OK we may have overstated it but it made you click through..
Here’s the latest TR survey out of Australia and it’s interesting to see where Australian firms think they fall over.
To be fair we think they are actually being truthful and on the mark about their own failings.
Australia has had a very sophisticated legal market for decades but as they rightly point out marketing and systems IT have always been somewhat of a failing failing. We would question whether they are actually rubbish at Business Innovation though.
Here at ALE we believe that Australians may be underselling themselves on this point. Look at Slater & Gordon. That’s some of the best law firm innovation we’ve seen in a long time.
In terms of Oz firms not having the skills within the law firms, we think it only fair to blame the partnerships of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s who although not luddites to a man (and we can say that, as women at the top of law firms in Australia were rarer than Bengali tigers in this time frame) were too involved in working out how they should divvy out the money to each other rather than seriously re-investing earnings back into the firms on the technology, marketing, sales and business development fronts.
But there’s another way of looking at this . The firms who answered questions , appear in the main, to answer truthfully and approach the survey with a degree of seriousness which engenders at least a modicum of trust in the law firms themselves.
ALE would suggest if a lot of the rising “stars” of Asia law firms were given the same survey they’d all answer that in fact they are the best firms in the world, with the best staff, there’s never any problems and everything was, is and always will be hunky dory. The smoke and mirrors of Asian business culture demands they do this and as a client that would immediately make me plump for the organisations who understand they have room to improve
Here’s the survey results – enjoy the read
Lack of time and challenges of attracting the right talent holding law firms back from true excellence
The Australian legal industry has overcome ‘little fish’ syndrome and is now competitive on the world stage; that’s according to a major new study from legal and tax solutions provider, Thomson Reuters. However, the candid research also reveals that despite this, it’s a shortage of time and the challenges of attracting the right talent that’s holding firms back from achieving true excellence.
The study questioned 132* senior fee-earning legal practitioners among medium-large firms across Australia, and was commissioned to help Thomson Reuters better understand what law firm ‘best practice’ looks like, and how professionals strive for excellence.
Second to only Europe, Australian legal practitioners considered ‘Down Under’ as the most competitive legal market in the world, coming above the US (third in the list) and Asia (fourth).
However, the research revealed that far from excelling in every practice area, there is in fact significant room for improvement, with marketing emerging as the area firms are weakest at on a day-to-day basis.
Areas firms consider themselves most ineffective at:
1) Online and traditional marketing
2) Business innovation
3) Systems & IT
Areas firms consider themselves most effective at:
1) Client servicing
2) Financial management
3) Practice leadership
When asked what was holding them back from achieving true excellence in every business function, the inability to recruit the best staff (44%) came top, followed by lack of time (43%), lack of budget (37%) or a lack of the necessary knowledge across the firm (36%).
Another issue of concern emerging in the research was a lack of process; 49% of firms had no formal staff training programme in place, 30% never reviewed client satisfaction, while 13% never reviewed fee earner’s efficiency. A further 38% admitted that the Australian legal industry suffers from complacency.
The study also explored what factors professionals used to assess law firm excellence, with quality of work emerging top of the list. Interestingly, ‘profit’ and ‘growth’ featured outside the top five.
Top measures for law firm success:
1) Quality of work
2) Client retention
3) Efficiency of staff and processes
4) Niche practice expertise
5) Innovation
James Boocock, General Manager of Legal Solutions at Thomson Reuters, said: “The bullish attitude towards our legal market is encouraging, and rightly so. In Australia, we have an innovative and respected industry, carrying out world class work each and every day. However, we need to be realistic, and the survey identifies some important issues, particularly around the challenges of finding the right people to take a business forward, and finding the time to do it. Clearly, to be truly competitive, these issues need addressing.
“Perhaps a starting point is to tackle some of the areas firms believe they are weaker at, especially IT. The importance of getting this right can’t be over-emphasised, and with the right systems in place, for example, sophisticated practice management or workflow solutions, or online research tools like Westlaw, huge time and cost savings can be made, freeing up important man hours to spend on a business, not in a business.”
Ends
*Study questioned 132 senior staff/partners across medium-large law firms in Australia in July 2014. Detailed research breakdown is available on request.
For media enquiries, contact Will Ockenden at [email protected] or call 02 9319 1101.
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 55,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.
