Viv Williams Consulting | Law firm business support | Law firm merger and acquisition | Law firm strategic planning

Many Law firms find themselves surprisingly cash rich at present following a good March and the CIBLS and bounce back loan schemes. Many firms have furloughed staff and have closed offices therefore outgoings are significantly reduced.

Firms have adjusted their 3 and 5 year plans down to 5 week rolling plans depending on what happens. As furlough changes at the end of July many practices are considering redundancies if the predicted downturn in turnover is to be believed - as much as 50% in some cases.
A recession is coming and we are already seeing redundancies in law firms around the country and if we couple that with rising professional indemnity premiums it's a bleak time to be running a law firm.

I am having numerous conversations with law firms on their future strategy:

• What office space will be required
  
• They trust their staff to work from home
  
• What services can be delivered profitably
  
• What departments can or should be closed
  
• Do we need to merge or be acquired?
  
• Create High level job descriptions for all roles in the new world.
  

It will be too late to plan the future once this current bubble of cash has dwindled or gone so I urge you to take action now and a remote zoom or teams meeting can help you formulate your strategy.

For those of you looking to continue its more important than ever that you set realistic budgets and manage performance for those working remotely. This will apply to department heads as well as fee earners.

It's also crucial that you have a monthly commentary on monthly performance covering billing, profitability, chargeable time and lock-up. We would ask department heads to demonstrate what improvements could be made each month.