Managing finance

It’s not lawyers who will make or break tomorrow’s law firm – especially not the big firms. It’s management, and above all (possibly) the finance function. That’s because finding untapped revenue and  profitability, managing legal work a lot better, and being able to see things from the client’s perspective are probably all skills that lie in management – not lawyering.

That’s why for our main interview this month is with someone who came to the legal business after the downturn, someone who’d never known the ‘good old days’: Robert Boardman, FD for almost all of the relatively freshly minted Herbert Smith Freehills. We also have a feature article analysing the role of the FD now that the COFA regime is here, including interviews with FDs at Berrymans Lace Mawer, Burges Salmon, Nabarro, Shoosmiths, SJ Berwin, Weightmans and a mystery top 15 firm.

GLOBAL CHALLENGE, GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY

Rupert White talks to Robert Boardman, finance director for UK, US, EMEA and Asia at Herbert Smith Freehills, one of the firms that might be an example of the future of global law – a merged Europe-US-AsiaPac global legal business.

EMBRACING THE STRAIN

As the Legal Services Act finally comes to fruition, the very nature of the finance director’s role is changing – up to a point. Nicola Laver looks at a role that’s now steeped in liability and at the heart of the strategies and tactics that will take some firms to the heights, and some to the brink

SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD

Technology is the vehicle for international expansion, says Fraser Mayfield at LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions