HR’s hard climb to the summit

Just after we launched Briefing, Linklaters’ head of HR, Jill King, said the ‘new normal’ was here, and any firm that didn’t see this had its head buried in the ground. Things haven’t gone back to pre-2008 times, for anyone – but the best HR leaders have helped their firms handle the change. How?

This month’s feature outlines how some of the countries biggest hitters – Eversheds, Hill Dickinson, Irwin Mitchell, Bird & Bird and Ince & Co – are changing to meet the challenges of the new normal.

HOW FRESHFIELDS WEATHERED THE STORM

Rupert White talks to Kevin Hogarth, Freshfields’ global HR chief, about the challenges facing legal HR, learning lessons in resourcing from other sectors and the value of engagement

VIEWS FROM THE TOP

How are law firm HR leaders helping to reshape the law firms of today? Polly Botsford reports on what the ‘new normal’ has turned into, how legal HR must reform itself while it reforms legal business, and the challenges of international growth, outsourcing and alternative business structures

TRANSFORMING HR

Enterprise resource planning will be a vital part of making HR the strategic business function it should be, says Paul Tilling, head of strategic alliances at LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions