Messenger September 2017

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18 Management Matters Management Matters This column is now into its eighth year and feedback is still good. We would still like to receive observations and ideas for future issues. Please mail Bill Kirby at billkirby@professionalchoiceconsultancy.com or the publisher Julia Baskerville at j.baskerville@jbaskerville.co.uk This month: • No Owner/Manager i.e. Partner/Director can afford to put his firm at risk. There is a massive need to step up to a critical issue • Failure to do so can cost o Money o Clients o Credibility • It is not new but escalating like crazy Traditionally we think about working capital management i.e. running out of money whilst we consider ourselves being profitable and good at what we do. No longer (certainly not since 2008) can we assume the bank manager will help us out. The article from 2015 can help quite a lot here http://professionalchoiceconsultancy.com/articles/workingCapital.pdf Secondly profitability from trading performance. Owner managers get their tangible rewards this way. Accountability, delegation, measurement (KPIs and Reports)– above all driving the key business challenge of enhanced gross profit by individual and very key by department. Over heads are with us in the medium term with really just marketing and headcount related costs being discretionary – so focus, focus, focus – Article July 2016 http://professionalchoiceconsultancy.com/articles/cri ticalDelusional.pdf The Big Issue The main concern now is unfortunately being robbed and blackmailed by hackers, losing client data and losing the confidence of clients. Not only is it embarrassing and a PR disaster but in reality it is going to cost a fortune in fines (look at GDPR breaches and lost revenue and clients) that most firms cannot afford. As long ago as my November 2014 Management checklist “I have said many times that managing partners should check IT business continuity and disaster recovery for themselves. If the servers fail what is the guaranteed up time SLA. Apart from failing compliance and hurting client experience, loss of income you are most likely going to lose any commercial clients within a short time period” It is much worse than that now as we have seen and even the big firms with all their IT muscle – like DLA – have been seriously embarrassed. In December 2016 I wrote this - http://professionalchoiceconsultancy.com/articles/buckStopsHere.pdf - December 2016 It is just not IT but also a staffing issue and that means management Three members of the Manchester Law Society Advantage Group, in collaboration with MLS are going to collaborate on a major survey of MLS members and the wider net of the North West over the next few months but to be quite honest as individual firms I do not think that you can afford to wait. The survey/checklist will include matters relating to end users and business owners – managing partners • End Users – will cover topics such as – Passwords. Training, Social Media • Managing Partner & business owners – will cover topics such as - GDPR aware ness, system down and guaranteed re covery period, SLAs with your IT suppliers, last disaster recovery check, Cyber Essentials status You may like to think or more likely hope that you have the best management in the business and the best IT resource and staff that are totally on the ball or even the best third party managed service or hosting supplier. No one can afford to delude themselves any longer. I have probably worked with 40 – 50 law firms in reviewing their IT infrastructure. As part of the decision making exercise the most useful part has been an audit by potential bidders of the existing infrastructure and the use of that in presentations about going forward. Yes they have a point to prove and it does ask the right questions but irrespective of making the bold decision to change you still need an independent audit that goes much further than a penetration test. If your commercial clients haven’t asked for them yet they are not far away from doing so. I have even been asked by banks to have conversations with managing partners where even the bank is worried about the situation. I do fully recommend a third party check on your IT. Security, reliability of servers and networks, time for recovery, service level guarantees. Forgetting Cyber Security - if you can -just work out the lost revenue of 50 fee earners, doing their 5 billable hours a day if your IT is not available for 5 days. (£200 per hour). That is £250,000 lost Revenue. Without the impact on clients. Feel free to contact me – no fees involved, if you want to ask any questions – and I can give some guidance on the topic. Otherwise here are three contacts who can give best advice or cross refer • charlie.edwards@xyone.co.uk – Cyber Security Experts • Andy.lewis@nasstar.com – Hosting and managed service suppliers • victorl@matrix247.com – Hosted Telecom and network suppliers Please make some critical decisions very soon but with the strength of knowledge about how things really are The forthcoming MLS Survey • The Manchester Law Society Advantage group are going to be launching one of the largest reviews of security and risk in the legal profession across the North West over the coming months. • The focus is on understanding how firms and individuals are tackling the biggest challenge to face the profession, the threat of cyber fraud, hacking, data breaches and online crime. • The Manchester Law Society will be inviting all of its members (mainly corporate but also individual) to take part in a short survey which will be sent out in the coming weeks • It will look at what individuals are doing within their firms to mitigate their risk from cyber threats, as well as what managing partners and senior leaders are doing to take ownership of these issues, not only as the threats grow but as the impending regulatory clouds of GDPR begin to gather. • The plan is for a September issue date and an initial report during October 2017. A great thing to participate in. Who will handle it for you? Hopefully it will be targeted at the managing partner. Last Month’s Issues and Response In the August issue we covered some great topics and the response has been equally rewarding. If you were on holiday you can check it and other articles out at http://professionalchoiceconsultancy.com/articles.php • Smaller firms have realised they can get the same returns as the giants like Shoosmiths – mobility, agility, profitability (enhanced revenue and reduced costs) almost instantly with the right approach. • Financing just doesn’t have to be for the obvious and it protects working capital • A strategy, a product marketing plan and a marketing plan monitored and reviewed can make monumental changes – more on this specific topic over the next few months. Bill Kirby is a director of Professional Choice Consultancy offering advice to firms on business issues from strategy, planning, business development, the effective use of IT applications and IT hosting for compliance, business continuity and DR. He can be contacted at billkirby@professionalchoiceconsultancy.com
JMW family team campaign for progress on single parent surrogacy Two fertility law specialists at Manchester-based law firm JMW Solicitors are involved in the campaign to open up surrogacy to single parents in England as Wales, with the legislation scheduled to be changed in 2018. Cara Nuttall and Jo-Anna Jellings, who undertake complex surrogacy cases for clients across the country, are liaising with the Department for Health and other relevant agencies to make submissions about the proposed wording for the new legislation, to ensure that it can help as many prospective parents as possible to secure legal parenthood. Cara said: “Manchester is often at the forefront of scientific advances, and it is following pioneering research and treatment in the North West that many people have been able to obtain parenthood through any one of a growing number of methods. It is absolutely appropriate that the city is also involved in cutting-edge legal developments which allow them to do so” As the law stands, only a couple can obtain a parental order to secure legal parenthood following a surrogacy arrangement. However, in late 2016, Sir James Mumby, the President of the Family Division, On 8 August 2017, The European Union Financial Sanctions (Amendment of Information Provisions) Regulations 2017 (‘the Regulations’) came into force. declared this incompatible with human rights, requiring a change in the law. The legal status of a growing number of children remains in limbo until the law has been changed. Fertility lawyers are calling for the changes to be made as soon as possible to bring such uncertainty for an end for all those involved. Cara said it is important that the legal change is right and does everything it needs to, as well as being done as quickly as possible. During a recent High Court case concerning just such an arrangement, the JMW family law team expressed concern that the proposed changes may not go far enough to cover everyone who may need to secure parenthood as a single person. They are now making submissions on the need for an all-inclusive interpretation ahead of the Remedial Order being finalised. The team at JMW hope the new law will end the misery of incomplete legal status for many, but they do stress there is still work to be done. Cara said: “Whilst this change is a significant and a much-welcomed step forward, making a fundamental and life-changing difference to these families, ous sanctions regimes. The reporting requirements are to inform HM Treasury if they know or have reasonable cause to suspect that a person has committed an offence under the relevant sanctions regulations or is a person who is the subject of an asset freeze. Aside from lawyers, those businesses and professions affected include: trust or company service providers, estate agents, dealers in precious metals and stones, casinos, accountants and auditors. It should be noted that there is a potential legal professional privilege exemption to the reporting obligations under each sanctions regime. This is a significant change to the UK sanctions regime. It comes at a time when the government has consulted News 19 Cara Nuttall the law will by no means be perfect. “The law has always been drafted to play catch-up with significant scientific advances, and needs a more thorough overhaul to reflect the increased use of surrogacy both following domestic and international arrangements. The team at JMW still see too many cases where the transfer of parenthood is far too complicated, or even impossible, and that needs to change. We will continue to campaign for improvements in the law and are proud to show that the Manchester legal community is at the heart of pushing boundaries for the development of family law to fit the modern age, in keeping with its diverse and visionary population.” European Union Financial Sanctions Zia Ullah of Eversheds-Sutherland outlines the Regulations which came into force on 8th August 2017 The Regulations expand the scope of the reporting obligations set out under the existing UK financial sanctions regimes to certain businesses and professions which now includes law firms. Prior to the Regulations coming into effect the reporting obligations only applied to ‘Relevant Institutions’, which in practical terms impacted regulated financial institutions. Under the Regulations, law firms and other impacted businesses and professions will now commit a criminal offence if they fail to comply with the reporting obligations as set out in the varion further legislative amendments to the UK sanctions framework focused upon the manner in which international sanctions are implemented by the UK, as a consequence of Brexit. Law firms and their compliance teams will now have to carefully monitor the potential involvement of parties subject to UK (and EU until Brexit) sanctions during the course of their retainer. Although there should be an ability to utilise the privilege exemption, this will only apply in circumstances where a duty of confidentiality applies. Where such a duty does not arise, there will be an obligation upon lawyers to consider their disclosure obligations. Zia Ullah Eversheds-Sutherland Why artificial intelligence is gaining pace in the legal profession and shouldn’t be feared While artificial intelligence has been widely adopted in many industries, the legal sector has only started to realise its benefits over the past few years. And even then, this advanced technology was the sole preserve of firms with vast resources – and deep pockets – but that all appears to be about to change. Firms in the region are increasingly realising the benefits that artificial intelligence presents to their practice. In fact Manchester based Aaron & Partners announced the launch of AaronBot earlier this year – an innovative robot designed to replace underperforming partners – demonstrating that the use of technology is gaining pace. So what are the benefits that AI presents the legal profession? And should, as the media suggests, lawyers be fearful that the robots will soon replace their jobs? Fortunately for Manchester based legal professionals, a recent analysis conducted by our team here at Clayton Legal, revealed that most SME firms both recognise the importance of the use of AI, regard it as an opportunity to be embraced and do not feel threatened by its impact on their business. In fact, one of the respondents to our research project, Andrew Kwan – solicitor advocate at Clear Law – commented, “This approach allows us some advantages including being agile within a changing legal market. Therefore I can see the utilisation of AI as being an opportunity to deliver greater value to clients, both individuals and businesses, by removing some of the administrative elements of the process.” And it’s not only senior professionals who are experiencing this optimism. Miriam Khan – a junior colleague of Khan at Clear Law, made the point that AI and human skill sets should complement each other rather than take opposing sides, “The profound purpose of AI is to save the need for time, cost and energy on manual labour and increase efficiency. Why do a job that a computer can do for you?” Clearly then, there appears to be a consensus that the use of AI can offer firms the chance to provide their clients a better service whilst also saving time. But what about the much hyped threat that technology poses to jobs? Our opinion is that while artificial intelligence is certainly arriving at a rapid pace, it really isn’t something to be feared. You only have to look at firms – such as Clifford Chance and Linklaters – that have been using AI for some time, to see that its use is very much about driving efficiencies, rather than eradicating jobs. Artificial intelligence is becoming a priority for legal firms and the smaller practices that we spoke to are also hoping to generate higher fees and ensure that processes can be and will be outsourced to machines. For employers, this has huge benefits but it also offers their people more interesting work, making the workplace a more satisfying place to be in, in a marketplace where retention is key. For legal professionals at all levels, the introduction of AI represents an opportunity to develop new skills, and for those who are open to change, to increase their value in the marketplace. The interpersonal and technological skills required to adapt to the new AI infused working environment are likely to bring benefits to all that choose to engage with them. Rather than replacing jobs, then, AI offers professionals the chance to diversify and learn new skills. It seems clear that, while technology can replace many tasks, what it certainly can’t do is replace the human element. And as Andrew Kwan told us, ‘I do not see AI removing the elements where you are a compassionate human. You can’t remove this from a process and expect a great result for your client’ which sums up this sentiment very well. For more information, or to speak to Clayton Legal about your recruitment needs, contact Lynn Sedgwick on 01772 259 121 or visit www.clayton-legal.co.uk You are warmly invited to THE WOMEN IN the LAW ANNUAL DINNER 2018 AT The Midland Hotel 16 Peter Street, Manchester, M60 2DS on Thursday 8th March 2018 Dress: Lounge Suits and Cocktail dresses if you wish. Guest of Honour The Rt. Hon. Lady Hale of Richmond, President of the Supreme Court Male and female colleagues in the legal profession are all invited. £65 per person for members (£75 or £85 per person for non members of WItL) If you would like to book a place email Lisa at womeninthelawuk@gmail.com Payment January 2018 Places only confirmed on receipt of payment prior to 25th Feb 2018. Cheques payable to : “Women in the Law” or payment preferable by BACS TRANSFER TO : Account name: Women in the Law Bank: Santander Account number: 090129 Sort code: 00295039 Reference: (please write your professional name) Or Book by Evenbrite.
Page 1 and 2: September 2017 October 09 1 North W
Page 3 and 4: Contents 3 North West Law September
Page 5 and 6: 5 President’s Column 5 From the P
Page 7 and 8: Regulatory Affairs Committee Update
Page 9 and 10: 97% of Mills & Reeve staff say they
Page 11 and 12: Here to meet your needs With our ex
Page 13 and 14: Feel like an office dance-off winne
Page 15 and 16: Translation Services 15 Are you new
Page 17: Legal Costs Update 17 Legal Costs U
Page 21 and 22: Will Aid 2017 21 Will Aid are calli
Page 23 and 24: Brabners pledges support to North W
Page 25 and 26: Michelle Garlick: 0161 233 7330 or
Page 27 and 28: News 27 Pro bono for busy lawyers B
Page 30: Classified Directory Expert Witness

Messenger September 2017

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