Small to Medium Firm Practice Management Forum
Strengthen your small practice and gain your core CPD units with this unique, practical & tailor made program. Gain business and risk management strategies to maximise your efficiency, cash flow, firm performance and profitability. Identify ethical pitfalls unique to small practices and how to deal with them. Catch up on recent and significant workplace law developments that you need to be across. Elevate your marketing strategies with insights from an expert and other lawyers in small practices. WEB2112N05
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD units including:
1 unit in Ethics & Professional Responsibility
2 units in Practice Management & Business Skills
1 unit in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Chair: Bill Fazio, Director, Fazio Advisory
THE BUSINESS & COMMERCIAL REALITIES OF SMALL PRACTICES
Practice Management & Business Skills
9.00am to 9.45am The 10 Tips Small Practices Must Employ To Thrive
Gain 10 critical tips all small legal practices must employ in order to achieve high performance. Ben Deverson, founder & Director of Lawganised, will provide you with lessons, tools and practical examples to take control of your firm, including:
- Business Planning and the drivers for business success in law
- Understanding productive capacity and the ability to deliver your business plan
- Cash Flow: the lifeblood of any business
- Mitigating your practice risk beyond just professional negligence – you may be surprised what your greatest risk is
- Developing a high performing team
Presented by Ben Deverson, Director, Lawganised
Practice Management & Business Skills
9.45am to 10.45am How Effective Risk Management Planning Improves Law Firm Profitability
- Professional negligence claims data, cyber claims data, and the contributing factors to law practice claims risks
- Underlying problems of law practices that have higher claims
- Feedback from city CBD, suburban and regional law practice visits and risk reviews
- The importance of strategy, planning and undertaking SWOTs of all aspects of legal practice
- The less obvious costs of poor supervision
- Identifying potential risks to the law practice’s business and personnel: the practice health check and personal health check
Presented by Malcolm Heath, Practice Risk Manager, Lawcover
AVOIDING ETHICAL PITFALLS
Ethics & Professional Responsibility
10.45am to 11.45am PRACTICAL PANEL DISCUSSION: Small Practices, Big Problems: Avoiding & Overcoming Ethical Quagmires
- Ethical challenges posed by working in a small firm or a solo practice
- Working in small markets or with related clients: conflicts of interest
- Developing processes, procedures & polices that promote ethical behaviour
- When things go wrong: personally or professionally
- Managing the isolation and pressure in a small practice: looking after yourself
- Identifying the key stressors affecting your ability to deliver legal services competently, diligently and with integrity
- Taking on too much: when you have to step back
- Checking for the warning signs (and doing something about it)
Panellists:
David Kernohan, Principal, Kernohan Consulting; Director, Youth Legal Service
Jodie Bradbrook, Principal, Bradbrook Lawyers; Recommended Employment Lawyer (Employer Representation) and Workplace Health & Safety Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide 2021
Tim Lethbridge, Director/Lawyer, Croftbridge; Recommended Employment Lawyer (Employee & Union Representation), Doyle’s Guide 2021
11.45am to 11.55am Break
HIRING, RETAINING & MANAGING STAFF
Practice Management & Business Skills
11.55am to 12.40pm Your Responsibilities as an Employer: Getting the Legal Issues Right
- Determining minimum conditions of employment
- Engaging contractors, casual employees or volunteers
- Flexible working arrangements
- Parental leave
- Recruitment & engagement
- Performance management, termination of employment & redundancies
Presented by Stephen Kemp, Principal, Kemp & Associates: The Employment Lawyers; Best Lawyers 2022, Labour and Employment Law; Leading Employment Lawyer (Employee & Union Representation), Doyle’s Guide 2021
MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Professional Skills
12.40pm to 1.40pm PRACTICAL GUIDE & PANEL DISCUSSION: Developing Effective Marketing Strategies on Your Terms
- Marketing yourself without a huge marketing budget
- Leveraging your strengths
- Taking advantage of social media
- Closing the deal: turning interest and leads into clients
Presented by Vivienne Corcoran, Director, Marketing Logic; author, Growing Your Professional Practice
Panel Discussion
Panellists:
Vivienne Corcoran, Director, Marketing Logic
Annette Comley, Principal, Comley Legal
Laura Vickers, Principal, Nest Legal
Presenters
Bill Fazio
Bill Fazio consults as Fazio Advisory after a long career as a corporate/commercial lawyer, an investment banker and many years as a Managing Partner. He has worked in single office, national and international firms, managing both growth and contraction. Bill is a passionate believer in improving the way lawyers and law firms work, both internally and externally, through changing old behaviours and embracing technology. He is based in Melbourne, Australia.
Ben Deverson
Founder, Director & Chief Organiser of Lawganised, Ben Deverson, has had a 25-year executive career of which over half has been managing and leading professional services firms. For four years (2016-2019), Ben was the Managing Director and an equity principal of a boutique law firm in Brisbane. Whilst not being a qualified lawyer, Ben is a management specialist. He has gained an intimate knowledge of the challenges that law firms face each day. Ben's strengths include strategic planning, forecasting, cash flow management, process automation, performance metrics, leadership, and legal practice risk management.
Malcolm Heath
Malcolm joined Lawcover in August 2012 and is Practice Risk Manager. In this role, he conducts risk reviews of law firms which involve onsite visits and meetings with the principals, employed solicitors and senior support staff. Malcolm presents risk management strategies through the Lawcover Risk Management Education Program’s workshops for principals, on-site at law firms, at the practice management courses of The Law Society of NSW, College of Law, FMRC, Regional Law Societies’ seminars and other events. Prior to joining Lawcover, Malcolm ran his own company for 20 years providing consulting services to the general insurance industry and the legal profession as well researching and producing conferences.
David Kernohan
David Kernohan is a highly skilled senior executive in the not-for-profit sector in Western Australia with over 30 years' experience working in the social services and community legal fields. David is currently the principal at his company Kernohan Consulting and a director at Youth Legal Service. He’s the former CEO of the Mental Health Law Centre Inc. and was also the chairperson of the WA Community Legal Centres Association (a peak body of community legal centres in Western Australia). Prior to working in Community Legal Centres, David was employed in senior management positions for over 20 years in the community services sector.
Jodie Bradbrook
Jodie Bradbrook has been a practising solicitor for approximately 20 years. She worked in large national law firms, boutique firms and as in-house counsel for Telstra prior to commencing her own practice in August 2011. She is a specialist workplace relations, employment and safety lawyer and was recognised in the Doyle’s Guide every year from 2017 to 2021 as a leading Employment lawyer and a leading Health & Safety lawyer in Adelaide.
Tim Lethbridge
Tim Lethbridge graduated from UWA in 2000 with degrees in Law and Computer Science. He completed his articles at Lewis Blyth & Hooper, where he worked for 5 years, before taking a break in Melbourne, then Europe. He returned to Perth in 2006 and was employed by Kott Gunning, where he became a partner in 2010. In September 2016, Tim and Elise Croft, one of his fellow partners at Kott Gunning, decided to go out on their own. They started their own firm, Croftbridge, specialising in employment law, contested estates, safety law and general commercial litigation.
Stephen Kemp
Stephen has practiced as a specialist employment lawyer for more than 30 years. He has worked at several top tier firms, including as partner in charge of the Workplace Relations and Safety team at a major Perth firm, as well as on his own account. Stephen is recognised for his practical and commercial approach to employment disputes and for providing clear and concise advice. His experience and willingness to listen allows him to identify the core issues and to develop strategies to address those issues. His approach does not just focus on the legalities of the matter at hand: he recognises the broader ramifications of employment issues.
Vivienne Corcoran
Vivienne Corcoran is an experienced professional services marketer who runs her own and helps others run their, professional services firms for increased profit and importantly, satisfaction. More than 25 years' experience in professional services firms has over the past 10 years seen a specialisation in client feedback. Vivienne has developed and conducted client feedback programmes for many Australian and international professional services and law firms and used this feedback to help firms improve their service and increase their market share and billings. Vivienne is the author of the popular book "Growing Your Professional Practice" and is currently working on a PhD on Client Feedback with Edinburgh Business School.
Annette Comley
Annette Comley established her own firm in 2015 and work exclusively in the Family Law jurisdiction. She employs 2 staff members and have an office situated in the Adelaide CPD. Annette is admitted to the Supreme Court of SA and the High Court of Australia and regularly appear in the Federal Circuit Court and Family Court of Australia. She has a Master of Laws (LLB) in Applied Family Law and is a qualified Collaborative Lawyer. She does her best to seek alternative dispute resolutions for clients that do not involve litigation.
Laura Vickers
Laura founded Northcote-based law firm Nest Legal in 2013 and the firm now employs 20 fabulous humans across Victoria and NSW. Nest Legal's goal is to make it easy for busy people to buy their first nest and protect it. The LexisNexis Legal Innovation Index judges described Laura as an 'industry game-changer' through her team's 'innovative approach to client service that perfectly services its target market'. She is the editor of the Conveyancing chapter of the Law Handbook, the founder of NewLaw Chambers (1200+ innovative Australian lawyers trying to do law differently) and a tired Northcote mum of two.