In today’s episode, I speak to Nick Mann, Founder and Principal of Polaris Lawyers.  Polaris Lawyers was formed in 2017 with a vision to create the most client-centric personal injury firm in Australia. They were named Best Law Firm at The Australian Law Awards last year and as far as Nick is concerned, they’re just getting started! 

Here’s a summary of the things we talk about: 

2:38 What drives Polaris’ vision to create the most client-centric personal injury firm in Australia

3:56 What does it mean for us to put ourselves in the shoes of the client

4:54 Client journey mapping and other ways to understand clients

6:33 Drafting and “mum testing” a plain English cost agreement

10:48 Do we double the vulnerability, or help the clients and rebuild trust?

12:38 Giving away information for free

15:38 Clients are comparing lawyers to every other service they engage with as a consumer

19:08 Running a paperless office and using cloud technology

22:47 Offering remote work in a substantial way

23:36 Polaris’ approach to teamwork, team values and goal setting

28:17 Are retrospective annual performance reviews really effective?

29:53 How technology fits in

33:26 Find likeminded people who are prepared to challenge you

This episode is brought to you by Legalite Horizons, a new model giving principal-level lawyers the platform to grow their practice while being fully supported.  Join a recognised, award-winning law firm with access to infrastructure and support. Best of all, you’ll get to keep the lion’s share of what you bill and enjoy complete freedom to run your practice the way you want. Find out more.  

• Find out more about Polaris Lawyers at their website or on Facebook  
• Download your copy of my new e-book, 80 tips to make your law firm survive and thrive
• Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify   
• Connect with me on LinkedIn  
• Are you keen to share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.   

The post Creating the most client-centric personal injury firm in Australia with Nick Mann, Polaris Lawyers (ep 39) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

Back in episode 32 (before the coronacrisis hit!) I spoke about the what, why and how of fixed and value pricing. That episode was so popular that it sent the podcast back into the top 10 of the Apple Podcast charts! 

I put out a call for your questions on all things pricing and in this episode I’m tackling those questions along with pricing expert, John Chisholm.  From understanding value and working out what to charge to measuring staff performance, we’ve got all your FAQs covered!

John Chisholm describes himself as a “recovering lawyer”. He’s spent the last 15 years urging lawyers not only to stop billing their services by time, but to also burn their timesheets. He works with professionals to assist them with a mindset change and the practical implementation of value-based pricing.  

John is a Senior Fellow at the VeraSage institute, and co-founder of The Innovim Group, an organisation which runs aligned pricing programs and helps firms with their pricing transformation. 

Here’s the questions we tackle: 

2:56 John’s view on fixed pricing: yes or no?

4:53 What is menu pricing?

5:53 How do I work out the value of my service?

8:10 What kind of questions should we ask to understand value from the client’s perspective?

11:58 How do you decide the price?

15:00 Can or should we still record time?

18:54 How do you know breakeven?

22:55 How do you avoid falling back to calculating by hours worked?

26:25 What KPIs do firms track to work out employee bonuses if they’re not tracking time?

28:08 Can you offer both fixed and timed pricing?

22:54 For standardised services, should law firms put prices up on their websites?

37:48 When you commit to value pricing what other areas of your business also change?

This episode is brought to you by Legalite Horizons, a new model giving principal-level lawyers the platform to grow their practice while being fully supported.  Join a recognised, award-winning law firm with access to infrastructure and support. Best of all, you’ll get to keep the lions share of what you bill and enjoy complete freedom to run your practice the way you want. Find out more here or listen back to episode 24 with Marianne Marchesi here. 

The post How do I know what to charge? A pricing Q&A with John Chisholm (ep 38) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

In last week’s episode I shared 3 pivot points that you need

The best way to build a thriving business – crisis or no

To do this, we need to get our of our own heads. Being

There are three things that will help you create services that

If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. Knowing you help and what problems they have is the essential first step. Come up with a hypothesis – “I believe [type of people] experience [describe problem] because [describe reason]”

Validate your hypothesis by talking to your clients. Don’t play a guessing game, ask them about their world and about the problems they face. Focus on understanding the problem they want to solve, not on the solution you have for them.

According to Eric Ries, a minimum viable product

Remember, if you want

• Download your copy of my new e-book, 80 tips to make your law firm survive and thrive
• My coaching – guidance, training, mentoring and accountability to help you implement your solutions, not just come up with ideas
• Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify   
• Connect with me on LinkedIn  
• Are you keen to be a guest on the show and share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.  

The post How to design services your customers will buy (even in a crisis!) (ep 37) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

The

A business pivot is about making a change to your business because your service isn’t meeting the needs of your market. Given the rapid rate at which so many aspects of the world just changed, making a pivot is probably something most of us need.

In

• Download your copy of my new e-book, 80 tips to make your law firm survive and thrive
• My coaching – guidance, training, mentoring and accountability to help you implement your solutions, not just come up with ideas
• Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify   
• Connect with me on LinkedIn  
• Are you keen to be a guest on the show and share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.  

The post 3 pivot points to adapt your law firm (ep 36) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

As the world slows down and isolates, my focus in our law firm has been changing some of our systems and processes to enable remote service delivery. Process improvement is my super power, and having good systems in place is even more important when all of a sudden your team is working remotely. It’s not so easy to pop your head up and ask a question of a colleague when you’re all in your own homes.  

In today’s episode, I talk you through my 7-step process to sort your systems and share an insight into the changes I’ve implemented in our law firm over the last week. 

1. Identify   
2. Map  
3. Review  
4. Eliminate  
5. Simplify   
6. Automate  
7. Delegate   
8. And a bonus step (that will probably become a regular) – Train   

If you need help sorting your systems or planning your next steps in light of COVID-19, I’m offering discounted coaching sessions for the month of April. Find out more here. 

• Download my new e-book – 80 tips to make your law firm survive and thrive 
• Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify   
• Connect with me on LinkedIn  
• Are you keen to share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.   

The post 7 steps to sort your systems and streamline remote work (ep 35) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

In

Like most of you, I’ve been gearing our firm up to work remotely, putting in place new systems, processes and checklists to make sure it all runs smoothly. On the podcast and coaching front, I took some time to pause and reflect and consider how I could best support you. I share details about my complementary and discounted coaching strategy sessions in the episode.

For

I want you to look for opportunity and then focus on action. Remember, we’re coming out the other side of this. Get ready for it – focus on where you’re heading, not where you’re stuck

Start

If you need help, a good place to start is the Facebook Group, Don’t Waste a Good Recession, run by international business advisor, Jacob Aldridge. Jacob is using the group to share advice to help keep business owners calm, but with forward momentum.

Organisations who are at the forefront of their customers’ needs will come out on top.  Work out what problems your clients are facing and come up with new ways to help them.

It’s

• Coronavirus Employer

Yes, we are in uncharted territory here, but don’t let that be an excuse to do nothing. Plan, prepare, strategise, create, pivot, talk to your customers, help them with their problems. You’ll be ready and ahead of the pack when we come out the other side. 

• Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify   
• LinkedIn  
• Get in touch here.   

The post You’re set up for remote work. Now what? Your next steps in the coronavirus crisis (ep 34) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

Today I’m joined by Carly Stebbing, Principal and Founder of Resoltion123 – an online law firm for employees.  Carly is passionate about making justice accessible to the average Australian. She established Resolution123 to employment law quick, simple and affordable for employees.  

I approached Carly as a guest on the show because I was interested in learning about her online web app – a clever online tool that allows clients to upload information about their circumstances and find out if they have a claim. As well as this, Carly shares a wealth of knowledge about running a legal practice as a business in the true sense of the word. She shares how she saw a gap in the market and worked out how to service it and is a prime example of what a client centric approach really looks like. 

Here’s a summary of the things we talk about: 

3:03 The 3 steps to Resolution123 – assess, assemble, accelerate

3:19 First of a kind web-app that replaces a lawyer’s initial consult

5:10 Tackling the access to justice crisis by providing services to the “missing middle”

8:13 Why we shouldn’t automate everything

9:41 The value of niche positioning

12:15 Behind the scenes – how the work gets done (hint: there are real humans!)

15:25 How Resolution123 can provide legal services for less, and why they choose to

18:31 Points of difference in the client engagement process

21:02 Retraining staff who have come from traditional law

24:13 Learning some business savvy!

25:55 The start-up mindset

26:52 Concentrate on the “why”

Shout out to Legalite 

This episode is brought to you by Legalite Horizons, a new model giving principal-level lawyers the platform to grow their practice while being fully supported.  Join a recognised, award-winning law firm with access to infrastructure and support. Best of all, you’ll get to keep the lions share of what you bill and enjoy complete freedom to run your practice the way you want. 

Links 

The post Tackling access to justice by assisting the “missing middle” with Carly Stebbing, Resolution123 (ep 33) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

There are plenty of firms who want to make the shift to fixed or

I’m

So today, I’m touching on three basics:

• WHAT – The difference

I’ve experimented with fixed and value pricing for the last decade.

Here

3:28 My experience experimenting with alternative pricing

5:03 Fixed vs value pricing – what is the difference?

8:55 Why should we explore fixed and value pricing?

10:40 Understanding value and pricing on purpose

In

Shoutout to Legalite

This episode is brought to you by Legalite Horizons, a new model giving principal-level lawyers the platform to grow their practice while being fully supported.  Join a recognised, award-winning law firm with access to infrastructure and support. Best of all, you’ll get to keep the lion’s share of what you bill and enjoy complete freedom to run your practice the way you want.

Links 

• Download my brand new e-book 80 tips to make your law firm

The post The what, why and how of fixed and value pricing (ep 32) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

Change in any organisation doesn’t happen overnight. We don’t just flick a switch and suddenly arrive at the end point. Instead, transformation is a journey that needs to be approached strategically and with a plan that unfolds over time.  

Mick Sheehy is a recognised international leader in the field of legal innovation and transformation, having won numerous awards and with his work the subject of a case study for Harvard Law School. He is a Partner at PwC, where he has built their Australian NewLaw practice, focused on providing strategic consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions to legal departments.  Mick founded and chaired the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium Australia (CLOC), an industry body established to share best practice legal operations and innovation knowledge. 

Mick starts our conversation by explaining that people need to understand they’re on a progressive journey. They don’t just arrive at the end point, but need to start with an awareness, develop a strategy and then put a plan in place to help them get there. An essential part of this journey involves a shift from a reactive to a proactive mindset. 

Mick and I also talk about commoditised legal work and change management, and Mick shares some views about data – what should we be measuring and why does it matter? And, yes – time is one of the measurements we talk about! 

Here’s a summary: 

2:30 What does PwC NewLaw do?

4:10 The 3 stages of the transformation journey

7:21 The shift from a reactive mindset to a proactive mindset

7:58 Understanding commoditised work

10:19 The future role of junior lawyers

11:35 Approach to process improvement

13:21 Importance of involving people in the design of change

15:55 We already have an incredible amount of data in our businesses, we just don’t know how to use it properly

17:55 What are the measurements that matter?

19:21 Should we be recording time?

Links 

• Find out more about PWC NewLaw 
• Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify   
• Download my new ebook – 80 tips to help your law firm survive and thrive
• Connect with me on LinkedIn  
• Are you keen to share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.   

The post Understanding the legal transformation journey with Mick Sheehy (ep 31) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.

Today’s guest is Ian Aldridge, Director & Principal Lawyer at Progressive Legal. Progressive Legal specialise in Intellectual Property, Corporate, Commercial, Workplace and Dispute Resolution – there’s not much they can’t do for a growing business. 

Ian recognised that many small businesses were playing Russian Roulette with their business by not seeking legal advice, so he established his firm to help.  

I start the conversation with Ian by asking him about his vision trying to understand what drives his vision. He told me he spoke to his customers and learnt that they cared most about cost, communication and care, three basics that, surprisingly, can make for quite a progressive firm! 

Here’s the highlights: 

3:08 I wanted to start the law firm with a fresh approach

4:23 Talking to the market to ask what they really wanted from their lawyer – why traditional law doesn’t, how Progressive Legal did, and what they gained

9:09 Cost, communication and care

9:23 Publishing costs online

12:46 Attract an audience with certainty of cost

14:46 Fixed vs value pricing?

17:41 Legal shield – front loaded retainer packages

22:51 Back to basics with communication

26:19 What does “care” mean to Progressive Legal?

30:42 Find something that makes your business unique, conduct some research and look at the statistics

Links 

• Find Progressive Legal at their website, Instagram and LinkedIn  
• Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify   
• Discover how I can help you escape the billable hour, eliminate the grunt work and do more of the work you love with productised services 
• Connect with me on LinkedIn  
• Are you keen to share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.   

The post Cost, communication and care: How going back to basics makes for a progressive law firm (ep 30) appeared first on Lucy Dickens.