Business development skills are much prized amongst lawyers, maybe because most lawyers think of sales as some dark art which only a few can accomplish well. Over the last few years, however, I have noticed that an increasing number of lawyers get a buzz from successful rain-making, and often find the sales phase in …

A Cynical View of Law Firm Values - Do law firms really have the values they proudly describe on their websites?

This short piece first appeared in the Edge International Communiqué may 2012

Before the advent of marketing departments, websites and branding advisers, law firms rarely thought about their organisational values. Now, virtually every …

‘Lockstep’ is a misleading name for an equal-sharing method of partner profit sharing. This short piece first appeared in the Edge International Communique for April 2012

There is something very appealing about the collegiality of professional partnerships in which profits are shared equally amongst its partners. Such a method of sharing profits is invariably …

Cooking up a Business Plan

I have noticed that firms often make one or other of two common mistakes when undertaking strategic and business planning.  I have written a lot about the importance of exploring Strategic Intent (Identity, Purpose and Vision) in order to establish the firm’s high level strategy.  …

This short piece first appeared in the Edge International Communique for February 2012. In it, I suggested that firms should consider matching their strategic implementation plans with a carefully constructed budget for Strategic Expenditure

Law firms are historically under-capitalised by external standards and in the traditional partnership model, partners are typically anxious to avoid any unnecessary …

This article first appeared in the Solicitors Journal on 6th February 2012

Russell Jones and Walker’s £53.8m price tag suggests it was valued five times its 2013 EBITDA, so what could your firm be worth? asks Nick Jarrett-Kerr

Valuing professional service firms is not a new innovation. Firms have traded for decades in many areas of professional …

Using the Pareto Principle in decision-making

By Nick Jarrett-Kerr

First published in the Edge International Communique January 2012

Law firms often have huge problems with their decision-making processes.  In the first place, lawyers are infamous for the glacial speed of their decision-making.  Analysis can often result in paralysis.  Caution and a tendency for risk aversion can often mean …

Anticipating Scandal, Randomness and Unlikely Disasters in Law Firms

By Nick Jarrett-Kerr

This article first appeared in Law Business review December 2011

Scandals such as the News International hacking incident are timely reminders that organizations can be brought to their knees by events which are highly improbable, often …

In Case of Trouble, Change the Leaders!

This recession just refuses to go away.  From 2008 onwards, the survival strategy of some firms has been to batten down the hatches and to survive the recessional storms in whatever way they can.   The problem is that this is a short term tactic rather than a long term …

This article first appeared in Edge International Communiqué.

Are law firms starting to acquire a value?

A whole generation of law firm partners – those born in the baby boom just after the Second World War – is now reaching retirement age and forms the first generation for which the issue of goodwill has never been explicitly relevant. …