With management teams and advisers alike urging firms to innovate to succeed, even to innovate to survive, law firm management teams are recognising that innovation, like breathing, is not optional if a firm wishes to prosper in a highly competitive legal services marketplace.

We all know that effective risk management is a cornerstone of the SRA Handbook 2011. You’re expected to take a risk-based approach to compliance and managing your business, but who knew this extends to planning for your firm’s failure? “What?” I hear you bellow, while frantically clicking through page after page of the SRA website. “Where does the Handbook say all this?”

Engagement – something which brands talk about, consumers want more of and now lawyers are striving to achieve. Unlike other service industries that focus their client retention campaigns around maintaining a high level of engagement, law firms are better known for maintaining a low profile.

With mass production of the Apple Watch set to begin shortly, plus developments in other smartwatch products from Samsung and Pebble, it takes mobile to a whole new level. The Ipswitch survey suggests that 25% of UK businesses expect to introduce wearables to the workplace and 33% expect employee-owned wearables to enter the workplace.

What’s your favourite time of year? Mine is April, but not this year. Other are conspiring against me—the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the government, the Legal Services Board, the Legal Ombudsman, HM Treasury and even the European Commission.