It’s not often that I feel sorry for law firm PR people, but I sense that Irwin Mitchell’s is getting a little fed up with being asked when the firm is going to float. There has for some years been a widespread assumption in the market that it was a question of when, not if, this would happen. It has been reported in both the national and legal press as fact (although not on Legal Futures, on the old-fashioned basis that actually it wasn’t a fact).

This was a well-known saying from Max Bygraves, but it is one that perhaps all firms should consider when looking at their professional indemnity insurance renewals. For many years we have heard insurers and commentators say that renewal is going be difficult for firms, but many firms have taken this with a pinch of salt thinking it is just people crying wolf again; but having seen the issues that came with the last renewal, should firms take more heed of the warnings this year?

Welcome to the baffling world of consumer credit regulation, where the law of unintended consequences reigns supreme. Sweeping changes to the consumer credit regime come into force on April Fool’s Day. By all accounts, they aren’t aimed at law firms but only a fool would ignore them.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – so said Peter Drucker, pioneering management consultant and influential thinker. It’s a long time since he coined the phrase, and although it now features high on the agenda for enlightened law firms, the sector as a whole is lagging and needs to catch up.

The link between a client’s satisfaction with a firm’s service, their subsequent loyalty and the ensued increase in profitability is perceived to be so logical that the relationship is often taken for granted. But client loyalty is generated from an understanding of each relationship and the expectations you need to exceed based on real time information such as feedback. In fact, an increase of as little as 5% in client retention is thought to lead to as much as a 75% increase in the average business’s profitability