A look at the statistics of Leeds-based law firm Walker Morris shows an anomaly. It has the profitability of a firm doing high-margin commercial and corporate work, but also the high fee earner-to-partner ratio of a firm doing low-margin work.
The answer lies in the way it has implemented information technology. Walker Morris, which won the Legal IT award for best use of technology last month, got into computerisation early, and it has carried on investing in it, automating old work and creating new areas of income. It develops its own software (it has six in-house software developers); it gives clients internet access to the state of play in their legal business; and it has begun selling training and information on CD-rom.
