Mike Fieldhouse

A clear sign that firms are waking up to social media is the fact that Mike Fieldhouse is getting busier and busier. I met him for tea this week and he told me he had just signed up a Top Ten firm he'll be advising on social media usage and policy. A former lawyer, Mike works closely with the very wonderful Heather Townsend, author of the FT's 'Guide to Business Networking' (both online and offline) whom I've interviewed for this blog before.

Mike and I were discussing how law firm attitudes to social media have changed in just a very short space of time. Not much more than a year ago the typical response from a major firm was 'social media may be great for some businesses, but it's never going to be relevant in the legal/accounting sector because our work is so discreet/confidential/and things our employees say could be held against us'. Today the conversation is different. 'Social media is clearly important, so how do we manage these issues... that our work is so discreet/confidential/and things our employees say could be held against us?'

"Firms are now doing it and they are starting to think more and more about how to formalise and professionalise their approach", says Mike, "which is where Heather and I come in. Our role is to help set the parameters for social media usage, devise policies that work with the culture of the firm, recommend baseline programmes of social media activity for people and train them in how to do it.

"The next challenge though, is how to perfect who is doing which part of the firm's social media activity: what should the partners and fee-earners be doing? What should the marketing/PR team be doing? Does it work having a junior marketing exec tweeting on behalf of a busy department head, or should the partner be doing it himself? And how does it link with PR? What sort of opportunities are there to work with the established media on social media platforms?" 

This is a subject close to my heart of course. We talked about the MIPIM blogging and tweeting for Estates Gazette and The Lawyer we organised for one client this Spring; the various opportunities for guest blogging on the websites of established media titles, nice nationals such as The Times and the FT and the fun opportunities eg inviting employment law clients to tweet from their sofas watching The Apprentice on TV using a special hashtag for The Lawyer magazine.

And yes, I did take that opportunity to step on to the soap box and sound off on one of my favourite themes: the opportunities for firms' senior partners on social media platforms. So many times the senior partners will opt to 'leave the likes of twitter to the younger generation'. But they only need to reconnect with someone they've done business with before but have lost touch with over the years, and with no track record to prove in the way that 'the youngsters' have to, their reputation already soundly established, work can follow far more immediately.

There's lots more here to talk about between me, Mike and Heather as firms get really serious with social media. The idea of some joint talks and webinars was mooted, linking social media policy, training, tactics and PR. 

Watch this space....

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The most arresting story of the week has to be the one about the defendant in a murder trial who was brought to court in his hospital bed to give evidence at the Old Bailey. He made legal history no less.

A suicide attempt while in custody left the defendant extensively paralysed. News reports describe him in the well of the court lying down in his hospital bed propped up by pillows and surrounded by nurses. 

But it was court artist Julia Quenzler's classic pastel and charcoal depiction of the scene that caught my attention. Immediately recognisable in the papers as an official courtroom sketch, but so incongruous with the hospital bed at the centre.

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There must be a God up there... Those of you who know my passion for film will understand my excitement this week reading in The Evening Standard that a second branch of the London Film Museum will be opening this April. The article featured this wonderful image of Marilyn Monroe going over her lines between takes for The Misfits; also a wonderful snap of Charlton Heston on the set of Planet of The Apes, taking a break with a colleague in full ape costume. Just two of the delights on display at the new museum. Halfway through the article I started to obsess - where is the new site? I must go to the opening.... before reading the Museum opens in Covent Garden, less than five minutes from our office! 

Someone up there is definitely smiling down on me!

Gary Morton

Riverview Chambers represents a sea change in the way legal services can be delivered, there is no doubt.  This is the first of DLA Piper-backed LawVest's mould-breaking 'alternative legal business structures', one of a handful of exciting business innovations in the sector currently in the queue for an ABS licence. We've all read the legal news stories: two firms under one brand Riverview Law - Riverview Solicitors and Riverview Chambers - will offer businesses a 'different experience of law' by offering fixed pricing on legal jobs. But I was interested to learn from to Gary Morton this week, one of the barristers who led 3 Pump Court's charge into the new Riverview venture, about how this ground-breaking development benefits his own chambers.


'So far we've signed up to supply employment services for Riverview. And in this part of the legal world, peaks and troughs can be difficult to manage. You may spend weeks at a time in Tribunal. At other times you prepare for a three-week hearing, then the case settles the day before court leaving a gaping hole in the diary that can't be filled at short notice. Our dual membership at Pump Court and Riverview means we can fill the gaps with work that is more piecemeal in nature coming from a different part of the market, eg one or two day cases. I also think there's an intellectual benefit in having a steadier flow of work and a more diverse range. It enables you to exercise your skills more constantly, rather than having to switch it on and switch it off. I believe strongly it creates better barristers.'

But doesn't Riverview Chambers conflict with 3 Pump Court?

'Not at all. It's complementary. That's the point. In a sense we are just using the Riverview Chambers umbrella to service one particular client that is Riverview Solicitors - in the same way we service other big law firm clients at 3 Pump Court.'


3 Pump Court is famous for its collaborative culture: these guys are the antithesis of the classic image of the remote, standoffish barristers that sit in their ivory towers, quite removed from their clients and the rest of the legal team. And Gary in particular will tell you that he thinks more naturally 'as part of a collective' than as an individual - his background as a Trade Union organiser becoming apparent here. So it was no surprise to hear him enthuse:  'What really excites me about this new venture is the opportunity to take team-working between solicitors and barristers to a whole new level. Barristers do like to work with solicitors they know well, will often choose to work on a succession of cases together. But in this new structure we can take this so much further, fine-tuning how we work together, becoming slicker, more efficient - which of course from the client's point of view means more economical. '

If this is a sign of things to come in the brave new world of legal services, the future does indeed look bright.

***

Sometimes a story is best told in a single image.  Now we all know the Duchess of Cambridge is a very photogenic young woman and we are certainly used to seeing pictures of her gracing our newspapers, magazines and screens daily. Yet one photo of her this week stopped me in my tracks - despite my republican leanings.  This arresting image (left) was reproduced everywhere.
You can count the story lines just looking at this picture of her  impromptu hockey display on her visit to Team GB this week. 
- The unfusty royal - prepared to pull on a sweatshirt and trainers, give it a go and be a good sport
- A woman with skills - once captain of the school hockey team, at Team GB her technique 'wowed crowds and impressed officials' according to the Telegraph.  

- Effortlessly glamorous - being Kate Middleton, even in trousers worn for a public occasion and incongruous grey sweat top and trainers, she still managed to look fabulous.
- And look at that smile and that wonderful body language. This young woman may be living life in a goldfish bowl, but she's cool and relaxed - and knows how to have fun. #



***

A very welcome Tonic came mid-week in the form of our 'Spruce Up for Spring' session in Covent Garden. Clients and friends who are members of our Tonic Club volunteered for free makeovers (at Bare Escentuals) or traditional wet shaves (at über trendy barbershop Murdock), followed by drinks all together at nearby Hospital Club. 

Tonic is designed exclusively for people working in-house in professional firms in PR, marketing or management roles.  As its name suggests, the idea is to offer a 'tonic' - these roles may be joyous and rewarding but we all know there are frustrations too!

Thanks Nicola, Victoria, Jacky, Sarah, Sam, Andy, Chris, Lauren and all my fine colleagues at Kysen for making it such a fun evening. Looking forward to Part Two on 12 April.. 

Adrian Wooldridge

Spent a fascinating afternoon with The Economist's Schumpeter, one of my favourite weekly columnists. What a treat! Essentially a business and management column, Schumpeter was launched by The Economist three years ago, designed to offer insights to "help people see business straight". It is named after the famous economist, intellectual and political scientist Joseph Schumpeter, who knew the power of a sound bite: in the first half of last century he coined the term 'creative destruction' - the idea that companies rising and falling would unleash innovation and in the end make economies stronger. He believed vehemently that innovation was at the heart of economic progress and he promoted the idea that business, and capitalism, could be a force for good - at a time when the prevailing sentiment was anti-business.  

"Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens, but in bringing them within the reach of factory girls, in return for steadily decreasing amounts of effort" was one of his most famous observations.

The man behind Shumpeter is impressive in his own right.  Management Editor Adrian Wooldridge is one of the most thoughtful and though-provoking journalists I know.  Take a look at this week's article "Slaves to the smartphone" on the "evils of constant connectivity" and how we should all get a life.  And this one from earlier in the year on "The dangers of demonology", which argues that hatred of bankers is in fact one of the world's oldest and most dangerous forms of prejudice.  Now that's a challenging idea.  

Adrian is also the author of several intriguingly titled business books: "The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea", "A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalisation", "The Right Nation - a study of conservatism in America", and "Masters of Management: How the Business Gurus and their Ideas have Changed the World - for Better and for Worse".  This man is alive with interesting, original, often counter-intuitive ideas. If ever you have an opportunity to engage him in conversation, grab it! Lucky me: I got to spend a lunchtime and a whole afternoon with him as he talked to a number of clients for a piece he's researching on the changing fashions for organisational structures. It was utterly fascinating.  Will reveal more soon...

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"Austerity MIPIM" are two words I never thought I'd see side by side.  But Brecher managing partner Nicky Richmond has been busily blogging from MIPIM this week for both The Lawyer and Estates Gazette and has been talking about just this.  Gone are the days of the property department jolly. This year if you're there, you're definitely there to work. Nicky more than most: on top of a gruelling diary of hardcore business meetings, from dawn to dusk, across breakfast, lunch and dinner, she has been sending me two draft blogs before 9am each morning.  Star client!  You can read her Estates Gazette blog here and The Lawyer one here - although this one comes with a health warning.  She took a particularly dim view as some of the proceedings towards the end of the week seemed to slide back into the lairy excesses of the early noughties, and being Nicky she told it just how it was. And it wasn't pretty.

As I post this, Nicky is on her way back to London - returning with a suitcase full of new clients and deals.  Now that's how it's done!

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Didn't we all miss Steve Jobs this week, with the damp squib that was the launch of iPad 3. The market was seriously underwhelmed.  Now Mr Jobs was a man who might have got on well with our Joseph Schumpeter, had their times on this mortal coil coincided. Jobs' magic gift was his ability to take potentially elite, complex technology and translate it into a mass consumer product, because of his intuitive understanding of the consumer mind, habit and heart. The latest iteration of our beloved iPad seems no more than a bit of tinkering around the edges. A new high definition screen? Faster microchip? Hardly revolutionary.  Let's hope Apple finds new inspiration soon.

Mark Johnson

Happy 10th birthday to TPP Law! Managing partner Mark Johnson joined me and colleague Clare Turnbull for lunch this week to celebrate a phenomenal 10 years success since he launched his business in 2002, and we took the opportunity to ask him how reality had matched up to expectation.  With a career that began with roles at top firms such as Theodore Goddard (now Addleshaws) and SJ Berwin, Mark is a highly specialist public projects  lawyer, with a particular emphasis on innovative and cutting edge partnership contracts and new delivery models for public services.  It is no coincidence that we met to celebrate the success of his highly respected niche firm just days after a survey by Winmark Chief Legal Officer Network highlighted that FTSE100 companies are increasingly choosing niche law firms (also some mid-market players) in preference to magic circle firms for most things except for those very special deals that still require some real 'magic' - as Jonathan Ames put it when he wrote about the phenomenon in this week's Times. 

Mark is renowned for his methodical approach to his work for clients and his business.  This is the man who attended Harvard Business School's week-long Leadership in Professional Service Firms programme as part of his business planning process.  So did it all pan out just as he expected?  What in particular does he think he has learned over the last 10 years?

"First and foremost, I learned that creating a business plan requires a collaborative team effort - the whole firm needs to buy into it and understand it.  It can't really be imposed from above.  Equally important is staying close to the market: get the senior team out and about making connections and finding the next assignment - not sitting at their desks in the office.  In my previous firms there seemed to be an assumption that if you were not in the office you clearly weren't working!

Next, I'd emphasise the importance of training and development, which is critical to attracting and retaining talent."  This is a subject close to Mark's heart and Kysen was very grateful when he shared his wisdom back in 2010 as we prepared for our own Investor In People accreditation. (Thanks Mark!)  "Law firms have got much better at this over the past ten years," he continues, "but many have some way to go.  We have a very structured training plan for everyone in the practice at all levels.  Crucially, senior lawyers need to make time to mentor and coach junior staff.  Lastly, I'd say that you can't achieve success on your own - the right level of business support on finance, IT, business development and PR is essential.  Fortunately we have worked with some excellent partners in these fields."  (Thanks again Mark!)

Well, with old snobberies diminishing and in-house lawyers increasingly demanding a real and evidenced value-add,  the future looks bright for TPP Law.  Here's to the next 10 years!

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Some gift horses should most definitely be looked in the mouth! Huge fun was to be had on Twitter this week, as journalists and others raced to tweet ever-increasingly inventive 'nag gags', after news emerged that ex News of the World boss Rebekah Brooks had been loaned a retired police horse from the Met.   Check out #horsegate on Twitter to enjoy the fun.  

The Guardian took to the saddle with a game of its own, inviting readers to contribute their best horsegate jokes.  Enjoy them here.

What was your favourite?
**

And so to the Oscars...  which, with The Artist and The Iron Lady both sweeping the awards again, seemed rather like a sequel to last month's BAFTAs.  Meryl Streep reprised her role as Cinderella - (you'll remember her losing her shoe on the steps up to the stage on her way to collect her Best Actress BAFTA) - winning only her third Oscar ever, despite being the most nominated actress in history: Cinderella shall go to the ball!

And Jean duJardin charmed us once again, with a coy follow-up to his wonderful joke at the BAFTAs ...."In the words of Buster Keaton...[silence]".  This time he delighted us with: "If George Valentin could speak, he'd say....."  ...well, if you want to know what he'd say, click on this video link - and enjoy!

Catherine Wheatley

Enjoyed looking back down the years with Sunday Times journalist Catherine Wheatley this week (although we almost got vertigo). Catherine and I used to work regularly on stories on the SME sector, when she was small business correspondent at Andrew Neil's Sunday Business (later The Business). Our paths diverged for a number of years when she went freelance, but we hooked up again recently to talk about her new regular SME column for the Sunday Times. There are few journalists who understand the SME sector as well as she does (Jonathan Moules, Richard Tyler, James Hurley, Kate Bassett, you are all at the top of my list too!) And it was a joy exploring hot topics, burning issues and fresh angles on old chestnuts together.

I was particularly intrigued to hear of an extra-curricular project she is involved in, transferring the knowledge she has acquired from a long career in business journalism into the international development arena.

"Earlier this year I worked on developing a media strategy for a Girls' Education Programme run by the Department of International Development in Ghana.  The project looked at how the government could use local media - including community radio and Ghana's fast-growing mobile phone network - to get more kids into better-quality education for longer. Poor teacher attendance is a big problem in rural schools.  So one idea we recommended was to equip PTA heads with mobile phones so they could take an attendance register of teachers and text the result back to the Dept of Education!"   

She has also been advising Oxfam on private sector advocacy projects.   "As you know, Oxfam has had great success with its collaboration with M&S (donate your unwanted M&S clothes to Oxfam for a £5 voucher).  But the charity is now also looking at how big businesses can improve working conditions in parts of their supply chain in the developing world, (ie garment manufacture, food supply etc). Today more consumers are interested in the provenance of what they buy and will shop with an ethical agenda.  Oxfam thinks this represents an opportunity to align the interests of business and the world's poor.   For some in the international community big business represents the enemy.  So it is forward-looking of Oxfam to recognise they can be strong allies too."

If you're interested in these projects, watch out for information on Oxfam's website.  Check out Catherine's page in the business section of the Sunday Times too.

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Prize for the flimsiest legal defence this week has to go to Dominique Strauss-Kahn's lawyers. I don't know whether the problem was too much imagination or too little, whether they are just severely out of touch with how ordinary people conduct themselves, or whether they were simply scraping the bottom of a very empty barrel, but trying to argue Strauss-Kahn couldn't have known the girls at that sex party were prostitutes because they were naked...? Puh-lease!

***

I'll never read a war report the same way again thanks to some of the reports surrounding the death of Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin. Just over a year ago she had given an address at a service at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street to commemorate war reporters who had died in the line of duty in recent years. If you didn't get a chance to read the address in this week's papers I'd urge you to take a look here. It's stirring stuff and gives an insight into what drives these individuals to take on such a dangerous line of work - "a hard calling" as Ms Colvin put it.

Here's a snippet:  "Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction and death, and trying to bear witness. It means trying to find the truth in a sandstorm of propaganda when armies, tribes or terrorists clash. And yes, it means taking risks, not just for yourself but often for the people who work closely with you....But the need for frontline, objective reporting has never been more compelling."

Marie Colvin, and all the war reporters who have gone before you, RIP.

Steven Ross

Fascinating working with Steven Ross on his Manchester United racism case this week. A litigation partner at Brecher, he is advising the owners of Red Issue, a fanzine run by Man United supporters, on the high profile seizure of 1600 copies. The copies were seized by Greater Manchester Police just before the big match on Saturday (11th Feb) because of that cartoon - a Ku Klux Klan image and the words "Suarez is innocent!"  Red Issue is clear the cartoon is satirical and deliberately anti-racist, but the police are attempting to justify the seizure on the grounds it's an incitement to racial hatred, raising interesting issues about where the line is between "satire" and "offence". Steven writes eloquently about this in The Times this week, so if you're interested to look into the topic further, you can read more here.

A point that particularly impressed me about Steven's case though, is how he won this prestigious, high profile pro bono job in the first place. He tells me:

"Manchester United put out a plea on Twitter at the weekend for legal assistance:

Being a fan (so a follower on Twitter) as well as a litigator I spotted the request as soon as it was made and tweeted back right away. Within hours, I was given the role as their legal representation on the matter." 

Always interested in stories of lawyers winning work through social media channels, I quizzed him about it a bit more.

"It's not the first time I've won work via Twitter," he says, "and I'm not the only one at the firm either." Steven's joint Managing Partner is the famous and irrepressible legal tweeter and blogger Nicky Richmond aka @saysitstraight, much loved in both the legal twitter- and blogo-spheres for telling it how it is - indeed sometimes saying the unsayable - and generally bringing some much needed humour to the proceedings. Nicky herself has won work on Twitter - nice, fat profitable work as well.

"One of the things I've learned from this week's experience" Steven says "is that because you can choose your 'community' on Twitter [via who you follow and who you entice to follow you] according to your own areas of interest, both professional and personal, when you do get opportunities to win business they really hit the spot! I am very excited to be playing my part in the outing of racism in football. This furore is one of a number that is confronting the issue and helping deal with it. And of course I feel very privileged lending a hand to help my very own Man United."

So I present this to you as evidence to share with any of your colleagues and peers who still maintain that Twitter is an inappropriate or irrelevant forum for lawyers to win business.

***

The news story that shocked me most this week was the dreadful revelation by The Times that dying patients with learning difficulties are routinely discriminated against in our hospitals - to the point of being more likely to have "do not resuscitate" orders imposed on them without the knowledge of their families. The revelation came in the form of a report by Mencap, which believes the issue is underpinned by assumptions by some healthcare professionals that people with a learning disability are not worth treating. 

Having worked with RJW's employment team over the last years exploring how individuals with mental health issues are often discriminated against in the workplace, I have become very aware how difficult life is for people in this situation. But this story, I have to say, shocked me to my core. 

***
What was your favourite BAFTA moment? For me it's a close run between two. First, that wonderful "Cinderella" moment when Meryl Streep lost her glass slipper (actually a very elegant black stilletto) on the steps up to the main stage to collect her Best Actress award for her role as Margaret Thatcher in "Iron Lady" - and Colin Firth swiftly assuming the role of Prince Charming, even going down on one knee to replace the shoe gently on to her foot.  But was this an orchestrated PR stunt do we think? Certainly did neither's existing reputations any harm...

Second, was Jean Dujardin's utterly endearing acceptance speech for his Best Actor win as George Valentin in this year's silent movie smash "The Artist". Loved his final line: 

"In the words of Buster Keaton...[silence]" 

If you caught it first time around on Sunday, enjoy it one more time here.

Matt Byrne

Matt Byrne is an exceptionally busy man these days. Since The Lawyer's redesign at the start of the year and its brave decision to put all its news online, devoting the weekly hard copy edition to news analysis and features, it's no surprise that the job of features editor just got bigger.  Much bigger.

"It's a lot of work, but great fun!" says Matt. This is an exciting time at The Lawyer.  Our relaunch was all about grasping the nettle and facing up to just how radically news consumption has changed / is changing.  As Cat said at the time of the redesign, we now compete with news services that send updates direct to lawyers' phones.  We had to have a fundamental  re-think about how we distribute our material.  Online is clearly best for news - and our Lawyer News Daily email makes it accessible and immediate via people's  phones.  And the hard copy print still wins every time when it comes to that more in-depth, analytical read."

So now Matt has four opinion slots a week to play with, plus a new column called The Lawyer Business, which profiles a non-lawyer law firm manager each week discussing how they approach their role - a CEO, COO or FD for example - plus of course the old stalwarts such as the ever-popular Work-Life Quiz.  And he has plans for more feature columns, yet to be revealed.

Of all the legal journalists I know, Matt is among the handful with truly impressive pedigrees.   He started life as a reporter at Legal Business way back in the 1990s and moved to The Lawyer eight years ago.  At one point he was stationed in New York, reporting for The Lawyer on legal market trends that side of the pond.  Since taking on the role as features editor, his creative flair has come to the fore - witness all his new ideas now his pages have expanded.  This man of course was a professional musician in a former life, in fact once had a recording contract - and has been known to sup beer with the likes of U2's Bono and The Edge.  He can still regularly be seen on the London pub and club circuit, top gigging venues such as the Boogaloo, the Dublin Castle, the Jazz Cafe, the Garage, etc - and just very occasionally he and the band can be spied at a lawyer party.  I was lucky enough to see The Truemen play at Matrix Chambers 10th anniversary bash at Fabric a year or so ago for example.

I have to say that if anyone should have the role of being in charge of my in-depth regular read, there's no one better, nor more qualified for the role, than this man!

***

Amazing how Harry Redknapp has gone from villain to hero overnight.  Only a short time ago he was vilified in the press for alleged tax evasion, now he is being heralded as our best option for England Manager.  The ability of certain sections of the press to turn a person's reputation on a sixpence never ceases to amaze...  

What I've found even more interesting in this story though is the debate about England players expressing their preferences for their next manager on Twitter. Among others, former Manchester United and Ireland captain Roy Keane has spoken out, saying 'player power' may be counter-productive in the search for a new manager.  The players obviously have massive followings on Twitter given their celebrity status.  Does the posting of their views on Fabio Capello's replacement unbalance the debate?  A new twist in the story of the power of Twitter, for sure.

***

So, do any lawyer colleagues still need convincing about the power of Twitter?  Do some still maintain Twitter is an inappropriate of irrelevant medium for the conservative business of law? You might like to point out to them this week's big news - that the Supreme Court, no less, has started tweeting.  

There was one slight glitch apparently: initially the Twitter feed stated the Court would not be accepting Freedom Of Information requests via Twitter, but within just a few tweets the Court had to change its position as experts pointed out this contravened official guidelines from the Information Commissioner.

Curious to know what they've been tweeting?  Take a look @UKSupremeCourt.  And take this opportunity to encourage some of your Luddite colleagues to sign up and follow!