Bar Focus | How to adapt and thrive

Whether it's reform, regulation, the rise of alternative business structures (ABSs) or the increasingly dynamic technology that alters the way lawyers have to think, work and run their business; the legal sector - especially the Bar - is perceived as being poor to adapt and slow to effectively embrace and engage with business development.

Waiting in the wings

The Bar has been blasted over the last few months for not being innovative or modern enough to catch up with the rest of the legal industry. It's fair to say that the Bar has sidestepped ABSs for a number of reasons (regulation, independence - again - moving away from the traditional chambers model, financial), but I disagree that the profession is still in dinosaur mode, especially in the context of business development.

As a business development professional at the Bar who joined the sector with no legal or clerking background, I can see why some groups feel the English and Welsh Bar are showing less capacity for change and innovation in today's legal market. The Bar is a lot slower to catch up with the wider legal sector - for reasons good and bad (and not for me to argue here), but adapt and thrive it must in light of the rapid pace of reform and competition.

As I write, the civil sector is still reeling in uncertainty after the implementation of LASPO and the Jackson reforms (1 April 2013), including the business case for options such as damage based agreements and qualified one-way costs shifting in personal injury cases. There are further pressures on the Bar with the vertical and horizontal expansion of the portal later this year (July 2013, rumour has it). In my chambers, Civitas Law, this is has been one steaming hot potato of a theme to be planned for in business development strategies.

While our barristers' practices revolve around specialist civil and public law as well as ADR services, the way in which we address the challenges of reform, new market changes and working with new client business models is the same across the board.

Vision for the future

At a recent All Party Parliamentary Group Westminster meeting on the Future of Legal Services, a panel consisting of the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Legal Services Board (with guests) looked at how innovations to the business of law will help overcome the pressures and limitations of reform such as LASPO and Jackson. It quickly became a frank reality check on what clients/consumers expect of modern legal service providers and while the solicitors were largely evidenced to be embracing change and the opportunities, the Bar wasn't. I understand the concerns around reform both macro (concerns over access to justice) and micro (potential loss of income) for chambers but there is a tendency to ignore the elephant in the room - the need to work within the system we face and establish a cohesive business plan - which includes business development.

I'm lucky to work with an organisation that embraces and manages change with gusto and there are key elements in place for us to be able to do this. However, I took three key points away from Westminster which affect the potential for success in any legal organisation, but particularly chambers:

• Culture change. The need for chambers to understand the cultural barriers to change in their organisation -to address them and engage partners, practitioners and staff in the new or improved vision. Without employing those with a shared vision, the right skills and knowledge and the confidence and belief in the brand, organisations may find their plans for change fall through.

• Embrace technology. The use of more innovative technology to help deliver more profitable services, more effectively is often seen as a costly outlay by chambers. Often, chambers (and client firms) don't make the jump to invest in the right technology and investing in proper training to ensure they utilise IT systems to their fullest extent to support the business. Client databases, instruction records, marketing activities and therefore ROI can't be measured properly if processes aren't implemented and measured properly. You can have the best business development agents in the field but if you don't have the right tools to support and measure them then competitors who do will always have the advantage.

• Act like a business. From managing clients to managing barristers and staff, chambers have to start thinking like a business to thrive in the future. The traditional chambers model may have worked for decades but there are plenty of decision-making processes, management skills and business development tactics that can be gleaned from the corporate world -and indeed are being - by leading sets. As the make-up of barristers' clients changes from purely fellow lawyers to the public, commercial and public/third sector directly, so too should the language used by chambers when developing their profile in that sector. The use of professional marketers and business development experts in-house or as a bolt-on to the support staff and clerks is increasing at the Bar; as well it should. Sets who think like a business should be utilising those with the rights skills for the job (or up-skilling those internally who show potential).

Living in interesting times can be distracting, especially for those charged with developing the number of instructions into chambers. While everyone around you may seem to have lost their trail of thought or energy for looking to the future, those armed with business development responsibilities should be more optimistic as they will always be forging ahead. Combining some of the key elements below (outlined very briefly) provide a basic but effective start to help shift the black cloud of uncertainty in today's market.

• Identify and establish chambers' four Ps. Its products, prices, (market)place and promotion (marketing). Without a clear, agreed and understood business offering across chambers, consistently sold by clerks, business development roles, directors and the barristers themselves, then efforts to work with other brands or bid for ABS/corporate tenders are pointless. These are very basic marketing principles but not often prioritised in chambers unless needed to at the last minute. How can you expect to develop relationships without having a very clear and consistent offering? In these shaky times, clients need an absolute understanding of what you offer, for what price and to what standard.

• Profile/sense of brand. This comes down to the effectiveness of marketing, including tactics such as public relations. Word-of-mouth recommendations will lead potential clients and collaborators online to search for justifications of these authorities so ensure targeted messages are out there on recognisable channels.

• Market knowledge. Looking for opportunities to align chambers with a particular sector directly rather than relying on solicitors to be the missing link, requires access to targeted market knowledge and even research to support expansion of chambers' profile in a particular area (key for direct access promotion). This isn't always something that senior clerks have the time or resources to do, which is where the use of consultants or in-house marketing professionals come in handy.

• Long-lasting relationships. Any direct collaboration with the market should be followed up - as with all client contacts - are also made collaboratively and therefore effectively.

• Internal engagement. Without this, any development plans across chambers - from a press release to a tender bid - are fruitless. Barristers are fantastic communicators but not so much when it comes to talking about business development. I've heard of a number of high profile PR agencies which have been dropped by chambers clients for poor results - yet no-one in chambers took responsibility for cultivating a relationship and understanding with the communications experts. As such, the PR agencies (many of which do need to understand chambers better, granted) have little information or direction on the business plan in order to direct strategies properly. I've heard similar stories from PR and marketing professionals employed directly within chambers. This failure to utilise market communications skills effectively isn't unique to the Bar. However, without taking the time to understand how it works and ensure marcomms professionals are given a clear business plan to align activity to, then the likelihood is that campaigns will be scattered, ineffectual and meaningless.

Now is the time for barristers to look at skill sets and management within chambers. Chambers need a balance of the right skills, personalities and experience to ensure they are the best they can be to compete.

I feel strongly that to support and enhance the experience and knowledge of the clerks' room, chambers need to employ qualified/experienced business development professionals who bring market awareness, contacts and new skills into chambers. Qualified professionals and members of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, for example, are able to bring dynamic, flexible but specialist skills to chambers that may not feature elsewhere in the staff pool.