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THE LEGAL FINANCE FORUM
The Legal Finance Forum was formed in early 2004 by a number of the senior Finance personnel from some of the UK's top 100 legal firms and currently has over 40 members representing 25 practices.
The idea was to provide a regular private forum for Finance Directors and other senior finance managers in law firms to meet to discuss topical items and issues of both operational and strategic importance and to share information and experiences for the benefit of the individuals and their firms without risking competitive confidentiality. This is supported by members' agreement to the "Chatham House Rule".
In addition the membership provides a critical mass which allows it to engage more effectively with other external organisations and bodies for example in attracting particularly knowledgeable guest speakers and experts. However, the Forum operates as a totally independent group and does not permit supplier membership.
For more than two years, forum members have met quarterly at venues throughout the UK for a working meeting looking at a broad range of formal topics related to the financial management and administration common to most law firms. Meetings have taken place in Exeter, London, Northampton, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh to date.
A sample of the items covered is listed below:
The application of FRS5
The conversion of legal practices to LLP
The experience on dealing with the Law Society with regard to common queries under the Solicitors Accounts Rules
Quality accreditations in the legal marketplace
Key performance indicators
Sticks and Carrots for managing WIP and debt
The effectiveness of different types of bonus and other reward schemes
Professional Indemnity Insurance - now an annual benchmark topic for the forum
Data storage and archiving
Partnership structures the use of fixed share and salaried partnerships, type of lockstep etc.
Procedures for dealing with small client balances
Benchmarking administrative and support services this was first carried out in 2005 and is now underway for 2006 with 17 firms participating
Funding models looking forward and particularly the impact and application of the White Paper following the Clementi Report
Client profitability analysis
Time recording management
The European Savings Directive (the HMRC guru in this area attended and provided a thought provoking presentation)
Expenses and flexible benefits policies
Typically the benchmarking exercises are more detailed and more directly relevant than some of the industry-wide based exercises. Not all firms participate in all projects with the only proviso that if they dont contribute they dont get access to the information!
The group contracts with an independent Chair and is further supported by elected members in the roles of Treasurer and Member without Portfolio. The quarterly meetings are hosted by one of the members and operate to a four to five-hour managed agenda but with additional opportunities for one to one discussion between members over a buffet lunch and at the end of the day. Meetings are arranged to try to facilitate same day travel from anywhere in the UK.
We encourage interested but uncommitted parties to come along and sample a meeting for themselves and then decide whether it is the right thing for them and their firm. Many members are also happy to speak to interested parties informally to give their views on the value and worth of the forum.
Membership of the group is open to any senior finance personnel of UK law firms with turnover in excess of £10M. The Forum makes a small annual charge for membership to cover the costs of management and administration as well to provide for some smaller specific projects.
2006/2007 membership is £315 for two representatives and anyone interested in joining or in learning more about the forum should contact Chris West, Chair of LFF, at chriswestconsulting@blueyonder.co.uk or 0131 477 2200 in the first instance.
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