Hybrid

Sitting with my cohort of management consultants in at 8pm under the bright summer night we indulged in an epic conversation. The main challenges for any profit-making organisation post pandemic. As a team of 20+ professionals working closely with different portfolio professionals, I sponged these relevant relevant information. I am in the business of solving organisations pain points and as such I was eager to learn more about the challenges faced. We discussed plenty of topics to include fee earner burnout, competency, clients digital expectations, compliance, risk mitigation, and most interestingly how to make the data collected to work for them. Just before, we also discussed the complex degrees being provided by universities and their application to the real world. Therefore in this article I will discuss 1) the combination of a law degree with and MBA 2) The difficulties professional service providers face in today's day and age within the parameters of my experience.

A Master of Business Administration (MBA) qualification is a highly respected, prestigious postgraduate qualification. Doing the MBA gave me a deep understanding of business practices, as well as skills in operational management, team leadership, and strategic planning, corporate research and development and implementation of change. It is a recognised worldwide qualification. This globally recognised qualification has been my springboard to kick of my career. I am often asked the question, why an MBA after an LLB. It was a natural extension of my interest in business leadership.

I speak the client’s language, the client trusts me a lot quicker. I bring more value. I am empowered, not only do I understand business terminology like supply chain; value chain; strategic management, I am also equipped to analyse for my clients the introduction of a new service, product or technology and or how this new invention can affect the other areas of the business like marketing, financials, human resource, distribution and of course the corporate social responsibility. I am able to do all that and efficiently explain to the client the legal parameters these strategies will float on. When dealing with large corporate clients embarking on a big business venture I am able to understand what the drivers and impediments might be.

This multidisciplinary approach to the application of law gives me a powerful edge within the client relationship. I am able to appreciate the need for successful change management while understanding how teams work, I can influence and lead client projects, improve communications and participating in meaningful discussions around diversity. I am able to apply law within the real parameters of corporate drivers, the environment within which they operate and the knowledge of all key stakeholders relationships. Today when I have a client who tells me, Vennulla I want to sell coal in Newcastle, I will confidently explain the potential impediments and some of the drivers to the business of future challenges of operating within that domain. This is my domain and I stand to be challenged.

We then discussed the role of professional service providers and compared the difference of how they demonstrate value to their clients. Showing value from tax consultants was easier because tax experts can show savings that flow from a given tax arrangement and point to the effective tax rate as a definitive indicator of value.

For the legal eagles it was harder to measure the contribution. It was tough to place a numerical value on a dispute, a dispute preempted or a breach avoided? We did not have a solution however we did make a mental note that this is an area that needs work. Lawyers should in the interim expressly articulate the unique value that they offer through:-

a) Comparison of legal costs of similar businesses

b) The costs of work done in law firms as against in-house departments

c) The costs of work by lawyers in contrast with alternative providers.

Clients on the other hand should be asked what tangible value they expect from a lawyer and a contribution should be measured against those expectations. A rough and informal but practical guidance delivered early on is often preferred to exhaustive legal analysis submitted at the tail end of a project.

Clients seeking legal services today seek qualitative value (reassurance, peace of mind, and confidence) rather than quantifiable value (savings and revenue). They want to be able to monitor progress on their legal work. How can law firms prove this? For starters they can enable global reporting and dashboarding, to standardisation and process mapping. This provides greater control, increased insight, and improved levels of compliance. Clients today expect lawyers to provide a more proactive, disciplined, or systematic way of of executing the above.

Therefore having a robust legal project management team is important as it enhances the process of defining the parameters of a matter upfront, planning the course of the matter at the outset with the facts available at the time and managing the matter, and, at the end and finally evaluating how the matter was consolidated.