The campaign is part of an exciting project 7BR will be announcing in early 2022. Another set that is raising the bar at the Bar, this time in relation to attitudes to accessibility.
The Conversation
Capturing interesting conversations in the course of my work...
Friday 24 December 2021
Amanda Illing
The campaign is part of an exciting project 7BR will be announcing in early 2022. Another set that is raising the bar at the Bar, this time in relation to attitudes to accessibility.
Friday 24 September 2021
Lara Squires
Legal marketing supremo Lara Squires thinks lawyers need to get a much better grasp of their brand positioning, to give them confidence in pricing themselves properly. This is a major issue for the profession she says. With a new competitive framework as firms and their clients prepare to pull out of Lockdown, she's worried there's going to be a race to the bottom in terms of price, with lawyers undercutting each other to win mandates.
This is a topic we've visited before in this blog, in conversation with Vanessa Ugatti, who specialises in training lawyers to see their worth and price themselves accordingly. For Vanessa, the issue is largely one of psychology and getting lawyers to see themselves differently. Lara's take on the topic is that it's intrinsically linked to how a lawyer understands (or doesn't) their firm's brand.
We can only dream of a time when law firm brands are so clearly distinguishable from one another as these retail brands. But with Lara advising the marketplace, I'm starting to think that day will come a little sooner.
especially when it involves a multi-million pound fraud, celebrity status and a police chase. Edmonds Marshall McMahon have successfully brought a private prosecution against Elie Taktouk who has been sentenced to seven years in prison on 11 counts of fraud relating to a failed property redevelopment in Knightsbridge. Their clients, Adrien and Frank Noel, were defrauded of £2.49 million by the tycoon who leveraged his reputation to con the investors into investing large sums through a series of calculated lies about the true state of the redevelopment. Taktouk who failed to show up in Southwark Crown Court was later detained by the police at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel. Taktouk reached celebrity status after his wife Daniella Semaan, left him for the former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Cesc FÃ bregas. This case highlights why private prosecutions are a vital part of our justice system, at a time when the state prosecutors are struggling to investigate and prosecute for complex fraud. Private prosecutions are becoming increasingly more significant as they provide a fast and effective option for individuals, corporates and charities as state prosecutors continue to suffer from a lack of resources to investigate and prosecute complex fraud.
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sort of normality, you'd think we'd all be tired of the topic. (We've been placing employment experts here, there and everywhere in the press on these sorts of topics for weeks!) But the Strictly vaccination drama made us all prick up our ears. The BBC quoted strictly star Gorka Márquez, who claimed that reports that some professional dancers on the show are refusing to be vaccinated against Covid are ‘pure speculation’. Márquez told This Morning that everyone is free to make their own decisions. “You go in the streets right now and some people might be vaccinated and some people might not”, he says. As the months go on, we’re bound to see more of these ‘vaccination drama’ stories, whilst business of all kinds increasingly grapple with the question of encouragement vs. enforcement when it comes to staff being vaccinated. We’d do well to remember it’s not just the corporate world coming up against these challenges. Watch this space, because employers are only going to need more guidance as we come closer to normality!
Friday 11 June 2021
Katie Cramond
MWE’s Katie Cramond has given a lot of thought to how we need to present differently in the digital environment. And of course this is a subject close to everyone’s hearts at the moment, as so much of our business life has transitioned to Zoom or Teams. Indeed this was a recurring theme at The Lawyer’s Marketing Leadership Summit (#TLMLS21) this week. In fact an entire session was devoted to “How can law firms cut through the surge in online information to get content engagement”. (We will be posting a series of guides on various of The Lawyer’s platforms, looking at different aspects of this, and reposting them here too.)
“As with any new medium, you need to take time to think how it works”, Katie says, “rather than just do a version of what you normally do on a different platform. So think about your “staging”, ie camera angles, lighting, backgrounds etc, and your clothes. It’s a balance though, between being sufficiently rehearsed and mindful of how you come across … and still being authentic!"
***So enjoyed The Lawyer’s Marketing Leadership Summit this week (and proud to be a sponsor). I particularly loved how the organisers included so many GCs in their panel sessions. A wise move, giving all the marketeers attending hard evidence to go present to their partners, as they take ideas back to their firms. “We heard FTSE 100 GCs say [this or that] is important to them…” Even a lawyer can’t argue with that! Interesting how many times the plea for lawyers to “be more human” came up in talks by GCs. “Legal expertise is a given. What we want to know is what a firm’s lawyers are like as people, and the values and approach that’s unique to their (and their firms’) way of doing business and helping clients.”
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Thursday 27 May 2021
Rhian Huxtable
So what else does Rhian’s work tell us about the client’s-eye view of legal service provision? Just as I was poised to start writing up my interview of him and everything he told me about this, (and actually quite randomly), I had the opportunity to ask one of his clients and mine. How entirely appropriate! Instead of using his own words, I can tell you how one of his customers found the experience of working with him! The Family Law Company’s very wonderful Kerry England, (she’s a dynamo and one of the most creative legal marketeers around – you may remember her Only Human campaign that we profiled in this blog before), has worked with Rhian previously at Stephens Scown. She says what Rhian is particularly good at is the critical part that happens after gleaning the customer insights: getting partners to listen to what they need to do differently and actually getting them to change. He does this by getting under the skin of their practical and psychological blocks to change, starting with three simple questions: 1. What do we think is not working as it should do? 2. What can we do to fix it? And 3. What are the blocks that stop you doing those things to fix it. And he manages to do this without making anyone feel defensive. That’s the big difference, she says. That and the fact that everyone he coaches in the firm, which covers people at all points in the organisation from receptionists and secretaries to partners, respect his pedigree, honing his customer experience skills over 16 years at much-loved high street brand Boots. That’s why he’s worth his weight in gold, she tells me. And this comes direct from the experience of a customer!
Friday 19 March 2021
Matt Kay
Vario managing director Matt Kay is missing the randomness of office chat and thinks our professional life risks being the poorer without it.
I took the opportunity to speak to Matt as he settles into his expanded role as head of Pinsent Masons’ new professional services practice group, Vario. He has made such a success of the firm’s contract lawyer resourcing arm since taking over the lead five years ago, that he has now been given a key role in the wider firm’s journey to transition from a law firm to a ‘professional services business with law at its core’. As Matt is a leading expert in workforce dynamics and resourcing teams for best effect in all sorts of different and changing circumstances, I was keen to hear his insights.
“In Lockdown our days have become far more structured now that
most of our meetings are conducted online”, he told me. “On the plus
side, this has proved to many more bosses that employees can be trusted to be
more, not less, productive when working remotely. But on the other, in a
different sense people’s output is in danger of being watered down because our
interactions are so much more formal, narrowly task-oriented and to that extent
straitjacketed. We no longer bump in to people, have unexpected chats
that spark new ideas which we might then set up a meeting to explore.
Everything is far too scheduled and pre-booked to allow for this serendipity.
Yet we can see now that pre-Lockdown this was so often the way new ideas and
initiatives got started. Teams and Zoom are great for allowing us to
carry on and get done what we need to do to keep things going. But little
happens outside of that.
“Also”, he continues, “We spend a lot of time online with the same
people. The professional bubble of people we interact with is a lot
smaller, ie only the collection of people we need to interact with directly to
do our job. What’s being lost is the ad hoc interactions that normally
just happen by chance in the office. The opportunity to bounce ideas off
someone as you have an unexpected conversation. This is part of the
everyday process of operating in a large office environment. Indeed
modern offices are designed to encourage exactly these sorts of random
interactions, because experience has shown how valuable they are to businesses:
open plan, comfortable seating around coffee areas, breakout spaces. The
challenge for us now is to rediscover this in the virtual environment. The
answer? To build more casualness in to our scheduling.”
We often talk about the importance of business certainty. But Matt has given me a completely new perspective on the value of
unpredictability and uncertainty. Vario is a brand known for turning
established business practices on their head, doing things differently and
leading where others follow. Every time I speak to their managing director he makes me
think again about business norms I’ve accepted as a given. I’m looking forward
to the next chat Matt!
***
Complex personal injury specialists Bolt Burdon Kemp claim to be “Champions” for their clients … and rightly so! They have just conducted a study that reveals only a paltry 2% of British civil and criminal courts are fully accessible. Why haven’t we heard more about this before? Credit to BBK for bringing this to our attention. This clearly needs to change.
As they say in their report, “for many people, going to court is seen as a
necessary evil…a way to help them gain justice or get redress for crimes committed
against them or negligent behaviour that has adversely affected them”. Its’ a daunting process for anyone to go
through, we know. But even more so for clients who have issues with their
vision or hearing, or those with mental health issues or childcare
responsibilities. In 2019 the Government
admitted that 31 out of 56 courthouses in the Greater London were
inaccessible. Did BBK find anything had
improved one year on? You can read the detailed results of their investigation
here.
Friday 12 March 2021
Arpita Dutt Talks to Adele Baxby Meehan
This week, our Content and Creative Director,
Adele Baxby Meehan takes over The Conversation
In relation to this, Arpita pointed to a positive trend
she’s noticing in law – the rise of the boutique firm led by women. “We’re
seeing more and more niche boutique employment firms established by women.
Karen Jackson’s didlaw, Farore Law established by Suzanne McKie QC, CM Murray
founded by Clare Murray and Workwise Legal from Alison Humphry and MadeleineHughes, for example. No one is treading on anyone’s toes in this market as they
all operate in their own niche practice areas. I think we will see more firms
like this emerge and that should be celebrated.” Arpita expects to see more
female legal entrepreneurship too and when asked why, she said: “The
traditional law firm reward and recognition structure doesn’t suit women and
women often aren’t encouraged to express their own vision or voice in some
firms.” Speaking of the pandemic’s impact on workplace cultures, Arpita
thinks that although working flexibly and working from home might be more
accepted when we get back to ‘normal’, part-time work is still resisted by many
firms, especially litigation teams. Forging their own way is a path
increasingly explored by female lawyers who find the traditional law firm
unsupportive and stuck in the past.
In light of International Women’s Day this week and the
worrying statistics around how the pandemic has impacted equality, Arpita, who
speaks so passionately about the issue, left me feeling hopeful. There is still
a way to go but I am confident with individuals like Arpita at the forefront,
the conversations will continue to go in the right direction.
Please consider supporting the Rights of Women cause here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/rights-of-women/
***
This week we enjoyed seeing the number of businesses celebrating women in recognition of International Women’s Day. One of our clients, Brook Graham, gave a lovely shout-out to some of the women who have helped shape their business (including our own Clare Rodway). Since working with Brook Graham, after they became part of Pinsent Masons Vario last year, we have learnt so much from this team of expert diversity and inclusion consultants. From conversations with the team, I know much more about intersectionality for example and how gender and race e.g. can combine to create a particular type of discrimination, and how much businesses need to wake up to this. And Brook Graham’s ethos of taking a meaningful approach to culture change is so important – in this day and age it’s not enough to talk about D&I issues. What’s needed is meaningful change. So, consider this a shout-out back at you, Brook Graham – keep up the great work!***
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Amelia Jones, Senior Account Manager at Kysen PR writes about IWD and the real issues businesses need to think aboutA Mumsnet survey for IWD highlighted
1 in 5 working mothers during the pandemic have had to slash their hours in
order to cope with the increased childcare, and most frustratingly of all “more than a third said their careers had
been affected in a way that was not true for their partner”.
Do businesses need to be
alive to these issues? I think so.
Women taking on more caregiving responsibilities than their partner, despite working full-time, sadly isn’t a shocking statistic, and the pandemic has only exacerbated this problem due to school closures. We can’t change individual family dynamics, but what businesses can do is create more support and opportunity for women, taking into account what their personal circumstances might be.
Despite the lack of good
quality investment in childcare by the government, companies can
do more to support families with their childcaring responsibilities. The ROI
highlighted by Arpita could do much to help women flourish in their careers –
giving them the space, time and opportunity to do so. The alternative is that
we continue to lose talented and skilled women in our workplaces.
Steps should be taken to improve equality for women at work, taking into account the responsibilities and pressure in today's society. Although it’s frustrating - we can’t change cultural expectations and socially constructed roles overnight - companies could take more of a tough approach in challenging why women’s careers are negatively impacted by the pandemic. As in the end, our industries will lose out the most.
Friday 5 March 2021
Tania Hemming
We’ve all been there, when you are asked to promote something as "ground-breaking" yet it is essentially a "seen before” initiative. Whilst these developments by a firm may be important to promote in some form or other, dressing them up as innovations runs a very real risk of undermining credibility in what the firm says and how it is perceived by its clients.
Tania believes the answer is in being far more precise about what we mean by the term innovation, rather than using it glibly as a buzzword: are we talking radical change? True market disruption? Or just incremental progression of a market idea? The lines may be blurred and that's ok, but let's be clear and communicate that by using the right language and label.
I met Tania at The Lawyer’s Marketing Leadership Summit last November, when she took part in a roundtable discussion we hosted entitled “When every law firm is an innovator, how do you differentiate your innovations?” Her contribution was insightful, particularly around the use and misuse of the term innovation, but sharing the floor with a dozen other top law firm marketers meant it could only be short. So I invited her to a one-to-one over Zoom to hear more.
“Our understanding and expectation of what a new idea or initiative can do needs to be crystal clear”, she told me. “When we first think of innovation we probably think of radical change but it doesn’t need to be seismic change to be of value. Incremental changes can be just as important in moving everybody and the market itself forward. But you need to present developments as they truly are, because exaggeration undermines credibility. We need to challenge our perception of what we are seeing as being innovative, we need to be clear about the level of change you are talking about and can we truly say they are disrupting the market? Is the change architectural, or is it radical? Is this something entirely new? Or a development of an existing idea or taking a concept from one market into another?"
Tania also pointed me towards a survey conducted by Altman Weil last year (Spring 2020) called “Law in Transition”, which revealed shockingly that 70% of law firm partners see themselves as the main obstacle to change … and 60% of those are unaware of what they need to do differently.
Tania is keen to ensure that innovation is not seen as a one-off initiative but should be a strategy within the firm and an evolutionary process. She also said, "The question is how to embed that into a professional culture that is often seen as conservative. With law as a cornerstone of society how brave do you want to be, what risks are you prepared to take, and are you prepared to fail". She continued, "These factors aren't something that comes naturally for law firms. I am fortunate that my career in professional services has been with law firms that look to push the boundaries and 'put their head above the parapet', what is radical change for one person is often incremental for others. If we are going to speak "innovation" to our clients, we have to understand what their perspective is and what the value is to them."
The importance of “Client-centricity” is a topic that comes up regularly in this blog as I interview leading legal marketeers on a wide range of topics. Lawyers need to communicate in their clients’ language and they need to understand the value they are adding in the context of clients’ own business worlds, and as they see it. Law firms need to distinguish between radical and incremental change from their clients’ perspective. Let’s take a good hard look at the word innovation in our press releases and marketing speak and challenge ourselves to be realistic about what the initiative can really do. Let’s focus on describing it accurately, promoting the benefits and value-add that will give clients true advantage, but let’s not bury their true value under meaningless buzzwords.
My home town of Reading was all a-buzz this week after the sudden appearance of a very cool piece of graffiti on the side of the old Reading prison wall. "Is it a Banksy?", tongues wagged on Facebook and in real life? It looks like one". It certainly does, the image depicting a convict escaping down the outer prison wall on a rope made of bedsheets weighted down by a typewriter. Is it supposed to be Oscar Wilde, famously interned in Reading Gaol for gross indecency in the 1870s? (Reading is very proud of this history.) The face looks more like Robert del Nadja to me, founding member of the band Massive Attack and Bristol graffiti artist, often rumoured to be Bansky himself. But maybe it's just the rock star sunglasses...
Sure enough a few days
later Banksy claimed the artwork was his. Just love this video s/heposted on Instagram showing how s/he did it, with wonderful art direction from
the US's famed Bob Ross, presenter of The Joy of Painting.
Enjoy!