a direct contact with candidates.

It is also culturally more acceptable and more the norm; going back to when I started, certainly amongst senior lawyers and professionals, you wouldn’t contact candidates directly, as it just wasn’t the right approach and wasn’t one they would have welcomed. It is much more acceptable and expected today, so that direct connection is probably the key change.

Q

What are some of the key skills that law firms should be seeking to utilise from the millennial work force that their staff may not currently possess?

A

One of the obvious things is again around technology; millennials have grown up using new technology, and they can much more easily adapt, grasp, learn and use these systems as they are more intuitive to them. Having said that, I am reluctant to generalise as there are inevitably people in every generation who have great IT and technology skills, and there are millennials that don’t.

One of the changes we are seeing is that there are different mindsets and attitudes on flexibility and approach to work, and there are those who don’t necessarily have the drive to work nine to five. I don’t think that is just millennials, but we can clearly see that more within that group.

Millennials are increasingly becoming our clients too, so we work with our clients in the way that they want to.

Q

How do you feel that the interest in pursuing a profession in the legal sector has changed over time, and do you foresee any dangers of staff or skills shortages in this sector?

A

The demand is really high, especially at entry level, and it always had been. There is an increasing interest in pursuing a career in law because it is seen as a good career choice, but also because it is challenging and rewarding.

Fundamentally, we are a people business. We’re about the knowledge and skills of our people, since people recruit people and people come to work with people

One of the different things we are seeing is that there are more people applying at entry level who have gone to university and done things other than law. Previously, you knew you wanted to be a lawyer at eighteen, you did law at university and you went on to qualify, but we’re seeing that people are applying from different backgrounds and different courses. There is also much more interest from non-traditional routes, and there is much more crossqualification from people that don’t have a law degree.

April 2017

Modern Law 13

INTERVIEW

I’d also say it’s important for people to be resilient; to be able to manage themselves, their workloads and the pressures, demands and challenges they face In terms of skills shortages, there are always some areas that are more in demand. I think the difficulty people find is that you can specialise very early. We need to make sure that we can get people to move and work in different areas, and we can overcome that by having internal mobility and through encouragement. People can get into particular specialisms very early and don’t necessarily see the options; it is of benefit to them to be able to move around in different areas of law.

Q

Do you believe that enough is being done to encourage diversity in the legal sector, and where are there improvements for diversity?

A

More is being done then there ever has been, but there is always more to do. The Law Society has created a Diversity and Inclusion Charter, which we are signatories for, and that is really good for the sector. The SRA work with firms to challenge and support them on their diversity, and that is important too.

I think there are challenges in the partnerships around gender, BAME representation and other areas that can be focused on.

One of the obvious examples is the number of women within a partnership or within an equity partnership, and that is reflected by the wider societal challenges around women on the board.

We have worked to develop our best practice, and we have also worked with other law firms to help them too. Everyone has a responsibility to encourage and promote diversity.

Social mobility is also welcomed; there is the PRIME initiative, which promotes social mobility and welcomes people from wider backgrounds into the legal sector, and we do a lot of work to support that too. Then there is an improvement in best practice around contextualised recruitment; there are always things to do to improve diversity.

Q

Do you feel that the legal sector needs to modernise to avoid the risk of alienating prospective employees from younger generations?

A

The legal sector is modernising in terms of technology and for a range of different reasons. From a brand point of view, things like agile working and remote working allow more flexibility, which is welcomed. People have a very different view about coming to work now, and what they get from working. If you want to attract the best people and continue to do so, you’ve got to be able to respond to that and be conscious that the deal is changing and what people want from work is now different.

The ‘what’s in it for me’ is different for different people, which is another form of diversity that should be encouraged

14 Modern Law

Perhaps they are less interested in life insurance benefits, but more interested in agile working or CSR, or what the contributions have been to the wider community. The ‘what’s in it for me’ is different for different people, which is another form of diversity that should be encouraged.

Q

What are some of the most important areas of training and development that law firms should provide to their employees as they progress?

A

We need to help people to not only improve their technical ability, but to develop different skills in different disciplines, which in turn can help them progress. Certainly the skills of managing or leading a legal business are vital, as are skills in the business of doing legal work, like legal project management skills and all of the other things that sit around technical ability.

And of course, client service, which is something that can be taken for granted too easily, even though it’s important to keep developing this to ensure everyone has the required skills.

So key skills not only include keeping up with IT and technology, and therefore being able to use the resources of the business to do the work as efficiently as possible, but certainly also leadership and business skills.

I’d also say it’s important for people to be resilient; to be able to manage themselves, their workloads and the pressures, demands and challenges they face. We did some mindfulness training recently to help with this, since the skills around your own resilience are really useful.

Q

Do you believe the discontinuation of Continued Professional Development and its replacement with Continued Competence will be beneficial for the profession and the service it provides to clients?

A

In principle, I think the philosophy is a good one. CPD became all about hitting a set amount of points, but the philosophy of continued competence encourages constant reflection, so being a reflective practitioner is crucial. If the underlying culture and mindset isn’t right, this too could also become a box ticking exercise; individually and organisationally, it’s all about being able to reflect, wanting to improve, and wanting to do things differently to improve the way you’re working with clients.

It’s also valuable to get feedback by engaging clients and the people you work with in order to identify ways to improve and do things differently. You’ve got to have that underpinning everything, because without the will to develop, continued competence will become nothing more than a box-ticking exercise over time.

Q

How have perceptions of apprenticeships in the legal profession changed in recent years, and what are the benefits or pitfalls of this entry route?

A

We were one of the first firms to offer a higher-level legal apprenticeship, and perceptions have certainly improved since. There is an increasing recognition that the apprenticeship route is a credible route and not a second tier route, and that it has its place and it has value. We can clearly see some of the things apprentices have contributed to the business and to the teams they work in.

April 2017

INTERVIEW

CPD became all about hitting a set amount of points, but the philosophy of continued competence encourages constant reflection, so being a reflective practitioner is crucial It’s something else for us to offer that will attract people who are interested in working in firms; it’s just another part of that offering, which I think is great.

Some of the downfalls are around the fact that there are inevitably administrative burdens to offering something new, particularly with timing and commitment, but apprenticeships are always evolving, and I do believe they have their place and have a good offering. It’s good to see that they’re regarded with increasing value.

With the Apprenticeship Levy, we are looking even more closely at the ways we can incorporate apprenticeships. However, apprenticeships are a very structured approach to development, and there are some training needs we may want to respond to in a shorter and more agile way, so apprenticeships can’t be applied to everything. But we’re certainly looking at how we can embed them and include them more as we have the Levy to deal with from now on.

Q A

Are there any technologies the legal sector should seek to implement and take advantage of to improve recruitment?

The fundamental challenges are trying to anticipate what’s going to work, who the candidates are and what will work for them, and how you can define yourself to them as an employer in a very crowded, competitive and busy market. This involves things that will help you to make contact with that candidate, like better use of social media.

Inevitably, there are opportunities from artificial intelligence to make recruitment more efficient, particularly on a larger scale; it will be interesting to see how that will evolve over the coming years. It can help us to do a job or to manage recruitment, but there’s the other element of how it can help us to contact candidates, to have a presence and to engage.

Sam Airey Sam Airey is the HR Director at Weightmans Solicitors, a top 45 national law firm. Sam joined the firm in 2000, and since that time has seen the firm grow, evolve and modernise. She is responsible for the firm’s people strategy and leads the HR, recruitment and learning and development teams. She became a partner in 2015.

One thing that doesn’t seem to have taken off just yet, and that seems to be a slow burner, is websites like Glassdoors. It doesn’t seem to have quite peaked in the legal sector yet, but it’s interesting to see what it’s doing for employer branding and reputation.

Recrutiment will be faster and more immediate, which is another challenge to respond to. It’s easier for people to apply for jobs on their smartphones now; I’m sure we’ll be interviewing on smartphones soon.

Fundamentally, we are a people business. We’re about the knowledge and skills of our people, since people recruit people and people come to work with people. A strong part of our brand is the fact that employees like the culture and the people they work with, which goes to show that you can’t replace cultural and behavioural traits. You can improve administration, you can improve methods of accessing and getting your message to candidates, and there’s certainly a place for technology in helping to overcome any biases to make sure the recruitment process is fair, but there needs to be a human element to it all.

We’ll have to be competitive and very slick and responsive to ensure we don’t lose good candidates. If a person on their daily commute can see a job, apply, be interviewed and possibly have an offer while they’re on the bus to work, then how soon will this come and how quickly can we respond to be able to contact candidates in this way?

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How do you predict legal recruitment will continue to change in the future?

I expect Glassdoors type-sites will take off, so businesses will have to work harder on their message, because the Trip Advisor approach to recruitment will come to the legal sector in time.

April 2017

Modern Law 15

INTERVIEW

Andrew Twambley Andrew Twambley was the winner of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards. Modern Law spoke to Andrew about the work that contributed to his big win, and about everything that must be done going forward to create a better future for the personal injury sector and the injured people it represents.

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What were the reasons for the formation of InjuryLawyers4U, and what steps led to its creation?

Back in the late nineties we saw the rise of the monster that was Claims Direct, followed by a further war with a second monster, The Accident Group. At the heart of these organisations was a desire for self-preservation and profit, with little interest in the injured. My partner, at the time, and I decided that there must be an alternative; a transparent model focusing upon the interests of the injured client, rather than profiteering. InjuryLawyers4U was the catalyst for the idea of trying to make sure that the interests of the injured person was paramount, rather than the desire to make huge profits and funnel them to a third party.

How important has the marketing strategy for InjuryLawyers4U been to its success, and should law firms be marketing themselves more than they currently do?

The marketing strategy is everything. At the time, we had to distinguish ourselves from the other players in the market and ensure that injuries weren’t seen as a joke, and that they were about people, rather than about the actual physical injury. So our marketing has developed over the years so that each individual campaign relates to the last one. It tries to show that the injury lawyers are on your side, and there is a team acting for you, with no conflicts of interest.

The digital strategy focuses upon the creation of the greatest number of leads at the least possible cost. That is something that we look at on a daily basis.

How do you feel public perceptions of the legal sector have changed in recent years?

Public perception of the legal profession has changed, and not for the better. When I was a lad, people would look up to and respect their solicitor, but at that time their solicitor was the guy in the village, sitting at their desk in a leather chair, having just finished a round of golf. Times have changed!

Now, the law has been opened out, and the public perception of the legal profession differs dramatically. The cowboys in the PI sector have done nothing to benefit the public perception, and the perception of lawyers is probably at an all-time low at the moment. Our task now is to do some pioneering work in the industry to try and change that perception, but newspapers like the Daily Mail don’t help, as we all know. We must accept the personal injury marketplace is not perfect and the bad practices do need eradicating.

People generally have a low perception of lawyers, but if you ask them about their own lawyer, it is often quite different. You tend to find that people who have used a lawyer, and not just read the newspapers, have a high regard for them.

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16 Modern Law

If the reforms do go through as written in the proposals, they will irreparably damage the profession and the assistance that injured clients currently receive from lawyers April 2017

INTERVIEW

The cowboys in the PI sector have done nothing to benefit the public perception, and the perception of lawyers is probably at an all-time low at the moment

Q A

Does the legal sector need to modernise its image to appeal to millennial generations?

It does, not least because our target audience is changing all the time. We need to modernise our outlook. I don’t think it has done the sector any favours that the dinosaurs in the Law Society spend their time politicising the legal profession. So someone does need to take hold of that aspect and modernise it.

Really the whole sector needs looking at in order to improve the image of the legal profession to the general public.

How has the personal injury sector changed since you began working it?

It has changed immeasurably. When I started working in it, you would arrange settlements with a knowledgeable insurer in a PI case; they would come round to the office on a Friday afternoon with 25 files. We would go through each individual file, settle it, agree its costs and then we went to the pub. These days, it is becoming extremely adversarial, which is unhelpful. That adversarial aspect really needs removing.

Both sides have changed, and I think it started with Claims Direct when other people were allowed into the industry and created a battlefield.

It is interesting to note that the other week, various colleges of law were championing McKenzie Friends; having law students acting as lawyers and putting McKenzie Friends in court to assist people. That’s like asking your teenage son who owns a model aeroplane to fly a jet full of passengers to Spain. You would never do that...hopefully.

What will be the impact of the Ministry of Justice’s reforms, proposed in the Prison and Courts Bill, on the personal injury sector?

I don’t think I can start answering that question by assuming that the proposals are set in stone. As far as we, at Access2Justice, are concerned, the initial battlefield has now cleared, but we’ve only just started. The Bill has been through the Second Reading in the Commons, and now it’s off to the

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Committee Stage, where MPs scrutinise the Bill line by line. There is a lot of negotiation, lobbying and other work to do between now and October next year.

The impact, if the reforms go through as they are, will be devastating for the majority of people injured in a road traffic accident. They will be without legal representation, and although the insurers will have you believe that they can obtain a lawyer, it will be totally uneconomical for law firms to take the cases on.

As a result, claims management companies, both regulated and unregulated, will flourish by representing clients, which may not be in the clients’ best interests. If the reforms do go through as written in the proposals, they will irreparably damage the profession and the assistance that injured clients currently receive from lawyers.

What are the opportunities or pitfalls around the digitisation of the courts, also outlined in the Bill?

Digitisation is, in theory, a good idea, but the government, and its various departments, have a chequered history of introducing computers into their processes. This needs to be done very slowly and carefully to make sure that everything is done right; just chucking a load of money at a third party IT company isn’t going to benefit the public, or the taxpayer. It is instead going to be wasting millions of pounds, and so it needs careful monitoring throughout its development.

The pitfalls are potentially huge and have been well signposted.

There are many examples of it from the past that need to be studied before it’s decided which way to go.

What other challenges do you predict for the personal injury sector in the near future?

The challenges are all based around the government’s proposals to destroy lawyers dealing with personal injury claims. Our challenge is to establish the Alternative Claims Framework that Access2Justice have championed. This, as far as we are concerned, is the right solution to all the current issues in personal injury. It takes on the concerns of the Association of British Insurers and the government in relation to fraud, cold-calling etc. It deals with all of this and provides a logical increase in the small claims limit, but it also provides fairness to those injured in accidents, as well as certainty for all parties, which cannot be bad.

So our main challenge is to persuade those in power that the Alternative Claims Framework is the right way forward and that it should be adopted.

At the 2016 Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards, you won the Lifetime Achievement Award, but what would you say is your single proudest career moment?

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Really the whole sector needs looking at in order to improve the image of the legal profession to the general public

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April 2017

Modern Law 17

INTERVIEW

People generally have a low perception of lawyers, but if you ask them about their own lawyer, it is often quite different. You tend to find that people who have used a lawyer, and not just read the newspapers, have a high regard for them

A

It’s probably our victory in the case of Callery vs Gray, which we took from the county court right through to the House of Lords. It showed how the Woolf reforms were intended to work in practice. Winning that case, against all the odds, when it was a two man firm in south Manchester up against the mighty insurance industry, was probably my proudest moment - and of course the Lifetime Achievement Award!

What are your future plans for improving the personal injury sector and maintaining access to justice for claimants?

It all goes back to the Alternative Claims Framework; our plans during the next eighteen months are to finalise the ACF and to sell the benefits of it to all concerned, and to try to have it adopted by the MoJ and industry. There is not much in it that the ABI can object to, and I believe it is to everyone’s advantage.

Q A

Andrew Twambley Andrew Twambley is CEO of injurylawyers4u and Partner at Amelans Solicitors.

Andrew trained as a lawyer in the 80s, and after flitting around various departments landed in Personal Injury in the early 1990s. After plotting the ultimate demise of both Claims Direct and The Accident Group, he set up InjuryLawyers4U with a view to treating injured clients ethically and fairly.

From a standing start of inviting a few of his mates to join a marketing collective, InjuryLawyers4U has become the UK’s foremost and biggest spending solicitors marketing consortium.

Andrew is a director of and spokesperson for Access2Justice, a claimant campaign group, dedicated to making the government see sense in respect of the proposed draconian reforms of the industry.

Andrew is also a partner in Amelans, a Manchester firm primarily dealing with personal injury cases. He has his eye on the future, constantly looking forward at ways to improve and innovate both businesses.

18 Modern Law

April 2017

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EDITORIAL BOARD

New approach to continuing competence L

ast year we introduced a new regime to make sure solicitors in England and Wales kept their skills sharp and their knowledge up to date.

The old “attend 16 hours of training” model is out. Now, all solicitors have to think about whether their work is good enough, identify any areas where they could improve and address any weaknesses, so they can continue to deliver a proper standard of service.

We introduced this new approach to training and education to make sure that people get the best standard of service from solicitors. That standard is laid out in the Solicitors’ Competence Statement, which was published in April 2015. It sets out the skills we expect from those within the profession - not just for admission, but throughout their career.

The best way for solicitors to remain competent is by focusing their learning and development on what really matters, rather than meeting our requirement to complete an arbitrary number of training hours. Completing the 16 hours did not guarantee competence; it guaranteed that you had carried out 16 hours of training.

Different people, different needs

It is impossible for us to prescribe centrally what is appropriate for different solicitors at different stages of their career. Individual solicitors and their employers are the people who know what training is needed for their role within a firm, their stage of qualification, and their area of practice.

How people learn also matters. Not everyone learns by sitting in a classroom or conference room for seven hours. People learn in different ways. Making all solicitors undertake a prescribed number of hours and prescribed form of training does not take into account this difference.

What does matter is that all solicitors continue to maintain their skills and keep the pace with changes in the law and in the practice of the law. However, each solicitor is now free to learn in the way that they choose and that suits them the best.

An obligation to be up to date

Firms and individuals continue to have a clear regulatory obligation to keep up to date and competent in order to provide a proper standard of service. We take this requirement seriously and require all solicitors to make an annual declaration, as part of the Practising Certificate Renewal exercise, that they have addressed their learning and development needs.

If a solicitor fails to do this, we will take appropriate regulatory action. If they are involved in disciplinary action, any failure to maintain competence could be an aggravating factor.

In practice, we know that many firms place significant emphasis on making sure their solicitors carry out regular learning and

April 2017

development in order to help them achieve their business objectives. The new approach to continuing competence provides more flexibility for firms to tailor learning and development to the needs of their organisation. Firms can focus resources where they need to be, depending on the range of roles and functions, as well as their business needs.

What do you have to do under our new approach?

Reflection: We want solicitors to reflect on their practice. This approach is more robust than the old regime. It requires you to think about whether and how you could improve the quality of your work, rather than just attending training to accumulate hours.

Planning: Once you have identified your needs, the next stage is to plan what you are going to do about them. This is important because it enables you to identify and set priorities; your plan is likely to be based on how urgent and important it is to address your needs, so that you continue to deliver a proper standard of service.

Addressing your needs: No two solicitors are the same. There will still be demand for formal training, but there is an opportunity under our new approach to take advantage of tailored and innovative ways of learning development.

Record and evaluate: You can evaluate the effectiveness of learning and development activity by simply thinking about what you have learnt and considering whether it has met your identified needs or whether you need to undertake further action. This process is important. It will help you understand whether further learning and development is required to help you achieve what you set out to learn.

We expect you to reflect on your practice, identify gaps and determine the best way to bridge these gaps.

We have produced a tool kit to help implement our new approach.

It has been developed with solicitors and firms. It is a useful resource and provides more details, case studies, templates and best practice on implementation. We also have a range of videos from solicitors and firms on how they have adopted the approach.

The Competence Statement can be found at http://www.sra.org. uk/competence/, while the toolkit can be found at www.sra.org.uk/ toolkit Julie Brannan, Director of Education and Training, Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

Modern Law 23

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EDITORIAL BOARD

The LSB’s new guidance for regulators on encouraging a diverse workforce Graeme MacLachlan explains how the Legal Services Board will be promoting diversity within the legal sector. n my article in October’s issue of Modern Law Magazine, I explained that the LSB was consulting on a revised version of our guidance for regulators on encouraging a diverse workforce. We proposed changes designed to give regulators flexibility when developing targeted approaches to encouraging improvements in diversity in each part of the sector. Our proposals were prompted by a review that found that regulators differed greatly in the extent to which they had used the data they collected from their regulated communities.

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We received 19 responses to the consultation from a wide range of bodies with different interests in the legal sector. The responses contained an array of helpful comments and questions with regard to our proposals. These comments helped us to make improvements to the guidance, but the message has remained the same: we expect regulators to be doing more to achieve a workforce that better reflects the society it serves.

Our final guidance is based around four ‘Outcomes’ that we expect regulators to work towards. We are confident that, in directing their work towards these Outcomes, they can use the valuable data they have collected since 2011 to help inform their regulatory processes to improve diversity. The four Outcomes are: 1. The regulator continues to build a clear and thorough understanding of the diversity profile of its regulated community (beginning at entry), how this changes over time and where greater diversity in the workforce needs to be encouraged 2. The regulator uses data, evidence and intelligence about the diversity of the workforce to inform development of, and evaluate the effectiveness of, its regulatory arrangements, operational processes and other activities 3. The regulator collaborates with others to encourage a diverse workforce, including sharing good practice, data collection, and other relevant activities 4. The regulator accounts to its stakeholders for its understanding, its achievements and plans to encourage a diverse workforce.

We expect regulators to be doing more to achieve a workforce that better reflects the society it serves flexibility provided to be innovative when submitting their report.

We also know that some regulators will have more resources dedicated to diversity than others will, but all regulators should be able to demonstrate that they have given a sufficient amount of consideration to diversity issues when planning work.

The LSB also knows that often firm-led initiatives have the most impact; this was a common theme running through the responses to the consultation. We hope that our new guidance will motivate regulators to encourage these further, for instance by highlighting good practice by the best performing firms or actively reaching out into the regulated community to work closely with those who need to need to make more progress in this area.

Graeme MacLachlan, Regulatory Associate, Legal Services Board (LSB).

A driving factor behind the decision to review our guidance was to be less prescriptive and give more responsibility to the regulators, and we have intentionally left it to the regulators to decide what to present to demonstrate how the work they are undertaking is going to deliver the Outcomes. This is not a case of the LSB ‘stepping back’ from diversity and in fact quite the opposite; we will continue our oversight role, and we will publicly hold regulators to account where we think they are underperforming.

We have committed to an annual, formal assessment of regulators on diversity work. The first of these will take place in August 2018.

We want regulators to show us how they are working towards delivering the outcomes, and we have encouraged them to use the

April 2017

Modern Law 25

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Taking advantage of technologies How can law firms utilise emerging technologies to cut costs? he last decade has witnessed an exponential growth in technology, and change in the legal sector is being driven by both clients and competition from firms that have begun using technology to do routine work.

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This technological advancement now requires strategic focus and top-level support, and has ultimately changed the way in which solicitors work, bringing with it specific technology designed to streamline efficiencies and cut costs across the legal sector.

An increasing trend within the legal profession is big data, providing firms with the ability to quickly determine whether or not it’s worth taking a case, and ultimately saving hours of research sifting through years’ worth of information and existing cases. For the junior staff who may be conducting this research over a period of months, it leaves them to be productive elsewhere.

It’s also a great method of obtaining visibility of a practice as a whole, and therefore the amount of revenue fee earners and cases are bringing in. By understanding staff productivity, it can enable firms to change operational methods to ensure they are maintaining the optimum level of efficiency.

Stemming from this notion, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also becoming a significant focus for law firms, particularly over the next few years. By using AI to automate tasks traditionally undertaken by junior staff, such as research, it allows them to instead focus on complex and higher-value work.

An example is Linklaters’ Verifi program, which can sift through 14 UK and European regulatory registers to check client names for banks and process thousands of names overnight. A junior solicitor would take an average of 12 minutes to search each name.

For document management processes, online document delivery and acceptance tools are enabling firms to migrate towards paperless working, serving to reduce turnaround times and therefore costs. E-signatures eliminate expenditure on printing, paper, ink, postage and couriers, instead providing a quick, efficient and convenient solution aimed at saving considerably on operational costs.

And finally, remote working within the legal profession is becoming an increasingly popular method of reducing costs. It’s now making less commercial sense to maintain offices, and online client portals and case tracking systems mean solicitors can stay connected to their clients 24/7 from anywhere in the world, ultimately serving to offer excellent service at an affordable price, whilst streamlining staffing costs.

Sarah Roberts, Marketing Executive, Eclipse Legal Systems.

Engaging and employing How can law firms engage millennial workers interested in joining the profession?

E

ngaging millennial workers will be a big challenge to employers in the legal services industry, because their emergence coincides with so many other disruptive factors.

Greater commoditisation and specialisation, new technologies and novel business models all challenge the orthodoxy of how legal business is transacted. And of course, that affects the type of workforce employers want to recruit and develop.

As a result, the law degree/LPC model’s days look to be numbered, with apprenticeships becoming more widely recognised as a viable route into legal services. For the millennial generation, apprenticeships offer a great route into the profession without the yoke of graduate debt.

The Sutton Trust has recently estimated average graduate debt at £44k: that’s before incurring the cost of post-graduate legal training. Many law graduates would have been better advised to go through the apprenticeship route, perhaps starting with a paralegal apprenticeship that provides credit towards the CILEx professional qualification.

Government research also shows that median earnings five years post graduation for law students at the twelve bottomranking universities was between £17.5 and £20k.

CILEx Law School’s advice to employers is that talented youngsters will be looking for credible alternatives.

Engaging now with schools will provide employers with the means to develop their talent pipeline, rather than depend upon disenchanted and indebted law graduates, many of whom may lack the same array of work-ready skills as a legal apprentice who has been in post for a few months.

So what value can a legal apprentice bring to a law firm? Our survey is illuminating. We asked apprentices what their best experience had been. One replied, “When I helped organise a public planning hearing and the council won the hearing.”

Another added, “Being trusted to deal with legal matters such as preparing contract packs and dealing with completed registrations.”

However, perhaps most extraordinary was this apprentice’s experience: “One of my best apprenticeship experiences has been having my own files to handle and subsequently winning my first Employment Tribunal case. Seeing the client cry with relief and be so grateful towards me for all the work that I had done was an immensely rewarding experience.”

So the message is clear: employers who engage with the millennial generation by working with schools and organisations such as CILEx Law School can benefit their business and create real opportunities for the legal workforce of the future.

Noel Inge, Managing Director, CILEx Law School.

April 2017

Modern Law 27

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Hidden benefits Has economic uncertainty created cash flow problems for law firms, and what options are available for them to address this? e can consider economic uncertainty in the context of the 2008 banking crisis, which continues to have major reverberations around the world today, as well as in the context of Brexit. Very few banks escaped the 2008 crisis unscathed, and this had a direct effect on all their clients, including law firms across the country. Credit was badly squeezed, which led to a general retrenchment of traditional bank lending and growing margins, so many law firms were forced to reduce their reliance on bank funding or pay greater margins on whatever funding was available.

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However, those that could continue to access such funding, i.e. the financially strongest firms, benefited very considerably from the record low interest rates we have enjoyed for almost a decade now. So, “yes”, economic uncertainty has created cash flow problems for law firms, but not the financially strongest, which have arguably benefited from this crisis.

A very significant, yet unanticipated benefit (to law firms) of the 2008 banking crisis has been the rapid growth in Fintech and alternative providers of funding, e.g. challenger banks, P2P and new market entrants, which means firms have a much greater choice of funding than ever before. Law firms no longer need to rely on banks!

It’s probably too early to assess the effects of Brexit, but the demand amongst business for legal advice on the employment, trade and tax implications of Brexit means that firms advising on these matters should see a particularly strong upsurge in work.

Any law firm that ignores the risk of an economic downturn, as well as an upturn, does so at its peril. Any sensible funding package must be able to comfortably accommodate both. Whilst it might sound counter-intuitive, it is during an economic upturn or when firms choose to expand when access to a funding becomes critical. Any business that expands without such funding will likely find itself insolvent (a phenomenon known as “over-trading”), which, in the context of a firm of solicitors, could well affect the ability of the partners to practise law in the future.

With so many more funding options available to law firms since the 2008 banking crisis, but with continued economic uncertainty, law firms should set aside additional time and resources to properly evaluate exactly what form of funding will best suit their needs; both now and in the future.

Martyn Jennings, Chief Executive, Burcher Jennings.

How can law firms utilise emerging technologies to cut costs? inpointing precise information from copious amounts of documentation is at the heart of all legal proceedings, but can be an onerous task. Those law firms who are ahead of the game will already have found a more efficient solution than traditional filing methods, but for many there still needs to be a future-proof plan in place.

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The costs of simply managing large amounts of documents can spiral quickly. Firstly, take into account the bulkiness of paper documents. It often takes a large office (with its associated costs) to house and archive the large quantity of paperwork that is accumulated daily. Secondly, physically searching through archived or current files can take many working hours.

Organising data and vital documents may seem like an enormous task, but legal firms who are working towards optimal efficiency can reap huge benefits from using an outsourced data scanning service. Professional scanning companies offer a quick return on investment by being able to scan and digitise all possible physical information, ranging from Post-it notes and colour images to the most complex legal files.

Technological advancements mean that the latest scanners are equipped with ultrasonic, double-feed and automated colour detection and image processing tools. Optical character recognition technology permits rapid scanning for keywords to pinpoint required information. In fact, the time saving capabilities of such a system mean that the thorough examination of an entire catalogue could be reduced to minutes rather than days.

Once key information has been digitised, a secure document management system can be put in place. Companies should look for a service that stores their most valuable asset, information, as a cloud-based resource that enables sharing and collaboration of vital documents, globally, 24-7. Accessibility is key to efficiency, and the advantages of having securely hosted documents available anywhere in the world from laptop, tablet or phone cannot be underestimated, particularly if a number of people can benefit from access to the same information.

Document security is always a top priority for law firms.

Fortunately, data digitisation by scanning is a cost-effective way of not only reducing reliance on document storage, freeing up space, and enabling quicker information retrieval, but also brings with it improved document security.

Reputable document management firms have expertise to share and their employees are enhanced DBS checked. They also use software compliant with UK Government security standards in terms of encryption and physical storage, which allows firms to set access levels for employees sharing critically sensitive data online.

In order to make a quality transition from physical to digital, firms should find a provider with the same core qualities as the best legal practice, namely thoroughness, precision and due diligence. If they do, they will reap the rewards of staying up-to-date in today’s competitive, technology-driven world.

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April 2017

Modern Law 29

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Digital Transformation and the Workplace

aw firms are undergoing a digital transformation that is forcing them to change the way they do business. Legal professionals are becoming increasingly mobile and as a result, collaboration, untethered mobility and rapid communication are becoming the cornerstone of productivity and client satisfaction.

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Law firms and corporate legal departments are responding to this shift by ensuring they have all the resources needed to be productive and efficient while also protecting their users from external threats and attacks. This has created additional challenges that are making it increasingly difficult for firms to support demands.

The New Professional: Mobile, tech savvy, demanding change in applications and tools

The increased mobility of today’s legal workforce and the consumerisation of IT are reshaping what today’s professionals need and expect from their employers. New professionals are not defined by their age, but instead by their intimate familiarity with technology and their expectation for a frictionless work experience across all devices.

As expectations continue to rise around the ability of the new professional to access email and edit documents on any device, firms are being forced to provide solutions that emulate identical user experience, no matter the device or document. Most importantly, new professionals are intimately familiar with what technology can do, and know now how to get critical work functions accomplished, such as document editing, sharing and collaboration, without 100% reliance on the tools provided by their employers.

The New Client: Higher expectations, more stringent security and governance of their information

The new client has increasingly high expectations for quicker responses, more value for their money, better customer experience and the most stringent security and governance over their information. At the same time, the new client is also becoming increasingly sensitive to where/how their information is being stored and if it’s managed in accordance with their specific wishes in terms of location, cloud or no cloud, retention post close, etc.

The New Law Firm: Adapting to client demands, more digital

The ‘new firm’ continuously improves itself to meet the expectations of client demands and its professionals by improving productivity, as well as adapting tools that evolve the business model beyond the billable hour, ultimately increasing agility, flexibility and more efficient work. With today’s new ways of working on multiple digital platforms, it is now more important than ever for firms to drive new business models enabled by technology that increase productivity, enabling secure communication that does not put valuable information at risk.

I’m looking to get ATE cover for adverse costs in a commercial claim. How much is enough?

Sufficient for it to ‘work’.

TE for ‘adverse’ is to provide protection against the risk of having to pay an opponent’s legal costs. It is worth giving consideration to what they may be, and what would be a sufficient level of cover at the outset.

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• Cover for the full estimate of adverse - The amount of cover that is usually sought is an amount estimated to be sufficient to cover an opponent’s costs from the outset, to the end of trial/ determination. So full cover ‘from the off’.

• Cover for a lesser sum – This could result in complications/ unintended consequences. Consider this scenario: the full estimate of adverse is £100,000, but cover is only taken for £40,000 (perhaps in anticipation of a low cost ‘early out’). The envisaged settlement proves elusive, and the claim rumbles on towards trial. If the insured is not able or content to retain the uninsured exposure, problems could arise, and in some situations the extent to which the level of cover obtained ‘works’/benefits the insured, could be called into question.

• Was the insurer aware of the gap in cover? Are there any policy terms that apply?

• Obtaining a ‘top up’, is not a given. It may not be offered, and if offered may be on less favourable terms. Numerous factors could affect the underwriting decision, including the fact that the risk has ‘moved on’, and the anticipated settlement did not materialise.

• Abandoning the claim would stop the adverse costs clock running and put a ceiling on overall exposure, but it may be unlikely to provide a solution to uninsured exposure. Policy terms generally exclude cover for a discontinuance that is not prospects related.

• If security for costs is an issue, an ATE policy for 40% of the risk is less likely to assist. Arguments on security can be a bar to negotiations and at worst, failure to provide security could be fatal to the claim.

• Staging – A less fraught way to manage the risk and the economic rationale would be to obtain full cover at the outset, but to put in place a staged premium structure (paid or contingent) so that premium is aligned to adverse at identified stages.

• Multi-party or group action – This type of claim can give rise to some real brain teasing issues. What ‘works’ here is likely to require a more detailed analysis of the case, common issues and precisely what the cover is for. In practice, these types of claim have highlighted the perils of both under and over insurance, and need to be considered on a case by case basis.

Jacqueline Harvey, Underwriter, AmTrust Law.

Geoff Hornsby, General Manager, EMEA, iManage.

April 2017

Modern Law 31

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Celebrating the first 100 years uality is on the agenda and hitting the headlines. International Women’s Day saw the announcement of a new £5 million fund to celebrate next year’s centenary of legislation granting certain women the right to vote for the first time. Late last year the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Justice, Liz Truss, spoke at the Spark21 conference in support of another celebration, First 100 Years, a ground-breaking video history project to mark the 2019 centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, which paved the way for women to become lawyers for the first time.

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Through its website, its events and the creation of an exhibition of 100 films for the British Library, First 100 Years is highlighting the contribution of women to the legal profession. By bringing female role models to life, it is celebrating the past to change the future.

The First 100 Years team have already captured the inspiring stories of a number of pioneering women in law, including Baroness Hale, Helena Kennedy QC and Cherie Blair. We have also held a series of first class events since the launch of the project at the House of Lords in 2015: last year’s Spark21 conference was hosted by the doyenne of Women’s Hour, Dame Jenni Murray, and - with its wide range of speakers including leading lawyers, journalists and equality campaigners - it attracted over 200 delegates. We also held a reception at the Supreme Court last summer, with tours conducted

by Lord Neuberger and Baroness Hale.

The project, with which Serjeants’ Inn is proud to work as a founding partner, has already succeeded in building up a fantastic network of supporters from across the legal profession, from judges and journalists to in-house counsel and academics and, importantly, including many men as well as women. Encouragingly, it is also drawing support from newly-qualified lawyers, the next generation of game-changers in the profession.

We are now looking for corporate sponsors to help us continue this important, innovative and inclusive work. When Liz Truss, our first female Lord Chancellor, addressed the Spark21 conference, she said that “if English law is to continue to evolve, innovate and lead the world, we need to make use of all our talents.” She went on to emphasise that “this is not diversity for diversity’s sake. It’s about talent for talent’s sake.”

If your firm, chambers or company would like to celebrate historical and future talent by backing First 100 Years, visit www. first100years.org.uk for further details.

Intelligent technology challenging your conveyancing process irthday and Christmas gifts have become an ongoing struggle of imagination due to my children growing up with a thirst for the latest and greatest tech gadgets. It is no surprise to me, therefore, that the Amazon Echo was a favourite among 2016 holiday gifts, with sales rising by 400% on 2015. The device’s popularity has also sparked an influx of videos and news items sharing the most amusing moments from Alexa, the Echo’s (often confused) virtual assistant.

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The curiosity and popularity around virtual assistants have surged as personal technology becomes further entrenched in societal norms. The iPhone 4S introduced us to Siri, Apple’s take on a virtual assistant in 2011, changing the way we manage daily tasks from making calls, appointments and setting alarms, through to mapping the route to a hotel. Similarly, the mass use of Google’s URL search bar means that many of us are already exposed to smart technology daily without even realising. It is becoming clear that the growth of intelligent technology is powered by consumer demand, and whether we know it or not, it’s putting us in the driver’s seat to amplify our daily lives.

In the conveyancing profession, we can be assured that technology will be a driving force in the evolution of the home buying and selling process. While some of us may be hesitant at the idea of trusting a virtual assistant to manage our workflow at this stage, there is already smart technology available to make the processes far simpler and easier for conveyancers. The reality of an entirely paperless solution is here now with InfoTrack’s electronic contract pack (eCOS) solution, which facilitates the consolidation of the Contract Pack process in a way that users of smart technology have come to expect. Using eCOS allows clients to access and sign documents from anywhere, anytime.

It’s the use of this smart and enjoyable technology that is increasingly freeing our time from administrative and process heavy tasks, and as a result the demand for such applications fuels an increasing appetite for solutions to be continually developed. The adoption of clever technology that supplements and supports business endeavours is imperative to a growing profit and efficiency.

Adam Bullion, Head of Marketing, InfoTrack.

Catherine Calder, Solicitor & Director of Client Care, Serjeants’ Inn.

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Improving Employee Engagement & Productivity.

How? he PI sector needs to be adaptable to survive reforms, current and future. One aspect of this will be to enhance how lawyers ‘engage’ in their firm and feel simultaneously more resilient and more productive. Previous editorials I have written have highlighted ‘innovative customer responsiveness’, ‘bridging the gap between lawyers and experts’ by enhanced ‘working together’ and, ‘motivating junior lawyers’, all of which enhance engagement. Any survival plan or adaptation is best seen within a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI), led from the top and promoting core values of customer service, meeting expectations, mistake-free service, and, to achieve these, a firm culture that ‘looks after colleagues’.

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Improving employee engagement includes positive, trustworthy and honest communication between colleagues, in which priority is given to understanding problem process areas within the firm in a non-judgmental way. Staff need to be mandated to suggest improvements and, where appropriate, implement these suggestions. Regular discussions either within existing meetings or through specially formed ‘quality improvement’ meetings facilitate this culture and empower staff to feel resilient and be responsible for efficiency and effectiveness. Knowing and understanding the concept of ‘internal customers’, which in part means our colleagues, is crucial to the productivity within a law firm.

Publications and research in the Total Quality literature indicates how enhancing staff interaction and awareness makes a firm’s operations more effective.

For CQI to achieve better employee engagement, it needs to be both ‘top-led’ and ‘bottom-fed’; MDs of law firms must lead by example, action and attitude. One simple step is for the MD to regularly talk to the whole firm about his/her commitment to CQI and discuss how legal services can improve & develop.

Working together is the best way to enhance employee engagement and will contribute to improved productivity.

Adopting CQI culture and techniques is an exciting way to run and work within a law firm and mirrors similar developments in health care, manufacturing and other private and public industries.

Dr Hugh Koch, Clinical Psychologist and Director, Hugh Koch Associates and Visiting Professor to School of Law, University of Stockholm.

Recently published: ‘Legal Mind: Contemporary Issues in Psychological Injury and Law’ & also published six books on Total Quality Management.

Who will inherit your pension?

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We are often told it is sensible to review Wills and estate planning regularly. Pension funds, however, can often be overlooked.

A pension fund can be inherited in three different ways (by single or multiple beneficiaries): • Lump sum - the pension fund is paid out directly to beneficiaries, or to Trustees • Beneficiary’s pension - the pension fund is transferred into a pension in the name of chosen beneficiaries, from which unlimited withdrawals can be made (including before age 55) • Annuity - the pension fund is used to purchase annuities in the name of the chosen beneficiaries.

If the pension scheme member is under 75 at the time of death, withdrawals by their beneficiaries are tax-free. If 75 or over, withdrawals are taxed at the beneficiary’s (or Trust in the event of a lump sum being paid to a Trust) marginal income tax rate.

In many cases, the beneficiary’s pension option is attractive, as these funds can continue to grow virtually tax-free and are never tested against the beneficiary’s own Lifetime Allowance. They also remain outside of the beneficiary’s estate for IHT purposes.

On the death of the pension holder after age 75, structuring withdrawals from a beneficiary’s pension over multiple tax years (as and when required) could result in a significantly smaller tax liability than taking the fund as a lump sum immediately, due to lower rate tax bands potentially being available (this would also be the case for an annuity, though the payments are less flexible).

In some scenarios, you may deem control over assets to be more important than any potential taxation benefits of a beneficiary’s pension. In this event, a lump sum payment to a Trust may be more appropriate, despite significantly less favourable ongoing taxation.

For many, the default position has previously been to nominate the death benefit to their spouse/civil partner; however it is worth considering whether other beneficiaries should be included alongside this. Deciding whether to nominate other beneficiaries will depend on (i) your comfort that any spouse/civil partner will have sufficient other assets to fund their lifestyle should they outlive you and (ii) whether you are prepared for others to inherit your pension (and have access to this on their terms).

We therefore believe it is appropriate to actively review expression of wish nominations and consider how pensions fit into provisioning for loved ones after your death.

Ed Wood, Chartered Financial Planner, Saunderson House.

April 2017

Modern Law 35

A system so simple, you could call it Simon It won’t mind. Simon is shorter than The-New-Legal-IndemnitySite-That-Gives-You-Quotes-In-Seconds It’s also easier to say than Nebuchadnezzar, but not as good as Bluebutton.

That’s because Bluebutton is already making a name for itself by making legal indemnities easy. Answer a few straightforward questions to get a quote, and a simple electronic payment gets your policy emailed to you within minutes.

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Blue Button Legal Indemnities Ltd is an Appointed Representative of Isis Conveyancing Insurance Specialists Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under registration number 455994. All polices are underwritten on behalf of Liberty Legal Indemnities, part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Ltd. Registered Office: Blue Button Legal Indemnities Ltd, 1 Claydon Business Park, Great Blakenham, Ipswich, IP6 0NL. Registered in England and Wales No. 9980095.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Supporting all sizes How can smaller firms keep up with the increased embracing of legal technology seen in some larger firms? ompared to the longevity of the legal profession, the lifespan of the conveyancing searches industry is very short. Yet, over the last 20 years, great progress has been made in terms of both the technology and data that is now available to support thorough due diligence of conveyancing transactions. All conveyancing solicitors can tap into this, regardless of their size or current state of technological progress!

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Developments fall broadly into two areas: 1. Digitisation of information 2. Systems development In the first instance, a huge amount of data has been digitised and is now available from either desktop reports or sourcing individual datasets. This is aligned to the Land Registry’s focus on becoming “a more digital, data-driven registration business”. It’s well worth solicitors reviewing their needs as search reports and access to data are improving all the time, and some products are more suited to specific types of transaction. Geodesys works closely with companies such as Groundsure and Landmark to help customers identify the most suitable products for different transactions.

Dan Montagnani, Managing Director of Groundsure, comments: “While the scale of investment in technology can create advantages based on your cheque book, it’s also a great leveller.

A specific legal example is the printing and compiling of the majority of conveyancing documents. At best, the disadvantage is deforestation but, at its worst, important information is effectively ‘buried’. This industry and our plethora of environmental information is ripe for digitalisation; intelligent filtering, different views tailored to audience and search capabilities are just some basic, but hugely valuable benefits, accessible to all.”

What could 2017 hold for Litigation Funding?

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itigation funding has grown rapidly with rising demand, greater awareness, supportive investors and acceptance of the courts in England & Wales.

2017 will further shape the industry, which, although widely accepted, is only in its infancy. In 2016, Litigation Funding became more accessible and its benefits as a strategic tool are now widely recognised, particularly when demonstrating that a party has the financial muscle to fight a case.

Last year saw the emergence of ad hoc funding via crowdfunding platforms in the US and the UK, which enabled claimants to raise funds to cover legal costs for cases as varied as planning challenges, appealing fines, proposing law reform and even the recent Brexit appeal on Article 50. As exciting as this is, it is not without risk, as the Excalibur case certainly highlighted. In this ruling, whilst acknowledging the benefit of third party funding, the funders were ordered to pay indemnity costs in circumstances where they maintained that they were not responsible for any of the factors that led to the indemnity costs being ordered.

Looking ahead, while the courts may have created some issues in the development of third party funding, on issues such as indemnity costs, recoverability of funding fees, or the obligation on claimants to reveal the identity of funders, the bigger picture is one of significant growth and opportunity.

In 2016, Calunius raised a further £100m from investors, double the previous fundraising, while US based Burford also raised £100m through a bonds issue, and Vannin raised further funds through a secured debt facility.

We have also seen the emergence of a new entrants into the funding space, who are able to service all size of claims and are providing innovative solutions to claimants’ needs.

Secondly, search providers have invested heavily in developing systems to support their customers. This ranges from the provision of full case management systems through to integration with existing conveyancing systems and processes. There is no “one size fits all”, as it’s more to do with how the system fits a department’s working practices. By making a considered choice, it’s well within the reach of conveyancing departments, small as well as large, to become more efficient and free up important time for fee earners.

The most recent development was in the US, where Burford bought its closest rival, the well-financed Gerchen Keller Capital, for $160m.

Dan continues: “Competitive advantage can be achieved for firms that are willing to rethink their use of technology. In a recent Groundsure survey, 196 property professionals ranked their current digital state as 6 out of 10, expecting it to increase 1.25 points by the end of 2017. If smaller firms can move faster than that, we believe customers will proactively seek them out.”

Operationally, as we saw in the Excalibur judgment, litigation funding is receiving the stamp of approval from judges and from an ever-growing number of jurisdictions.

Investors, seeking higher returns, are keen to look favourably at litigation funding because interest rates are low, and whilst litigation funding is risky, the returns can be significant. In addition, the risk is ‘uncorrelated’, in investment terms, as it is not connected to the underlying economy or susceptible to financial crises.

This will continue into 2017 with more investment flowing into the funders, new markets opening as legislation changes, and new players entering the sector.

Susan Fairbrass, Marketing Manager, Geodesys.

Maurice Power, Managing Director, Ferguson Litigation Funding.

April 2017

Modern Law 37

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Pagination, profits and problems in personal injury Has economic uncertainty created cash flow problems for law firms, and what options are available for them to address this?

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conomic uncertainty has not caused cash flow problems for law firms – reforms to the personal injury sector has been the main cause for law firms failing or closing in this sector.

The Ministry of Justice has announced that the small claims will be increased to £5,000 for whiplash claims and £2,000 for other personal injury claims. Thereby personal injury cases will need to be worth in excess of £5000 in order for the successful party to be able to claim back their legal fees from their opponent. Cases worth less than £5000 will not be viable for a law firm.

The Ministry of Justice will also introduce a tariff system for whiplash claims, significantly reducing compensation entitlement for injuries sustained, and a ban on offers to settle whiplash claims without providing medical evidence.

The reforms have impacted heavily on cash flow for law firms and put them at real risk of failing; some firms have already been forced to close or make redundancies as they have been impacted by the personal injury reforms. Many firms do not see a widespread cash flow problem until it is too late.

Law firms are looking to diversify when faced with such changes.

This requires staff training, paying for new claims and changing the whole business model.

A major problem for law firms is paying disbursements for live cases, as this seriously impacts cash flow.

For example, insurance companies will not fund pagination. This is short-sighted and makes no economic sense: pagination saves more money than it costs; using a pagination company alerts the solicitor to potential pitfalls in the case, identifying pertinent missing records, providing a well-ordered, paginated and indexed bundle that the solicitor and the experts can easily navigate, saving time and reducing their fees.

The insurance company will argue that pagination is a disbursement and should be paid by the solicitor. Solicitors have already taken a hit on their success fees and now, if a case goes to detailed assessment, the pagination fees are the first thing to be cut, yet the solicitor is still liable for this fee and therefore must pay it out of their own pocket or ask the claimant to pay it.

As a potential solution, many solicitors look to their banks to increase their overdraft limit, however there is a real risk that the bank can call in the overdraft without notice, so many firms are now turning to external legal funders.

Ayesha Khan, VFS Legal Funding.

Partnering with planners he idea of law firms and financial planners working together is nothing new. However, it could be argued that there has never been a better time for the two professions to get together. As a practice, we have successfully worked alongside the legal profession for a number of years, a period during which the following observations can be made:

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• Significantly increased competition from non-lawyers • Reductions in legal aid and personal injury work • Dependence on transactional work • A lack of meaningful client data • The “solicitor” brand coming under attack • Increasing threat of legal action for failing to address clients wider needs • The Solicitors Regulation Authority is encouraging diversification: “the type of business that the (Legal Services) Act was expected to facilitate: a ‘one-stop-shop’ for consumers: accountants, surveyors, estate agents, financial advisers and a whole host of other professions working with solicitors to offer a combination of professional services” (Crispin Passmore, Director, SRA, 2014) Working closely with a quality firm of financial planners addresses many, if not all of these issues.

Firstly, the services provided are complementary to that of a law firm and can cater for a client’s broader needs, for example estate planning and the interaction of the pensions freedom rules. Secondly, they are well trained in relationship building and possess fact-finding skills rarely seen in other professions. Thirdly, a detailed database will be built up as a natural consequence of the work a financial planner does. In addition, the right firm will possess business management, marketing and commercial skills that could be put to good use in many law firms.

Clearly, an amount of due diligence is necessary before deciding which financial planning firm(s) a legal practice should work with.

Consideration should be given to ensuring each firm possesses complementary skills and qualifications (e.g. Chartered Financial Planners, Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners) relevant to the areas of work your practice is involved in.

Once this has been done, a working relationship can take any of the following forms: • Arms length referrals (possibly with a marketing agreement) • Employ an in-house financial planner or create a multidisciplinary Alternative Business Structure • Taking a shareholding in a financial planning firm • Joint Venture Whichever structure is adopted, a successful relationship will enhance a law firms client offering, generate additional fees from legal work, protect clients from the competition and in some cases generate a useful additional income stream.

Kevin Ferriby, Managing Director, Informed Financial Planning.

April 2017

Modern Law 39

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FEATURES

Phishing your own employees could prevent a disaster As the frequency of phishing attacks only continues to increase, Matt Rhodes, Quiss Technology, explains how it is training, not technology, that will help law firms ensure their employees can identify and appropriately respond to malicious emails. y now everyone should be aware of the threat posed by phishing emails, yet the ‘Verizon 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report’ recorded 30% of phishing messages being opened.

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Phishing is a pre-cursor to more than 90% of hacking attacks, and cybercriminals are targeting employees to gain access to secure systems.

Law firms will include security training as part of the induction process, but even with regular refresher sessions, how will each employee react to a real threat?

People can become complacent over time and criminals change their methods of attack, with phishing emails becoming ever more sophisticated.

Lure of phishing

Most people are wise to the emails offering free money or prizes, but criminals have improved their techniques Phish your employees

To improve security, organisations can recruit specialist service providers to conduct simulated phishing attacks that test the security awareness and responses of all employees.

Working closely with the organisation’s management or inhouse IT team, credible emails are created that appear to come from likely contacts, familiar to employees of the organisation – customers, colleagues, clients etc.

Phishing is an effective approach for cyber-criminals to bypass security and steal sensitive information or hold it to ransom. It takes the form of a personally addressed email, which usually requires the criminals to spend a little time researching their target.

Attacks replicate the emails real criminals send and all the favoured approaches. Specific groups within an organisation can be targeted at different times with different emails, and many with fake, toxic attachments, without the recipients aware they are being tested.

Personal social media channels or the target organisation’s website often contain the information needed to allow criminals to create emails that closely imitate communications from trusted sources, like colleagues, clients, suppliers and even couriers.

Phishing tackled this way does not test physical security, but the link in the security chain most likely to fail during a cyber-attack; people.

Most people are wise to the emails offering free money or prizes, but criminals have improved their techniques. Phishing emails now regularly contain requests for the recipient to confirm account details, delivery instructions or orders by clicking harmless-looking links that connect to relevant websites.

Unfortunately, these fake websites, although good copies of the originals, will be used to steal log-in details, account passwords etc., and they are getting better as criminals learn to spell correctly and check their grammar.

Phishing in numbers

Criminals recognise the risk of being caught is low, but their chances of success are high and the statistics are in their favour, with 10% of people targeted falling for a phishing attack and: • 23% opening the message and 11% clicking on the attachments • 250% increase in the total number of phishing sites from October 2015 to March 2016 • 91% of hacking attacks begin with a phishing or spearphishing email • 55% increase of spear-phishing campaigns targeting employees • 63% of confirmed data breaches involved weak, default or stolen passwords The solution is education. Explaining the problem to employees, showing them what to look out for and training regularly will undoubtedly cut the risk, but there will always be those that become complacent and believe they will never be caught out, despite criminals’ growing sophistication.

42 Modern Law

Measured and reported

The response of each employee to the ‘fake’ phishing email is recorded, along with their actions; opened, clicked links, forwarded etc.

At the time the individual responds to the email, in any way other than to warn the IT team or management of the suspicious attack, a message will inform them they have been caught by the phishing test and remind them to be more vigilant in future.

The messages are not designed to cause distress, but engage them in the process of keeping their organisation safe. The comprehensive reports identify areas for improvement and which individuals need more help, allowing organisations to concentrate training budgets where they will be most effective.

Initially, the failure rate will be close to 33%, but after subsequent reminders and ongoing training, the failure rate should fall to approximately 5%. It is unlikely any organisation will ever achieve a success rate of 100%, with no responses recorded; we are dealing with humans.

Next steps

Reducing the risk of just one employee responding to the wrong email is not about more technology, it is about testing defences, changing the culture and training more specifically.

Organisations should seek out service providers who will work with them to target their employees with ‘fake’ phishing attacks to reveal the weak links and then help resolve them, before the real criminals turn up.

Matt Rhodes is Commercial Services Manager at Quiss Technology plc.

April 2017

FEATURES

Fighting fraud and how technology can help Stephen Murray, PSG, who recently spoke at the House of Commons on fraud and anti-money laundering, discusses how firms can protect themselves from financial crime through training and technology use.

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s we all know, Conveyancing is one of the highest risk areas for fraud, and criminals are targeting firms and their clients in ever more sophisticated ways.

Since the start of the year, and at the time of writing, the SRA has sent over fifty Scam alerts, an average of almost four a week, and we see news stories about monies being lost to fraudsters on an increasingly regular basis. The recent court cases of Dreamar V Mishcon De Reya and Purrunsing V A’Court & Co & Anor have created wide debate across the sector, and without a doubt fraud and cybercrime remain the hottest of topics in the industry.

The introduction of the EU’s 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive into UK Law via The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, should be on the statute books by the 26th June 2017. It’s important to note that the triggering of Article 50 to leave the EU has no immediate effect until exit negotiations are concluded; the UK remains a full member of the European Union and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force. During this period the government will continue to negotiate, implement and apply EU legislation.

The so called Great Repeal Bill will transpose all EU Law in UK Law ready for the full EU separation in March 2019.

In any event, it is extremely unlikely there would be any watering down of AML/CTF regulations in the future. Indeed, the opposite is more likely.

What does this mean in practice?

• An Increased emphasis on a risk based approach from the 3rd attempts to ensure that AML compliance does not become a tick box exercise. Although the existing UK regulations have always given greater weight to this approach.

• The reduction of the threshold for Cash traders to 10,000 Euros regardless of whether this is via a single or a series of linked transactions.

• Increased focus on the Identification of Beneficial Owners bringing broader scope to identifying Persons with Significant Control.

• Politically Exposed Persons categories have been broadened and now include domestic PEPs for Enhanced Due Diligence.

• Checking domestic and foreign Sanction files should be a standard part of your Counter Terrorist Funding processes.

• Small changes to the Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR’s) regime.

By far the easiest and most efficient way to check for PEPs or those on Sanction files is by utilising the Alert features normally included as part of electronic ID verification product. However, differences of opinion remain on the use of electronic ID verification, and it should not be considered a panacea. That said, it is now your best, first line of due diligence when onboarding any new client and in many cases sufficient on its own.

April 2017

This is about adopting robust policies and procedures and embedding these into the culture of your firm with training, training and more training to support confidence and understanding What the Law Society says?

The Anti-Money Laundering Practice Note 2013: “(Electronic verification) will only confirm that someone exists, not that your client is the said person. You should consider the risk implications in respect of the particular retainer and be on the alert for information which may suggest that your client is not the person they say they are.”

And goes on to say: “While we believe electronic verification can be a sufficient measure for compliance with money laundering requirements, there may be circumstances where it will not be appropriate.”

Choosing a data provider to partner with for AML ID Verification is not as straight forward as you may hope. It’s important to note that a high “match” or “pass” rate should not be your main consideration in selecting an AML product. You must make time to understand the scoring process behind any ID Profile and ensure it satisfies your approach to risk. It’s interesting to note that one of the best ways to increase match rates is to remove any scoring on data of birth matching. However, both the Law Society and the JMLSG suggest checking date of birth as being best practice.

Fraud doesn’t end with ID and there has been a spate of incidents where criminals have provided bank account details to firms to fraudulently obtain proceeds of sale or hoodwink conveyancers in to sending purchase funds to fake firms’ bank accounts. Data and technology can support here too.

First and foremost, this is about adopting robust policies and procedures and embedding these into the culture of your firm with training, training and more training to support confidence and understanding.

Stephen Murray is Business Development Director at PSG.

Modern Law 43

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Mental Health Matters in the Legal Community Elizabeth Rimmer discusses mental health within the legal community, and how the sector needs to come together to better understand mental health and raise awareness in order to create a healthier working environment for legal professionals. e all have mental health, just as we have physical health.

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, and affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.

W

Overcoming the stigma

Mental health issues range from the worries we all experience as part of everyday life, to serious long-term conditions. It can be easy to dismiss mental health problems as something that happens to other people, but research shows that 1 in 4 of us will experience them each year - and the legal community is no exception.

Many legal professionals are reluctant to talk about mental health in the workplace, for fear they may be perceived as weak or not coping with the demands of their role. At LawCare, we know that talking is an important step in changing the way we think and act about mental health. We want to get the legal community talking about mental health so that anyone who has a problem can get support.

We want legal practices to positively address mental health issues in the workplace, but it isn’t always easy to recognise the signs.

These are the common ones to look out for: • Out-of-character behaviour, such as irritability, mood swings, anger or short temper • Lack of energy, concentration and motivation • Frequent bouts of illness • Problems with sleeping • Panic attacks: these can happen suddenly, and include feeling sick, short of breath, shaking, sweating • Failure to achieve targets despite apparent commitment and long hours • Overconfidence despite making mistakes • Withdrawal from usual social interaction and hobbies • Deteriorating relationships with managers and/or colleagues • Neglect of personal dress and hygiene • Increasing use of alcohol/coming into the workplace smelling of alcohol A combination of these behaviours could mean the person is experiencing mental health issues, and could signal that it is time to think about seeking information, support and reassurance.

Talking about mental health at work can be difficult. People can find that it is helpful to be open, and can feel relieved when things are not hidden any more, but they may also experience negative reactions. It is important for people to remember that they are not alone, and that many working professionals can have mental health problems.

Raising Awareness

It is a choice to talk about mental health with colleagues or employers; there are no set rules, but it may help to get the practical support needed to stay healthy at work.

For any organisation looking to implement mental health and wellbeing programmes into their workplace there is plenty of

April 2017

It can be easy to dismiss mental health problems as something that happens to other people, but research shows that 1 in 4 of us will experience them each year - and the legal community is no exception information and support available. The Law Society and the Bar Council are engaged with improving mental health and wellbeing in the legal profession. The Bar Council has recently launched a dedicated website, ‘Wellbeing at the Bar’. The site has plenty of useful resources, including how to implement a mental health and wellbeing policy Firms and chambers are also beginning to raise awareness of mental health issues and the support that is available. Several Magic Circle firms participated in the ‘This is Me’ campaign that was launched by the Lord Mayor of London last year. This campaign is a platform for employees who have experienced mental health problems to share their stories with others. People’s attitudes, understanding and behaviour towards others with mental health problems are more likely to improve if they are given the opportunity to learn about mental health problems from someone who has experienced them.

Some legal organisations have trained their staff as Mental Health First Aiders. The training course teaches people how to identify, understand and help a person who may be developing a mental health issue. The programme was developed in Australia in 2000, and is now internationally recognised in 23 countries.

We need to come together as a legal community to raise awareness and understanding of mental health in order to create healthier and more supportive working environments for lawyers.

Although attitudes are changing, the fact remains that many people feel unable to raise mental health problems at work, and we need to do something about that.

Organisations are only as strong as their people, and a healthy and productive workforce, where staff feel valued and supported, will be more committed to the organisation’s goals and perform better in their jobs. Mental health matters.

Elizabeth Rimmer is the CEO at LawCare. LawCare is the charity that supports and promotes good mental health and wellbeing in the legal community throughout the UK and Ireland. Our key service is a free, independent and confidential Helpline, which is open 365 days a year on 0800 279 6888. A wealth of information, including helpful resources and factsheets, is available to download from our website www.lawcare.org.uk

Modern Law 45

ARE YOU FUTURE PROOF? TUESDAY 23rd MAY 2017 08.30 - 09.15

Registration & Breakfast

09.15 - 09.30

Chairman’s Welcome Chris Harris, MD, Lawyer Checker Tony Piccirillo, Partner, AVRillo

09.30 - 10.15

Keynote Address - Where is the UK housing market heading?

Mark Easton, Journalist and Broadcaster

10.15 - 11.00

PANEL 1 – Client Care: Breaking down barriers Mark Montgomery, Customer Strategy & Marketing Director, My HomeMove Andy Foster, Panel Member, Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) Darren Cox, Ombudsman, Legal Ombudsman Graham Murphy, Product Manager at The Law Society

11.00 - 11.45

Morning Refreshments

11.45 - 12.45

PANEL 2 – Managing your firm Paul Saunders, Managing Director, Legal Eye Mike Ockenden, Thornby Associates & SLC Sheila Kumar, Chief Executive, Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) Beth Rudolph, Director of Delivery, The Conveyancing Association Edward Donne, Director, Professional Indemnity, Howden UK Group Limited

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PANEL 3 – Identity theft cases Rob Hailstone, Founder, Bold Legal Group David Knowles, Head of Financial Crime, Paycasso Tim Prior, Director, PNCR Legal Edward Powell, Director, BE Consultancy Edward Donne, Director, Professional Indemnity, Howden UK Group Limited

13.30 - 14.30

Lunch

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PANEL 4 – Best Practice in Conveyancing Sarah Tucker, Head of Conveyancing, LSL Estate Agency Division Stephen Murray, Business Development Director, PSG Justin Parkinson, Managing Director, Decision First Tom Barry, Director of Sales & Lettings at Keller Williams

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Inside InfoTrack An inside look at how InfoTrack’s company culture has played a crucial role in building a business that continues to grow and perform for law firms across the UK. Culture Difference

Operating in the UK since July 2015, InfoTrack is a business that has come far in a short period of time, with 550 active customers now using their services every month, in just under 2 years. When talking with Scott Bozinis, CEO, it becomes clear that culture genuinely plays an important part in their success.

Upon entering InfoTrack’s new offices on the 11th floor in Waterloo, London, the focus on engaging staff in the business becomes abundantly obvious. Staff are wearing InfoTrack branded t-shirts and hoodies, whilst multiple TV screens decorate the office walls, showing real-time information usually reserved for management teams. There are no offices, but instead a large amount of space given over to collaboration and recreation.

Agility is king

A high performing culture really involves building pride in what you do and who you work with The screens around the office are just one example of how InfoTrack invoke transparency across the business. All InfoTrack employees have access to an internal mobile ‘app’ that provides in-depth real-time information focusing on business performance.

This further promotes an investment in the business that motivates staff to deliver a service that is critically different to their competitors.

InfoTrack have an agile approach to developing new products and services. Whilst many businesses have monthly or quarterly releases, InfoTrack make daily updates to their website. In fact, over 1,000 updates have been implemented in just over 3 months.

Employing great technology, InfoTrack invest in attracting the best coding talent available in the market.

Making the difference

Scott says, “It is no secret that developers want to work with the best technology – enjoyable in fact. Importantly, Development teams are at their best when they see their efforts released into the real world. That’s why we perform a release every day of the week and that is clearly a benefit to our customers.”

Scott adds, “A high performing culture really involves building pride in what you do and who you work with. Our team are passionate about nurturing a healthy working environment and it is fundamentally important that staff are invested in the business.

It’s this approach that allows us to perform for our clients and truly differentiates InfoTrack from other businesses in our industry.”

An attitude to caring

InfoTrack put real meaning behind each of their core values, and where InfoTrack differ from others is by translating these values into action. It is clear that they stand by the belief that by looking after staff, the staff will, in turn, look after clients.

April 2017

With benefits like evening yoga classes, pool tables, table tennis, breakfast, lunch, client events, socials and more, it becomes easy to view InfoTrack as a progressive business investing in their staff to ensure a stable culture through caring, transparency, and an enabling attitude.

With an exceptionally low staff turnover, it’s clear that InfoTrack have created a unique working environment through a culture where staff genuinely want to make a difference and collaborate to evolve the traditional processes within the legal market.

Modern Law 47

FEATURES

Calling time on the traditional partnership The traditional partnership model in a law firm is not suitable for making the most of a partner’s skillsets, argues James Knight, who explains why he believes alternative structures can improve workflow, service quality and satisfaction within firms. raditional law firm management often brings with it a number of difficulties. Partners may have their own varying agendas. Some, tasked with the role, are even reluctant to do it, if they feel the distractions will adversely affect their client base. The legal industry has seen great change of late, particularly in the last 6 months, with news of a number of mergers and sinking ships. Indeed, the constant stream of news articles on the demise of KWM conjures up images reminiscent of the collapse of Lehman Brothers almost a decade ago. It’s true that partnership is not what it used to be. Badly structured collaborations, in-fighting, internal politics and ill-advised borrowing is becoming all too common in the modern day industry. But, while our legal friends across the pond are still largely prohibited from allowing non-lawyers to become owners and directors, the UK market is blazing a trail in the radical alteration of the law firm model, and with much success. With the rise of the new age law firm comes the question, is it time we called an end to the traditional law firm partnership?

T

“People’s people”

Lawyers, particularly senior ones, have a challenging job at the best of times. They must develop and maintain numerous client relationships and then handle the work that flows from those relationships. This is a full-time job in itself and one that frequently involves international travel, business entertainment, lengthy and emotive meetings and lots of midnight oil. Even the very best lawyers, in particular those who are heralded on account of their technical expertise, are not usually “people’s people”. There is no doubt that they are appointed due to their credibility as lawyers, but they then discover that they struggle with concerning themselves with the wellbeing and success of other people. Add to that the general difficulty of being a manager, along with the concept of being accountable for the mistakes of others, and you have the consequences of management simply clashing with the independent personality trait of the professional partner.

It’s true that partnership is not what it used to be. Badly structured collaborations, in-fighting, internal politics and ill-advised borrowing is becoming all too common in the modern day industry making process that goes into the new office furniture. They would prefer that it was just done and done well. They want an efficient, well-run financially-viable office infrastructure and good colleagues to work with. In other words, they want a good platform from which to practice law.

Taking lawyers away from fee earning work as they struggle to achieve rigorous billing targets is the cause of an enormous amount of unnecessary stress which, in itself, helps to engender political in-fighting. Apart from that, it is simply illogical and inefficient. Working with clients to achieve a successful outcome for their case or matter requires a completely different skill-set to running a business; it probably uses a different part of the brain even. To expect anyone to be able to switch immediately from one style of thinking and one way of working to another, and then back again, is unrealistic and actually naïve. It shows a complete misunderstanding as to what sort of personality type it takes to run a business and how distinct that is from the practice of law.

Ultimately, the partnership role is a job that places individuals under enormous pressure, but that is the career they chose and one that can be enormously fulfilling when they have the right platform to work from. The ‘right platform’ is a well-run law firm that supports them, both logistically and emotionally, and in so doing, enables them to be the best version of themselves and deliver a first rate client service.

There are hundreds of factors that have led to the success of Keystone Law and its continued strong growth. But if we were to distil them down to one thing, it’s this - Keystone lets lawyers get back to doing what they do best whilst the firm’s management team is consultative and seeks to initiate solutions to facilitate this autonomy. Most importantly, the board of directors, which is made up of non-fee earning lawyers and other individuals who have never done a unit of fee earning in their lives, strives to provide an environment that supports and pleases the firm’s lawyers so they can do their job to the best of their abilities by way of a truly dynamic platform.

The right platform

James Knight is Managing Partner of Keystone Law.

Unfortunately, law firms are all too rarely geared to provide senior lawyers with the platform they need and, in fact, deserve. Rather, in addition to carrying out their fee earning work and meeting tough billing targets, most firms expect those lawyers to help run the business side of things too. The range of non-fee earning activities they are required to perform are too long to list, but inevitably involve endless internal meetings and steering committees.

Lawyers generally don’t enjoy these tasks and certainly don’t feel an overwhelming urge to be integrally involved in the decision-

48 Modern Law

April 2017

MSc in Construction Law & Dispute Resolution King’s College London Centre of Construction Law The Dickson Poon School of Law

Applications are invited for this highly regarded post-graduate programme: • two-year part-time, post-experience, cross-professional programme for lawyers and construction professionals, now in its thirtieth year, covering the law and its application to construction projects, practices, people and problems • four taught modules and a dissertation, including foundation modules on law for construction professionals or construction technology for lawyers • international, multi-disciplinary student cohort with strong alumni association • nine full days’ tuition each term in central London ( three weekends of Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays) plus regular online tutorials • academic staff led by Professor David Mosey, Professor Renato Nazzini and Professor Phillip Capper, supported by leading academics and practitioners • access to leading UK and international research in fields such as alliancing, arbitration and BIM • specialist library resources and online facilities available to students • qualifies for professional CPD and, with the additional award-writing examination, exemption from the CIArb Fellowship examination • next intake September 2017 – early applications are encouraged (with a final deadline of 30 July 2017) Applicants must have a degree and/or acceptable professional qualifications plus, (for construction professionals and non-practising lawyers), at least two years’ relevant work experience; or (for practising lawyers), at least completed pupillage or one year of training contract.

For a copy of the on-line prospectus and details of the application procedure, visit the College website: www.kcl.ac.uk (click School of Law/MSc Construction Law on home page). For further information visit the Centre of Construction Law website at: www.kcl.ac.uk/law/research/centres/construction/about.aspx, or contact Sue Hart on 020 7848 2643, or email ccldr@kcl.ac.uk.

FEATURES

REGIONAL FOCUS: Ireland Interview with Stuart Gilhooly Modern Law extended its regional focus to the Emerald Isle and spoke to Stuart Gilhooly, President of the Law Society of Ireland, at a time when the country’s legal sector is undergoing a number of structural and cultural shifts, many of which run parallel to changes in the UK sector.

Q A

What are the main challenges the Law Society of Ireland faces at the moment?

We are in a slightly different space to England and Wales in that we still regulate ourselves to a large extent. The Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 will take some of that power away from us when the Legal Service Regulatory Authority finally becomes completely active. It will probably be another six months to a year before that actually comes to pass.

The Legal Services Regulatory Authority are starting from scratch, and when that happens we will lose the complaints function to that authority and they will then deal with all client complaints. They will also then have regulatory oversight over the Law Society. The main challenge we are going to face from that end is going to be the cultural change. The society was in charge of everything, both regulation and representation, and it will change to a situation where we’re dealing with some of the regulation and other parts have moved to an entirely separate body. We’ll then try and marry that with increasing or improving our representative powers.

Q A

What are your core aims during your tenure as President of the Law Society of Ireland?

Given that the Legal Service Regulatory Authority is unlikely to get up and running during my tenure, my main aim is to try and bring a diverse profession together. We have, like most jurisdictions around the world, a big mixture of different types of firms, not dissimilar to England and Wales. About 24% of our profession are in the largest twenty firms, and we also have nearly 20% of professionals working either in-house or in the public sector.

The traditional model of firm, where you might have one to five solicitors, which would have been the norm twenty years ago, is no longer as prevalent; while it is by no means outdated, it is less popular. We are always going to have smaller firms, but the bigger firms are getting bigger and more and more people are going inhouse, so the big challenge that faces us and the big aim I have is to try and be relevant to all of those different sectors.

Q A

How have the needs of members changed over the last three years?

In the last three years we have seen more and more people going into larger firms. We have seen a huge number who have gone in-house. There is a very different set of requirements for an in-house solicitor than in, say, a small law firm, and the needs of the person that had previously been in the traditional firm and is now an in-house solicitor are completely different to what they were.

The traditional model of firm, where you might have one to five solicitors, which would have been the norm twenty years ago, is no longer as prevalent; while it is by no means outdated, it is less popular

Equally, depending on if you are in a small firm or a larger firm

50 Modern Law

April 2017

FEATURES

The society was in charge of everything, both regulation and representation, and it will change to a situation where we’re dealing with some of the regulation and other parts have moved to an entirely separate body your requirements are very different. Trying to deal with the different requirements that are there is the biggest change. For instance, I was speaking to 140 solicitors in one of our larger firms, and they have no great concerns about regulation because they are very well regulated within their own firm. They have no great concerns about CPD because they have excellent CPD provided to them by their own firm.

But there are others ways that we can help. For instance, some solicitors in larger firms think that our education system doesn’t fully match what their needs are, perhaps because the education system in the past was more focused on that of the smaller or rural practitioner. We call litigation, probate and conveyancing the staples, and now larger firms almost don’t do any of those three; certainly they won’t do much residential conveyancing, and they won’t do any probate or any litigation other than of a large-scale nature. Our education system needs to move with these times, on the fact that they have very different needs. It’s a difficult task for us but it is something that we are very focused on for the moment.

Q A

How do you and the team at the Law Society of Ireland ensure the society maintains its relevance to the profession?

We adopted a process of meeting as many people as possible in the profession; that’s been my aim for this year, to meet as many colleagues as possible. That has been done through a combination of going through the local bar associations around the country and by meeting with individual members of the larger firms who we’ve never had individual meetings with before.

We’ve also met with several other larger firms, and it’s great that we’re getting a good turn out. About a third to a half of their solicitors have come to listen to us, and more importantly came to talk to us and feed back about what they need. So we’re asking them how we can be relevant to them, and then we’re hearing from them and we’re making changes where we can.

Q A

What are the aims of The Law Society of Ireland’s 2014-2018 strategy and what do you hope it will achieve?

There are two things. The first is dealing with the effects of the fact that our profession is changing, and secondly, we are obviously conscience of the feminisation of our profession. This is happening all around the world, but more so in Ireland than pretty much anywhere else.

We were the first country anywhere in the world, as far as we aware, that have a majority of women as solicitors; we are now at 52% and that number is going to keep on increasing. For the last ten to fifteen years, approximately two thirds of people qualified are women, and there is no doubt that as time goes on that we will

April 2017

lead to, at least, a sixty-forty ratio of women to men.

In one way it shouldn’t matter, but in other ways it clearly does, because everyone has different requirements. A lot of women have different requirements from the workplace than men do and we are very conscious of that. We are very conscious of ensuring that women feel as though they can progress to the highest level.

As things stand, out of twelve of our largest firms, only one of those has a female managing partner. That is something that we feel needs to change, and I am sure it will change in due course, but we need to get to that point.

The other thing we are looking at is the change to the regulatory system. The Legal Service Regulatory Authority will most likely be operational at some point in 2018, and the cultural and operational change that will bring is going to be a challenge for us. There’s also going to be a financial aspect too, as it’s going to cost more to run than the current system, which will have an effect on the whole sector. We’re hoping it will be a lot lower than people think; we have certainly worked hard to ensure that it is. To some degree, what is going to happen is up in the air. We know what to expect, but it is one thing to know, and another to see what is actually going to happen.

Q

How important is the role of the society in representing, supporting and promoting the needs of practitioners on a national level?

A

We think it is huge. We are in a slightly different space in that we still do regulate and all of our members are obliged to be members of the Law Society, effectively. They all have to pay a practising certificate fee whether they like it or not, and as a result the Law Society is there to represent them. We certainly see that with the change in the regulatory structure, the role of representation is going to be bigger and bigger, and we have geared ourselves up for that in the last few years.

We had a Future of the Law Society taskforce that went around the country several years ago, collecting the opinions of members as how to represent them better. It produced a report, and we’re still working to try and ensure that recommendations from the report are carried through. Certainly the changes we have made since that report, particularly two aspects such as communication and PR, but also in the committee structure, will make a huge difference in terms of how we represent our members.

Q

How do you think solicitors are perceived by the public? Do law societies have a part to play in building relationships on this level?

A

The reality is that solicitors in Ireland are seen in the same way that lawyers are seen all around the world. I think the general view is that people look somewhat sceptically towards the legal

Modern Law 51

FEATURES

We are obviously conscience of the feminisation of our profession.

This is happening all around the world, but more so in Ireland than pretty much anywhere else profession as a whole, but that they generally like their own solicitor.

We are definitely not under any illusions that people think we’re brilliant. We are working on trying to improve our image, but ensuring that we improve our image through what we do and say rather than through any other means. We have certainly made huge advances in how we communicate within the profession, and indeed with the wider public in the last 3 years since we took on Teri Kelly, who is our head of member services (MPR). We have a very good relationship with the media; we involve them in everything we do and we even have an awards for the legal media, called the Justice Media Awards, which awards excellence in legal writing and improving how the public understand what occurs in the legal world.

Q A

Do you feel that the Law Society of Ireland has a voice in wider conversations outside of Ireland?

We have a very big involvement in both European and world bar efforts, and we have a major presence at the CCBE and also at the IBA. Our Director General, Ken Murphy, is heavily involved in the bar issues commission on the IBA, and James McGuill, a former president, is also at a very senior level at the CCBE. We would have a very serious and a particularly influential presence at both I would like to think, particularly with the fact that Britain is leaving the EU, and our voice will become even more important as the only English speaking country still in the EU; we would certainly regard our voice as particularly important at a European level, and we would see it becoming more influential as time goes on.

Q A

What does the future look like for the legal profession in Ireland?

I think it is positive. The legal profession is ever evolving, but we’ve come through the worst of it. We had a terrible time, like most of the world, during 2009-2014, and we say to people that if you can survive that time, you should keep yourself in business, then hopefully you will prosper again in the future.

Altogether we are by no means completely out of the woods, but we are certain there is a lot more confidence in the legal profession than there was back in those days. Now there are obviously concerns about Brexit, and there is no one foolish enough to think that won’t be a factor going forward. There is a lot of uncertainty and worry about how that might affect business in this country, but in general terms there will be a feeling that we are in a better place than we were and there would be a cautious confidence about the future.

We had a terrible time, like most of the world, during 20092014, and we say to people that if you can survive that time, you should keep yourself in business, then hopefully you will prosper again in the future 52 Modern Law

Stuart Gilhooly, President of the Law Society of Ireland Stuart Gilhooly commenced his term as President of the Law Society of Ireland for the year 2016/17 on 4 November 2016.

Mr Gilhooly is a partner in the law firm HJ Ward & Co, Harold’s Cross, Dublin. He is serving a one-year term as president of the 16,000-strong Irish solicitors’ profession until November 2017.

Originally from Malahide, Co Dublin, Stuart is the eldest son of James (who qualified as a barrister in the early ‘80s) and mother Valerie (née Stuart), both deceased.

Stuart studied law at University College Dublin from 1988 to ‘91, graduating with a BCL, followed by a Diploma in Business Studies at the Smurfit School of Business. In October 1992, he began his traineeship at HJ Ward & Co, qualified as a solicitor in 1995, and was made a partner in 2003.

Stuart has served on the Council of the Law Society of Ireland for the past 17 years, originally becoming a member of Council in 1999. He has chaired many of the Society’s most senior committees, including the Finance Committee, the Professional Indemnity Insurance Committee, the Litigation Committee and the Education Committee, among others.

Stuart leads the solicitors’ profession during a period of unprecedented challenges, including the establishment of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority and the impact of the Brexit referendum on Ireland.

In his spare time, he is an avid cyclist and is a member of the VC Beechwood cycling club in Ranelagh, Dublin.

April 2017

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Don’t let the fickle finger of fate find your single point of failure Our resident Tech commentator Charles Christian writes… ack at the beginning of March, Amazon Web Services suffered a massive outage that brought down a sizeable chunk of the public cloud services operating in the United States and, with it, a substantial part of the internet. Hackers? A cybersecurity breach? No - human error.

B

Turns out, one individual was carrying out scheduled maintenance work on some servers and entered a routine command.

Unfortunately he entered an incorrect digit, so instead of shutting down one server, he brought down a whole network of servers, setting off a domino effect. In other words, it was a simple typo that nearly broke the internet.

The Amazon outage was an example of what is known as a single point of failure, or SPOF (of course there’s an acronym), where the failure of just one element can stop an entire system from operating properly.

Back in the early days of legal technology, it was not unusual to hear of law firm computer networks crashing because some cleaner had inadvertently unplugged the server so they could free up a socket to plug in a vacuum cleaner. We’ve moved on a bit further since then (but only a little bit), however the Amazon experience highlights the continuing risk of SPOF, particularly with such things as online and cloud services.

It’s Friday, it’s completion day and your bank is suffering a system failure and can’t process online banking transactions? Alternatively, you’ve moved some of your essential computing services to the cloud, but there’s a problem, so you can no longer access them – and with the cloud there are so many potential SPOFs! Is it the firm’s own router and/or the way the network is configured? Or, is it the firm’s internet/broadband services provider? For example, there was a major outage in central London last year caused by a fire in some underground conduits carrying broadband and telecommunications cabling. Is it a more widespread internet/world wide web problem, such as the Amazon incident? Or, has your cloud services provider gone out of business? The latter is a very real risk that has hit a number of firms over the years.

The dilemma is these services are all so convenient when they actually work, that it is no longer a viable option to totally avoid them This is also the reason why many cloud services are now bundled in with DR and business continuity services to provide an essential element of resilience. This is sometimes called a hybrid cloud solution, offering a mixture of public cloud services (such as Dropbox), a private cloud services, and on-premise technology.

This way, you get all the flexibility of the cloud when you need it, but you can still access your data if there is a problem with the cloud. Similarly, if there is a problem accessing your on-premise technology, and it could be something as mundane as a power cut or a train strike so you can’t reach the office, you can access it via the cloud.

The obvious downside is all this DR/backup/redundancy to create a resilient system, in other words one that is not at risk of a single point of failure, costs money. And all too often law firms decide this is one area of technology expenditure where they can afford to make economies. If you are prepared to take such a risk, then fine – until something goes wrong! Then, when you start comparing the cost of creating a resilient system with the cost of recovering from an IT “disaster” and the loss of billable fee earning time, you may find your cost cutting was a false economy.

Building a resilient tech infrastructure is like house insurance. You pay your premiums not because you think your house might burn down but because you know the risk of being uninsured in the event of a fire is unacceptable.

Charles Christian is Editor-at-Large of the Legal IT Insider newsletter and also blogs about Tech & Stuff at www.gonzo.news and on Twitter at @ GonzoNewswire

The dilemma is these services are all so convenient when they actually work, that it is no longer a viable option to totally avoid them. Instead, firms need a Plan B: contingency planning involving some form of backup/system level redundancy, so if a key component or service fails, it doesn’t bring the business to a grinding halt. You don’t just have one hard drive that all data is saved to, you have multiple drives that data can be saved to. In fact, many firms will now either subscribe to or have (or should have) their own external disaster recovery (DR) facility that replicates/mirrors their entire network and data in a secure secondary location.

April 2017

Modern Law 55

Flexi FlexiSmart SmartContingency ContingencyHouse HouseInsurance Insurance Homebuyers Homebuyersbecome becomelegally legallyresponsible responsibleforforthe theproperty’s property’sbuilding buildinginsurance insuranceonce oncecontracts contractshave haveexchanged. exchanged.

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The TheFlexi FlexiSmart SmartContingency ContingencyHouse Houseinsurance insurancewill willbebeordered orderedbybyyour yoursolicitor solicitorononyour yourinstruction instructionand andwe we suggest suggestthat thatthe thebest besttime timeis iswhen whenyou youinstruct instructyour yoursolicitor solicitortotoact actforforyou. you.

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Enquire Enquireororbuy buyfrom fromyour your Homebuyer HomebuyerConveyancing Conveyancing Solicitor Solicitor TheThe Financial Financial Conduct Conduct Authority Authority (FCA) (FCA) is the is the regulator regulator of Financial of Financial Services Services and and General General Insurance Insurance in the in the UK.UK. TheThe FCA FCA is an is an independent independent body body who who reports reports to the to the government. government.

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FEATURES

Modelling for the future Simon Goldhill argues that a traditional model and a traditional attitude to service quality are outdated in 21st century society, and that firms need to be aware of the needs of their clients and of working capital. he business of law, particularly in the high street, has remained isolated, or insulated, by the monopoly protection given to solicitors prior to the Legal Services Act coming into force in 2011. There are many consequences, but I focus on just two of the key areas where change needs, and is starting, to happen.

T

The business model issue

The bulk of the high street market remains in the hands of around 8,500 small (1-4 partner) firms, the vast majority with annual revenues of less than £2-3m. The predominant model remains partnership (LLP is effectively just a tax-efficient partnership wrapper).

The golden age of the partnership model started in the 1960s but began to crack towards the end of the 1980s (having set up a new partnership in November 1989, literally days before the recession hit, believe me I experienced it first hand), when the days of simply needing to put up the brass plaque to be successful changed. The amnesia of the noughties masked the realities of what it takes to build sustainable business performance. The 2008 crisis brought the world crashing around the banks’ ears and the world changed for good. Since then, the squeeze has been on for the lifeblood of any business that wants to grow: working capital.

In the good old days, this was easy to deal with. Banks lent to partners on generally soft terms and, so long as new salaried/ equity partners kept on being appointed, that was the working capital requirement sorted, as well as the succession plan.

Things are different today; yes, there are working capital facilities available, but on far more onerous terms that put the partners under increasing pressure. Partners who may have earned extremely well in the past have locked those rewards away in their homes and other illiquid assets, or spent it on their lifestyles.

Their ability and willingness to invest more into their business is limited. Few young lawyers are prepared to accept the burden that partnership has become. With the constant pressure to continue to grow – few accept stand-still as a model – the working capital needs just accelerate.

Without an understanding of the vital importance of working capital to any business and the willingness to look at structures other than partnership to enhance the opportunity to procure it at the levels required, there will be an increasing risk of firms that have a good underlying business – lots of work and a good mix of people and resource to deliver it – being brought down by a simple lack of cash.

The quality consumer service issue

We live in a world where our clients are increasingly 21st century consumers with the expectations of people living in a world where instant online consumer-focused service is available in growing areas of their everyday lives convenience of the provider. Small businesses cannot invest in systems and training to meet the changing expectations of their client base. And there is the culture; for some, being ‘a professional’ is somehow innately sufficient.

We live in a world where our clients are increasingly 21st century consumers with the expectations of people living in a world where instant online consumer-focused service is available in growing areas of their everyday lives. This is not just Millennials; everyone of all ages now is developing expectations of quality service focused on their needs and convenience.

There is a growing awareness within this market of the need to change, but it requires a major culture shift. For anyone who understands how the major supermarkets and other hugely successful consumer-focused businesses operate, Tesco Law isn’t about factories of low-paid, low-skilled operators providing as cheap a service as possible, rather understanding consumer needs and providing the exacting standards of service their customer base demands. And if Tesco Law isn’t going to happen today because the quality of the service just isn’t there within the market now, those standards will come. Any provider who isn’t ready for that risks being swept away.

The future?

The key long term effect of the Legal Services Act is not simply changing the ownership/funding model, but is opening up the legal market to business models, ideas and expertise that work so successfully in other markets to drive the changes that we need.

With sufficient thought leadership and determination to change, I am confident that the high street market, currently worth £8bn+ and potentially a great deal more, will survive and thrive.

Simon Goldhill is CEO of Metamorph Law.

There is no doubt that the high street market is full of individuals whose genuine intention is to provide a quality service to their clients, but there are barriers. The traditional business model focuses attention on compliance, the transaction/matter rather than the client and a relationship, which tends to focus on the

April 2017

Modern Law 57

FEATURES

Transition or transform?

Choosing the right cloud solution for you Gavin Russell, Wavex, discusses the questions law firms should ask themselves before choosing to upgrade their IT systems. very day, there are many businesses thinking about moving their workloads away from internally managed servers and towards a private or public cloud provider, and one of the reasons they’re doing so is down to risk.

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Unless your business is among the minority that’s constantly replacing and upgrading its IT infrastructure to stay up to date, it’s likely that your estate will be getting outdated and unfit for the modern-day landscape, if it isn’t already. The IT practices of yesteryear were a far cry from what they are now, especially when it comes to the issues of security, governance and risk. Less than ten years ago it wouldn’t have been frowned upon to use the same password on multiple computers or browse the internet at work without firewalls in place, but nowadays it’s something that IT managers could lose their jobs over. Therefore, these systems must be upgraded to ensure they’re in-line with modern-day regulations.

However, before making a decision, there’s one question that must be considered. Do you want to transform or transition your IT estate?

Understanding the differences

Before answering, it’s important to understand the definition of ‘transformation’ and ‘transition’ in this context.

The transitioning of a businesses’ IT estate involves ‘copying’ all the information and data on its servers to its new cloud environment.

Although the idea of running these servers on brand new hardware and in a new location can seem intimidating to many, the differences that can actually be noticed are minimal. The servers are still using the same ‘old’ operating system with the same configuration, and running the same software. Although everything is in the cloud, the day-to-day operations are virtually identical.

The transition process is great for those looking to move to a cloud-based infrastructure, while also saving huge amounts of setup and design time. However, it also means that any of the risks and vulnerabilities within your system are copied over and dumped into the cloud, along with everything else.

With this in mind, it seems fair to jump to the logical conclusion and say that it’s always best to go for the transformation option.

But this is not always the case.

Transforming your IT estate involves building an entirely new one from scratch, including new operating systems, applications and everything else, and this unsurprisingly comes with its own set of risks. With much more work required, transformation quickly becomes expensive (around two to three times the cost of a transition project), requires more testing and demands much more involvement from the business itself, whether it’s determining folder structures or user permissions.

The IT practices of yesteryear were a far cry from what they are now, especially when it comes to the issues of security, governance and risk lets you transition the servers that are more complicated to rebuild - SharePoint or CRM servers, for instance - and then transform the other servers, reducing the risk profile of the project. It’s a highly tempting solution that offers the best of both worlds.

But before making that vital decision, here are some criteria and questions that should help make your mind up: • Age — When was your IT estate last rebuilt? If it has simply evolved over the last five years or more, it’s worth transforming your estate.

• Stability — If you’ve recently experienced a number of IT outages then there could be an issue with the existing configuration, in which case a transformation would be bestsuited.

• Projects — Do you have any ongoing IT projects? If so, you may be unable to change the underlying infrastructure and a transition will be your only option.

• Risk — Is system stability and availability important? If the answer is yes, then a transformation is advised.

• Timeline — If you have a limited timeframe to complete the project, it’s best to opt for a transition.

• Support — As it’s impossible to determine whether every device has been built to best-practice specifications, many IT providers will not provide SLAs around infrastructure that isn’t built by themselves. Therefore, if contractual protection is important, transformation is the best option.

• Cost — The all-important question, how much do you want to pay? Transitioning is the cheaper option initially, but it’s worth looking into the hidden costs that could present themselves through issues in your current IT estate.

Making the decision to transform or transition your IT estate with cloud is by no means an easy one, but hopefully by considering the pros and cons and the criteria listed above, you’ll be able to make a much more informed decision that will allow your business to thrive in today’s digital landscape.

Gavin Russell is CEO of Wavex.

For those who simply can’t make their mind up between transformation and transition, there is one more option: both. This

58 Modern Law

April 2017

Robert Kelly, Stewart Title’s Commercial Business Development Manager considers the ongoing threat of chancel repair liability.

At a recent seminar, I talked about a claim that Stewart Title paid in respect of a chancel repair liability. Afterwards at least two of the delegates commented that it was a good thing chancel repair liability was no longer an issue. When I asked what they meant, they explained that after the Land Registration Act 2002 changes came into force, their firms didn’t bother with insurance or chancel searches as the church could no longer enforce the liability.

Unfortunately, this is not correct and any firm that fails to consider the possibility of chancel repair liability for all commercial and residential properties is not protecting their clients adequately.

Put simply, after 13 October 2013 chancel repair liability ceased being an “overriding” interest and is only enforceable if it is registered against the registered title or as a caution against first registration in the case of unregistered land. Parochial Church Councils (PCC) did not lose their right to register these interests and can continue to register at any point up to completion of a registration of a transfer for valuable consideration. This can happen even if you have a clear priority search.

The chance of a PCC registering against your client’s intended property may be remote, but a new owner presented with a large

bill for repairs to the church or discovering that the PCC has registered and encumbered the property will rightfully be angry and concerned about the advice given by the conveyancer.

Fortunately there is a simple, inexpensive and quick means through which the well advised conveyancer can protect their client and their firms PI insurance.

Stewart Title offers a “No Search Chancel Indemnity” policy which can be ordered at the same time as searches are ordered in a transaction. The policy removes the need to do a “chancel check” search and protects against any possible liability.

Our new easy-to-use ordering application, Stewart Online Solution, allows you to order policies with cover up to £3,000,000 for residential properties and £5,000,000 for commercial properties in three simple steps. Not only is this quicker than carrying out a search, but with premiums starting at £15.06 it is cost effective as well. Policies are available for all residential and commercial properties throughout the UK. For additional information about our policies or Stewart Online Solution please contact me at: robert.kelly@stewart.com or our Telephone Solution Team on 02070107821.

Stewart Online Solution.

Designed with you in mind.

You told us you wanted a system that makes ordering title indemnity insurance fast and easy. With Stewart Online Solution you can access over 150 policies, obtain a quote and receive cover in just three simple steps.

In addition, our experienced underwriters and Telephone Solution Team can be contacted from the system and are ready to help when needed.

See for yourself. Visit stewartsolution.com, call 020 7010 7821 or email solution@stewart.com.

© 2017 Stewart. All rights reserved.

See policy for terms and conditions.

Stewart Title Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Registered in England and Wales No: 2770166. Registered office address: 6 Henrietta Street, London, UK, WC2E 8PS. © Jan 2017 Stewart. All rights reserved.

CASE STUDIES

Limitless BI for legal HR departments or law firms, developing the right HR and recruitment strategy for analysing their staff performance and streamlining their recruitment and talent management process is vital to their success. People analytics is now a top priority for HR departments as they recognise the value in the recruiting and performance strategies that enable them to employ the right lawyers and staff with the right skills for their firm.

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Informance has been providing business intelligence solutions to law firms, based on the Qlik platform, for over eight years, and during this time has built up an impressive legal client list. Managing Director Barry Talbot recently said that his customers are looking to extend the use of business intelligence software for improved decision-making and planning on not just financial performance but for human resources, meaning they can hire more efficiently.

Informance has developed several unique Qlik HR dashboards that are now transforming the way firms manage their human resources, recruitment and talent management capabilities. These dashboards unlock the power of a firm’s data and give their HR department the information it needs to drive HR business outcomes, performance and profitability.

Barry says: “At Informance, we provide law firms with limitless BI capabilities from intuitive and easy to use dashboards that

let users create visualisations and apps that answer their most important questions.” He continues: “Historically, firms perform most HR analyses with Excel spreadsheets that are powered by fragmented systems and driven by a few select users, which does not provide the ‘whole story’ of the firm at a detailed level. We enable firms to promote self-service, support better collaborative decision-making, optimise and manage their workforce performance and replace their fragmented systems into a single view of their HR data”.

With a legal HR solution from Informance, data is more visible and accurate which means HR personnel are more productive and able to make quicker and more fact-based decisions relating to staff.

HR users can conduct in-depth personnel analysis very easily and build up a profile of staff performance and candidate information through an intuitive and user-friendly platform.

Barry concludes: “We can help firms optimise their HR performance and drive talent management strategies across the firm that add value to the processes for: appraisals, benefits, diversity, employee engagement, grievance, learning and development, payroll, performance, retention rates, salary gaps including gender, staff turnover and talent requirements”.

For further information, please visit: www.informance.co.uk

Helping you know where you’re heading, whatever lies ahead.

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We specialise in a number of financial planning aspects such as retirement planning, investment advice, protection and estate planning. For more information or to arrange an initial, free and no obligation meeting, please call 01482 219325 or alternatively visit our website; www.informedfinancialplanning.co.uk

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60 Modern Law

09/11/2016 10:25

April 2017

CASE STUDIES

Eclipse implements bespoke Proclaim Case Management Software solution at HD Law clipse Legal Systems, the sole Law Society Endorsed legal software provider, has implemented its Proclaim Case Management solution at new start-up firm, HD Law.

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The Bradford-based practice specialises in litigation involving the Consumer Credit Act 1974, in general recovering compensation Darren Gower for those who have fallen victim to missold financial products or products purchased using credit. This includes a wide range of claims including mis-sold insurance policies such as PPI, under-performing investments, timeshare and renewable energy products and interest rate hedging products.

The new start-up has opted for an entirely bespoke Proclaim Financial Claims Software solution , which will facilitate a secure approach to individual client files, bringing with it a high level of efficiency to the firm’s operations and enabling staff to seamlessly share cases with an established Leeds-based practice.

Furthermore, Proclaim will help to streamline processes for HD

Law by collating all incoming documents, ensuring every piece of client matter is stored, ready for extraction, in the relevant case.

The firm has also implemented Eclipse’s Task Server tool which will eradicate hours of administration time by carrying out various time-consuming yet vital tasks - ideal for a busy start-up practice.

Adam Hizzett, Director at HD Law, comments: “From previous experience with Eclipse and Proclaim I knew the software was the market leader and definitely the best placed solution for our business. As a new start-up it’s essential we are able to establish ourselves and maintain the impeccable standards we promise to our clients. Thanks to Proclaim, I can be confident moving forward that our claims processes can be handled expertly within the system, allowing us to focus on expansion and outgrowing our competition.”

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

‘Nalytics’ set to transform law firms A

verage business users often spend a large chunk of their day looking for documents and content they need, crippling efficiency and leading to frustration and overlap in effort.

David Rivett, COO, Nalytics

Nalytics.com from Nalanda Technology is a unique cloud software solution that enables law firms to easily and quickly search and analyse all their unstructured data, be it emails, spreadsheets, word documents or pdf files.

Nalytics is set to revolutionise the search and discovery software marketplace as it offers a simple, fast and intuitive way to precisely search and analyse data - improving productivity, accuracy and delivering better client experiences for law firms.

Over the past year, Nalanda has been working directly with a number of law firms to assist them in managing millions of documents with Nalytics.

One of the UK’s leading full-service law firms, Gosschalks Solicitors, use Nalytics.

Steve Savage, Development Director at Gosschalks Solicitors says: “Nalytics has enabled us to make significant savings around infrastructure and data management overheads. The Nalytics solution delivers a really neat and intuitive solution to our legacy document needs. It provides us with an easy to use, fast and effective way to search, discover and access all our legacy documents utilising the rich metadata we have built up over the years – everything our users told us they needed.”

He adds, “There is no doubt Nalytics helps our lawyers to maintain our high standards of client service and will continue to do so for years to come.”

Within the legal sector, the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is starting to gain momentum. The legal sector is still in the early stages of discovering the full potential

April 2017

of AI, however innovative firms are now taking advantage of technology such as Nalytics to help them work faster and smarter.

Nalytics are hosting a number of FREE informal ‘Let’s Talk About AI’ events across the UK and the Netherlands, focusing on how AI is impacting the legal sector.

David Rivett, COO of Nalytics says: “Nalytics delivers real benefits across all aspects of legal activities - contract analysis, M&A (due diligence), disclosure/litigation, data preservation or research.

“With its precision search functionality, Nalytics enables better, more accurate decision making, enhancing insight and improving productivity across a law firm. This not only saves time and money, but also ensures client value and supports lawyers in doing their job better.”

David adds, “Nalytics puts the ‘power of discovery’ into the hands of the lawyers, without the complexity and costs of other solutions in the market today. With rapid deployment, it can be up and running in a law firm within 24 hours.”

To register your place at one of Nalytics free ‘Let’s Talk About AI’ events visit www.nalytics.com/events For more information about Nalytics or to request a free demo visit www.nalytics.com

Modern Law 61

10 MINUTES WITH

Alison Foster QC Q A

Did you expect the legal services sector to change so drastically when you started working in it?

The changes to my corner of legal services, the Bar, have been astonishing in their number and depth since my days of pupillage in the 1980s. I could never have guessed that a number of them have been of immense benefit to the profession, likewise, the growth of solicitor advocates and of direct access practice must be two of the most obvious benefits to the public brought about by significant change.

As a non-male, non-public school entrant, I was extremely lucky to be a tenant in a relaxed and forward-thinking chambers. I did realise that elsewhere at the more traditionalist Bar, pupils back then did not attend tea, were spoken to but rarely spoke, and that matters of gender and heritage were considered far more important than amongst my close colleagues at (what was then) 2 Garden Court. There have been similar changes in attitude amongst solicitors and we have all realised, thank goodness, how vital the retention of senior women is to the balance and the integrity of law. Some progress, but nowhere near enough, has been made to address the issue of racial imbalance, but the change has been very marked from the 1980s.

What has been the key positive or negative impact of the liberalisation of legal services?

Maintenance of the highest standards of integrity and service are always more difficult with the proliferation of service providers, but the great boon of liberalisation has to be greater public access to the necessary legal skills. The cost of expertise and the increasing complication of the mere mechanics of living have made accessibility to reliable, reasonably priced advice the real goal for legal services provision. I do not know how the balance will be struck in future, but at least we are constantly examining ways in which the law can be more userfriendly, cheaper and quicker. The challenge is to do this without sacrificing appropriate depth, detail and integrity, of course.

Q A

Q A

Who inspires you and why?

The great legal minds of my time have also, in the most notable cases, been people of exceptional humanity and depth of understanding at the same time as first rate lawyers. I think it is the combination of brilliance and wisdom in such as Lords Dyson, Neuberger and Sir John Laws, for example, that inspires me the most.

Their judgments and extra-judicial writing betray a deep knowledge of life, an understanding of culture, and of people, as well as the law - and a real desire to do good. You can’t really do better than that. I

There have been similar changes in attitude amongst solicitors and we have all realised, thank goodness, how vital the retention of senior women is to the balance and the integrity of law am strongly in favour of acquiring an education in a non-legal subject if at all possible before committing to a life in the law. Each of the people I have mentioned read a non-law degree before they trained for the Bar, and I am particularly inspired by the wider learning that infuses the best judgments and serves to develop law and thought.

The realisation that economic changes have made this a far less achievable goal now than it was for me, years ago, is a great sadness.

Q A

Have you had a mentor? If so, what was the most valuable piece of advice they gave you?

I am hugely fortunate as there are a couple of people I would always go to if I needed to discuss frankly and in complete confidence a professional or ethical matter. I would count them as my best professional friends and I know I could, if I had to, wake them up at an ungodly hour with an urgent phone call, and they would answer. I have received great friendship and advice over the years, and try my best to “pass on the good turn”; the Bar is exhilarating and rewarding, but it can be very solitary. Good friendships are the best part of it.

As to the most useful advice, it has been this: always take a step back. You must think about your cases, not just work at them. It is very easy when under pressure to become so intensely involved in the minutiae and the details of a problem that you fail to step back in time to see your case or your problem in the round and to think differently, imaginatively and creatively about it.

Q A

If you were not in your current position, what would you be doing?

Painting on a beach, barefoot, somewhere.

Alison Foster QC is a Barrister and Joint Head of Chambers at 39 Essex Chambers.

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62 Modern Law

April 2017

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