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Law firms and trust companies in Guernsey and Jersey should challenge conventional thinking around their people, processes and technology, according to Janders Dean Channel Islands managing director Mike Thorpe.
The global management consultancy practice has launched in the Channel Islands with an office in Jersey.
Mr Thorpe is well known in Jersey having been the senior group change and programme manager with offshore law firm Ogier and Elian Fiduciary Services Limited for eight years. He has also worked for several international banks and computer software companies across the UK.
Specialising in information technology and process management planning projects, Mr Thorpe has a huge depth of expertise and understanding of law and fiduciary firm management processes, emerging technologies, change management, usability and risk management.
He said law firms and trust companies could learn much from the experiences of their onshore colleagues in terms of ensuring their workforce is enabled to adapt and change.
“These sectors are renowned for being somewhat sluggish in embracing change but change they must. There are a number of significant and entrenched barriers to innovation in the legal and fiduciary sectors; partly due to the nature of their work they are incredibly risk averse. This leads to a lack of agility, a lack of experimentation and an inability to embrace a culture of innovation and transformation,” he said.
“Now more than ever clients are keen to work with firms that understand them; that can demonstrate an ability to be flexible in catering to changing clients’ needs in ways that go beyond relying on expertise and historic relationships.
“With law firms, at a structural level, the equity model often means that investment decisions by partners are focused towards maximum profit on a yearly basis and not on long-term thinking. Additionally, it could be argued that an hourly fee means it pays to be inefficient.
“For multi-jurisdictional offshore law firms and fiduciaries, as well as the challenge of innovation, there is also the necessity to manage clients with global interests from offices around the world.
“The firms that will succeed in the long term are those who recognise that new roles are required inside a transforming professional services model; roles that have a service design and client consultative approach at their core, those that are rooted in data science and information analytics and those that augment the traditional legal and fiduciary advisory roles.”
