Annual Report 2012 www.weightmans.com - Weightmans Solicitors

Annual Report
2012
www.weightmans.com
Weightmans LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England & Wales with registered number OC326117 and its registered
office at 100 Old Hall Street, Liverpool L3 9QJ. A full list of members is available at the registered office. The term “partner”, if used,
denotes a member of Weightmans LLP or a senior employee of Weightmans LLP with equivalent standing and qualifications.
Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Page
Content
04 Managing Partner’s Review
More people, great challenges, better leaders
06 Financial Report
Effective cash management to help fund future growth
07 Marketing Report
Delivering value to our clients - 2012 client satisfaction survey
08 Commercial
Merger has boosted our profile - and our reputation
10 Public Sector
Building a solid base for future growth
12 Insurance
Turning opportunity into success
14 Operations overview
Developing the foundations for success
16 CSR Programme
Causes worth working for
18 And Finally
A word from our Senior Partner
Annual Report 2012 02
03

Managing
Partner’s
Review
More people,
greater challenges,
better leaders
“The leadership programme gave space to
reflect on abilities and shortcomings as
leaders, providing strategies for improvement.
Strengths were reinforced while areas for
improvement were identified”.
Emma Collins, Partner, Family team
Weightmans is a very different law firm today
than it was just 18 months ago. Our challenge
is to ensure those changes continue to bring
benefits not only to the firm, but to our clients
and stakeholders too.
A year that saw our headcount increase from 937 to 1200
following the mergers with Mace & Jones and Vizards Wyeth,
was always going to be an interesting and challenging one.
I am delighted with the progress we have made and the tireless
efforts of all our people to meld a new, powerful force in the
national legal market.
When the mergers took place, I said the financial year
2011/2012 would be a very significant one for the firm. And so
it turned out. There has been a huge amount of co-operation
and goodwill from both inside and outside the firm as we
set about creating a different Weightmans; one which I am
confident will be a great success.
Our aim was to create one firm with one set of shared values,
systems, processes and culture. Not easy to accomplish in
12 months – and a task that is still very much ongoing –
but I am proud of our achievements to date in successfully
creating a new identity, brand and capability. In five years
time, people will look back on what we achieved and be very
thankful that we did it.
Patrick Gaul
Managing Partner
Developing the leaders of tomorrow
A key part of the integration process was a leadership
development programme to instil our new unified culture,
identity and ethos, and to build on existing foundations for
the creation of one firm.
I believe effective leadership at all levels will be central to
our continued success. We need leaders and we need people
who understand leadership, because these are challenging,
testing and competitive times for law firms. We are dealing
with a huge number of commercial pressures at a time
when our market is undergoing significant changes: new
legal services providers, new efficiency pressures, new
expectations from both clients and wider stakeholders.
We have to achieve the right balance between flexibility and
innovation, while retaining our core values and our innate
strengths. We have to change and we have to grow, while
continuing to be the law firm of choice for our clients and
the employer of choice for our people.
A job well done
2012 saw the firm’s profile increase considerably and the
mergers played a large part in this. The National Law Firm
of the Year award from Legal Business magazine was a great
boost to us; an acknowledgement that Weightmans is now
beyond question a serious player in the legal services market.
It is important for me to thank all those who were involved
in the projects that brought about the merger. The many
people who have worked assiduously to make sure it was
a success, and who have carried on working over the last
12 months after all the excitement has died down.
Next stage of our journey
We may have become a different firm on 1 May 2011, but
this isn’t the end of the Weightmans story. It is vital that we
keep renewing and we keep innovating and we keep moving
forward. And that can only happen thanks to the efforts of
a great many people across the practice who have worked
incredibly hard to bring the firm together and make the
most of the new structure and the new capabilities we have.
Our next step is to articulate a new vision for the next five
years. We need to look at our strategy in the Midlands and
the South East. We need to keep on building the firm, so that
it is sustainable and fit for purpose, and so it continues to
attract the best quality people and the highest calibre of
clients. I look forward to working with you on that journey.
“In five years time,
people will look back
on what we achieved
and be very thankful
that we did it”
Annual Report 2012 04
05

Financial
report
Delivering value
to our clients
Effective cash
management to help
fund future growth
The financial year to 30 April 2012 was
the first to include the full contributions
from our mergers with Vizards Wyeth and
Mace & Jones.
We were delighted that turnover increased 38% over the
previous year to £80 million. This continues our consistent
annual growth over the past decade and catapults us into
the top 50 UK law firms by revenues.
Profit per equity partner (PEP) was down on 2011 at £265,000,
but given the significant investment in integrating the two
firms and paving the way for the major Liverpool office move
in July, it was a creditable result.
Our successful management of cash was illustrated in
a survey of 14 law firms by Deloitte. The survey ranked us top
of the 14 firms in working capital management. Our work-inprogress
(WIP) figure of 35 days was the lowest in the survey
group, evidence of our strong cash flow management, while
our combined WIP and debt days figure of 83 also compared
favourably to the group average of 152 days.
It was our success in cash management that enabled us to
fund the mergers and the subsequent Liverpool office move
and still remain well within our facility levels with the bank.
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
million
£
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Annual Turnover
Tony Cannon
Finance Director
2012 client
satisfaction survey
To help improve how we deliver our services,
we were keen to benchmark our current
performance levels. So between June to
September 2012, we commissioned legal
research specialists Acritas to conduct
our third annual independent survey of
Weightmans clients.
The aim was to gauge levels of client satisfaction, loyalty
and willingness to recommend, and how they have changed
over the past 12 to 24 months. We also asked some specific
questions about the legal market and legal services.
The survey gathered feedback from all our key clients.
It included 69 interviews - a mixture of face-to-face and
telephone interviews.
How did we do
• Overall satisfaction with our service rose 0.2 to 8.3/10
this year, higher than the Sharp legal market
benchmark of 8.0
• The strength of our client relationships increased
0.5 to 8.7/10
• Our performance in a range of key service delivery
areas is also ahead of the market benchmark, including
quality of advice, speed of response, understanding
our client’s business and commerciality of approach
• The level of client willingness to recommend
Weightmans is 68% - compared to the benchmark
of 22%
• Clients see Weightmans as a firm which is developing
and changing. Quotes from clients included:
“Very professional, they have a good
reputation for what they do.
We get a good service out of them”
“Well-organised, well-managed,
very responsive, very professional”
“Much more engaging and much
more open and visible”
Next steps
We have implemented a range of initiatives to build on these
excellent results. These include following up specific points
raised in the survey with key clients and keeping clients
informed on issues like our Management Information
strategy. By continuing to place client needs at the
forefront of all we do, we aim to ensure future clients
remain equally positive about the services we deliver.
Sarah-Jane Howitt
Marketing Director
“They’re much more dynamic than
they were before”
Annual Report 2012
06
07

Commercial
Merger has boosted
our profile –
and our reputation
“My view is they give commercial,
pragmatic advice and are able to build
strong relationships with clients”.
Pizza Hut
John Schorah
Director,
Commercial Business Line
The Commercial business line has been
substantially strengthened by the merger,
and we have capitalised on those strengths
to great effect over the past 12 months.
Our first full year following the merger with Mace &
Jones in May 2011 was a landmark year for the Commercial
business line. It was a mark of confidence in our strategy
that we successfully retained all our key clients post-merger;
nor were there any partner defections.
The merger integration process itself was a major success.
In fact, we managed to grow key client revenues despite
the inevitable upheaval, and overall firm revenues were
stable. There were particularly strong performances in
Construction, Regulatory and our new Corporate team
in Manchester.
Unparalleled strength and breadth
Our success in integrating the new firm was a key component
of our winning submission for the National Law Firm of
Year awards in January 2012. A further stamp of approval
came from Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession,
a leading independent legal directory, which for the first
time recognised Weightmans as a “regional heavyweight”
for commercial work in the North West.
We have seen many examples over the past 12 months
of how the combined offerings of the two firms have
come together with new client and project wins for our
Commercial business line. We now boast one of the largest
employment practices in the UK, and the Commercial
team itself is an integral part of a stronger, more cohesive
firm-wide offering, undertaking work for half of the firm’s
key clients. Indeed, the broader benefits of the merger are
unquestionable, as demonstrated by income growth across
the firm.
“We now boast one of the largest
employment practices in the UK”
Sector focus a success
High points of the year include some exciting new projects
and major cases, including a major real estate project for
Royal Mail and one of the largest pieces of litigation the
firm has ever undertaken in construction, for Transport
for Greater Manchester against Thales Transport. Our
key sectors focus is gaining traction and we are seeing
lots of momentum in education, healthcare, housing,
manufacturing and retail and leisure, along with growing
opportunities to cross-sell our commercial and private
client services.
At a broader level, the Commercial business line has
a growing profile, not only terms of the national and
business media, where members of the team regularly
comment on national issues, but also in terms of our
involvement in major sponsorship arrangements. Our
training events, too, continue to make a real impression on
clients and our target markets – an impression we aim to
develop further through our client satisfaction programme.
Annual Report 2012
08
09

Public Sector
Building a solid base
for future growth
“They’ve got an excellent reputation”.
Greater Manchester Police
In many ways the last financial year has
not been easy, but we have risen to the
challenges and – with the merger under
our belt – are in a much stronger position
to capitalise on future opportunities.
Over the last 12 months, public sector cuts have continued
to restrict the willingness and ability of clients to engage
in creative activities on which we could support them.
At the same time, however, the cuts also mean there is
a need for closer working relationships – a strategy we
have pursued with zeal.
Andrew Cooper
Director,
Public Sector Business Line
In turn, this enables us to learn more about our clients’
businesses, and in the process, position ourselves as providers
of business solutions, rather than just legal services.
We have provided both outsourced and also secondment
solutions to our many and varied public sector clients.
By focusing on business solutions and endeavouring to
provide a wraparound holistic service, I’m confident we
can achieve our full potential assisting public services
organisations through the current economic challenges.
Developing a holistic approach
The merger is already bringing great benefits in this regard.
The range of advice, expertise and skills we can offer has
been boosted considerably, particularly on the advisory side,
and we have had considerable success cross-selling services
across both Weightmans and ex-Mace & Jones clients. We
have also integrated the Vizards Wyeth local government
litigation team into our national practice.
We continue to assist public bodies across the full range of
legal services and receive regular instructions at all levels.
A particular focus has been to raise our profile in the market.
We have made regular visits to all the major public sector
conferences, including NHS Confederation and ALARM, and
invest in developing deep-rooted relationships with clients.
“We’ve also succeeded in growing
our business in the healthcare
sector, including a national award
for partner Kiran Bhogal”
These efforts are already bearing fruit. Major successes
over the year include instructions on public enquiries
and large scale litigation, including difficult and
publicised group litigation, and we were the only firm
to be appointed to all four lots of the National Police
Framework, from which all police forces are expected
to purchase their legal services.
In the education sector, we are now able to offer
significantly enhanced services to universities, with
a number of new clients and membership of London
University Purchasing Consortium. We’ve also succeeded
in growing our business in the healthcare sector, including
several major tender wins and a national award for
partner Kiran Bhogal. She received the accolade of ‘Leading
Healthcare & Life Sciences Lawyer of the Year’ at the ACQ
Global Awards 2012, in recognition of her “commitment
to excellence and quality on a global scale.” Overall, the
number of educational establishments and health bodies
instructing us has increased, as has the diversity of work.
There is no time for complacency, however. We have
set ourselves ambitious targets and aspirations for
the forthcoming financial year. But by building on our
achievements so far and continuing to develop our
sector-focused strategy, I am confident they are well
within our grasp.
Annual Report 2012
10
11

Insurance
Turning opportunity
into success
“They have got a reputation as a solid firm
who are technically strong and able and
who are looking to be at the forefront of
developing their processes and supporting
their clients doing likewise”.
Groupama
Our successful performance over the past
12 months augurs well for the future
strategy and ambitions of our Insurance
business line.
It has been a landmark year for the Insurance business line.
It feels as though our new colleagues from Vizards Wyeth
have been with us forever, such was the ease of the transition
and all the new teams are now firmly settled into Weightmans.
Our success in integrating the new teams is demonstrated by
the fact that all Vizards Wyeth clients have stayed with us over
the past 12 months.
This growth was reflected across the whole Insurance
business line, which grew 19% on the previous year. Of the
eight practice areas within Insurance, six exceeded their
targets and the other two achieved their targets. In very
many instances, clients have increased the amount of work
they send to us. For example, many turned to us for costs
and property litigation services for the first time and we have
had real progress introducing our commercial services to
Insurance clients, with several major insurers now instructing
us on non-contentious advisory and commercial work.
Cross-selling our services
The reputation and trust we have built up over many years
on the litigation side is also widely recognised, enabling
our Commercial colleagues to start building their own
relationships with Insurance clients, while our Insurance
clients gain the benefit of a broader spread of legal support.
Partnership has always been at the heart of Weightmans’
approach, and we have partnered with clients on a greater
level than ever before over the past 12 months, from regular
briefing sessions on the civil justice reforms, to lobbying and
replying in depth to Government consultations.
We now have a representative on the Civil Justice Council
and we have many partners actively involved in industry
focus and lobbying groups. We were also a major contributor
to the International Underwriting Association’s Periodical
Payments Orders Study, in conjunction with the Association
of British Insurers.
Investing in the future
We have invested significantly throughout the year in both
people and technology, including partner-level recruitment
into the property claims team, and the development of an
industry-leading dashboard reporting product. This enables
clients and ourselves to access more advanced and detailed
information quickly and easily. It is part of a huge investment
in Management Information and advanced reporting across
the firm.
Our goal over the next 12 months is to build on this positive
performance, in terms of clients, our people, growth and
investment, and ensure the firm is in the best possible
position to capitalise on future opportunities.
“Our Insurance clients
are gaining the benefit
of a broader spread of
legal support”
Dan Cutts
Director,
Insurance Business Line
Annual Report 2012
12
13

Operations
overview
Developing the
foundations for success
“We are very pleased that Weightmans has
chosen to continue their sponsorship with us.
Weightmans’ support shows a great commitment
to ensuring a thriving cultural life in the city”.
Michael Eakin, Chief Executive,
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Integrating three businesses into one while
running a large national law firm is a major
operational process, but one we have
achieved with much success.
Two mergers on the scale of our link-ups with Vizards Wyeth
and Mace & Jones were always likely to have a huge operational
impact in 2011/2012 - and so it proved.
Our six operational functions – human resources, information
systems (IS), management information, marketing, projects
and facilities, and risk and compliance – all had an incredibly
busy twelve months, with much of the early part of 2011/2012
engaged in supporting the mergers of the three firms.
From managing the practicalities of the projects, training
and integrating our people, integrating the three firms’ IT
systems, updating our website and ensuring our clients
benefitted from our new capabilities, all operational
functions played key roles in making the mergers
a success from day one.
With the mergers bedded in, we barely had time to draw
breath before playing a central part in another major project
– our move to 100 Old Hall Street in Liverpool - completed on
time and to budget during the 2012/2013 financial year.
The second half of the year was also busy with the roll-out
of our strategic approach to management information, and
preparing for the implementation of our ‘Balanced Scorecard’.
Stuart Whittle
Operations Director
Highlights of the year
Delivering the future
Our partners took part in a bespoke leadership coaching
programme called Future Engage Deliver. Spread over three
days throughout the year, all partners were involved in
working together, discussing ideas and sharing knowledge,
to define a leadership style for the new firm and help
reinforce the culture.
Improving information
We rolled-out firm-wide improvements to our approach
to information security. The significant changes to working
practices it required received a hugely positive response from
our people. Our ultimate objective is to achieve ISO 27001
accreditation for our information security management.
We also successfully updated the firm’s underlying IS
infrastructure and integrated MyWeightmans with our
‘client dashboard’. This enhances our ability to provide clients
with up-to-date management information that is easily
analysed, while our success in a number of key tenders,
such as Wales Audit Office, Cumbria County Council and
Bangor University, demonstrated our clients’ confidence
in appointing us to their panels.
Aiding the arts
We continued our commitment to supporting the arts in
the communities in which we operate, at the same time
helping to differentiate the firm through our association
with organisations such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra, Manchester Literary Festival, the Cornerhouse art
gallery and cinema, and the Library Theatre in Manchester.
Looking forward to 2013
The next 12 months look like being an equally busy time for
our operational functions. We will be working with the Board
to take the Balanced Scorecard initiative to the next stage,
where we measure activities that go towards our priorities
for the 2013/2014 financial year.
On the HR side, we will be developing a people strategy to
help us take the firm forward, including alternative career
paths and routes to qualification, such as apprenticeships,
to widen access to the profession.
Acting on the results of the latest client satisfaction survey,
we are developing our Generator CRM programme with
client partners, so more of our clients benefit from our
structured approach. We are also reviewing the way our
transactional operational services are delivered to internal
customers, to improve their overall experience. And of course,
we will continue to build on our fast-developing national
profile and reputation in key markets.
Annual Report 2012
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15

CSR
Programme
Causes worth
working for
Our CSR programme not only benefits
a whole range of good causes, it delivers
tremendous advantages for the firm too,
as our activities over the past year have
amply demonstrated.
At Weightmans, we’re committed to CSR and the benefits
it can bring to our communities, our people, our environment
and our partners. Despite the economic challenges of the
past 12 months, we’ve been able to make a real difference
to a number of fantastic causes.
We continue to enjoy strong relationships with the partner
charities chosen by our staff, like Clatterbridge Cancer Research
in Liverpool and Milestone School in Kent. Not only have we
raised thousands of pounds in financial donations, we have
been able to raise the profile of these charities – and the good
work they do – within the wider Weightmans community,
hopefully encouraging others to support them, too.
We have also supported national charity events like Children
in Need, Comic Relief and Macmillan, uniting our staff in
shared fundraising efforts. From marathons to sponsored
cycle rides, coffee mornings to cake sales and comedy nights
to dress-down days, we have enjoyed finding new and
engaging ways to encourage donations from our colleagues
and partners.
Taking advantage of our volunteer paid-leave policy,
a number of staff travelled far and wide to support
particular charities and organisations. Staff from our
Leicester office raised around £2,500 for bereavement
counselling organisation, The Laura Centre, by completing
the arduous ‘Three Peaks Challenge’, while a team from
London raised £3,500 through a sponsored skydive for
Francis House Children’s Hospice.
Really going the distance were Chris Thomas from our
marketing team, who swapped Liverpool for Mongolia on
a charity trip, Emma Gillard from London who spent a week
in the Czech Republic teaching English, and Simon Charlton
from Birmingham, who cycled 2,000km across India in aid of
the Rainbow Trust, which supports the families of children
with a life threatening or terminal illness.
“We’ve been able to make
a real difference to a number
of fantastic causes”
The mutual benefits of CSR were perhaps most clearly
demonstrated by our entry in the annual ‘Zero to Hero’
competition run by The Prince’s Trust Fairbridge programme,
which helps disadvantaged young people get their lives back
on track.
Our team brought together staff from our three business
lines (commercial, insurance and public sector) together
with management teams, to work together to devise, pitch
and deliver a profile-raising, fundraising initiative for the
charity’s Merseyside centre.
Not only did the team turn £500 of Fairbridge’s funds into
£10,000 - double the original target - it enabled our staff to
work together as a team, learning and developing different
skills to those they use in their normal working lives.
We have also continued our work with local schools and
are determined to use our time and our skills to help
others achieve their potential. To this end, we continue to
attend university law fairs, take part in mentor schemes for
pupils looking for work placements, run mock interviews at
secondary schools, and maintain our long term commitment
to the ‘Right to Read’ scheme in infant schools, part of the
Citizenship Foundation’s ‘Lawyers in Schools’ programme.
Our pro bono assistance, too, goes from strength to strength,
no more so than the legal services we have been providing
to Cornerhouse, Manchester’s contemporary visual arts
and education provider, for over 15 years. Karl Jackson, Paul
Raftery and the commercial team are currently advising the
charity on the lease and construction of a new £20 million
contemporary arts centre at First Street, Manchester, to be
called HOME. Our ongoing contribution to Cornerhouse
ensures it has more money available to spend on its core
artistic and educational services.
To us, this is what CSR is all about – using our time, our skills
and our energy to deliver sustainable, long-lasting benefits
for those less fortunate than ourselves. The generosity of
our people is humbling to witness and a true credit to our
firm. Long may it continue.
Peter Forshaw
National CSR Partner
Annual Report 2012
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17

And finally
Confidence in
our ambitions
The entire legal sector has been challenged by
the recession, but thanks to a strong strategy
and prudent financial management, the firm
is well placed for further growth.
The financial year 2011/12 was a challenging one for
Weightmans as it was for most law firms. The impact of the
recession was evident in the levels of instructions in some of
our practice areas, but other areas of the business delivered
impressive results, which we feel validate our diverse
practice strategy.
We invested a lot of time bedding down the mergers of the
last year and this is starting to pay dividends, not least in
terms of the dynamic culture that has rapidly taken shape in
the new firm. There have been some immediate client wins
which can be attributed directly to the mergers. This is not
only extremely pleasing, it also augurs well for the future.
Access to new opportunities
The firm has continued to grow over the last year, with our
monthly ‘Welcome to Weightmans’ days for new starters
seeming to grow in number every month. It’s clear that
not only have the mergers given the firm an increased
profile and capability, but they have also opened the door
to opportunities which were not previously accessible.
I am certain that this will stand us in good stead when the
economy begins to improve.
The landmark cases we acted on before the new Supreme
Court showed that our standing and reputation in the
market continues to grow year after year, and the firm’s
dynamic growth was recognised by seven industry
awards nominations.
“We are confident we are in a strong
position to grasp the opportunities that
these changes will undoubtedly bring”
Ian Evans
Senior Partner
Recognised by our peers
Perhaps the most prestigious was the Legal Business award
for National Law Firm of the Year. We also triumphed in the
‘Britain’s Top Legal Employer’ awarded by the CRF Institute,
for which we were rated as outstanding for our culture, vision,
values, innovation and commitment to our communities.
Not only are awards like these good for our profile in the
market, they are a reassuring confidence boost within the
firm, proof that our strategy is succeeding and we are
heading in the right direction.
Committed to our clients
Of course, we must thank our clients for their support
throughout these difficult economic times. The legal services
environment is changing very rapidly, but we are confident
that we are in a strong position to grasp the opportunities
that these changes will undoubtedly bring.
Finally, the fact we are in this enviable position is down to
the hard work and commitment of our people across all our
offices. Thank you for the energy, enthusiasm and tireless
work you have displayed that has brought us throughout
the last 12 months.
Annual Report 2012
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