I spent the day today at the LMS Business & Finance Conference at Chancery Lane. The first person I met who when I told what I did asked "So why are you here if you don't work for a law firm". I told him what I tell anyone about these kinds of events.
If you are looking for the mind maps I produced of the day, then scroll straight to the bottom.
As a supplier of services of one kind or another to over 300 law firms around the UK one of the key differentiators I believe we have is our in depth understanding of the challenges law firms face in late 2012. I want to ensure that when I or anyone else in my team is talking to a COFA they understand as best they can "capital accounts" and when talking to a COLP they understand what they can about the KYC and AML rules.
I have to say that all the speakers were excellent. Simon McCrum, Managing Partner, Darbys give a brilliant insight into how that firm has literally reinvented itself since 2007. Keeping us from the morning coffee break was Julie Harrison who talked knowledgeably about the challenges of "change management" and leading change in a law firm. She introduced the DISC model, which is something I have personally been through (along with MBTI three times in the last 25 years (I'm D-I and ESTJ respectively in case you are interested).
Between coffee and lunch we had two extremes, we had the sound practical financial advice (note I did not say boring!) from Andrew Allen of Francis Clark followed by the excellent, if not at times slightly ethereal Michael Shaw ex. of Cobbetts. As Francis Clark work with over 100 law firms Andrew was able to give some excellent benchmark numbers in terms of financial performance as well as talking about capital management, profitability & tax advice.
Michael's talk was titled "When the going gets tough…" and was all around leadership and he gave some great information and thoughts on what makes a great law firm leader. At one point he said that knowing what he knows now about law firm leadership, that he would have trained as a psychologist
rather than a Lawyer if he could do it again. I think that will resonate with lots of Managing Partners.
Lunch was pretty good although with the use of the "queuing from one end" approach it took longer than it needed to frankly to get served.
The delegates thinned out a little as the day wore on which frankly I was quite surprised about. I've been at probably 10 law firm conferences this year and I have to say this was one of the ones where there was consistently BRILLIANT information being imparted by the speakers.
The graveyard slot after lunch (the one I usually get at conferences) was a panel discussion which was a great way of keeping people awake I think. Lots of good questions and discussion ensued.
Next was Steve Arundale of Natwest who gave some great advice about how to deal with your bank (whoever they may be) and ensuring that you keep close to them and make them your "business partner" rather than your "adversary".
Trish Kinahan from Hazlewoods was next going through some highlights of the annual LMS Law Firm Benchmarking survey that was done recently. She had more graphs than a maths teacher but did a great job of bringing them to life and was an EXCELLENT presenter. It sounds like this is an excellent survey that ALL law firms should participate in to give as big a data set as possible.
The last but one presentation of the day was from Nigel Haddon, Chief Executive at SAS Daniels talked for half an hour on developing & implementing strategy. And excellent he was too. I can imagine him being a GREAT leader in his firm. The one thing I jotted down as a "must do" was drill my whole team on their "elevator pitch" when asked "What do Conscious do?". I'm sure that at least half of them would answer that a different way.
Last, but by no means least, speaker of the day was Sarah Charlton, ILFM Chair and Practice Manager, Eaton-Evans & Morris, came at it from a "procurement" angle (that's "buying stuff" to you & I!). The one thing I do know after her presentation is that I would NOT enjoy having to negotiate with Sarah <g>! Sarah talked about how law firms need a process & strategy for procurement including understand when it's right to purchase "local" and when you should look for short- or long-term agreements.
My only disappointment on the day was it seemed that everyone was more interested in disappearing for trains than buying me a drink in Six Clerks!
As always now, I take all my conference notes using http://www.xmind.net, a really great mind mapping program. The list of files below includes PDF copies of each session plus the native Xmind format. Feel free to download and share with your colleagues.