The theme of WLN’s conference was Transparency & Loyalty with 60 delegates from 19 countries, including delegates from India, Russia and Thailand, due to attend.
We welcomed our new chairman, Stuart Miller, who has laid the foundations for change through a democratic approach to restructuring the network.
His aim is for a trusted and transparent organisation that has the flexibility to move with the times and adapt to the changing needs of our clients. A network that values both personal and business relationships with friendships that provide a strong foundation for growth and expansion into new markets in the future.
Some challenges ahead include the scope of our shared ambition for business development, the tension between strategy and simple networking and better definition of the benefits of WLN to our clients. Other challenging areas involve the election process and perhaps further explanation of the system, integrating of a new administration, new members, new directors, more reform and ensuring professionalism.
QualityThe business program highlighted how we can improve our organisation’s performance and resources to enable us to be responsive to our members and meet the needs of our clients.
Progress was made since the Eindhoven conference. Marcin Gorazda (Krakow, Poland) presented the conference with a Referral Data Collection development tool for the members area of the WLN website. By means of a formal referral registration system in the network we are able to monitor the level of satisfaction of referral handling. Implementation of an easy to use tool to measure the source, volume and quality of referrals.
GrowthThe Director’s report outlined that the aim of the entire board was to find solutions and tools to make the network grow faster in terms of numbers of members, making strong alliances and creating more business.
Isabel Fernández of Legalfes (Madrid, Spain) summarized the challenges the board is currently facing, the progress achieved and the strategy the board wants to carry out in the future.
She reported the conservative approach the board had adopted in this area.
Challenges like growth in countries with existing members were outlined and the positive effect this new incorporation may cause in the network in terms of visibility and possibility of working together in more common projects.
Gautam Khurana of India Law Offices in New Delhi introduced his firm as our new WLN member in Asia, explaining the importance of business opportunities in both India and China and market growth in relation to infrastructure, water, energy and renewables, housing and construction, textiles and pharma. The Warwick Legal Network admission process for this first official step outside Europe went very smooth. Special thanks for Gautam Khurana, managing partner of the firm, and Markus Leitner of FAM (Austria), who carried out the quality control visit to the firm in New Delhi on behalf of the board.
The network will now be making choices between two possible growth models, organic or more ambitious.
Marketing & Business DevelopmentIn Vasile Deleanu’s absence, Stuart Miller delivered a marketing discussion paper designed to encourage the members to think about what we do as member firms to market the Warwick Legal Network. Why marketing and raising WLN’s profile is important and how different firms take different approaches to marketing from their jurisdictions. The Q&A session opened up lively debate.
Thomas Kramer asked the question: What is the definition of business development? Historically WLN had a small number of members, members talked, knew each other, understood the business of the members and used synergies. The outcome of this was excellent.
As the network becomes bigger, a success in itself, does this mean that more members equals more opportunities? Looking at different models used in similar larger networks raised the question of how to use an effective strategy to manage the network so members and their clients get maximum benefits. Would a top-down strategy to exploit the network’s possibilities through utilising practise groups, regional groups, AGT really work for Warwick? How do we make the network more visible? We could use several initiatives such as using a separate consulting company, market place M&A and meeting clients at conferences but will the result be what we want? As a network our strengths lay in forming very good personal relationships and our weakness is that we are not so good at contributing and executing top-down strategies.
General Meeting & Director Election2014 was a time of change for the network. The administration moved from Germany to London and now employs Jacky Williams as WLN Manager and Svjetlana Zarubica as Finance Manager.
We welcome John van Loo of Labré Advocaten (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Raffaele Torino of Bussoletti Nuzzo & Associati (Rome, Italy) to the Board of Directors.
A formal written process for casting votes by proxy and voting on the day by a show of hands resulted in a majority vote for both candidate for the vacant board positions.
As a members’ organization there is an importance for members to have a sense of ownership and that it needs a Board (who are unpaid volunteers) to make key decisions in order to move forward. Director elections are more than a symbol providing a democratic process for members to choose who they elect, but to foster fresh energy, accountability and transparency.
Avant Garde TroopFranka Huisman-Heijs, associate at Labré advocaten (The Netherlands), which had kindly hosted the fourth meeting of the Avant Garde Troop (AGT) in Amsterdam, together with Martin Köhler (RBS, Germany) gave a presentation on the outcome of the latest AGT Meeting and futures projects of the group.
After a short refreshment of our memory on the main aims and means of the AGT – as a sub group of the WLN with junior lawyers / associates – the following three main topics of the Amsterdam meeting were highlighted:
Since some members of the Copenhagen Conference had not visited the earlier WLN conferences and had not heard the presentation on the Structure Tool, the board asked for a short sum up of the tool’s main functions, namely a list of and search for lawyers of the different member firms (by their country/ region/ sector/ years of practise/ field of law etc.), whereas various lawyers of each firm and not only senior lawyers / Liaison Officers should be included. The main goals and advantages are to find the right WLN colleague for the job at hand, to find that colleague much faster (not via Liaison Officers) and to create more contact between all WLN-members (incl. associates, at discretion of member firms).
In the course of the last year the AGT Members have set up a new Fact Sheet on Debt Collection, which has been approved by the overall Board and shall be added to the WLN website short notice.
The Avant Garde Troop proposes a new and especially more prominently placed News Feed Section on the WLN Website. In particular, the AGT suggests to have much more and fast changing (but much shorter) news items shown on the front page of the WLN Website. The AGT believes, based on the experience by WLN member firms such as Labré that due to this method better visibility can be achieved.
Highlights of Conference & Chairman’s ConclusionRaffaele Torino identified some of our goals for coming to conference: friendships, knowledge, & learning. His conference highlights were as follows:
We have a new style of doing things…
- Fantastic directors’ reports
- Data Referral scheme – a great idea from Autumn conference, now implemented
- Geographical cover – analysed in a sincere way with some problems to face
- Marketing report – opened up some discussions
- Business Development – identified a turning point
- No more “top down”, WLN favours the “bottom up” approach
We have enjoyed great guest speakers and learned from our colleagues…
- Nicolai Sonne of CPH Port Development on the development of Ørestad area and interesting business opportunities for NORDIA law firm
- AGT – our young lawyers’ great work on an integrated structure tool
- Practise Groups – who really want to survive!
We have engaged in social activities…
- Enjoyed great hosts, NORDIA and Flood Herslow Holme
- Found knowledge through Tivoli, the Copenhagen boat trip & STURE restaurant in Malmö, Sweden.
New beginnings…
- Welcoming our new member firm in India
- Extending our reach “Europe & Worldwide” a first step to an important goal
- New election process and a democratic spirit
- Two new directors to join the WLN board
Chairman Stuart Miller’s summary of conference pointed towards the constructive mood of delegates, the keen sense of loss due to the departure of Studio Legale Baldi, yet tempered with the assurance of keeping in touch with Francesca & her team, the strategic boost of gaining new members in India, the possibility of more to come in other parts of Asia and a sense of growing comfortable with an opportunistic approach to shared marketing efforts. What WLN offers to the clients of its member firms is not just local expertise but a genuine sense of nurturing service levels through our investment in relationships between lawyers at all levels of experience. Future Board efforts will seek to develop this theme, as well as the accountability of the Network to its membership.
We thank our Danish host, NORDIA Advokatfirma, and above all Simon Sørensen and colleagues for hosting the splendid drinks reception in Copenhagen. Thanks also goes to Steen Rosenfalck of Miller Rosenfalck who introduced us to one of Denmark’s finest restaurants run by celebrity chef and award winning writer, Adam Price. Last but not least, our thanks goes to our Swedish hosts, Flood Herslow Holme, for a wonderful reception at their offices in Malmö – thank you to Per Nilsson, Johan Jacobsson and colleagues for making us so welcome in Sweden.
