Push for 2020

This year’s law firm survey from PwC reports mute UK revenue growth, flat PEP, and a combo of clients, competition and wage inflation all piling more
pressure onto pricing. The path to Brexit still seems to be passing through fairly uncertain terrain, but there must be more than that going on here. Firms are failing to make the most of IT’s potential, relying on the “commonplace” instead of going for “cutting-edge,” as PwC puts it.

One business that certainly can’t be accused of commonplace tech decisions is our big interview subject this issue, Norton Rose Fulbright. The firm’s choice of SAP to meet its multigeography practice management needs has prompted plenty of
debate, but only a small handful of other large law firms have ventured down this road before.

Change happenings

Transformation doesn’t come much harder and faster than at Norton Rose Fulbright, in time for 2020. Chief operating officer for Europe, Middle East and Asia, Rod Harrington, talks to Richard Brent about the SAP thing, changing the dials of profitability, new business opportunities, agile working and the call of Newcastle

Ps in a pod

Back for another year of pricing, pitching, projects, process – and of course, some of our favourite people – Briefing 5P 2017 was a day for progressing legal business beyond traditional silos and pondering how to achieve better profitability. Kayli Olson reports

Supply chain and demand

Ahmed Shaaban, managing director of Fulcrum Global Technologies – integration partner of
SAP for legal – says it’s time for firms to adopt their rightful place in their clients’ supply chains