news Region claims four top-10 spots in new law-firm benchmark
The standard of law firms’ service delivery is “high and rising” – but expense and value for money remain a concern, according to a major new piece of sector research.
Nisus Consulting surveyed more than 2,000 in-house and private practice lawyers in the UK, Europe and beyond for its latest annual market report.
The research, entitled ‘The Unbalanced Scorecard’, centres around a unique Performance and Value Index (PVI) which incorporates a range of service metrics.
Osborne Clarke, which has an office in Reading, is ranked number two in the report, while Shoosmiths, with offices in Reading and Basingstoke, is number four. Clyde & Co, which has an office in Oxford, is at number eight.
Only three of the so-called ‘Magic Circle’ firms feature in this year’s top 10. Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May is the highest scoring firm in several service dimensions: progress updates, responsiveness, strategic thinking, technical expertise, problem solving, advice quality and documentation quality.
When it comes to the qualities which clients look for in their legal advisers, the research
highlights that responsiveness and availability are seen as being less important than personal chemistry, and the ability to problem solve and think strategically.
“Every firm is striving to make itself stand out from the crowd,” said Tim Nightingale, managing director of Nisus Consulting. “Our research confirms what we all knew: it is difficult to do that on technical expertise alone – there is almost always someone down the road who can do what’s required as well as you can.
“The standard of service delivery in the legal sector is high and rising, which is unsurprising given the degree of competition in every segment.
“However, there are still question marks and areas for improvement. Clients view law firms as expensive and no firm for which we have data leaves clients believing they got more value from instructing them than they had anticipated at the outset. Quite the opposite. And that remains a challenge for every firm.
“Similarly budget compliance is good in some areas but poor in others and a bone of contention for many.”
The report also highlights disparities between
law firms in terms of delivering value and service.
“The best performing firms on service and value are rewarded with loyal clients, an essential ingredient in any professional services business: yet others score disappointingly poorly,” said Nightingale.
“This is a concern, particularly in an increasingly-polarised market where firms that have neither an expertise, cost nor service advantage have nowhere left to go.”
He says the latest Nisus Consulting report proves there is no “magic circle hegemony” in terms of service delivery.
“The market for legal services is well known for its aversion to change and it would be easy to cite examples where there continues to be resistance to innovation. In fact, there has been a great deal of change.
“If we had dared to suggest 15, or even 10 years ago that Addleshaw Booth and Co, a firm founded in Manchester and now in London, care of a merger with Theodore Goddard, would come top of our PVI survey with Osborne Clarke – a firm from Bristol, in second place, we would have been treated as a laughing stock.”
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mm.indd 1 THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2016
15/08/2016 18:20
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