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GAZETTE
APRIL 1989
When speaking to groups of
solicitors at Bar Association
meetings around the country, one
of the points that I make in relation
to the profession's fears of com-
petition from Building Societies and
other Lending Institutions in the
Conveyancing area, is that we are
a well educated and mainly
youthful and energetic profession,
which if it cannot compete on a
level playing field, that is on fair
terms as to competition, then we
have no one to blame but ourselves.
One of the elements which will
be important in ensuring that we
can face such competition, if and
when it comes, is how we manage
our offices. There is a growing
belief that in addition to technical
excellence, management skills will
be crucial to our firms' long term
effectiveness.
Law Office Management courses
started about 20 years ago. I was
a great attender at them and I
believe that I learned a lot. Finally
when asked by Bob Weil, the joint
author of Altman and Weil,
How to
Manage a Legal Office,
after a Law
Society Annual Conference in
Killarney at which he spoke,
whether I was going to his next
meeting somewhere on the con-
tinent, I replied, "No, I now know
all the theory, my problem is putting
it into practice". On the shelves of
our office, there are in addition to
Altman and Weil, Soars -
The
Solicitors
Practice
and David
Andrews -
Organisation
and
Management of a Legal Practice,
each of which is a two volume
loose leaf work. I have to confess
that I have not got beyond the
introductions in either. However, I
have read and would recommend to
you a paperback book of 111 pages
(excluding index) written by
Michael Simons, a London Solicitor,
entitled
Anatomy of Professional
Practice
which is published by the
Law Society's Gazette, 113
Chancery Lane, London at £14.95
stg.
In this book he recommends that
anyone interested in Management
and Practice Development should
join the Law Office Economics and
Management Section of the
American Bar Association. It
publishes a quarterly magazine
entitled
Legal Economics
which
contains many interesting articles.
Maybe what appealed to me about
Mr. Simons's book is that I agree
with so much of what he says,
particularly that our business is
about people and that you should
do as he says and not, as he
confesses, he sometimes does
himself.
Some of the comments can be
quite amusing. For example on the
question of Mergers he asks, is a
Merger of equals ever possible, to
which he replies, no there needs to
be a predator and a victim for each
successful amalgamation. Again he
can be quite analytical; writing on
the same subject he says "Merger
is not an easy route to follow. It
requires self-appraisal, discipline
and a willingness to subordinate
one's ego for the general good.
None of those are characteristics
which are of necessity prevalent in
our profession".
Branch offices are not something
that has caught on to any great
extent in this jurisdiction and I have
often wondered why; does it have
to do with an inability or a believed
inability to enforce restrictive
convenants against solicitors or
against Assistants or Partners who
operate branch offices and then
decide to go out on their own? Or
does it - as Michael Simons
believes - relate to the lack of
strong managment of finance and
personnel which he feels is a pre-
requisite?
Obviously, as well as spending
considerable sums of money on law
books we will all have to spend
great sums in future on installing
computerised legal information
retrieval systems which will also
enable us to obtain financial service
advice and additionally give access
to Land Registry, Companies Office
and other such Organisations.
Shortly after I qualified I thought
the copying machine was the
greatest invention; then decided
that the word processor was as
good if not better until finally (so
far) along came the fax machine
which to my mind really enables
the profession to deliver a modern
and efficient service. I have been
very pleased at the rate at which
fax machines have been acquired
by solicitors practices and I believe
in a very short time most of the
profession will be linked in this
manner and very shortly thereafter
linked on area network by
computer.
Another writer on legal practice,
asks "what is the real asset of a
law firm?" - to which he replies
- "the customer or the client is
the real asset of the business". The
purpose of the solicitors business
is to get and keep a client, as
without clients in sufficient and
steady numbers, there is no
business and no profits. If our legal
services do not meet the needs of
our clients, what good are they? Do
lawyers who believe themselves
more important than the people
they serve deserve to fail? In
America I read that today's clients
increasingly turn their backs on
arrogant and pompous lawyers and
look for a new breed of lawyer who
offers courtesy, promptness and
value.
There are all sorts of simple rules
which will help you in this direction,
for example, return calls promptly,
give practical advice, stay on top of
your work, anticipate your clients
needs. There are many others
which will be found regularly
repeated in articles in Journals such
as
Legal Economics.
In opening this
comment, I mentioned meeting
with Solicitors at Bar Associations.
Last November, those Bar Associ-
ations at their Half-Yearly Meeting
asked that I endeavour to put
Solicitors in a position to compete
in the area of housing finance and
general investment. Acting on that
suggestion, the Society in associ-
ation with Sedgwick Dineen
Personal and Financial Manage-
ment is now launching a financial
and property service for Solicitors.
I hope that the service will receive
a wide acceptance and be used to
good effect in advising clients.
I end by recommending you to
read Michael Simons book and
become a Subscriber to the
Journal.
Maurice Curran
President