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Law Society Practice Essentials aims to help small firms

Law Society Solicitor Services has launched a new  suite of resources designed to help solicitors manage the business of practice in a time of rapid transition.

Practice Essentials is described as a “practical, ready-to-use” collection of templates, guides, and resources, which is now available to download.

It tackles the day-to-day challenges of running a practice – from AI to people, processes, compliance, and risk.

While they have been developed with smaller practices in mind, some of the resources are also expected to benefit larger firms and solicitors working in-house.

Key areas of practice

Resources are organised by key areas of practice and will continue to be expanded over time.

There are nine resources under six categories:

• Human resources,
• IT,
• Marketing and growth,
• Set-up and operations,
• Data protection, and
• AI.

The resources available are:

• A guide to GDPR for small firms,
• An AI usage policy,
• A guide to handling data-subject access requests (DSARs),
• An employee handbook,
• A practice workbook,
• A shadow AI audit report,
• An AI vendor assessment tool,
• A business-continuity template, and
• A file-retention and destruction policy.

Law Society Director General Mark Garrett said that the organisation had deliberately reached out to small practices around the country in developing Practice Essentials, while President Rosemarie Loftus described it as “an innovative project” that provided the materials necessary to help small practices.

Help with DSAR ‘heartache’

The launch event also heard from some of the contributors to the project, who were broadly optimistic about the future for small practices.

Kate Colleary (Pembroke Privacy) said that the resources included a standard operating procedure for dealing with DSARs, which were causing “heartache” for small practices.

She added, however, that she believed that the future for small practices was bright, as AI would give them the capability to take advantage of technology in a more cost-effective way than some larger firms, who could be slower to adapt.

‘Mountain’ of procedures

David Rowe (Outsource), who provides a business-advisory service for law firms, contributed to the sections on file retention and business continuity and told the event that phase two would look at areas such as business plans and cash-flow templates.

He said that he believed that the project would be a “fantastic help” for firms facing “a mountain” of non-chargeable work procedures.

While he saw a good future for small practices, Rowe said that the area had become unfashionable due to the employment choices available, and needed a “reboot”, adding that Practice Essentials was an important part of this.

Aoife Stokes, who contributed to the employee handbook, said that talent retention was a big challenge for law firms, adding that they needed to think about what their EVP (employee-value proposition) was, as well as asking themselves whether they were keeping up with workplace trends in areas such as work-life balance, diversity and inclusion, and career progression.

‘Go narrow and go deep’

Mary Cloonan (Marketing Clever) told the event that the future of small practice in Ireland was “very bright”, as such firms were in the advantageous position of being accessible and close to clients.

She told the launch that the future for many smaller firms was in “picking your lane”, urging them to “go narrow and go deep” and focus on a particular sectoral expertise.

“That's where there's real revenue in; where you have an opportunity to build your profile out to market as an expert,” Cloonan stated.

Digestible steps on AI

Ger Perdisatt (Acuity AI Advisory) told the event that AI provided “a generational opportunity” for small to medium firms to offer a level of value that had not been available previously.

He said that the AI element of Practice Essentials aimed to break this down into digestible, accessible steps that firms could take.

Perdisatt added that firms who were proactive about technology and took steps “deliberately, rather than liberally” would be the ones who would succeed over the next two to three years.

A survey of solicitors attending the launch event found that 56% used AI ‘occasionally’ with one in four using the technology ‘regularly’ and the remainder unsure where to start.

The survey also found that staff-management issues took up most day-to-day time for around 60% of practitioners present, while managing client expectations was the biggest consumer of time for around 40%.