Lawyers' aversion to risk is damaging their future success

Avoiding decisions on strategy, risk, accountability and governance is dangerous for lawyers who do not take enough responsibility for risk-taking and must rethink their roles.

Legal strategist Stephen Mayson has warned that current circumstances are forcing law firms to rethink how they are in business and, if the changes seen over the past 20 years were profound, then what lawyers are likely to see over the next 20 years will be life-changing for most lawyers.

"What firms need is clarity of strategic thinking. Law is a business. Business is about taking risks and risks are ultimately what business people get paid for. That's the reshaping of lawyers' thinking that's necessary for the future," he said.

Mayson spoke at an event hosted by Wesleyan, whose director of sales and marketing Samantha Porter provided a glimpse into what the next ten years may hold for the legal profession.

She continued: "Law firms will increasingly find themselves competing in a more corporate and commercial environment than they are used to and will need to reflect their practices to match this world in order to remain competitive. Firms will also need to look at how they recognise and reward their employees and different models - maybe with partnership at their core - will start to emerge."

A straw poll at the event found most practitioners to be strongly in favour of finding new, more commercial ways of working to adapt to the challenges ahead.

Further, nearly all in attendance agreed the traditional partner model of law firms needed updating, and that it was important for those running a firm to have experience of running a business as well as practising law.

However, two-thirds of those polled were concerned that too much external investment into a firm could lead to conflicts of interest.

Highlights of the presentation by professor Mayson and Samantha Porter can be viewed here.

John van der Luit-Drummond is legal reporter for Solicitors Journal