The words of BT Legal’s Leeanne Whaley, in ‘Held to account’, particularly stand out in this issue: ‘We spend a lot of money with external law firms. It historically suited law firms to not be transparent, but outside of big-ticket M&A and litigation, the job of a commercial lawyer is more replicable than ever.’
That this type of comment, made recently but equally has been repeated in many guises since the global financial crisis, needs to be repeated today is alarming. Put simply, in this day and age clients should not need to remind law firms that their existence is on a knife-edge: they should just vote with their feet. Traditional reputations should carry no weight with clients and firms should be judged on what they are doing now, rather than what they used to do. In the feature, Tony Williams of Jomati says firms can no longer rely on getting the lion’s share of the work based on their market reputation alone, adding that traditional law firms need to ‘get sensible’ and innovate on billing or risk being left behind.
This isn’t the start of a seasonal bashing of just the Magic Circle. Those firms have faced enough criticism in recent years and know probably better than most what they need to do to stay relevant. But remaining relevant is a challenge facing all law firms, from the thrusting US outfit tearing up trees in London to the litigation boutique.
This is not just with regard to billing, it is in every aspect of doing business as a law firm. As we observe in our overview to the Global 100, doing business the right way and making good money will be increasingly inextricably linked in time, a point that was made in our ESG report, ‘We good corporate citizens’ (LB302) earlier in the summer.
The signs have been there for a while. Pinsent Masons was crowned Law Firm of the Year for a third time at the Legal Business Awards in September and there is a reason why that firm stands out from all the others when assessed by our panel of senior in-house counsel. The more cynical may suggest that the firm knows how to put a decent submission together – and while Pinsents does indeed have a marketing team that should be the envy of many firms further up the Global 100 ladder – you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The truth is Pinsents gives the judges what they are looking for – a little bit of innovation, a little bit of perspiration and a touch of class. The firm makes a virtue of doing business the right way, something others can learn from.
The undeniable truth is that a generational shift is taking place among the key decision makers at corporates and they have little regard for the ancient law firm legends of yore. Take for example Sarah Holford, head of legal at Scania, who is profiled this issue. She says: ‘You don’t want to be the person shouting from the sidelines while the game is going on, you want to be on the pitch playing with everyone. That’s the only way you’re going to get change.’ Take note.