The problem firms actually have

The numbers can look fine while the underlying picture is not.

Burnout in high-billing teams. Retention pressure on exactly the people you cannot afford to lose. Technically brilliant practitioners promoted into leadership with no preparation for it. High-potential people quietly deciding the path ahead is not one they want.

This is not about lowering standards or managing people out. It is about helping good people do excellent work in a way that lasts.

Why me

I am not an external consultant learning your world from a textbook. I qualified as a solicitor at an international firm and spent twenty years in professional services, latterly as a Managing Director leading a specialist practice through some of the most demanding restructuring mandates in the UK. I know the billing pressure, the partnership politics, the unwritten rules, and what it costs.

I have also spent years in front of rooms full of professionals. Across my career I delivered training to law and accountancy firms and to professional bodies including R3 and the ICAEW, as well as in-house sessions for firms across the restructuring and advisory market. Facilitation is not a new skill I am trying out on you.

How I work with firms

Five formats

Coaching panels

One-to-one coaching for partners, senior associates and high-potential people, delivered as part of your development or retention programme. I am currently on the coaching panel of a major international law firm.

Leadership development programmes

Designed around your context rather than lifted off a shelf. Cohort programmes for new partners, senior associates approaching partnership, or practice group leaders.

Workshops and group sessions

Practical, honest sessions for teams and practice groups. Half-day, full-day or a series.

Facilitation, away-days and offsites

Partnership meetings, strategy days and team offsites that need someone independent in the room who can handle difficult dynamics and keep the conversation honest.

Keynotes and firm-wide sessions

See Speaking

Workshop topics

Ten sessions, each tailored

  1. From technical expert to leader
  2. Delegation and letting go of the work
  3. Difficult conversations and feedback
  4. Influence, impact and gravitas
  5. Business development and client relationships
  6. Coaching skills for partners and managers
  7. Stepping up to partner
  8. Time, priorities and the myth of getting it all done
  9. Sustainable performance in high-billing environments
  10. Retention: why good people leave, and what actually holds them

Formats and practicalities

How engagements are shaped

KeynotesFrom 45 minutes
WorkshopsFrom half a day
ProgrammesThree to twelve months

Tailored, scoped, priced clearly

In person across the UK, or delivered by video. Every session is tailored to your firm, your people and what you are actually trying to change.

Proposals are scoped and priced clearly after an initial conversation. No over-servicing, no surprises.