denotes premium content | Feb 6 2012 FD Legal magazine archive
Volume 4 Issue 2
- Editor's letter
Welcome to the December/January issue of FD Legal. I trust you are all suitably toasty under piles of Christmas cards and party invitations, clutching your steaming mugs of mulled wine enjoying the dulcet tones of Bing Crosby in the back ground. Or maybe, like me, you are wondering where 2009 has gone and frantically attacking your reams of to-do-before-the-holidays lists! The consensus seems to be that the lead up to Christmas has seen busyness-levels taken to a new high. Which can only be a good thing?
And an even better thing is that recent research into top 100 UK law firm finance directors1 indicates that, of those firms that participated, all firms in the top 100 have an FD or equivalent role. Back-office function? I think not!
Volume 4 Issue 1
- Editor's letter
Welcome to the October/November issue of FD Legal.
There may be be 80 days until Christmas, but there are 17 days until my birthday (23 October – and I do accept cash, cheques, credit cards, food). This lead up to the big day always puts me in rather a reflective mood. And I see that it has been a year since my first issue of FD Legal, so happy anniversary to one and all at the end of our first year together. I hope that the changes we have implemented over the past year have improved your reading experience, and that the topics we covered hit your desks at just the right time. Let me know your views. There’s nothing like an anniversary to make you take stock!
Volume 3 Issue 6
- Editor's letter
Welcome to the August/September issue of FD Legal. And welcome back from your summer holidays – if you were able to take them that is. Or actually enjoy your holidays without the constant beeping of your blackberry, the continuous application of hand gel and avoiding anyone coughing or sneezing (or maybe you were one of the unfortunate that got struck down with swine flu?)
Volume 3 Issue 5
- Editor's letter
Welcome to the June/July issue of FD Legal.
On your marks, get set… GO! Professional indemnity renewal season is about to begin. Have you started your applications? If not, you’d better get your skates on – because if you thought last year was bad, this year’s gonna be a doozy. Get in there early or risk taking a dip in the assigned risk pool (ARP). Prepare to be questioned, poked and prodded; and when going for ‘transparency’ think ‘the invisible man’…
Volume 3 Issue 4
- Editor's letter
Welcome to the April/May issue of FD Legal. I hope you all had a very happy Easter, and I trust, like me, you also marked the birth of legal disciplinary practices on 31 March 2009.
It is apt that this all happened around Easter; a time of resurrection and new beginnings (I’m ignoring crucifixions as, for once, lawyers aren’t the people’s choice to be strung up…). Easter was, in fact, originally a pagan celebration of rebirth, renewal and the coming of spring; which all ties in very nicely with the implementation of the Legal Services Act 2007 and the sunshine currently streaming through my window.
Volume 3 Issue 3
- Editor's letter
Welcome to the February/March issue of FD Legal and I hope you are having a prosperous year so far. Did I sound hopeful there? I do hope so. I meant to. You see it’s my New Year’s resolution to rise above the ‘doom and gloom’ and focus on the positives.
So I’m sure you’re wondering how I have fared during January – the ‘new attitude’ answer is: ‘It could be worse!’ The honest answer is that, as 2009 stretches before us and we have at least another year of this (minimum) before the start of the upturn, well, it’s very difficult to maintain a positive outlook. I am trying, I promise.
Volume 3 Issue 1
- Editor's letter
Welcome to the October/November issue of FD Legal. As the seasons change and autumn/winter has officially arrived – although whether one notices any discernible difference in the weather from the summer we’ve just had is up for debate – FD Legal is appropriately wearing a new look for the season.
Volume 2 Issue 6
- Editor's letter
The Olympics opened at eight minutes past eight on the evening of the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008: an auspicious date in China as the number eight denotes luck and prosperity. One can only hope that this also applies to the financial year ahead, although I fear that reality may be a follower of numerology where the number eight is the number of material success… or monumental failure. And it is with that thought that I introduce myself as the new editor of FD Legal and welcome you to this August/September edition.
Volume 2 Issue 5
- Editor's letter
It is with sadness that I am writing my last foreword as editor of FD Legal. I have been the editor for just coming up to a year, and in that time I have met many finance professionals working in law firms today. One thing that has impressed me about the conversations that I have had in that time is just how far the finance role in law firms has evolved.
Volume 2 Issue 4
- Editor's Letter
A familiar criticism levelled not only at law firms, but at business organisations in general, is the lack of really effective cross-functional teamwork. Getting people to work together may be an ideal of the profitable business, but rarely will one find a company that can really boast a truly collegiate culture. Instead, businesses are more likely to suffer either large-scale internal indifference between various departments, or even inter-departmental hostility – for example, if one group is seen to be unfairly taking credit for the work undertaken by another.
Volume 2 Issue 4
- Thought leader: Are law firms measuring what matters?
IF A law firm is to build competitive advantage, then every aspect of the firm must be aligned with achieving this objective and function to the highest level. This will require optimum performance by everyone.
One of the perennial questions that arises in relation to introducing a performance-based culture is: 'Yes - but how can we measure performance?'
Volume 2 Issue 3
- Does the legal profession do recession?
Talking this month with a senior manager at a mid-tier City law firm got me thinking. Few of us could have failed to miss the tales of financial doom and gloom hitting the newspaper stands over the past quarter. The collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market, leading to a so-called credit crunch, has resulted in something of a tremor across the financial markets. The Bank of England published warnings back in November that the UK economy could be slowing, and City analysts ever since have been variously forecasting the likelihood of an impending recession.
Volume 2 Issue 2
- Editor's letter
Since the last issue of FD Legal was published, firms across the UK have been revealing their half-year turnover figures. And the news has been largely positive, with several firms, including Ashurst, Bird & Bird, Herbert Smith, Nabarro and SJ Berwin, increasing fee-earner income by 20 per cent or more.
Volume 2 Issue 1
- Editor's Letter
In this month’s profile feature, Claire Hafner, finance director at Eversheds, raises two particularly pertinent issues for finance professionals in law firms today. The first is that the firm’s IT department reports into Hafner because “so much of what finance does is IT related”. With the emergence of the practice-management system, the link between IT and finance has become more firmly entrenched.
Volume 1 Issue 2
- Editor's foreword
Welcome to the December 2006/January 2007 edition of FD Legal magazine. As the year draws to a close, it is worth reflecting on the results of PricewaterhouseCooper’s Annual Law Firms’ survey. Now in its 15th year, the survey reveals that 2006 has been an exceptional year for many firms, with average fees per partner and average profits per partner increasing year on year.
Volume 1 Issue 1
- Editor’s foreword
Welcome to the launch issue of FD Legal, the newest edition to Ark Group’s growing stable of legal publications. Against a backdrop of globalisation and commoditisation, and as law firms jostle for position and try to remain competitive, there has never been a more opportune time to shine a spotlight on that once marginalised back-office function, the finance department.
