The Way Forward?

"The Lawyer" carried a very interesting story earlier this week - "Outer Temple goes with post-LSA strategy". It details the move from Outer Temple Chambers to launch a company to get international work and so establish a new, post-LSA, business model.

I will be very interested to see how this works. Initially, with secretariat and administration being handled by chambers, it looks rather more like a marketing effort than a whole new paradigm - but the differentiation of thought may well prove highly successful. What is great is to see a legal enterprise doing something strategic and long term, rather than merely slogging away at operational matters.

It may not be successful - to me, however, that is not the point. One of the comments on the news item suggested that Outer Temple do not have the "quality in depth" that will be necessary to succeed. I'm not entirely sure what the phrase "quality in depth" really means, although I'd guess that it simply means experience. Again this may be true. This sort of action, however, is one of the ways to get the experience. Experience can only be obtained by bravely taking a deep breath and jumping into a new market or field or set of actions.

It is brave of Outer Temple to set this up - especially given that the regulatory framework is nowhere near clear. The Bar Council are still consulting on post-LSA governance. I believe that Outer Temple are to be congratulated  - for thinking strategically, for planning long term and for getting on with establishing themselves in a post Legal Services Act world.

At business school, we were taught to separate the quality of the decision from the quality of the outcomer 0 i.e. some decisions are right, even if the outcome is poor. No matter the outcome in this case- Outer Temple have, I believe, made a great decision.