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GAZETTE
MAY 1 9 88
The Challenge of Change
The Law Society, in consultation with John Loosemore and Robert
Parsons of Lawyers' Planning Services, Cardiff, organised six seminars
in November/December
1987 at Dublin, S/igo, Ballinasloe, Kilkenny, Cork
and Limerick.
In conducting a review of the seminars, the Public Relations Committee
were well pleased at the overall attendances, and the general response.
Provocative, obvious, simple, thought-provoking,
useful, many were the
adjectives used, and thankfully there was no condemnation of the actual
content, which did reflect basic simple practices and procedures.
The Committee deliberately mounted these seminars to encourage the
profession as a whole, and throughout the country, to think and reflect
as a single cohesive unit on the purpose and nature of practice, and the
need for a system of Corporate/Institutional
Advertising to expand and
foster the base of Solicitors' Practice and thereby improve the image of
that profession.
A written survey of reaction,land further suggestions in the same field,
is presently being conducted. We, as Solicitors,
must
respond to this
progressive move by the Law Society. Please do respond. Herewith an
account of the main points of the seminar as expounded by the speakers.
ADRIAN P. BOURKE
Chairman P.R. Committee
This whistle stop tour by John
Loosemore and Robert Parsons
began with nearly 400 sceptical
solicitors packed into Blackhall
Place, waiting to see whether this
really was a seminar that, in the
terms of the publicity, " You can't
afford to mi ss ".
Joh n Loosemore began by
outlining the speed at wh i ch
changes a f f e c t i ng t he legal
profession in many jurisdictions
have occurred and by posing the
question — " I n order to survive do
we need to steal clients from other
solicitors?" He went on to talk
about the enormous potential that
exists in unmet legal need. He said
that many marketing consultants
state that the market for legal
services is limited. That was
obviously not his view. He urged
the profession to get back to being
"men and women of affairs" to
whom clients would turn to at first
in any situation. He obviously
believed that it was possible
actually to create new markets for
legal services, as well as recovering
work recently lost to others.
John Loosemore went on to ask,
"Wh at is the secret of profitability
in a solicitor's office?" He said that
the anwer lay in how we handled
our stock in trade — our time, the
written and spoken word, money,
technology, our clients and, most
important of all, our staff. He
explained that the seminar would
deal with each of these themes.
Introducing the topic of office
systems, he said he hoped he was
not teaching us to "suck eggs". He
covered basic elements — opening
and closing the files, the post room,
accounts, records and how to have
an efficient reception area. By the
looks on many faces it was obvious
that, although these were very
basic matters, there were lessons
that many of us needed to listen to
again. He spent time stressing the
need for an accurate time recording
system and a show of hands in the
room proved that very few people
actually had a systematic method
of recording time. He stressed that
the help which time recording is to
billing is only one consideration and
it was also essential for proper
management information as a basis
for running a practice. A good time
recording system would allow you
to assess the profitability of fee
earners and various types of work.
He went on to link this wi th
organising a budget for t he
practice. He emphasised that there
is often a great deal of resistance
from staff to time recording as they
see the system as "snooping". He
hinted how he had overcome this
in his own practice and encouraged
us to " s t a rt at the t op ! ". This was
a fascinating hour as he went
through some of the very basic
elements of running a practice.
Time and time again he stressed
that there is no point at all in trying
to develop new areas of business
unless the practice is on a sound
management base.
Robert Parsons gave the next talk
and began by stating that he felt
that solicitors in Ireland had been
"Meeting the Chellenge of Chenge"
John Loosemoore (left), Robert Parsons and Geraldine Clarke of the Law
Society's Public Relations Committee. Blackhall Place, November, 1987.
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