The Gazette 1993

MARCH 1993

GAZETTE

Quality - the Competitive Edge

with quality is inevitable if you want to attract publicly-funded legal work in the UK," he says. The big building societies and the banks are also in the vanguard of the demand for legal services which have an assured level of quality, he maintains. Of his own experience of preparing for the BS5750 he says: "by far the most frightening part is

Philip Hamer agrees with the view that the move towards quality management in the UK is client driven. His firm, which has 24 solicitors and over 100 staff, has been working towards the British Quality Standard BS5750 Registration for two years now and is currently undergoing final assessment. "Becoming concerned

"It'll be concentrating on two angles of quality," says Paddy Hayes, Managing Director Corporate Image, "the first is the whole perception of the profession has of itself as a profession competing against people who can provide some of the services it can provide. The second is competition within the profession: can I, by putting concrete quality measures in place, differentiate myself from the practice down the road?" Patrick Hayes is just one of four keynote speákers at the Law Competitive Edge' on 21 May next in the Connemara Coast Hotel, Furbo, Co. Galway. Also on the panel will be Andrew Lockley, Director, Legal Practice, Law Society of England & Wales; Philip Hamer, Managing Partner, Philip Hamer & Co., Solicitors, Hull; and Robert Pierse, Managing Partner, Pierse & Fitzgibbon,-Solicitors, Listowel; all offering an insight to managing quality and what it can do to enhance your practice in the 90s. The two speakers from the UK, Andrew Lockley and Philip Hamer will report on the extent to which quality management has become a very live issue in the legal profession there. "Essentially the impetus had been client-driven," says Andrew Lockley. "It focuses on ever better standards of client care, such as how you handle complaints, the level of communication with clients, providing information about cost etc," he says. "The large consumers of legal services in the UK such as the Legal Aid Board, local authorities, large limited liability companies have led the way by insisting on this level of quality service." In his paper to the conference, he will report on what the Law Society in England & Wales has done to promote the concept of client care and quality standards among the solicitors' profession there. Society's Annual Conference Seminar on 'Quality - the

The Speakers

Andrew Lockley was appointed Director, Legal Practice Division of the Law Society

Patrick Hayes is Managing Director of Corporate Image Management Limited, a multi- disciplined market-

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of England & Wales in 1987

having worked with the Society since 1982. He qualified as a solicitor in 1979 and worked in private practice before joining the Law Society. He serves as the Law Society's representative on the Commission on Efficiency in the Criminal Courts. He graduated from Oriel College in Oxford in 1972 and obtained an MA there in 1982. He contributes to a number of legal periodicals. He is married and has three children.

ing communications consultancy and the first such firm in Ireland to be awarded the Quality Mark. He started a career in publishing in 1972, publishing CIS Report, and later, IRN Report. In the early 80s he founded Corporate Image and today the firm has annual sales of some £4 million and employs a full-time staff of 20. He is married to Deputy Helen Keogh, Chief Whip of the Progressive Democrats and the couple have two children. and in 1962 founded the practice Pierse & Fitzgibbon in Listowel which now employs five solicitors as well as support staff. He is also a partner in Pierse and Associates which is based in Tralee. His firm was awarded the Quality Mark in October, 1992 and was the first firm of solicitors in Ireland to achieve the standard. Robert Pierse qualified as a solicitor in 1960

Philip Hamer was a sole practitioner for five years and is now the Managing Partner of a firm of solicitors with

offices in Doncaster, Hull and Leeds, with 24 solicitors and over 100 staff. The firm has been working towards BS 5750 registration for two years and is undergoing final assessment in March, 1993. A past President of The Hull Incorporated Law Society, he has served as director of a number of companies including a USM Engineering Company. Married with a four year old son, he is a keen private pilot. C

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