The Gazette 1989

APRIL 1989

GAZETTE

Shortly after I qualified I thought the copying machine was the greatest invention; then decided that the word processor was as good if not better until finally (so far) along came the fax machine which to my mind really enables the profession to deliver a modern and efficient service. I have been very pleased at the rate at which fax machines have been acquired by solicitors practices and I believe in a very short time most of the profession will be linked in this manner and very shortly thereafter linked on area network by computer. Another writer on legal practice, asks "what is the real asset of a law firm?" - to which he replies - "the customer or the client is the real asset of the business". The purpose of the solicitors business is to get and keep a client, as without clients in sufficient and steady numbers, there is no business and no profits. If our legal services do not meet the needs of our clients, what good are they? Do lawyers who believe themselves more important than the people they serve deserve to fail? In America I read that today's clients increasingly turn their backs on arrogant and pompous lawyers and look for a new breed of lawyer who offers courtesy, promptness and value. There are all sorts of simple rules which will help you in this direction, for example, return calls promptly, give practical advice, stay on top of your work, anticipate your clients needs. There are many others which will be found regularly repeated in articles in Journals such as Legal Economics. In opening this comment, I mentioned meeting with Solicitors at Bar Associations. Last November, those Bar Associ- ations at their Half-Yearly Meeting asked that I endeavour to put Solicitors in a position to compete in the area of housing finance and general investment. Acting on that suggestion, the Society in associ- ation with Sedgwick Dineen Personal and Financial Manage- ment is now launching a financial and property service for Solicitors. I hope that the service will receive a wide acceptance and be used to good effect in advising clients. I end by recommending you to read Michael Simons book and become a Subscriber to the Journal. Maurice Curran President

(excluding index) written by Michael Simons, a London Solicitor, entitled Anatomy of Professional Practice which is published by the Law Society's Gazette, 113 Chancery Lane, London at £14.95 stg. In this book he recommends that anyone interested in Management and Practice Development should join the Law Office Economics and Management Section of the American Bar Association. It publishes a quarterly magazine entitled Legal Economics which contains many interesting articles. Maybe what appealed to me about Mr. Simons's book is that I agree with so much of what he says, particularly that our business is about people and that you should do as he says and not, as he confesses, he sometimes does himself. Some of the comments can be quite amusing. For example on the question of Mergers he asks, is a Merger of equals ever possible, to which he replies, no there needs to be a predator and a victim for each successful amalgamation. Again he can be quite analytical; writing on the same subject he says "Merger is not an easy route to follow. It requires self-appraisal, discipline and a willingness to subordinate one's ego for the general good. None of those are characteristics which are of necessity prevalent in our profession". Branch offices are not something that has caught on to any great extent in this jurisdiction and I have often wondered why; does it have to do with an inability or a believed inability to enforce restrictive convenants against solicitors or against Assistants or Partners who operate branch offices and then decide to go out on their own? Or does it - as Michael Simons believes - relate to the lack of strong managment of finance and personnel which he feels is a pre- requisite? Obviously, as well as spending considerable sums of money on law books we will all have to spend great sums in future on installing computerised legal information retrieval systems which will also enable us to obtain financial service advice and additionally give access to Land Registry, Companies Office and other such Organisations.

When speaking to groups of solicitors at Bar Association meetings around the country, one of the points that I make in relation to the profession's fears of com- petition from Building Societies and other Lending Institutions in the Conveyancing area, is that we are a well educated and mainly youthful and energetic profession, which if it cannot compete on a level playing field, that is on fair terms as to competition, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. One of the elements which will be important in ensuring that we can face such competition, if and when it comes, is how we manage our offices. There is a growing belief that in addition to technical excellence, management skills will be crucial to our firms' long term effectiveness. Law Office Management courses started about 20 years ago. I was a great attender at them and I believe that I learned a lot. Finally when asked by Bob Weil, the joint author of Altman and Weil, How to Manage a Legal Office, after a Law Society Annual Conference in Killarney at which he spoke, whether I was going to his next meeting somewhere on the con- tinent, I replied, "No, I now know all the theory, my problem is putting it into practice". On the shelves of our office, there are in addition to Altman and Weil, Soars - The Solicitors Practice and David Andrews - Organisation and Management of a Legal Practice, each of which is a two volume loose leaf work. I have to confess that I have not got beyond the introductions in either. However, I have read and would recommend to you a paperback book of 111 pages