As the legal landscape changes, lawyers are finding that it is no longer good enough for them to be just good lawyers – they must also run their firms more effectively and understand their commercial clients better. As Maureen Miller, the Law Society’s head of membership services, points out: ‘It is increasingly recognised that solicitors need to be more rounded and have a better understanding of commercial issues and business.''Lawyers need to be more valued and recognised as "men and women of business" and not just technical legal experts. This is as true for in-house corporate counsel as it is for those in private practice.’ But, she says, the current training model does not adequately prepare solicitors for this multiplicity of roles, nor does it equip them with ‘general transferable business skills and competencies in the "soft skills" of winning business, negotiating and networking’.

So, as 2010 beckons, what can solicitors do to improve themselves and how should they go about acquiring these skills?

Since 1997, Nottingham Law School has run an MBA in legal practice. It incorporates the usual MBA subject headings, but tailors the content to focus on issues specifically relating to law firm management. Denise Crawford, academic team leader at Nottingham Law School and former programme leader, says there is a growing recognition of the need to manage a law firm in the way that any other business is managed. The Legal Services Act, she says, has further concentrated minds by determining that alternative business structures – available in 2011 – must have a head of finance and administration, and a head of legal practice.

Over the years the age profile of those taking the MBA course has dropped. Previously, she says, most entrants were in their late 40s or early 50s; now they tend to be in their late 30s or early 40s. Participants range from HR and compliance managers to non-lawyer chief executives, partners and in-house counsel.

The school is planning to expand the modules relating to in-house counsel to help counsel prepare for a boardroom role – a move that will please Miller, who says that too few solicitors currently make it to board level in major corporations compared with accountants.

BPP Business School in London, in addition to running an MSc in legal business, which is open to anyone, has developed an MBA programme with City firm Simmons & Simmons. Students who are due to begin their training contracts with the firm in 2010 were the first to start the year-long course in September this year.

Nigel Spencer, director of learning and development at Simmons & Simmons, explains that the course contains the core MBA modules on business awareness and commercial awareness, as well as tailored parts for lawyers on legal services and legal services delivery. The six legal modules on the MSc are foundations of business analysis, corporate governance and finance, organisations and leadership, strategic management, professional services management in the legal sector and future trends in the legal sector.

He says: ‘The course [looks at] the industry sectors that we, as a firm, focus on – life sciences, energy and infrastructure, technology, media and telecoms, and financial institutions – to give the trainees commercial and business awareness of these types of industries.

‘The students also get to do a project during the year, which we hope will be working with real-life business to help them understand our clients. The year is about getting a head for business and commercial issues, especially in those areas we focus on. It will enable our lawyers to set their legal advice in a real commercial and business context.’

Spencer is convinced that the course will prove to be ‘of massive value to our clients, who consistently say they appreciate lawyers with good business awareness and a detailed knowledge of the commercial world in which they operate’.

BPP has also designed an MA (law with business) programme in collaboration with City firm SJ Berwin, which will launch next year for trainees who started their training contracts with SJ Berwin this September.

Chris Brady, dean of BPP, says the course is designed to complement the legal practice course by developing technically competent lawyers who can interpret their role as lawyers through their client’s eyes, so they can frame their advice with a clear appreciation of the commercial context.

The business element is taught in four modules – business analysis and strategy, business finance, and two research modules – a business investigation project and another project focused on a particular commercial sector.

Anne Collier, head of learning and development at SJ Berwin, says this programme is intended to complement the training contract: ‘We hope it will help trainees make sense of what they are seeing working on the job and give them the extra skills they need.’

As part of the research modules trainees will do a placement with one of SJ Berwin’s clients or business contacts. ‘This is intended to give our trainees a greater understanding of the business environment our clients operate in, so that, as well as being legally trained, they are commercially aware,’ Collier explains. ‘Historically lawyers have gained this commercial knowledge over the course of their careers – we’re fast-tracking that.

‘Clients want in-tune business advisers, not just ivory tower lawyers.’

Despite the financial downturn and budget cuts elsewhere, she says the firm believes this is an important area of staff investment. SJ Berwin started considering the concept two years ago when the economy was strong and trainees were much busier. ‘Our trainees are less busy now due to the economic downturn, so it’s more important we do this because they are getting less client contact.’

BPP is also developing a series of short executive courses focused on financial awareness and project management, to be delivered to law firms and general counsel.

Brady says the drive for these courses is coming both from law firms and GCs. ‘Law firms want a competitive advantage in understanding their clients and their client’s business, so they can be part of negotiating teams rather than just in a support role,’ he says. ‘And general counsel want to see these skills in their external and internal staff.’

E-learning curveIf solicitors are not able to afford the time or expense of doing an MBA to develop their skills, e-learning could be the answer – it can fit training around work, and there are growing numbers of providers covering an ever-expanding subject list.

CPDcast, an online CPD provider, was set up three years ago. It provides training in 26 core legal areas, plus practice management and soft skills, such as billing, marketing and productivity, through podcasts. Recordings last about 30 minutes and take the form of a Q&A session, in which an interviewer asks the contributor about the subject under discussion. A short multiple choice test checks understanding and enables users to claim one CPD point per podcast.

Daniel Mohacek, managing director of CPDcast, says it is seeing an increase in demand for training in soft skills and intends to expand offerings based on this in 2010 to include podcasts on ‘strategic thinking, decision-making, leadership, recruitment and time management’.

CLT, meanwhile, launched a programme of online seminars last year and through CLT Online now broadcasts about one seminar a day.

Karen Battersby, managing director of CLT Online, says the company offers two options – live e-learning via a webinar, where people log on at a particular time and listen to a live session, or pre-recorded sessions that people can listen to on demand at a time that suits them. It also runs interactive webinars, where delegates ask the presenters questions by text, and the presenters ask questions of the delegates, who can then vote using their computer. E-learning, says Battersby, is not about replacing face-to-face learning, but the economic climate is making people look at different delivery methods. ‘It’s horses for courses,’ she says.

Kaplan Hawksmere, a business training provider and consultancy, offers a wide range of audio and visual webinars on hard law and management subjects. It provides short introduction or refresher sessions, as well as longer, more in-depth modules. Business development manager Craig Oaks says the company also offers modules tailored to the needs of in-house lawyers which will be developed further in 2010.

For in-house lawyers there is another route to learning available – in-house departments are increasingly looking to their external legal advisers to provide them with elements of their training.

Paul de Vince, partner in the commercial team at national firm Shoosmiths, says: ‘The provision of training is an absolute prerequisite – it’s part of that whole value-added proposition.’ Shoosmiths offers all its internal training, which covers professional skills as well as hard law, to in-house legal teams.

‘We also put together bespoke training,’ says de Vince. ‘This includes providing pre-packed training for our clients to use to train their clients. It can be by scripted training, video-based training or PowerPoint presentations.’ Shoosmiths also offers to manage the CPD requirement for in-house lawyers. It can put together a package of training covering the areas they are interested in and log their points on completion.

Lee Ramsay, co-chair of the training committee at in-house members’ body the Commerce & Industry Group, says panel firms are increasingly proactive in delivering training that is tailored for individual in-house teams. ‘As work has slowed there appears to be more time available, and firms are using this as an opportunity to strengthen relationships,’ she says. Ramsay adds that the C&I Group, which itself provides training, is being asked to deliver training on soft skills and leadership as well as technical legal skills.

The ‘holy grail’ though, she says, is ‘lessons-learned’ training from actual transactions – either to work out what went wrong when things did not work, or to identify what worked well on projects that were successful. ‘From talking to other in-house lawyers we still don’t feel anyone has managed to quite get this right yet,’ she says.

But Ramsay does think that technology is providing new ways of delivering learning using webinars, e-learning and website support. ‘This won’t replace face-to-face training, which has the added benefit of networking, but it is allowing more flexibility for busy professionals to access training at a time and place convenient to them,’ she says.

Ramsay adds that one development many have welcomed is ‘back to work’ seminars for those who have been on secondment, maternity leave or career breaks. ‘Some firms are offering these seminars, allowing people to catch up with developments over the previous 12 months and providing online portals with information in one easy-to-find place.’

Soft optionsFor lawyers looking to work on their softer skills, such as client relationships, marketing and business development, there is a range of options.

One option is to call in external advisers or consultants. In 2008 two former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lawyers, Harriet Creamer and Gina Jennings, set up Outer Circle – an independent consultancy, or ‘troubleshooting’ business as they prefer to call it. They advise firms on client service, learning and development, practice development and knowledge management.

‘In an increasingly competitive business environment, lawyers need more than technical legal expertise,’ says Creamer.

‘Clients don’t just want legal brilliance – they want good client service and a quality relationship.’

But, says Creamer, while these skills are important to clients, law firms have undervalued them, with remuneration and promotion structures focused on technical ability and working long hours (whether those hours are productive or not).

‘As a result, lawyers have not embraced training in soft areas, particularly where it is given by people who are not lawyers,’ says Creamer. Often, she says, lawyers assume that only a fellow lawyer is able to understand their business and teach them anything. ‘We get over that issue because our developmental programmes are designed and led by lawyers with experience of working in a pressured client-driven environment.’

Creamer explains that she and Jennings go into a firm that has already established its strategy – ‘we are not strategic consultants or business advisers’ – to help lawyers implement their strategies, which they tend to be bad at doing. They also help with client relationships – what some would term marketing. ‘None of this is rocket science – it’s about understanding how people get on with other people,’ she adds.

Creamer explains that lawyers are often academic by nature and tend to be judged on their intellectual skills alone but, she says, they need other, softer skills in order to be effective lawyers.

‘Firms are starting to realise this, but it still takes them outside their comfort zones,’ she adds.

Many firms are cutting back on additional training and do not consider soft skills training a priority at present. Creamer believes this is unwise: ‘The way to get ahead now is to understand what makes your clients tick and to relate to them.’Lawyers are also bad at understanding how their own business works, she adds: ‘They don’t understand what drives or generates profit – they just focus on working long hours. But this won’t necessarily work in the future, as clients are demanding alternative billing arrangements. Lawyers need to understand how they make their money, and we can help them with this.’

If lawyers find it hard to understand what makes their firms or their clients tick, how do they fare at understanding how they tick, and therefore how to market themselves?

Martin Hosken, a business coach at the intriguingly named Funkydot, says: ‘Marketing themselves is not a natural thing for lawyers to do.’ For the last two years Hosken has worked for one day a week with the consultants at Cubism Law, a firm that intends to become a ‘franchised’ firm. ‘I sit down with each consultant and provide a space for them to talk about issues including: who they are, their fears, what drives them, and how they can reach their potential. We talk through the challenges they face in trying to raise their profile and improve their billing, as well as helping them to analyse their thinking about who their market is.’

This, he says, gives them a ‘sounding board’ or simply an opportunity to talk and be listened to, and to facilitate growth and nurture their skills.

‘These can be hard areas for them to talk about,’ says Hoskens. ‘Law is intellectual, but there are emotional sides that need to be addressed.’ Tackling these issues helps solicitors consolidate their profile and sell themselves, he says. ‘It comes down to the need to understand the skill-set they provide.’

People often know more than they think they do, he stresses. ‘Marketing scares lawyers, but if you break it down and get them to look at who they know and who those contacts know, it makes it easier for them to deal with.’

Cubism Law operates on a chambers-style model and recruits senior lawyers who work on a consultant basis. Andrew Pena, Cubism’s managing director, says Hosken’s service helps lawyers to be accurate about themselves – so personal development and training helps solicitors build their own brand and that of the firm. ��It’s about helping solicitors to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses and align their skills with the marketing plan of the firm. The individual has to have a strategy that works for them as an individual.’

So, as things slow down for Christmas, you may want to take time to think about how you are going to improve yourself and your business over the coming year. This could be as basic as a new year’s resolution to listen to one podcast a month at the gym – though obviously that’s after making a resolution to join (or possibly re-join) a gym, along with half the world, in January.