How P4B Law modernised its legal tech with Osprey Approach
For more than 20 years, specialist employment law firm P4B Law has supported employers with expert legal advice and representation. Operating as a fully remote firm long before hybrid working became commonplace, the business has built its reputation on reliability, responsiveness and practical expertise. After many years using the same case management system (CMS), P4B founder Roger Davies recognised the firm needed […]
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LPM INSIGHTS ROLL
My kind of success
About 18 years ago, I had a fantastic annual appraisal but one comment haunted me: my boss said that I needed to toughen up and be far less sensitive and emotional. It came from a good place – he didn’t want me to take other people’s problems too much to heart. It was typical of […]
THE TRAVELEX BUG
When Travelex decided to take its currency exchange services offline after discovering its systems had been compromised by an ‘REvil’ ransomware attack on 31 December, cybercrime again became headline news. More disturbing perhaps than the $6m (£4.6m) ransom, is the cybercriminals’ claim to have downloaded sensitive customer data, after accessing the Travelex network six months […]
Winning clients
What does data have to do with relationships? Working tirelessly in the background, your firm’s communication systems likely manage hundreds, thousands, even millions of transactions each day. Email and other systems not only facilitate digital communication, but they also log and store data about each of these transactions. This data is something that often goes […]
THROUGH THICK OR THIN
Thin client solutions have waxed and waned in popularity over the years, but with the ubiquity of good-quality networking and the continuing evolution of business requirements promoting mobility and enhanced security, thin client delivery can have real advantages. What is it about the new generation of thin client technology that has led to it becoming […]
ENGAGING MINDS
Client engagement for the legal sector has evolved greatly. We continue to see the methods used to obtain and maintain clients improving through the use of a more considered and joined-up approach. Now, more than ever, firms must pause and look at the environment around them to see how client-centred operations can create new and […]
Editor’s letter
Welcome to the future. Hope everyone’s on track with the transporting hubs, wearable wellbeing tech and flying vehicle airspace car park permits. Or for those more pessimistic, have you got your staff radioactive suits upgraded, air filtration systems running and fully functioning on-prem gardens tended? There’s a lot to absorb as 2020 gets underway, and […]
COMPLIANCE COMPLICATIONS
The word ‘compliance’ is often followed with a huge sigh or groan of despair. Compliance and risk management have always been one of the biggest challenges faced by SME legal businesses and disproportionately impacts them the most. It’s a reality we must accept, so what are the regulatory risks we face? The fact that law […]
52 BECOME 13
The compliance officer for finance and administration (COFA) role is nearly seven years old and there are still mixed views on the purpose and success of the role in becoming, along with the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP), the lynchpin – or, some might say, Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) ‘watchdog’ – of compliance and […]
PRACTICE MADE PERFECT
As 2019 nears its finish line, the Institute of Legal Finance and Management (ILFM) is keeping close tabs on regulatory and legal activities in the pipeline. With the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new handbook right around the corner, SME firms need to be on top of potential changes to process and administration. A particular area of […]
FACE THE BLAME
LPM’s people guru Polly Jeanneret talks Love Island, social media slander and secret HR meeting recordings Q I have noticed that you talk a lot about ‘difficult’ or ‘temperamental’ partners. But in my experience it’s the clients that are the worst. We have one who treats our staff pretty shoddily: shouty, critical, unpleasant. Another told an […]
EDITOR’S LETTER
Autumn has dropped and it’s time to dust off those jumpers for pumpkin season. With a lot on the horizon, October may feel like the calm before the storm. But in the meantime, LPM checks in on law firm and client technologies. In this increasingly on-demand world of consumer behaviour, Jem Sandhu investigates what apps […]
Technology transfusion
If only it were as easy as a Star Trek Borg assimilation – being plugged into the mainframe platform and obtaining the mindset needed for the digital transformation. Over the past 20 years in practice, and the last five in consultancy, I’ve been immersed in digital transformation – working from an SME private practice background […]
NEW DIVERSITY
Q What is neurodiversity? A The term is used to recognise that everyone’s brains are wired differently. In HR circles, neurodiversity is the movement to create a more inclusive working environment for people who have ‘hidden’ disabilities such as autism, ADHD and dyspraxia. People with these conditions are neurodivergent in that they’re different from those […]
REIMAGINING INCLUSIVITY
What are the ‘elephants in the room’ when it comes to truly making inclusivity the default position in an organisation? These were the creatures being discussed at Taylor Vinters’ zebra project event on 6 June, Diversity and inclusion – from tokenism to transformation. The zebra project brings together business leaders and thinkers to ‘reimagine business’ […]
TELLING RETAIL
It’s often said that things come full circle in life. After spending the first 10 years of my career at Procter & Gamble in the 1990s, working with Boots, Asda and the Co-op, I’ve spent much time in more recent years advising law firms to do what savvy retailers do. Here are five lessons I […]
EDITOR’S LETTER
Welcome back to the wonderful world of LPM. Hope you’ve had a lovely summer – it may be nearing the end but we’re kicking off September with a story of growth. What does it take to tighten finances and find the funding and right strategy needed to support growth? Josh Adcock raises the curtain on […]
Lessons in lecturing
Q A member of staff has informally complained about a solicitor who is vegan and who has been ‘lecturing everyone’ about veganism (complainant’s words not ours). What would you advise? A Veganism is potentially protectable under the Equality Act. So it can – though doesn’t automatically – have the same protection as other, more familiar, […]