LPM

IN PRACTICE
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APRIL 2016
WELCOME
We need more firms run like businesses, with a
range of ownership options that attract all kinds of
people. It can be done, if the SRA pulls its finger out
As a magazine, LPM is generally
focused on the positive, the
innovative and the regenerative.
But sometimes you need to look at
what goes wrong to know how to get
things right.
More than a handful of law firms go
under or end up in front of the SRA
(or worse, with partners in front of the
SDT or carted off to prision) every
year. Law firms are not, sadly, always
brilliantly run, and they, like any other business,
sometimes end up victims of external and internal fraud.
Stuff, as they say, happens. So this month we've looked
in a dark mirror to hear some stories about disaster, and
how law firms can turn things around – read all about it
on p20.
Stories told to us about disaster and the struggle back
to profitability only make my ire keener when I hear that
Stephens Scown, the West Country firm that's helping
pioneer a new form of employee part-ownership in the
firm, had to go through three years of negotiations with
the regulator and HMRC to get its employee-ownership
model of ABS authorised.
It is this kind of radical
re-drawing of the fusty law firm
partnership model that will be one
of the key drivers for the change
that the legal market needs to
thrive as its employee base
becomes largely millennial.
The SRA should be actively
encouraging new ownership
structures like this and trying to
get them in place as fast as
possible. It is change that the
sector needs, to find new markets, to create new
products, and attract the brightest young talent.
Three years to change the way a law firm is owned is
demonstably not that.
Something else that's changing legal is the new wave of
cloud computing – I hope you enjoy the supplement
against this month's issue, sponsored by Accesspoint, all
about it. Cloud is a big part of legal IT's future – get
reading if you want to know why.
If you have an opinion on LPM, good or bad, or have an
idea for what we should cover, don’t be afraid to mail me.
And our reader satisfaction survey will be arriving in your
email inbox imminently, I promise! LPM
Rupert Collins-White, editor-in-chief
@LPMmag | rupertw@lsn.co.uk
Employee ownership is
the kind of radical redrawing
of the fusty law
firm partnership model
that will be one of the key
drivers for the change
the market needs
IN PRACTICE
05
Snapshot:
07
HR
09
Book
COLUMNS
11
Richard
13
TV
14
Doug
17
Janine
18
Natasha
FEATURES
19
Law
21
LPM gathers
the month’s headlines for
SME law firms in one place
Agony Aunt: Polly
critiques menstrual leave,
and wanting to be liked
review: Business
for Punks reviewed by
Brethertons' punk-ish CEO
Hill at Stepien Lake
gives us part two of his
cybercrime-fighting series
Edwards' Jane Pritchard
on why your engine room
matters more than ever
Hargrove at
Advanced Legal on fee
earners' marketing potential
firm profile: Artsfocused
MDP Counterculture
under the LPM microscope
Feature: Ups and downs –
we find out how and why
things go wrong in law firms
INDUSTRY VIEWS
26
Knights'
Parker from Paragon
outlines and explains a
tighter future for PII costs
Rawley at ADDS
has some hard questions
about your firm's data
IT manager Nigel
Johnson on using Tikit P4W
to help build a growing firm
3
LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT