CC international plan for increases in US and Asia revenue
With the partnership keen to improve retention rates and eager to re-establish itself as an iconoclastic, ambitious and imaginative business, Clifford Chance (CC) managing partner Matthew Layton has laid out the firm’s international strategy, which includes greater focus on client satisfaction, making new leadership appointments, and increasing US and Asia revenues to approximately 20% and 25% respectively over five years.
One CC partner said Layton’s eagerness, which sees him undertaking a tour of the firm to explain the proposals, will help ‘tackle behaviour like passive disobedience. Any initiative that comes around, and doesn’t really grab you – you just nod, say yes and do nothing. There are so many initiatives across all law firms and people come up with good ideas – but we’re not project managers. You need to grab people and make them want to go in that direction.’
Helping to grab those people will be strategy consultant, Caroline Firstbrook, who is succeeding chief operations officer Amanda Burton, who left in 2014, and Amsterdam managing partner Bas Boris Visser who has been made global head of innovation and business change. The two will lead on implementing the plan and ensuring it stays up to date.
The strategy itself sees the Magic Circle firm looking at more flexible models of service and working, making better use of technology, and improving its continuous improvement programme (CIP). Concrete measures to ensure that the strategy is translated into revenue growth and higher profitability include introducing new key performance indicators for partners and associates, improving profitability analysis, and gaining a greater understanding of client financials. Speaking to Legal Business Layton said: ‘It’s a work in progress to align those metrics with client satisfaction to a greater degree with bonuses.’
A former CC partner reacting to the plan commented: ‘The strategy is a bit wishy washy. But I’m very pro-Clifford Chance and I think Matthew is probably trying to clearly define what he sees the leadership role as. It’s fair to say [former MP] David Childs was quite inward looking – it was all about operational efficiency. What Matthew is doing, which makes a lot of sense, is to create an image of outward perception, business development and client satisfaction. That is a major shift for the firm from where David Childs was.’
‘Matthew [Layton] has started fast and is driven to do things – he has an infectious enthusiasm and a clear sense of direction.’
A Clifford Chance partner
A partner still at the firm commented: ‘Matthew has started fast and is driven to do things – he has an infectious enthusiasm and a clear sense of direction. He has a far better chance of taking the majority of people with him if he does that – rather than an antiseptic set of concepts where people don’t really feel you’re into it, so they just ignore it.’
Objectives for the strategy will see an increasing share of revenue being driven from the US and Asia, with both regional managing partners, Evan Cohen and Peter Charlton, currently reviewing options to boost revenue growth. Aspirations are to increase the figures from around 11% of firm-wide revenue in the US to 20% and from 14% in Asia-Pacific to 20-25% over the next five years, while also maintaining their position in the UK and Europe.
An ex-partner, however, believes Layton’s strategy goes further – however ambiguous the latest announcement came across – and targets the firm’s compensation system. The source said: ‘Matthew is clever – he wouldn’t put out a statement just stating the bleeding obvious. There’s a message underneath. In effect, he’s getting everyone to buy into the strategy and have emphasis on client satisfaction. What you do is suck people in – you now have the tools to be able to define what partner outperformance is. That serves for modification of the lockstep.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk