Following their substantial growth over the pandemic, Interlink Recruitment joins Adrian Jaggard, CEO of Taylor Rose MW for an insightful Q&A. Taylor Rose MW is a forward-thinking law firm with a modern approach to law which, alongside their determination to succeed for clients, has allowed them to adapt to changes quickly. In this article we find out about the philosophy and structure of Taylor Rose MW which have provided a great foundation for their increasing success.

Q: How does Taylor Rose MW differ from the other UK law firms?

A: Taylor Rose MW is proud of its heritage but also of its dynamic, forward thinking philosophy of ‘Smart Modern Law’. We have a unique management structure that gives us the freedom to capitalise quickly on business opportunities. During the pandemic we have seen substantial growth, this is not just down to merger activity but also the very high level of service we offer to our clients and business partners. We continually seek to improve our capability and client experience.

Q: Do you believe that operating with a Consultancy model has contributed to your great success during the pandemic, as working from home had less of an impact on your business?

A: Absolutely, we were fortunate that as a firm we had already invested the resources needed to work from home, put in place to service our Consultants. These resources were scaled up to accommodate our employees and we successfully transitioned everyone to home working across two days.

Despite our advantages, I also must praise all our employees who adapted so quicky to the new climate, they worked extremely hard and still are to make sure it was very much ‘business as usual’ and have always been key contributors to our success over the years.

Q: Where do you see the traditional Partner Model heading, considering the success of Consultancy at Taylor Rose MW?

A: The pandemic has accelerated the shift in how legal professionals see their workplace and career. Research shows us that most Lawyers are happy to work remotely for up to 60% of their time, with the focus of office time shifting to collaboration activities. This structure suits consultancy.

The partnership model will continue in a reducing capacity as more as more firms adopt corporate structures. The viability of many smaller practices will be challenged, and as a result, future generations of talented Lawyers will not want to invest in a struggling business model. They will hold many of the valuable client relationships and will adopt Consultancy to increase their income. Those that choose this route will generally earn more, suffer less stress and be exposed to less debt than their traditional counterparts.

Q: What has your growth over the pandemic looked like in terms of practice areas, locations and headcount? 

A: Our locations have remained the same, albeit we are reconfiguring space to provide business lounges, more collaboration space and drop-in facilities. The efficiency of these spaces is increasing as more heads are attached to each office.

Our practice areas have remained similar to our previous position.

Our headcount has increased to just over 1000. Growth is primarily from our Consultancy programme but bolstered by the MW acquisition and an aggressive recruitment drive to help service unprecedented demand for our services.

Q: How has technology changed the way you work and helped to keep things uniform at the firm?

A:  We are constantly building on past investment and successes, bettering our technology as we go. We have more projects in the pipeline than ever before. Our current IT budget is now a staggering £3.7m and yet we are still prioritising projects due to available resources and delaying those that we know would improve how we work. We are still centralising everyone onto a single CMS, at which point, many more will benefit from capabilities like improved online client interfaces, e-sign, centralised post management, online payments and ID verification.

Q: What are the culture and values that you work to maintain across the firm?

A: Our values were identified at the start of our journey and remain embedded in all we do. They are aspiration, innovation, integrity and commitment. We think of our values as our personality and understand that our strategy and success must flow from our values. We are an inclusive business that tries hard to listen, which can be sometimes difficult in such a fast-paced environment. 

Q: How do you ensure that the culture at Taylor Rose MW remains collaborative, if the staff are working from home?

A: As mentioned above, our office time and resources are changing to focus on collaboration activities. Like others, we use technology and especially Microsoft ‘Teams’, this has been an excellent tool for not only remaining collaborative with all our colleagues, but generally touching base and catching up with them.

Q: What social events do your Partners have the opportunity to partake in?

A: Unfortunately, social events remain on hold, hopefully this will change soon.

Q: How important is your marketing and social media strategy to create a uniform brand for your firm and Partners, across all offices?

A: Marketing and social media are important tools nowadays. It’s important to recognise that your message must be authentic, ideally conveying the business personality. It’s too easy to generate anonymous content that is the same as every other law firm.

Q: What are the three most important attributes for a Lawyer to have, if they want to join your firm?

A: I once said to a shocked trainee that in my experience, a socially strong Lawyer that is average technically will succeed over a technically strong Lawyer that is socially weak. My point being that at many levels, the clients and referrers buy in to the individuals and not the firm. Each Lawyer has a brand and this is the first attribute.

The second attribute in law and business would be tenacity. You will have highs and lows and you just have to keep moving forwards.

The third attribute would have to be hard-working as you need to get recognised by those around you to progress.

Q: We are aware that you are rapidly expanding, where would you like to see your firm in 2, 5 and 10 years time? 

A: I couldn’t begin to imagine, but I know it will be impressive.