Editor's Letter: Back to work

The summer's over and there's no getting away from the work that is needed to improve your firm and build up your legacy, says Manju Manglani

The summer’s over and it’s back to reality. The kids are back at school, you’re back at work and there’s no getting away from the pile of paperwork on your desk. You may have dreamt of moving to the countryside while idling away your days in the sun, but it’s not yet time for you to be put out to pasture. There’s still plenty of work to do to build up your legacy.

September is a good time to take stock. The firm is doing well for now, but could be doing better. It probably needs to improve fee income and overall financial performance. It may be time to think about merging with another firm or even creating an international alliance. It also wouldn’t hurt to start looking at how to improve processes and systems that support client services. Click through this issue's pages for some pointers.

Something that many managing partners often neglect to consider is their own career prospects. Now that you can count on living until your nineties, there is still plenty of scope for a new career path once your term is over. Find out what your peers are doing elsewhere in this issue.

Finally, a note on Managing Partner. On our fourteenth anniversary, it is a pleasure and an honour to introduce you to our new editorial advisory board. In alphabetical order, the new board members are:

• Tim Aspinall, Managing Partner, DMH Stallard;

• Oz Benamram, Chief Knowledge Officer, White & Case;

• Jeffrey J. Berardi, Chief Marketing Officer, K&L Gates;

• Paul Brent, Marketing Director, Boyes Turner;

• Neil Davison, Head of IT, Farrer & Co;

• Stephen Denyer, Global Markets Partner, Allen & Overy;

• Andrew Hedley, Director, Hedley Consulting;

• Ian Jeffery, Managing Partner, Lewis Silkin;

• Jill King, HR Director, Linklaters;

• Beverly Landais, CEO, Devereux Chambers;

• Jo Larbie, HR Director, Bircham Dyson Bell;

• Deepak Malhotra, Director of Strategy & Transformation, Fusion Universal;

• Neil May, Executive Manager, Hogan Lovells;

• Michael Shaw, Managing Partner, Cobbetts;

• Malcolm Shelton-Agar, Chief Operating Officer, Allen & Gledhill; and 

• Julious P. Smith, Jr, Chairman Emeritus, Williams Mullen.

Look forward to receiving insights from these innovative leaders in the coming months.

Until next month,

Manju Manglani, Editor

– mmanglani@wilmington.co.uk