Legal Practice Management
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MARCH 2014 MARCH 2018 THE ONLY MAGAZINE FOR LAW FIRM MANAGERS HARD KNOCKS LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Morton Fraser’s CEO on LPM facing a data ransom attack BRAIN TRAINING EXPERT Stephens Scown’s managing COLUMNISTS partner on setting up a shared AND ADVICE ownership model FROM PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Survival PLAN B guides How to make sure your firm keeps running after disaster strikes BUSINESSBUSINESS INFORMATIONINFORMATION FORFOR EVERYONEEVERYONE ININ PRACTICEPRACTICELEGALLEGAL MANAGEMENTMANAGEMENT PRACTICE PRACTICE MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT 1 1 Would you like your practice to be paper lite? 2. Book your free consultation. 3. We organise and pack. 1. Call ADDS, we can help! 5. Each file is barcoded and indexed. 4. Then uplift and transport to our secure records management facilities. 6. Then stored safely 7. You can easily request a hardcopy and securely. or electronic return via our system. You can count on us Contact us now for a free consultation 0800 328 0272 | www.archivestorage.net | [email protected] @filequeenadds | @filequeenadds | ArchiveDocumentDataStorage IN PRACTICE Follow us and talk to us on Twitter @LPMmag MARCH 2018 WELCOME In the wild, the fittest he worst has happened. A pipe has burst and your survive. In business, office is immersed in a foul-smelling swamp of murky however, it’s the most Twater. No one can get in and your furniture and tech have been destroyed. Rats have found a new bathing spot prepared that keep around the server. How do you keep the business going? going. This is just one possible disaster scenario that almost every business today might face at some point. The thing that gets you might be a severed internet line, a fire, ransomware attack or even a volcanic eruption. They all sound awful, but if the firm doesn’t have a plan for what to do to keep operations running while it recovers, it could be so much worse. The office might only be uninhabitable for two days, but that’s two days of not progressing matters or pursuing “No one can get in and new business – and for an SME, that’s a big deal. your furniture and tech That’s why we’ve gone to business continuity specialists and SME legal leaders to find out what have been destroyed. Rats firms need to do to ensure continuity in the event of have found a new bathing disaster. Read our feature on p26. spot around the server. Of course, continuity forms just a small part of a How do you keep the broader risk management strategy. Alongside this issue, this month we have a supplement all about business going? ” how firms can improve risk management broadly. Make sure you give it a read. One person who knows all about averting disaster is Chris Harte at Morton Fraser, who two years ago led his firm out of a data ransom catastrophe. Find out how he did it in this month’s Hard Knocks article (p24). Finally, I’m sad to announce that this will be my last editor’s letter as I’m moving on to pastures new. It’s been a privilege to edit this fine publication for the past two years, and I’m confident that I’m passing it into good hands. LPM Patrick Wingrove, editor @LPMmag | [email protected] IN PRACTICE David Green at The Feature: How do firms George Psiharis at Clio 19Strategic Partner talks 29ensure operations keep 42on setting up KPIs to Your view: Should firms about managing client reviews on going after disaster strikes? drive competitive advantage 09invest more money in Do they have a plan in place? new tech such as Al? Natasha Rawley at ADDS Nigel Redwood at 21gives a GDPR case study BRAIN TRAINING 44Nasstar on leveraging HR agony aunt: Polly technology to fight cybercrime 11on how to engage with Moneypenny’s Claire Brain training: Stephens employees young and old 23Smith on how to deliver a 33Scown’s managing Brian Rogers at Riliance top client experience partner on the processes of 46sets out the compliance Book review: Setfords setting up shared ownership challenges for the coming year 13Solicitors’ co-CEO Chris Darren Gower at Eclipse Setford reads Stepping Up 25on sorting the small INDUSTRY VIEWS REAR VIEW COLUMNS things to get repeat business COLUMNS Adam Bullion at Day in the life: Helen Katchr’s Graham Moore 36InfoTrack sets out the 48Pittard at 174 Law Gemma Garen at Ellisons 26delves into data strategy competitive case for tech outlines her daily life of CRM 15on the value of process programming and family fun and legal project management FEATURES James Letley at LayerV 40(part of Pulsant) on risk David Wood at FDR Law Hard knocks: Chris Harte and GDPR compliance with 17on embracing shadow IT 27on facing a data ransom managed IT and public cloud 3 LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Feel like a winner, every day Keep on top of managing your AP1s with our unique dashboard. Managing AP1s can be time consuming, especially when it comes to requisitions. InfoTrack now give you access to an innovative AP1 dashboard with multiple functions including the ability to prioritise applications, respond to requisitions and include further supporting evidence in a WhatsApp-style message exchange. And with a tabled snapshot to manage the status of all AP1s, making it easier to submit, prioritise and respond within a single platform - using InfoTrack will make you feel like a winner, every day. Contact us today to find out more. Visit www.infotrack.co.uk/AP1dashboard or call 0207 186 8090 eCOS Searches SDLT AP1 Land Registry MARCH 2018 About us LPM magazine is published Sign up for our weekly ONE GREAT CONFERENCE by Burlington Media. practice management THREE GREAT CITIES Burlington Media is focused e-newsletters, which bring solely on people in legal you the best of our TUESDAY TUESDAY THURSDAY 6 FEB 2018 24 APR 2018 17 MAY 2018 business services and practice management AMERICA SQUARE, LONDON IET, BIRMINGHAM CENTRAL MANCHESTER management – whatever size content and our social or type of legal services feeds, every week: THE ONLY EVENTS FOR SENIOR provider they work for. www.lsn.co.uk/subscribe/ezine MANAGERS IN SME LAW FIRMS We run LinkedIn groups “THANKS TO ALL INVOLVED IN PUTTING THIS TOGETHER. with thousands of members, We also run the popular IT IS THE ‘MUST ATTEND’ EVENT FOR PRACTICE MANAGERS.” Simon Longhurst across several areas, from LPM conferences, tailored Practice director, Teacher Stern legal IT to legal process for anyone working in Sponsored by: outsourcing. Find our LPM management in SME law group at bit.ly/lpmgroup. firms and ABSs. In 2018 Our sister brand LSN’s they’ll be in a city near website is where you can find you – on 24 April 2018 at news, views and resources IET Austin Court, from the established legal Birmingham, and 17 May news providers and hundreds 2018 in Manchester. BOOK NOW of suppliers to the legal www.lsn.co.uk/lpm2018 LSN.CO.UK/LPM2018 CALL 0870 112 5058 industry, all rolled into one EMAIL [email protected] useful information feed: www.lsn.co.uk. ISSN 2398-9734 LPM 2018 conferences magazine advert v1.indd 1 26/10/2017 12:02 Contact us Rupert Collins-White is editor-in-chief of LPM magazine. He has written about the legal sector since 2005, before which he 0870 112 5058 or [email protected] endured years as an IT hack until he ( Burlington Media Group tunnelled out with a plastic fork. 20 Mortlake High Street [email protected] London SW14 8JN Patrick Wingrove is LPM’s editor. A history graduate and avid scuba www.lsn.co.uk/practice-management Find practice management blogs, news, diver, he snuck into publishing in resources, white papers, case studies, 2014 by hiding in the offices of the video and audio and much more online Illustrated London News. [email protected] @LPMmag Kayli Olson is our assistant editor. A We’re listening, and we also have plenty Kingston graduate, she has spent most to say. We love Twitter – and if you love of her time in the UK picking up British Twitter too, share your thoughts with us slang, playing board games, drinking bitter and showing us ‘how it’s done’. [email protected] bit.ly/lpmgroup We run LinkedIn groups for thousands of people in legal business services, and we Emily Nash is LPM’s client services run a dedicated LPM group, too contact – and resident musician. Want to advertise in LPM magazine or feature in our awesome advertorial section? Then get in touch with her. [email protected] 5 LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Enabling Cloud within the Legal sector Pulsant answers your business IT needs through ultra- reliable, flexible, scalable, secure, stand-alone solutions or hybrid service combinations, designed to deliver your business-specific needs. • Hosted within UK based Tier 3 aligned datacentres, ensuring regulatory compliance for your business. • Operating to ISO 27001 standards and CSA Star Certified. • Reducing audit timescales and increasing security management for critical data. To find out how we can help your organisation, call 0845 119 9911 or visit www.pulsant.com IN PRACTICE Follow us and talk to us on Twitter @LPMmag MARCH 2018 IN PRACTICE On the move SNAPSHOT Research from Search Acumen shows that conveyancers have experienced their first annual THE FINAL workload drop in six years COUNTDOWN? IN NUMBERS Conveyancing s if the anticipation of the EU’s volumes shrank by General Data Protection Regulation wasn’t causing Aenough panic among legal practice managers, ministers have now agreed that the upcoming personal 12% injury reforms will be implemented in April 2019.