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Technology is Protecting files Are there better P03 driving legal evolution P06 from the hackers P12 ways of billing clients? 19/02/15 1 RACONTEUR.NET #0299 i /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA f /RACONTEUR.NET t @RACONTEUR THIS SPECIAL REPORT IS AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION BY RACONTEUR MEDIA _ + - = 9:04 AM 83% { I [ > LEGAL EFFICIENCY 2015 RACONTEUR NEWS Legal Efficiency cmd ctrl 1 RACONTEUR.NET LEGAL EFFICIENCY ONLINE: i /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA WWW.RACONTEUR.NET/LEGAL-EFFICIENCY-2015 f /RACONTEUR.NET P03 t @RACONTEUR Distributed in Overview Sponsored by Publishing Manager Alice Leahy Managing Editor Peter Archer Head of Production Natalia Rosek Design, Infographics & Illustration The Design Surgery www.thedesignsurgery.co.uk Contributors TECHNOLOGY IS THE JONATHAN AMES DRIVING FORCE OF Former editor of The Law Society Gazette, he is now a contributor to The Times and a special reports writer for The Lawyer magazine. LEGAL EVOLUTION CATHERINE BAKSI Image: Getty Former barrister and reporter at the Law Society Gazette, she is now a freelance journalist writing for a broad range of A seismic shake-up of the legal profession is altering the very law titles. structure of the traditional law practice, writes Jonathan Ames MICHAEL CROSS News editor at The Law Society Gazette, he specialises in IT issues within the legal sector, and has contributed to The he business of law in Brit- of corporate legal departments ner: “A lot of people, particularly the latest UK law firm to plan the Guardian, The Independent and The Observer. Tain is being convulsed by were the big winners of the 2007- with the ABS [alternative business launch of a low-cost services hub, the most fundamental 8 global financial crisis. Provided structure] changes in the UK, have or so-called near-shoring centre, in MICHAEL DEMPSEY evolutionary spasms experienced in their companies survived the eco- cottoned on to law as a business Manchester. Allen & Overy and Her- the best part of a century, with tech- nomic turmoil, general counsel rather than law as a profession. And bert Smith Freehills have already Journalist and media consultant, he has worked for BBC nology driving much of the change. (GC) were catapulted into posi- so you’ve got people coming in with created near-shoring operations in News, Financial Times, and numerous other publications and Beasts such as alternative busi- tions of unprecedented power over a kind of an outsourcing mind-set. Belfast, while Ashurst has made a broadcasting organisations. ness structures with their concepts their supplier law firms. You’ve got the big accountancy firms similar move in Glasgow. Indeed, Al- EDWARD FENNELL of multi-professional partnership Whereas partnership commit- moving back into the market and len & Overy has gone a step further and external investment were either tees at large commercial practices you’ve got boutiques that have spun with the launch at the end of 2013 of Award-winning specialist writer on business law and the legal unknown or universally disparaged historically issued almost pro for- out of some of the big firms trying to Peerpoint, which provides contract industry, he is a regular contributor to The Times. as recently as a decade ago. Now ma annual notification of hourly target particular niches of activity.” lawyers to clients. they are part of the new normal. fee rate hikes, in the fallout of the Others point to the emergence “Running law firms is essentially CHARLES ORTON-JONES On its face, the legal profession financial crisis, general counsel of so-called virtual legal practic- no different from running any other Former Professional Publishers Association Business Journalist in England and Wales – the juris- suddenly found themselves with es – sometimes ABSs, sometimes business,” says Nigel Savage, the for- of the Year, he was editor-at-large of LondonlovesBusiness. diction that sets the mood music the whip hand. pure outsourcers – that have for- mer chief executive and president of com and editor of EuroBusiness magazine. for the rest of the UK’s lawyers – “General counsel must always be saken bricks and mortar to operate the University of Law, who is now a appears to be in rude health or at aware of exactly who or what their almost exclusively online or by pro- non-executive director at Fletchers, least if the pure yardstick of lawyer money is buying,” Bruce MacMillan, viding bespoke services to in-house a Merseyside personal injury and numbers is the measure. senior commercial legal adviser at legal departments. clinical negligence practice. Statistics show the two sen- Visa Europe told the recently pub- Relatively recently launched “A successful business must first ior sides of the profession are lished GC Excellence Report. examples of the breed include control its costs and become more booming. Today, there are around Riverview Law, Axiom, Obelisk and efficient, and then, secondly, drive TECHNOLOGY FOR SURVIVAL 127,600 practising solicitors in Keystone Law. “They are offering revenue growth. Lawyers have done England and Wales, a whopping 54 And while law firms may have general counsel something different quite well at the former, but with per cent more than at the begin- an image of being lumbering el- – they can set up whole teams that notable exceptions, they are only ning of this century. ephantine creatures taking dec- And the bar, which is routinely ades to change pace and direction, There’s an incredible pressure, quite written off at the junior end as being some global senior partners are on its last legs, has experienced sim- getting the message. They recog- rightly, from clients to get more for less Although this publication is funded through advertising and ilar growth. Currently, some 15,000 nise that the old models are mov- sponsorship, all editorial is without bias and sponsored features are in independent chambers, 45 ing to the history books and mod- can work on a specific project for just beginning to address the latter.” are clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule, partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 3428 5230 or e-mail per cent more than 14 years ago. ern technologies are the passport years for a fixed price,” says Anthony He maintains the exemplar for [email protected] Yet those numbers belie tec- to business survival. May, co-founder of London-based efficiency is the personal injury sec- tonic rumblings beneath the sur- “There’s an incredible pressure, professional services search con- tor. “It has had everything thrown at Raconteur is a leading publisher of special-interest content and research. Its publications and articles cover a wide range of face. Many suggest the bubble will quite rightly, from clients to get sultancy Hedley May. it in the last 20 years, and has con- topics, including business, finance, sustainability, healthcare, ultimately burst, if the air is not more for less,” says Rob Day, the And forward-thinking glob- sistently adapted its business mod- lifestyle and the arts. Raconteur special reports are published already leaking. A combination former London managing part- al players are not sitting on the els to fit the market by embracing exclusively in The Times and The Sunday Times as well as online at www.raconteur.net of corporate client pressure and ner of King Wood Mallesons, the sidelines. They too are involved in technology and business process enhanced technology is forcibly Sino-Australian global firm that cutting-edge restructuring to pro- improvements. And now the corpo- The information contained in this publication has been obtained changing the very structure of merged with City player SJ Berwin vide enhanced value-for-money rate law firms are catching up with from sources the Proprietors believe to be correct. However, no legal liability can be accepted for any errors. No part of this traditional legal practice and the in October 2013. options to clients. these trends.” publication may be reproduced without the prior consent of the shape of the law firm of the future. According to Mr Day, who has re- Examples include Freshfields Publisher. © Raconteur Media It is beyond doubt that the heads turned to the rank of corporate part- Bruckhaus Deringer, which is 1 RACONTEUR.NET LEGAL EFFICIENCY ONLINE: i /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA WWW.RACONTEUR.NET/LEGAL-EFFICIENCY-2015 f /RACONTEUR.NET P03 t @RACONTEUR Distributed in Overview Sponsored by Publishing Manager Alice Leahy Managing Editor Peter Archer Head of Production Natalia Rosek Design, Infographics & Illustration The Design Surgery www.thedesignsurgery.co.uk Contributors TECHNOLOGY IS THE JONATHAN AMES DRIVING FORCE OF Former editor of The Law Society Gazette, he is now a contributor to The Times and a special reports writer for The Lawyer magazine. LEGAL EVOLUTION CATHERINE BAKSI Image: Getty Former barrister and reporter at the Law Society Gazette, she is now a freelance journalist writing for a broad range of A seismic shake-up of the legal profession is altering the very law titles. structure of the traditional law practice, writes Jonathan Ames MICHAEL CROSS News editor at The Law Society Gazette, he specialises in IT issues within the legal sector, and has contributed to The he business of law in Brit- of corporate legal departments ner: “A lot of people, particularly the latest UK law firm to plan the Guardian, The Independent and The Observer. Tain is being convulsed by were the big winners of the 2007- with the ABS [alternative business launch of a low-cost services hub, the most fundamental 8 global financial crisis. Provided structure] changes in the UK, have or so-called near-shoring centre, in MICHAEL DEMPSEY evolutionary spasms experienced in their companies survived the eco- cottoned on to law as a business Manchester. Allen & Overy and Her- the best part of a century, with tech- nomic turmoil, general counsel rather than law as a profession.
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