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However, with pressure from internal teams, clients and wider social changes, many firms are breaking away from this divided approach to encourage a flatter, more collaborative structure, with the goal of boosting overall growth.

 

“Deal activity has been at its height over the past two years and corporate lawyers have been pushed to get through everything, so cross-discipline collaboration has been essential”, says Peter Jackson, CEO at Hill Dickinson.

 

Rosalind Connor, Managing Partner at Arc Pensions Law, says that the firm’s smaller size and niche focus helps to encourage a collaborative atmosphere. “It is much easier for people to engage and collaborate with the rest of their small team who they know well, than with some lawyer in a different specialism and jurisdiction who they have only ever seen on Zoom!”

 

In order to encourage a firm-wide spirit of teamwork and camaraderie some firms are extending traditionally fee-earner benefits to business support members. Examples include Wessing asking partners to prove collaboration both within and outside of the legal cohort before deciding on appropriate remuneration and Birketts contributing significant profit share bonuses to all colleagues outside of the partnership. All of this contributes to breaking down the ‘them and us’ mentality that commonly exists between lawyers and support staff. "I think it has engendered in the lawyers a recognition of how those who aren’t lawyers can actually help the growth agenda and can be just as important to clients”, says Jackson of Hill Dickinson’s collaborative strategy.

 

With lawyers being highly-trained specialists themselves, many firms have seen the benefit of employing specialists across business support functions to drive growth. This includes C-Suite professionals like CEOs, sitting alongside Managing Partners to drive operational strategy, as well as experts in areas such as pricing and project management.

 

While a move away from the more traditional firm structure was, perhaps, inevitable, change is occurring at an accelerated pace because of pressure from the client side. “Clients are coming to us with problems which can not always be solved by lawyers and so it’s becoming more and more common for teams of lawyers to collaborate with other professional staff to co-create client solutions”, says Nick Perry, Managing Partner at Bird & Bird.

 

This is particularly evident when it comes to technology expertise. Some firms, such as Wiggin, Radius Law and Taylor Wessing, have focused on bundling additional business services with legal technology solutions to add greater value to clients and boost revenue. Even those firms that aren’t offering formalised technology packages are recognising that client services can be enhanced by involving technology experts from the start.

 

At Hill Dickinson, they’ve found that some clients prefer to have regular updates with the IT specialists so that they can get more complex questions about data regulations and privacy answers directly. “While our lawyers understand the concepts, they can’t always deliver on the technical stuff, so it’s better to have the experts involved directly”, says Jackson.

 

While individual approaches may differ, it is clear that there is sector-wide momentum driving a shake-up of hierarchical structures and that firms are already reaping the benefits.