Back in March 2024, we ran a free webinar – Marketing your law firm in a recession. At that time, the UK was officially in recession, and the word on the street with many of our law firm partners, directors and owners was that times were a bit tough. Outside of the law, our contacts and referrers were telling us that whilst conversations were continuing, buyers just weren’t buying. Nobody wanted to commit to spend, and bigger projects were being taken off the metaphorical table. We set out to help law firms (and suppliers to law firms) to take action and create strategies to help to ensure a steady flow of instructions despite the challenging economic conditions. Our webinar covered a range of topics including three key elements of a PR and marketing strategy – data, strategy and KPIs. We asked delegates to complete a range of exercises to help them to understand the steps they should take to build strategies that would enable them to survive and thrive during tricky times. The webinar was a huge success with 100% of those who responded to our delegate survey saying they would recommend it. Furthermore, many of our delegates wanted to hear more and take a deeper dive into the world of PR and marketing. To answer this demand, we are now hosting Marketing your law firm in a recession: Mastermind session. BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW Unlike the first webinar, which was a whistlestop tour through a few fundamental aspects of successful PR and marketing strategies, this webinar will be an in-depth, collaborative session with just seven delegates in attendance. The session will be led by former lawyer, expert strategist and media relations specialist, and founder of LexRex, Victoria Moffatt alongside our brand strategist and law firm marketing expert, Sarah Wilde. We have designed a session that will dig deeper into various aspects of creating effective strategies and with other delegates from non-competing firms, attendees will be challenged by exercises to help them to challenge their assumptions, understand their law firm data and start to create their own strategies to implement after the session. The Mastermind will run according to Chatham House Rule to enable everybody to be open and honest with their challenges and experiences. Delegates who attended the first Marketing your law firm in a recession can access a discount code to receive 10% off the price of their ticket. If you have watched the recording of the session, you are also eligible to 10% off your ticket. To unlock your 10% discount to Marketing your law firm in a recession: Mastermind get in touch. And you can book your tickets to Marketing your law firm in a recession: Mastermind here now.
Each year LexisNexis carry out in-depth market research and produce their annual LexisNexis Bellwether reports which provide insights into the legal market, the key issues facing law firms and a look forward the direction of travel for the legal industry. Here LexRex founder and managing director Victoria reviews the latest LexisNexis Bellwether Report and unpacks the key findings and trends for you. LexisNexis Bellwether Report 2024 The LexisNexis Bellwether Report always makes for interesting reading, and this year’s is no different. For those interested in my thoughts on previous editions, you can read about 2022 here and here. I definitely read 2023’s but for some reason I don’t seem to have written about it. Not sure why. Anyway, the 2024 edition is all about law firm growth – for somebody who runs a PR agency with the strapline ‘we help law firms to grow’, then it’s obviously a no-brainer that I’d write about the report this time around. This year’s report has three main focus areas, Technology, Working Smarter Not Harder and Your People Aren’t Pining For The Big Pond. So far, so interesting. Before we get into the detail of the report, a note on the respondents. 265 practitioners were surveyed, of which only 18% were owners, co-founders or heads of department. That’s just under 50 individuals including founders. 57% of respondents were solicitors, trainee solicitors or paralegals. My point? The report is interesting BUT it is not powered 100% by law firm owners or founders. Note the stats, but as ever, treat them with care. Technology With regards to Technology, the focus is on technology investment and deployment. According to the report, 32% of respondents were planning to invest in additional technology due to AI and 29% were expecting their firms to be more profitable as a direct result of using it. Further, in terms of priorities for small firms with regards to technology, there were three key areas of practice identified which were drafting legal documents (90%), researching legal matters (88%) and writing emails or other forms of communication (78%). It will be interesting to see how many firms do actually buy the technology that can help them with these three types of tasks. Also included within the technology section was a report on law firm growth. 63% of respondents are planning to achieve organic growth, a sharp rise from 40% in 2023 and perhaps a sign that confidence is increasing now that the UK is no longer in recession. In terms of how firms are generating new work, 69% say it is from word of mouth, with a big drop to the next work source, cross-selling from colleagues, at just 35%. Cold calling provided success for just 3% of those surveyed. On this note, and if referrals generate the majority of your own new instructions – just stop to think for a moment about how important it is to understand your key referrers, how to ensure that the stream of referrals continues, how to create and nurture new referrers and how to spend your PR and marketing budget effectively so that it supports or increases the activities that are tried and tested in terms of generating new business (or improves your reputation or does whatever else you want it to do). Interestingly enough, 47% or nearly half, are increasing their marketing spend. This certainly chimes with my experience, which is that law firms are incredibly quick to reduce marketing spend as soon as dark clouds appear on the economic horizon. Whilst I understand the logic, it rarely if ever, makes sense to stop promoting yourself at a time of reduced confidence in the market. If anything, doing more at these times helps you to steal a march on your competitors by being present, front of mind and ideally sharing your knowledge and expertise when everyone else goes quiet. Incidentally, 43% of firms are also increasing investment in business development. Remember also that many buyers are awaiting the results of the election before making buying decisions with regards to legal services. If your pipeline is full but you are failing to convert at the moment, it may just be a case of ‘not yet’ rather than ‘no’. So do continue to maintain relationships with those key potential clients and don’t write anybody off too soon. M&A activity is on the wane apparently (but again remember that the number of founders responding was just 18% so this may actually or also show a lack of strategic knowledge by respondents). 33% of firms looking to grow via M&A had between 11 – 20 fee earners, and 27% were sole practitioners. This latter figure can contain no surprises, as the challenges for solo practitioners revolving around retirement, PII run-off and a lack of potential future partners has been written about extensively by other market commentators. One key quote that caught my eye was by Jon Walters, a founding partner at law firm, Northridge. He said “We are seeing a continued growth of interest in the legal sector from funds and investment companies who may have ‘dry powder’ to invest.” Certainly, external entrants into the market are something the sector has seen more of recently, and it’s an interesting potential trend. External interest in the sector has been growing over recent years (in my opinion) so it will be fascinating to see whether that continues and to understand what external funders look for in order to get a return on any investments they undertake in the sector. I am writing about this exact topic right now for The Law Society Management Section’s magazine, Managing for Success – so do keep an eye out for that article in autumn if you’re interested. And if you know anybody who can talk about PE investment in the market (either law firm side or investor side, do please get in touch). Continuing on the M&A theme, the reasons cited for pursuing deals were cited as growing the client base at 49% and for 36%,
Award drafting season is well and truly here for the legal sector, with deadlines for the Manchester Legal Awards, the LALY’s and more already passed. Next up in the immediate future are The Yorkshire Legal Awards and The LexisNexis Family Awards (and do get in touch if you’d like a copy of our awards calendar emailed straight to your inbox). Every year, LexRex supports a wide range of law firms in their award submissions – with our help ranging from strategic consideration of which awards and categories to enter, through to drafting individual categories and collating and designing impactful packs of evidence. This year, we’ve decided to provide even more support to law firms, particularly those without the budget to outsource fully, or for those who aren’t committed at the moment to the full support packages available from us. We are delighted then to announce that we will soon be unveiling our latest webinar: Winning Strategies for Law Firm Awards along with supporting documents: LexRex’s Award-winning Award Template and Checklist. Both assets will be available to purchase from our website next week. The webinar will be priced at: £39.99 + vat and the template and checklist: £19.99 + vat. For a very limited time we are offering the webinar, template and checklist for just £49.99 + vat. To take advantage of this offer you need to pre-register today. GET YOUR AWARDS WEBINAR, TEMPLATE & CHECKLIST LIMITED OFFER For those of you who are still to be convinced to part with your money, you can also check out our blog: How to win a law firm award: LexRex top tips for winning legal awards. Remember to pre-register today to get our awards webinar Winning Strategies for Law Firm Awards and Award-winning Award Template and Checklist for just £49.99 + vat. Normal combined price: £59.98.
As a specialist PR & Marketing consultancy that is founded on helping law firms to grow, we understand the power of profile and how it can help accelerate growth for legal practices. However, a high profile and increasing enquiries that lead to increasing work will only take you so far if your pricing strategy is ineffective. Where brining the work through the door is an important challenge, ensure it pays and is profitable is key. LexRex partners with The Law Society’s Small Firms Network Earlier this year, LexRex founder and managing director Victoria Moffatt was invited by The Law Society’s Small Firms Network to moderate an online seminar and podcast discussing how small law firms can effectively price their services. Victoria was joined by experts Peter Scott, former managing partner of Eversheds London and European offices and founder of Peter Scott Consulting; and Priya Dhokia, family lawyer and partner at Freedman Green Dhokia Solicitors. The session looked at some of the challenges that lawyers and law firms face when it comes to pricing their services properly. These included internal challenges for law firms – employees who struggle with confidence in pricing their work properly, double-discounting, recovery and having difficult conversations with clients early when pricing structures need to be reviewed and revisited. Having the right conversations with clients around pricing One of the key issues identified was not only a lack of confidence, but an unwillingness or lack of education around how to have conversations with clients about pricing that enables all parties to agree a fee that is fair to all parties. Peter said: “Many have a lack of self esteem, they don’t believe in themselves or that they have any worth to their clients. “There’s always a fear at the back of their minds that if they ask for the price that they want and that they really should be charging, that the clients will leave and not instruct them. Actually, you shouldn’t be doing work at a loss. “There is a lack of knowledge around how to negotiate prices. People have never been taught. I find there’s very little training on how to price within law firms. Many of them are floundering.” Within this conversation, one of the key points acknowledged was that clients or prospective clients will sometimes push back upon proposed fees, and during the session speakers provided advice on how to manage these tricky conversations to ensure that the work still converts, but at an acceptable fee. Priya commented: “There is a general inertia amongst lawyers to discuss price. What they tend to often do is to quote a price and then that’s where the conversation stops and it is based upon this fear of ‘what if I do lose the client?’ or they don’t follow up their quotes to see whether or not they can do something else for the client. “And it’s about having the conversation with the client and saying ‘if it is too expensive for you, let’s redefine the scope’. “And we often don’t talk about scope, and I don’t mean in terms of getting the job done, but what service levels are we going to offer for that price.” The conversation continued, including advice upon different type of fee arrangement, and when these might be more or less appropriate, marketing and ensuring your firm can offer a point of difference to your competitors, and of course the importance of data. If you like the sound of these topics, and think they could add value to your own pricing methodologies – you can listen to the recording here. Please note that this is membership content, and you can find out more about the Small Firms Network, including how to become a member, here. If you are finding it tricky to accurately and effectively price your services, it may be time to consider whether your firm or team’s profile could be part of the challenge. To discuss marketing, PR and brand profile for your firm do get in touch or arrange a 121 with Victoria today.
On Wednesday 6th March at 1.00 pm, LexRex’s founder and managing director, Victoria Moffatt, and senior consultant, Sarah Wilde will be presenting an exclusive webinar to law firm and legal supplier business founders and owners. The webinar, called Marketing your law firm in a recession, will help delegates understand how to create strategic PR and marketing strategies that are effective, and that will help their law firm or supplier business to grow, even during a recession. This top-level, hands-on lunchtime learning session will see Victoria and Sarah run through the basics of PR and marketing strategies aimed at growth. Attendees will be encouraged to complete exercises both during and after the webinar, all of which are aimed at helping them to start to think more strategically about their business, core services, target clients and the process of nurturing new leads from the top of the funnel through to a sale. bOOK YOUR TICKET NOW With a duration of just one hour, the webinar will necessarily focus upon a few key areas of marketing strategy, but will equip attendees with a better understanding of the fundamentals of creating a plan for growth. Because the UK is currently in recession, there will be a focus upon tactics and approaches that can still work when buyers or legal services are nervous about signing off legal spend or are facing reduced budget. Tickets to this event are free of charge but they are aimed at founders, owners and managing directors. The webinar will require delegates to have access to management information and data (after the event) in order to carry out some of the recommended exercises. Please note that tickets are strictly limited and you must book here in order to receive joining information.
It’s true to say that LexRex was built upon law firms, specifically boutique law firms. It’s no secret that I (Victoria Moffatt, founder and MD of LexRex – hi!) love to work with boutique law firms, or as they are sometimes known, specialist law firms. Why do I love them so much? Because they tend to be: Led by founders who are dynamic, engaged and understand the importance and power of strong PR and a good brand. Specialist – they know what they are good at, they know what they do, who they work with, the future work that they want to attract and the team they need to get them there. They are fun to work with! Because they have a niche, I can get into the weeds with them, and get to understand what they do, in a lot of depth. Basically, with these clients, I can totally geek out. They like to outsource the stuff they know that they need but are sensible enough to realise they can’t do as easily, profitably or quickly as they can build a successful law firm. If this sounds like you but you’re not a boutique or specialist law firm, the good news is we work with bigger law firms too (in particular – for specialist teams or for legal directories consultancy and support). And we also work with other businesses, quite often suppliers to the legal sector. Why LexRex is a great choice for suppliers to the legal sector Again, these clients tend to have a real niche, specialism or sector focus. They are interesting, dynamic and sell something that lawyers need or want. They come to us knowing that our expertise is the legal sector. They trust that we know our clients (we do), that we know about the law (we do) and that we will be generous in sharing that knowledge to help them to become more successful in selling to lawyers (surprise, surprise – we do!) So, if you are a business supporting the legal sector, or aiming to start selling to the legal sector – how can we help? We can work with you to map out a marketing strategy specifically for the individuals you want to sell to within the legal sector. If necessary, we can test your assumptions about potential clients, and help to define your target audiences. We can help to create strategies that reach and engage these potential clients and help you to convert them into paying customers. Once we’ve mapped out your strategy, you can either deliver this yourself (no hard feelings), or we can support where your in-house team has gaps (this is usually media relations or content creation) or we can also run the whole thing for you. If you don’t have the budget or desire to enter a retainer-type agreement, we can support you on a project-by-project basis (works well for awards submissions or media relations announcements – such as new starters, M&A announcements, other good news stories) or on a slightly longer term campaign basis – works well for regional focus, launches, theme-led activities. Essentially, there’s usually a payment framework to fit your budget, needs and desires. Another reason we work so well with suppliers is that we tend to know lots of the same people that you know – other suppliers, lawyers and others in and around the legal sector. We have a good name in the market and we’re known for the quality of our work. As the saying goes ‘nobody ever got sacked for buying IBM’. I like to think that the same applies to LexRex. So if you run a supplier business with aims to penetrate the legal sector, or if you’re already part of the lovely legal sector community – drop me a line, and let’s chat about how we can support your plans. You can contact me via email hello@lexrexcommunications.com or connect with me on LinkedIn and message me directly. Victoria.
Are you currently juggling a number of legal directory submissions, rushing towards the impending deadlines with a sinking feeling you’re running out of time? We can help. Our Legal Directory Review Service is here to help you get your submissions over the line with confidence. It’s fast, it’s effective and fixed-price to take the pressure off your time and your budget. BOOK YOUR LAST MINUTE DIRECTORY REVIEW NOW All you need to do is send us your final draft, and we will provide practical, detailed, expert advice on how to strengthen and improve it. LexRex Legal Directory Review Our review service is just £349 + VAT and can be tailored to fit your firm’s submission requirements. All you need to do is send us your final draft, and we will provide practical, detailed, expert advice on how to strengthen and improve it. Here at LexRex, we have decades of experience in drafting and assessing successful directory submissions for law firms. Our review service is led by Victoria Moffatt, ex-lawyer, Managing Director of LexRex Communications and our resident Legal Directories specialist. We support a wide range of firms with their directory submissions, including a full consultancy and drafting service and our legal directories clients range from boutiques through to top 100 law firms. Click here to book or to speak with Victoria to find out more. LexRex Legal Directories Hub – the home of legal directories insight. If you haven’t already joined the LexRex Legal Directories Hub, there’s still time to get on board and make the most of this exceptional resource. Legal Directories Hub is filled with a range of video content, advice, top tips, help with the directories process, strategy and much more. claim your membership today to take advantage of this fantastic members-only content. Find out more about our legal directories services here and get in touch to find out how we can support you and your firm here.
Last month we went on the road with Chambers and Partners as part of our ongoing specialist support for law firms during legal directories season. We first launched our events in partnership with Chambers and Partners back in 2019 with our live In Conversation with Chambers panel event in Manchester. Since then we’ve delivered online panels and webinars with the Chambers experts throughout the past 4 years. So it was great to bring our legal directories expert panels to you live again as we went on tour this autumn. The LexRex Ask Chambers and Partners live events took place across the Midlands and the North, bringing our attendees together with the Chambers and Partners editorial team. Our goal? To provide the answers to the questions troubling those responsible for legal directories submissions and strategy in their law firms. “It’s been great to pass on my advice and get some questions, including the sorts of things we hear a lot from firms after the process is over, but we don’t always get to address before submissions have been created. It’s great to be able to give that advice first.” Lydia Burt, Principal Research Specialist, Chambers and Partners. We started in our hometown Manchester, joined by Lydia Burt, Principal Research Specialist, Chambers and Partners and hosted by the wonderful Eversheds Sutherland. Then we hit the road, meeting up with Al Marsh, Chambers and Partners’ UK Research Director, at the gorgeous Shoosmiths offices in Birmingham and then finally to Leeds to enjoy the hospitality of Wrigleys Solicitors where we were joined by Chambers and Partners’ Head of UK Solicitors Research, Steven Preston. Huge thanks to the Chambers and Partners team for joining us and sharing such valuable insights and we’d like to thank all of our hosts for helping to make this series of events so enjoyable and run so smoothly on the day as well. With each panel hosted by LexRex managing director and resident legal directories expert, the Ask Chambers and Partners events were unique in that the content was entirely driven by our audience. We gave law firm partners and marketing teams from firms all over the Midlands and the North the opportunity to send questions forward for Victoria and our Chambers and Partners panels to tackle on the day. These fully interactive, face to face sessions also gave the audience the opportunity to ask questions to the experts live and in person on the day. It was fascinating and enlightening to be able to collectively explore our audience’s pain points and get answers to their legal directory queries together. “My team has a really profound role in the Chambers submissions. We really do get involved with promoting the excellent work that we do. it was important for me especially to come today to get some hints and tips and feedback on how we can improve our submissions going forward.” Liz Mulley, Trowers & Hamlins Each of our events was packed with information and advice on how to strengthen your firm’s legal directory submissions. It was great to see so many attendees at each one, not only getting important answers to their questions but also sharing their directories challenges and learning from each other as well. If you didn’t have chance to attend any of our events, you can still get access to the goldmine of information and advice that they produced. Each event was recorded in full, and we also produced a series of highlight reels to showcase each session. On top of that, we’ve collated a handy ‘Top Tips’ download – allowing you to see the best advice from these sessions at a glance. All of this and more is available to you today, for free! All you need to do is sign up to the LexRex Legal Directories Resource Hub and it’s ready for you, along with wide range of resources that support your legal directories strategy, approach and drafting for both Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500 directory submissions. We thoroughly enjoyed our Ask Chambers and Partners roadshow. Once again we’d like to thank all of our audiences, hosts and the editorial teams at Chambers and Partners for making these events possible. We’re looking forward to bringing you more panels, advice, resources and downloads in 2024! In the meantime make sure you click here to subscribe to our Directories Bulletin – our free specialist legal directories newsletter – or for more hands on support book a free Legal Directories 121 with Victoria, our Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 expert here.
This December, Victoria dusted off her mic, donned her Santa hat, warmed up her vocal chords and joined 19 other suppliers to the legal sector to contribute to the Legal Suppliers’ Chorus first charity Christmas single. The song, a spoof of Foo Fighters’ Times Like These has been created and released in support of the Conveyancing Foundation and the Brain Tumour Charity. Raising money and awareness The brainchild of Tom Bailey, managing director of Post Partner, the video sees a range of businesses get together to write, play and sing spoof songs. The Conveyancing Foundation is a zero-profit registered charity whose purpose is to enhance the lives of those in the conveyancing industry and support fundraising initiatives. The Brain Tumour Charity is the world’s leading brain tumour charity and largest global funder of brain tumour research. Alongside Victoria and Tom, the track features suppliers including Armalytix, Best Practice, Bold Legal Group, Cashroom, Ezescan, inCase, IQ Legal Training, Jim Wilson Voice, Legal RSS, Legl, LexRex Communications, Martello App, Minerva, NuForms, Orion Legal Marketing, PEXA, Post Partner, Ricoh and TM Group, bringing you tongue-in-cheek lyrics which explore the trials and tribulations of life in the legal industry. Victoria commented “Although I don’t generally sing in front of strangers and almost never into a microphone, I think this is a really cool way to raise money and awareness of the great work being done by the chosen charities. “Tom has done a great job bringing together so many of the suppliers to the legal market and has somehow managed to make us all sound ok and reasonably in tune. I hope people will dig deep and make donations to one or both of the charities.” Tom added: “The legal industry is renowned for its ability to both work hard and, when appropriate, let its collective hair down. Its suppliers are no different, and after what has been a tough year in the sector, particularly for those in property and conveyancing, we’re pleased to be raising some money and hopefully a few smiles to round off 2023.” Lloyd Davies, Managing Director at Convey Law and Chairman of the Conveyancing Foundation, also said: “We endeavour to enhance the lives of those in the property industry and to promote and assist with charity fundraising to help those that need our support. “Protecting mental health and promoting well-being is a major focus for us; everyone knows that music is a healer. The Legal Suppliers Chorus is a fantastic idea, and having seen the video, I know it’ll provide some welcome entertainment as firms gear up for the Christmas break. We’re very thankful to have been chosen as the charity partner and look forward to the Chorus’ next songs.” You can watch the video, donate and subscribe to keep up to date with future releases here or click the button below. WATCH THE VIDEO AND DONATE HERE
November will see the LexRex legal directories team hit the road with Chambers and Partners as we collaborate with the independent guide to the UK legal profession for the fifth consecutive year. We are bringing our latest series of legal directories events, Ask Chambers and Partners, to locations across the Midlands and the North. Ask Chambers and Partners – live These face-to-face sessions will see LexRex founder and managing director, Victoria Moffatt, and the senior research team answer the questions our audiences ask about all things Chambers and Partners. Unlike our previous events – In Conversation with Chambers and Partners (which you can view here as a member of the LexRex Legal Directories Resource Hub), which saw Victoria interview a panel made of senior members of the Chambers and Partners editorial teams, Ask Chambers opens the floor entirely to the audience. Attendees will be able to submit questions in advance or ask them during the session, meaning that the content will be entirely driven by those joining us on the day. The aim is to provide the answers to the most pressing questions troubling those responsible for legal directories submissions and strategy within law firms across the Midlands and North. With places very limited, bookings opened first for subscribers of the LexRex Directories Bulletin – our specialist legal directories newsletter. To ensure that you are first of the list next time around – sign up now for priority access to our legal directories events, and for top tips, deadline updates, legal directories best practice advice and much more. Ask Chambers and Partners will run on the following dates and times: Ask Chambers and Partners Manchester Tuesday 14th November 10.30 am – 12.30 pm Kindly hosted by Eversheds Sutherland Two New Bailey, 6 Stanley Street, Salford, M3 5GX BOOK YOUR PLACE Ask Chambers and Partners Birmingham Wednesday 15th November 10.30 am – 12.30 pm Kindly hosted by Shoosmiths Cannon House, 103 Colmore Row, Birmingham, B3 3AG BOOK YOUR PLACE Ask Chambers and Partners Leeds Thursday 16th November 10.30 am – 12.30 pm Kindly hosted by Wrigleys Solicitors 3 Wellington Place, Leeds, LS1 4AP BOOK YOUR PLACE These events wouldn’t happen without the support of our partners. Particular thanks to our venue hosts – Shoosmiths, Eversheds Sutherland and Wrigleys Solicitors. We would also like to thank the Today’s Media Group, our exclusive media partner for the second year running. Additional thanks to our partners The Cashroom, Document Direct, Simon McCrum of McCrum Legal and a very warm welcome, and further thanks, to our most recent partner – LexisNexis. And finally, a massive thank you to all our regional law society partners who are supporting this year’s live event series. Join us on LinkedIn and Twitter to find out more about each of our law society partners, affiliates – and don’t miss your space at these upcoming events.
