Clear costs

Who could have forecasted the financial rollercoaster that would occur in 2020, and the challenges and questions that continue in the wake of the pandemic? If there was ever an opportune moment to take a look at how your firm operates, it’s certainly now. In this LPM finance supplement, we talk to law firm leaders in finance and management about how their firms reacted to the new pressures on finance brought out by the pandemic. We’ve got a range of firm types, sizes, specialisms and regions, so take a gander at the war stories and success found throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

FORECAST FOR RECOVERY

It’s hard to predict how the business, or the market, will react to events like this, says Seema Jones, finance director at Town Legal, about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on her firm when the effects were first felt in March 2020. The health crisis has had a huge impact on SME law firms’ business models and their financial positions – and finance leaders and their teams have often been key to navigating the situation.

MANAGING CHANGE

The pandemic has, no doubt, had a big impact on how people and businesses think about finances. LexisNexis’ most recent Bellwether report found that eight out of 10 lawyers are making use of government support or are taking some kind of rescue initiative to help with money matters.

TRUSTING TECH

Arif Kamal, chief finance and operations officer, says since he joined Hunters Law in 2018 his remit has been to bring a change programme into the business. “The first thing we did was convert to an LLP and we looked at all our operations and formulated an internal efficiencies committee. This looked into many different issues but the biggest part to consider was our IT infrastructure, so we embarked on that in depth.