The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

MARCH 1993

Quality - the Competitive Edge

"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

Society's Annual Conference

Seminar on 'Quality - the

Competitive Edge' on 21 May next in

the Connemara Coast Hotel, Furbo,

Co. Galway. Also on the panel will

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.

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

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

The Speakers

Patrick Hayes

Managing Director

of Corporate

Image

Management

Limited, a multi-

disciplined market-

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.

Robert Pierse

qualified as a

solicitor in 1960

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.

Andrew Lockley

mKj j ^^^A

was appointed

Director, Legal

Practice Division

of the Law Society

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.

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.