LPM

INDUSTRY VIEWS
APRIL 2016
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
PLATFORMS
FOR GROWTH
Knights’ IT manager Nigel Johnson talks to
LPM about how using Tikit P4W has helped
the firm become a modern-day legal success
story of expansion
At Knights it’s all about delivering outstanding
client service through a business-led
approach. The firm’s a growth success story
– it shot up the Lawyer's top 200 list in 2015
and will in 2016 break into the top 100 – and it’s a
story of organic growth and acquisition that many
SME firms are attempting to emulate. But it’s a route
that requires business-grade practice and case
management.
Expanding by 50% – absorbing 130 lawyers and a
good number of support staff – is a big challenge, not
least in terms of the technology that makes the
business work. So, when the firm recently acquired
Darby Solicitors, there was serious work to be done.
Knights adopted Tikit P4W back in 2013. “We
created ‘Team Knights’ working practices across all our
offices, and were one of the first to implement Tikit
P4W as a truly company-wide, on premise solution as
a SaaS subscription,” says Knights' IT manager, Nigel
Johnson.
The firm's management team knew that a crucial
element in making their biggest acquisition a success
would be on-boarding professionals to P4W quickly
and smoothly. “We’ve put time and effort into our
configuration so that it enables our lawyers to do
things easily, themselves, from anywhere. We need
new people to quickly embrace working in the same
way. Tikit P4W gives us the depth and breadth we
need, plus Tikit have great people.” Johnson is a great
believer in getting the experts in, which proved to be a
powerful approach when combined with Knights’
enviable ability and willingness to embrace change for
the good of clients and the business alike.
“Change today often involves technology, and when
it does we propose the most relevant, benefits-led way
forward.” Of course, acquisitions have change and
uncertainty built in, but you can't do change by halves,
Johnson says. “You’ve got to make significant changes
in order to make it feel that change has actually
happened. A new name above the door is not enough
– if you have separate systems, you don’t create a
cohesive working culture. We are one firm, and we
have one system."
Johnson says he also trusted that Tikit could work to
the extremely tight timescales Knights had for the
acquisition. “Tikit delivered everything in less than
three months. I can’t speak highly enough of the
project and its management – Tikit went above and
beyond. They were also very honest and clear about
what had to happen from our side to make it work,
setting targets and milestones to ensure we would
make it. If things started slipping, they reminded us.
Success comes from working together like that, rather
than hiding potential dangers.”
Of course, the firm’s leadership championed new
working methods, but they quickly realised that face
time across everyone in the business helped new
people believe in the value of the system.
Product training, therefore, started from day one.
"We flooded the floor on go-live day, with Tikit
support staff and helpful colleagues everywhere, and
after some initial anxiety people soon started to
breathe again. By the end of day five we had calm.
New colleagues producing their own bills in week one
– that’s just fantastic, really.”
The acquisition also brought a new area to Knights –
legal aid, notorious for complex and onerous admin
and billing calculations (and low revenue). “Within just
two months we had enabled the P4W legal aid
module, and internal feedback has been brilliant. It was
a really big, quick win. I think there was genuine dread
about losing admin support for this, but the trainer
had them up and running after just one day.”
Knights is a self-proclaiming professional services
‘business’ and claims it’s truly different. For a start, it
measures its 350 national professionals based on
client access and speed of service – and even agrees
prices in advance. Plus, it’s the first professional
services firm in the UK legal sector to have attracted
private equity investment. Moving away from the
equity partnership model in such a way, says Johnson,
has given Knights sufficient capital and a management
26 LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT