profile 19
Driving success at Herrington & Carmichael
Legal firm Herrington & Carmichael is going from strength to strength and gaining an increasingly powerful reputation with clients across the Thames Valley and the Blackwater Valley, writes Alison Dewar of The Business Magazine
In its last financial year, which ended in September, the firm’s corporate and commercial department achieved a superb 33% increase in its business, making a significant contribution to the firm’s overall growth of 13%.
Frankie Tierney, chief executive, says the results underline Herrington & Carmichael’s commitment to growth and its keenness to be seen as a “go to” law firm offering a wide range of legal services.
Currently the firm has 65 lawyers and support staff and Tierney is keen to develop to the stage where each department will be of a similar size with a minimum £1 million plus turnover.
“Our goal is to expand the business further, we’ve already made a real effort to grow our teams, to bring in additional expertise and ensure our clients have the greater degree of specialist advice that they are looking for,” she said.
“We have a very good name and I believe our results show that we can punch above our weight and provide a perfectly comparable, if not better, service for clients without them having to pay London fees.
“It can be difficult to stay ahead of the game but we are always looking for ways to improve, we set challenging targets and have a very proactive management style that enables us to keep driving forward and give clients the best possible service.”
Under Tierney’s guidance, over the past five years the firm has consolidated its teams in two offices – Camberley and Wokingham – and looking to the future, she says she can see a day when all its lawyers and support staff are under one roof.
The firm’s departmental-based approach means information is shared across all its teams and all department heads are partners.
“Our people know what the other departments are doing, so we can easily bring lawyers across from different teams to discuss a client’s issues or give advice, and we find that works very well,” she said. “It also means if a client requires help with a separate area of the law – for example employment issues – we can respond quickly.”
Tierney describes the corporate and THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2013
commercial team, headed by partner Yavan Brar and ranked in The Legal 500 as a leading adviser in the Thames Valley, as “our biggest success” thanks to its expertise across a wide range of issues; the ability to attract promising young lawyers; and the quality of the deals it has worked on.
The commercial lawyers regularly visit clients and Tierney says this helps them develop a much greater understanding of a client’s business and culture.
“If we can get involved early, when someone is feeling dissatisfied, there is a lot that can be done to get an agreement back on track or dismantle something that has been put in place, rather than going to court,” she said.
Alongside dispute resolution, both the employment and real estate teams have also been showing strong growth.
Driving much of the employment work is the need to work with corporate and commercial clients in the aftermath of mergers and acquisitions, helping to integrate employees into different businesses and working practices. Given Herrington & Carmichael’s own strategic moves, the team has first-hand experience of best practice as well as legal expertise.
The practice’s real estate team, the largest in the local area, demonstrated 10% growth over the past year, something Tierney puts down to a “very strong” resurgence in the residential development sector combined with its knowledge of the commercial landlord and tenant arena.
Frankie Tierney, chief executive
“Lawyers need commercial nous, we want to be on the ground floor and if a business we work with is thinking of doing something, we like it when they trust us to offer a view or suggest a way through the planning stages rather than simply the legal aspects,” she said. “We can play a much greater role if the whole team is involved and can work in partnership with clients.
“For us it’s about listening and offering solutions, whether that’s a straightforward approach or, as sometimes happens, by taking the client in a slightly different direction but still reaching the same goal.”
As head of dispute resolution, Tierney says the number of dispute resolution cases the firm deals with is on the increase. Always a proponent of mediation, she believes it is particularly important to get the parties talking before “open warfare” develops.
www.businessmag.co.uk
Given its plans to take on more lawyers and increase the number of trainees it engages every year, it’s clear that Herrington & Carmichael has its foot firmly on the accelerator.
Details: Frankie Tierney 0118-9774045
frankie.tierney@herrington-carmichael.com www.herrington-carmichael.com
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