Everyone wants to be an industry expert these days rather than just a dreary old lawyer. Speak to any sizeable firm outside the magic circle and the odds are they will rave about how their new industry focus is helping them take on the big boys in their chosen areas. Whether it is Lovells trying to revive its corporate practice with industry groups or Eversheds revamping its leadership so that it is managed by practice and sector group rather than by office, everyone wants to prove they understand as much about their clients’ industry as the clients themselves.
But while partners wax lyrical about how the exciting strategy ‘aligns them with clients’, often cruelly mangling a PowerPoint presentation that could have productively been used for sales figures, there is one tiny problem – this strategy for differentiation is just a little bit hampered by the fact that, er, everyone does it.
