On Tuesday 17^th June, I was up and out relatively bright and early to make my way over to The Royal College of Physicians for the start of the Law Firm Ambition conference 2025.

Competing effectively in the legal sector

I was lucky enough to have been invited to speak on a panel all about how law firms can differentiate themselves from the competition and get more work as a result. It won’t surprise you to learn that my advice was all about reputation and specifically, how law firms can utilise PR to monetise it.

Panel session insights: Competing with others for new business

As part of the panel session, I spoke about two frameworks that we use at LexRex to effectively deploy PR strategies that help law firms to grow. One is the step-by-step framework we use to create effective PR strategies – and you can access that framework by downloading the Law Firm Leader’s Reputation Playbook. It provides deep insights into what makes an effective reputation, along with step-by-step exercises to help law firm leaders audit their reputation and start to utilise it to best effect.

I also talked about the PESO framework, which we use to ensure that we consider four key aspects of PR when creating a strategy. They are Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned. Again, the Law Firm Leaders’ Reputation Playbook defines and explains this framework, giving actionable insights and advice on how you can use it to better leverage your reputation.

I gave my top tips on how to create effective legal directories submissions (we went from very strategic to very tactical during the panel, I was asked to provide specifically actionable advice, which I think I did!) All of the legal directories advice and insights that I provided can be found in the Legal Directories Resource Hub, which you can access completely free of charge by becoming a member here.

My top three takeaways for attendees were:

1. Be strategic
2. Remember that PR is a long game.
3. Share your firm’s strategy with the people creating and delivering your PR strategy.

However, the day wasn’t just about my insights. In fact, I played a tiny part in what was a hugely insightful and interesting set of presentations and breakout sessions. Here’s a brief insight into some of the speakers and sessions that took place on the main stage of the conference.

Ben Hunt-Davies, Rower, gold-medal-winning Olympian and founder of Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?

I’m fairly sure I’ve seen Ben speak in the past; his presentation is entertaining and gives plenty to think about. His hot take is essentially that we shouldn’t do anything in business unless it metaphorically ‘makes the boat go faster’. He talked at length about all the things that the eight-man rowing team did and concentrated on in their campaign to win gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 (spoiler – they won).

Ben also talked about the difference between results and performance, and he recommended that we always concentrate on performance, because sometimes results can happen despite performance. I think this is a good lesson.

Andrew Hedley, Hedley Consulting – The changing competitive landscape

Andrew’s talk was all about strategy (a subject very close to my own heart at all times!) He was particularly keen to ask us to consider the fact that we can’t do everything all of the time, and that we need to be careful about how we allocate our scarce resources to achieve a competitive advantage.

He also suggested we undertake horizon scanning for challenges, including:

• The firms we compete with today.
• New firms entering the market.
• The fact that clients want better, faster and cheaper (no change there!).
• The things that are costing us more.
• The things that will take away the need for us.

And consider – how much we are prepared to change? I quite liked his definitions of between tactics = running faster, and strategy = running a different race.

Managing Partner Secrets

I can understand why this panel returns each year; the speakers were all very open, frank and funny with their insights. The panellists were Chris Allen (Blacks Solicitors), Victoria Davey (Gordons LLP) and Duncan Jackson (Buckles Solicitors LLP).

The session was ably hosted by Chair, Alex Holt (Cashroom), with topics ranging from whether you should monitor your competition (Victoria said no, focus on what you are doing, Duncan said no, compete in your own locations and Chris said, yes absolutely, we are OBSESSED with the competition).

Other topics included advice on CRM systems, how to get more work from your existing clients, why recruitment is so hard (and how to get better at it), AI, what ‘winning’ looks like, and how to get people back into the office. Being honest, this was probably my favourite session of the day. I really appreciated the time and honesty provided by the panellists.

The latter sessions included a talk by Bernard Savage, who talked about how to be unique. His focus was on niches and how important it is not to have too many. He also suggested that firms avoid worrying about the competition.

The day closed with a session by Dan Warburton. He suggested that firms need bold leadership for big results. Those in leadership positions need to lead by taking note of and dealing with ineffective behaviours by getting compassionate instead of angry, and finally by collaborating, not manipulating. He finished with the message that “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” Sensible advice.

In all, the Law Firm Ambition Conference was a really enjoyable event and is one I’d recommend to law firm leaders. This was the fourth iteration, and what I think is particularly effective is that each conference is themed. This should help the organisers to avoid the content becoming stale and will hopefully ensure a rotating roster of new speakers each year.

The attendees from law firms were mainly at the senior end (perhaps due to the ticket price, which is sensibly high). This does mean that the sessions needed to be strategic and useful to those in the most senior positions in law firms, and broadly, my feeling is that they provided decent value.