Family First Solicitors Ltd
7 Contributions by Family First Solicitors Ltd Experts
PRACTICE NOTES
The aim of networking and business development is not to secure sales, harvest leads or push a promotion. Trying to achieve those outcomes by meeting people one by one is an inefficient route. Rather, the role of networking is to raise the visibility and credibility of your firm and of individual lawyers. As a by-product, it will often create a trusted web of contacts and suppliers.
First steps
Before you tackle networking for the first time, take these essential, practical preliminaries:
Consider where your firm sits in the market, and if there is a marketing department, speak to them — they will be pleased to help lawyers convey the firm’s message.
In a firm without a marketing department, work out what distinguishes the firm from others — is it a legal attribute such as international expertise or in-house advocacy? Or is it
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PRACTICE NOTES
This Practice Note examines how family law services are priced and funded, addressing contractual terms, regulatory obligations under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regime, and guidance from the Law Society and the Legal Ombudsman. It also considers charging models, including fixed fees, hourly rates, blended rates, and approaches such as ‘unbundling’...
Contractual relationship
The service contract between solicitor and client is central to the professional relationship. Managed effectively, it can enhance standing; mishandled, it may strain the relationship and expose the firm to financial loss and reputational harm. This Practice Note outlines the core principles and practical management of fees and funding in family cases...
Cash flow underpins every practice. For family lawyers, the key questions are what to charge and the mechanism for doing so. A practice must remain profitable, as sustained unprofitability can jeopardise the firm. When reviewing charging,
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PRACTICE NOTES
Mastering advocacy forms a strand of solicitor training, yet many seldom deploy it in practice. Structured modules feature in the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Professional Skills Course (PSC), but, when set beside the Bar, the provision is slight. Before April 2013, legal aid family cases generated ample advocacy openings, particularly for junior lawyers, to build confidence so they could carry it into their work as they moved to senior roles, but the excision of so much from legal aid’s scope has meant chances to practise advocacy are shrinking. This Practice Note examines advocacy in terms of training and business development rather than detailed practical techniques. It does not address courtroom mechanics or the granular craft of delivery.
Why should a practice develop advocacy as a service?
Expanding the service available to clients is likely to be welcomed and, from the
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PRACTICE NOTES
All family practitioners ought to approach their work with a commercially minded approach to practice. Partners must ensure the firm as a whole turns a healthy profit, heads of department must deliver a profitable team, and each individual must be profitable to safeguard their business, their team or their role. Although making major changes to systems can be culturally or personally difficult, smaller, incremental actions that lift profit margins are usually far more attainable for virtually any practice. This Practice Note sets out practical suggestions designed to strengthen performance at both personal and firm-wide scale.
Professional obligations
The SRA Standards and Regulations apply. The key requirements set out within the SRA Standards and Regulations comprise the following:
Principles
Code of Conduct for Solicitors, registered European lawyers (RELs), registered foreign lawyers (RFLs) and registered Swiss lawyers (RSLs)
Code of Conduct for Firms
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PRACTICE NOTES
Engaging counsel to represent a client calls for careful, considered planning and thorough preparation. Counsel’s function is to deliver impartial, objective guidance and to exercise the craft of advocacy for the client. While they work within the wider team, they also reinforce and augment the advice first given by the instructed solicitor, adding a valuable independent perspective throughout the matter. This Practice Note explains how to brief counsel so the client secures the greatest possible advantage from their involvement...
Choosing counsel and reasons to instruct
Keep a curated and frequently updated list of approved counsel at hand. In family work, what is often described as a strong ‘bedside manner’ is especially significant. Clients may feel extremely vulnerable, and the presence of a dazzling yet curt professional could be entirely unsuitable for that client. You may need to consider instructing leading counsel; in some cases, leading
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PRACTICE NOTES
For the family lawyer, time is a precious currency. Across the profession, the focus has only lately begun to move from billing hours towards delivering ‘a great job’, encouraged by the steady roll-out of fixed fees across the market. Nevertheless, the greater the number of ‘great jobs’ completed in a lawyer’s day, the more profitable the firm and the individual family lawyer. Everyone appears to be pushed to achieve more in fewer hours. So how can family lawyers keep on top of their caseload while remaining content with their work–life balance?
The human body-clock, concentration and productivity
Only a limited number of hours in any day are truly, consistently productive. Our bodies follow an internal circadian rhythm, meaning each of us experiences periods when we are more, or less, effective. Being mindful of this inner clock allows a family lawyer to schedule tasks, and
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PRACTICE NOTES
As legal aid has been withdrawn from much of family law, and with tough economic conditions plus greater competition, more family practitioners may look to provide unbundled services. Overall, the expense of operating a practice, including overheads, has risen. Conversely, many clients seek to reduce their legal spend, whether out of need or because the wider availability of legal information encourages some to handle parts of their matter themselves. As a result, some will deal with elements of their case in person, seeking targeted input only when necessary. Pay As You Go, or unbundled advice and assistance (including advocacy), can help to close this gap.
What is it?
Essentially, unbundling involves providing specific, limited legal advice and support to a client who is acting in person. Each piece of work is delivered as a discrete, self-contained task focused precisely on what is needed at that
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