I’m delighted to announce that our ever-popular legal directories webinar, Preparing for Legal Directories, will return in October! We have been hosting and running legal directories webinars for almost a decade, meaning we’ve shared our insights, top tips and more with hundreds of lawyers and legal marketers during this period. We are here to share your pain, and we love to mark your wins! We’re lucky that many of you have been generous enough to provide feedback over the years, and I’m very proud of our 100% response rate to the question “Is LexRex a trusted source of information and advice on the directories process?” This year though I decided it was time to give the format a bit of a zhuzh, and I’m delighted to announce a guest speaker, legal directories manager at Shoosmiths, Sarah Bidgman. During her seven-year tenure in post, Sarah has led the firm’s strategically aligned directories programme. In that time, Shoosmiths has become one of the UK’s top six firms by Chambers rankings, with 16 Band 1 rankings and a place in Chambers’ “Most Elite Law Firms in Britain” table. I have no doubt that Sarah is going to bring huge value to the webinar, as she can comment upon aspects of the in-house process that I simply have no access to. In particular, I’ve asked Sarah to be ready to discuss the following: Stakeholder engagement and managing tricky players (no comment) Using your time efficiently Ensuring legal directories strategy supports the firm’s strategy Because we always have a lot of first-time viewers, I will again cover the following, which I know are perennially popular subjects: How to create the most effective legal directories submissions Being strategic in your approach Referees 2025 / 2026 update As an aside, please note that these webinars attract a wide audience, including people who are not particularly (or at all) experienced in the legal directories process. I’m going to respectfully suggest that if you are super-experienced or if you’re going to leave snarky feedback that the session is too ‘basic’* that the webinar perhaps isn’t for you. *Or comments to this effect. I know some of you are very experienced, but there are only so many ways I can explain the process. If you know how to do directories, you don’t need to come! If there are any aspects of the legal directories process that you’d particularly like to find out more about during the webinar, do email me and I’ll do my best to build it into the agenda. I do hope you’ll join Sarah and I for this year’s Preparing for Legal Directories webinar. Tickets are going fast, so do book your place now. BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW Do you want to receive specialist legal directories advice, top tips and more direct to your inbox? Sign up to the LexRex Directories Bulletin newsletter for exclusive support, insights, early access to events and more. Sign up now to the Directories Bulletin. Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex. A non-practising solicitor she has been supporting law firms with their PR for over a decade. Get in touch with Victoria to discuss your law firm’s PR needs.
Some of you may have read about NetworkingAF on the LexRex blog or seen social media activity talking about this event series. I hope that some of you even attended! But what is NetworkingAF? NetworkingAF is networking for lawyers and senior employees of law firms and legal businesses. I’ve written recently about why I decided to set up a networking group, and if you’re interested, you can read that here (ignore the title, it’s not just a review). In addition to a desire to create a networking group, I also wanted to try and create something as inclusive as possible, NetworkingAF was born! Why is NetworkingAF inclusive? I’ve noticed for a while that many (most!?) networking events aimed at the legal sector involve alcohol in some format or other. And even when they don’t, they are often held on premises that serve alcohol. I know that for some people this is a problem – they don’t want to be around alcohol. This may be for religious or cultural reasons, they don’t enjoy alcohol, don’t want to drink, don’t want to be around people who drink, they are sober or sober curious. I don’t really care whether people drink or don’t drink (I quite like a wheat beer or a glass of wine, I’ll be honest). I do care though when I get a feeling that I might be inadvertently excluding people from enjoying an opportunity to network. NetworkingAF is therefore fully alcohol-free and takes place in a venue where no alcohol is served, ever. It’s a dry bar. And although alcohol-free wine- and beer-style beverages are served, this isn’t a route that we’ve gone down with the event. You won’t find any mocktails either. NetworkingAF’s vibe isn’t about perpetuating alcohol culture just in a booze-free way, it’s a recognition and celebration of getting together without needing either a drink, or a fake drink. At this point I should also point out that, because I don’t like to do things by half-measures, the food we serve is also super-inclusive. Again, an alcohol-free lifestyle for cultural or religious reasons may come hand-in-hand with dietary requirements. If this is you – please know that I want you to attend and be able to enjoy ALL aspects of the event. All of the food served is vegan, and you will have the opportunity to notify me of any dietary requirements in advance. We can (and we most certainly will) cater for you. Now I know that some of you will be rolling your eyes at this point – and all power to you. Nonetheless, I urge you to give into your curiosity and come along to the next NetworkingAF event on Thursday 2nd October at Hinterland, Manchester. Some of the attendees at our first NetworkingAF event in January are fully signed up beer and meat monsters, and they are now some of our biggest advocates / fans. Book your tickets to NetworkingAF now What: Alcohol-free networking at an alcohol-free venue (no alcohol on the premises). When: Thursday 2nd October 12.00pm – 2.00pm. Where: Hinterland alcohol-free bar, Basement, 16-20 Turner St, Manchester M4 1DZ. Why: Because not everyone wants to drink alcohol. Nibbles and small plates will be served but we’ll be encouraging people to mingle rather than stay seated to make for better networking opportunities. Book your tickets to NetworkingAF now. NetworkingAF is kindly supported by the following legal sector suppliers: LexRex Communications Cashroom Document Direct Forsyte Post Partner Lucas and Co Consultants BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex. A non-practising solicitor she has been supporting law firms with their PR for over a decade. Get in touch with Victoria to discuss your law firm’s PR needs.
A couple of months ago I wrote this blog: Why Dry Events are a Marketers Dream. My logic was that networking should be a space for everybody, a place to go and meet our target audiences, customers or clients, referrers and anybody else of importance to our business and / or career. Events should also be inclusive, although they can of course also be selective. Why alcohol-free events? I wondered whether, by often hosting events that revolve around or include alcohol, hosted in venues where alcohol is present or where it is sold on premises at different times of the day, we marketers might be guilty of excluding a significant number of people that we could instead be building relationships with. And by extension failing to be inclusive. As a sector, the legal profession isn’t perhaps known for its sobriety (when it comes to the demon booze at least) and my thinking turned to whether, in fact, I was missing a trick with my own events. Given that we are often perceived as a boozy profession, this means that it is quite likely that there are many of us who don’t, can’t or won’t drink on an enforced or selective basis. And of course, many people don’t drink for religious or cultural reasons, or simply choose not to. There are naturally many and widely varied reasons for not drinking, and movements like Dry January perhaps provide insight into the fact that for some people, not drinking ‘for a whole month’ might be an issue. Dig a little deeper and I’m sure there are people who simply can’t risk being around alcohol. Stopping to think about how alcohol has become and remains a social lubricant led me to consider whether there are any events that cater for the non-drinkers in the sector. To be honest I couldn’t find any. I’m sure breakfast seminars and conferences probably don’t feature alcohol for the majority of the time, but that’s not really the type of event that I mean. Introducing NetworkingAF All of this thinking led me, probably quite naturally, to decide to create my own alcohol-free networking event for lawyers – and NetworkingAF was born. To be clear, NetworkingAF isn’t about being judgy about drinkers or alcohol. You don’t have to be alcohol free to attend, nobody needs to share their alcohol status or reasons (if any) for not drinking – although feel free to if it’s important to you. This is an inclusive event for all the right reasons. NetworkingAF is just one of a series of ongoing events. Sponsored by the newly created Law Firm Supplier Network, it forms part of a calendar of events aimed at collaboration within the sector. Not all Law Firm Supplier Network events will be alcohol free, and not all events will look the same. But for now, the focus is upon creating peer-to-peer networking opportunities for lawyers and senior employees of law firms. Because the events are currently funded by law firm suppliers (including LexRex), we are intentionally limiting suppliers in attendance to those supporting the events. See below for a full list of the NetworkingAF partners. We may run a Meet the Supplier event later in 2025 to enable lawyers to meet and mingle with suppliers to the legal sector – and if this is of interest, please confirm here (please only provide responses if you are a lawyer or law firm employee). Book your tickets to NetworkingAF now Powered by the Law Firm Supplier Network, this informal networking event is aimed at senior lawyers and employees of law firms and aims to facilitate peer-to-peer networking amongst the legal profession. What: Alcohol-free networking at an alcohol-free venue (no alcohol on the premises). When: Thursday 30th January 12.00pm – 2.00pm. Where: Hinterland alcohol-free bar, Basement, 16-20 Turner St, Manchester M4 1DZ. Why: Because not everyone wants to drink alcohol. Nibbles and small plates will be served but we’ll be encouraging people to mingle rather than stay seated to make for better networking opportunities. BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW NetworkingAF is kindly supported by the following legal sector suppliers: LexRex Communications Cashroom Document Direct Actionstep Post Partner Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex. A non-practising solicitor she has been supporting law firms with their PR for over a decade. Get in touch with Victoria to discuss your law firm’s PR needs.
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.
