A year ago, I wrote my
first blog
asking if it was a good time to consult as I launched my new business. I surveyed the changing legal market as I saw it and concluded that it was a good time to be helping legal businesses and law firms, though I decided that the jury was out on whether it was a good time for me to launch my consultancy. A year on, what I have been up to and what does 2020 hold?
I have worked in the UK and the US with major global legal businesses and start-ups, with law firms that have been around for over a hundred years and new ones that want to re-invent the law firm model. Some of my clients prefer anonymity but not all of them. I have been able to add some
testimonials
to my website from happy clients, alongside longstanding support from a wide variety of academics, legal market experts and the most senior judiciary. Elevate, Keystone Law, Legl, Crowd Justice, Hybrid Legal are just a few. But I have also worked with private equity, regulators in Canada, Kazakhstan and the US and others such as the Association of Consumer Support Organisations. And I have continued as a non-executive of two organisations outside of the legal sector (Citizen Housing and General Dental Council). So, to quickly answer the unanswered – 2019 was a good year for me to set out on my own: it’s been fun!
2020 looks as interesting and exciting as the year just finishing. The
SRA’s reforms
are starting to impact and I see more and more firms thinking about their structure, what it means for their culture as much as for the need for capital. Unregulated business are looking at the regulated market and thinking about their growth into it. And global businesses continue to see England & Wales as the attractive jurisdiction for growth. Brexit, Scottish nationalism, Welsh justice system divergence and Northern Irish realignment may all affect this, but I am confident that the legal market will continue to grow – after all, it has grown through every other crisis and change through the last 50 years. Law firms that don't
look at change
risk long term decline.
Beyond England & Wales, 2019 has seen
California, Utah, Arizona and Illinois
all take major steps towards reform of their regulatory infrastructure. Rolling back the unauthorised practice of law to allow more tech driven legal services, allowing fee sharing and non-lawyer ownership and some steps towards rethinking their regulatory approach will all happen to some degree in 2020. That presents huge opportunities for legal business and law firms, and for those jurisdictions. But my first blog next year will raise the prospect of regulators becoming irrelevant in the US if they do not move quickly. Legal businesses, GCs and others are just navigating regulation just has happened to guilds over hundreds of years. Other countries are moving forwards with reform – notably Canada where Nova Scotia is likely to allow multi-disciplinary practices in 2020.
At the end of my first year of Passmore Consulting, this is a good opportunity to thank everyone that has given me support in 2019. Clients first of course – they have been great to work with and I learn from them all the time. Also, to all the other lawyers, owners and founders, academics, law firms and businesses that have offered me support. I hope I get to work with you in 2020. Thanks also to the journalists - particularly at The Times (
1,
2,
3,) and
Legal Futures
that have amplified my voice (you may think that unwise and unnecessary) And, of course, to the many thousands of you that I have engaged with through my blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn.
I hope that 2019 has been good for you, and that 2020 is even more fun and rewarding. I don’t send Christmas Cards but please do take a look at my
webpages
where I talk about CSR.
Happy Christmas, and here’s to 2020.
