Stephen Allen
Director of legal AI and technology
Clyde & Co
Clyde & Co
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A blueprint for profitability
magazines|November 2025Strategic pricing of legal work depends on strength of process and people
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
On the money
Highlights from the conversation and collaboration at Briefing Finance Leaders 2025
The strategic stretch
Aileen Johnson, director of knowledge management at Charles Russell Speechlys, on introducing a central knowledge lawyer for client focus
A simpler time
Travers Smith chose Aderant to make lighter work of financial process pain-points and offer an edge for the future
WHO'S WHO THIS MONTH
ISSUE IN BRIEF
In recent years the legal sector has been confronted with macroeconomic volatility, inflation, transformation frustrations and clients’ changing pricing expectations, all of which pile significant pressure on firm operations and profitability.
- Read Briefing November 2025 via our app on Android
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- Read Briefing November 2025 on your web browser
What’s inside?
Cash remains king, but the legal world is changing. There are more options promising to power up efficiency than ever, but they often come with a hefty price tag too. Firms can’t afford to take eyes off profit margin, and are people even prepared to switch into a more commercial mindset? Journalist Maria Shahid speaks to firm finance leaders at Shoosmiths, Freeths, Browne Jacobson and Ellisons.
There are also perspectives on the march of innovation, growth, investment and collaboration from business leaders at Travers Smith, Harbottle & Lewis and Charles Russell Speechlys, as well as a dive into the discussion at Finance Leaders 2025 hosted by our friends at HFW.
Industry views
In addition, get practical perspective on navigating market forces, and managing key change projects — plus all the people that constitute them — from all our Briefing partners (and some of their clients).
- Mark Lake, head of business systems at Travers Smith, explains why the firm chose Aderant Expert for immediate smarter-working gains and a future-facing cloud platform to support growing service innovation.
- Eric Wangler, president, global legal market at BigHand, shows how firms don’t yet have the data to price differently without an adverse effect on profitability.
- Jody Glidden, founder and CEO at Postilize, and Barry Solomon, vice president, client value and innovation at Litera, discuss how firms can harness data in new ways, picking up on signals that make business development less reactive and serve to anticipate new client needs.
- Elisabet Hardy, chief product officer at Elite, says innovation theatre is leaving the strategy stage and daily unified intelligence will step up.
- Paul Suffield, managing director at Attest Group, says any financial-optimisation project needs an ‘as is’ understanding of how people and process fit together.
FINANCE LEADERS ASSEMBLE
Law firm chief financial officers of 2026 must choose which changes are worth the investment. Richard Brent reviews the annual Briefing meetup of the guardians of profitability at Briefing Finance Leaders 2025.
KEYS TO THE CLIENT PERSPECTIVE
Aileen Johnson, director of knowledge management at Charles Russell Speechlys outlines the business case and remit for a new central knowledge lawyer role to build cross-functional, business-level understanding of the client.
