Make the cuts

I don’t know about you, but for me September was packed full of events in the legal sector. I had the chance to follow up with Taylor Vinters on its Zebra Project and see one in action: ‘purpose led growth’, a nice continuation of LPM’s recent features around creating cultures. Among other events, I also popped along to the Barclays Eagle Labs launch event. The top 100 firms are looking to work with startups … perhaps the SME market could benefit from such a partnership? But what do they all have in common? Innovation – or perhaps that’s a bit too broad, it’s about knowing your business and driving efficiencies.

Our Andrew Muir investigates what SME legal leaders could learn about driving efficiencies from firms’ high volume/low margin areas – for example, how’s work allocated, what technology can you use? More importantly, where can you cut costs and still improve service to clients? Read all about it on p23. Having trouble with building up your employee pipeline? We’ve got a couple of perspectives on succession planning by Sean Stuttaford (p12) and David Green (p20).

And don’t forget to check out our brand new columnists Accesspoint (p15), with a Q&A on law firm website strategy, and MHA MacIntyre Hudson (p17) on business models and financing for the future.

MORE FROM LESS

What can firms learn from the world of high-volume, low-margin work? As fees are being slashed, LPM looks at how to be efficient and use technology to boost margins. Andrew Muir reports

GOT THE DIFFERENCE

Will Taborn, founder and managing director at Taborns, examines the problems of the traditional law firm model

A RACE TO THE MIDDLE?

Kate Briscoe, CEO at The LegalBeagles Group, delves into publishing prices online and what it might mean for firm ratings