Practical LawConferences

Much is talked about in terms of the benefits of an engaged workforce and its impact on productivity and results.  With the volume, variety and velocity of change in market conditions, the ability for your people to adapt to market conditions could well determine the success or failure of your business sustainability.

Brother UK is a Platinum Investors in People (IIP) workplace (one of only a handful in the UK) and was recently crowned the best of the best at the IIP national awards recognising the work it has undertaken to build an adaptable workplace.

But what has it taken to build such a culture and workplace attitude?  What have been the challenges along the way?  How can other businesses learn and adopt in terms of best practice?

During his talk, Phil Jones will share the journey the business has been on and more importantly the why and what around the business case for adopting a philosophy of employee engagement plus the results and benefits seen. Key topics covered will include: –

• Running the business on Purpose
• Collapsing the organisational pyramid to move from a culture of power to influence
• The ‘Blood on the Carpet’ moments and lessons learned

In this session Brian Inkster will give you an insight on how he operates Inksters with real life examples of the growth of the firm over an 18 year period and his plans for future growth and expansion.

One theme that will run through this session is that of improvement. Brian believes that you can make lots of little changes to improve many facets of a law practice and these will cumulatively reinvent it.

Brian will talk about identity, office environment, the internet, social media, marketing, geographical reach, the cloud, legal process engineering, funding, self employed consultants, corporate social responsibility and having fun.

You should, as a result, glean more than an idea or two on how to make your law firm more entrepreneurial.

This unique panel will give you the opportunity to hear from clients. Find out what they want to buy

• What do clients want from their law firms in respect of services and delivery?
• What does added value mean to clients?
• What would they like to see more of/ less of from their legal advisers?
• Next generation clients –their requirements; innovation; buying decisions and behaviours; what will the next trend be?

This session will examine new and established business models, including a look at the success, or otherwise, of recent ABSs.

• What can be done within the established ‘professional services’ model to overcome the inherent limits on profitability and growth?
• Embracing new options – will the law firm of the future be built on billable hours?
• What’s new and what’s coming into view in the constellation of alternative business models
• Time to exploit the new  regulatory freedoms – how to convert and exploit being an ABS

• Managing client risk : AML, reputational, conflict and financial.
• Managing matter risk: PI claims & disputes, AML, reputational, conflict (including own interest conflict), Data Protection & financial risk.
• Business risk : Strategic risk assessment: What could kill my organisation? Sharing thoughts on the killer risks for many law firms.
• What are the elements of a practical risk management system?
• How can risk management support commercial objectives?

• How are entrepreneurial law firms responding to the ‘gigging’ generations in terms of recruitment, progression and retention strategies?
• What do they need to do and avoid to manage and champion Millennials?
• How can Managing Partners keep up with the pace of change?
• Embracing social media to attracting and retain young talent: The opportunities and threats
• Attracting, progressing and retaining young talent; what do tomorrow’s recruits want?
• What will the future buyer of legal services look like?

• How ready are you to engage with the subject? What is it? How is it relevant to a smaller- mid sized law firm?
• Where will AI fit into the legal world today? What impact will AI have on fee Structures and reward strategies? Is the partnership model dead?
• How will smaller law firms compete in relation in the need to invest in technology? Will this lead to further consolidation in the market?
• Are you ready to innovate?
• Practical measures: Becoming AI ready with limited resources and budget
• How can Managing Partners keep up with the pace of change? Do firms need to de-risk their reliance on one or two IT specialists?

• Examining the potential impact of Brexit on GDPR
• Preparing the business to understand what it needs to do with its data to enable to move forward: Putting good structure around data
• What is the current cyber threat? And how will it affect your data security in light of GDPR?
• May 2018 deadline – where should you be now if you want to be compliant?
• What makes your company a target for cybercrime? Is your data secure? Are you cyber and scam aware?

The page will be updated with further details on the agenda once they are confirmed.