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04 June 2009 / John Stacey-hibbert
Issue: 7372 / Categories: Features , Profession , Employment
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Qualified success

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John Stacey-Hibbert believes staff are a firm's second greatest asset

Everyone knows that the greatest asset any law firm has is its clients. Client care therefore is, or should be, high on the business agenda. What, though, is a firm's second greatest asset? Arguably it is its staff. Without staff clients cannot be serviced and therefore the major asset is lost. However, investing and training in non-fee earners has never been high on the agenda of many law firms.

Efficiency

It is now some 12 years since the Research and Policy Planning Unit of The Law Society published its Research Study No 23—Paralegal Staff in Solicitors' Firms (which also covered legal secretaries as well as paralegal staff ) which concluded that paralegals can make a great contribution to the efficiency of solicitors' firms by helping to increase the efficiency of the legal profession and thereby command the confidence of its clients.

It is fair to say that, as a whole, the legal profession has not taken the conclusions of this report to heart, either

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Cripps—Radius Law

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Commercial and technology practice boosted by team hire

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Firm expands with new Grimsby office to serve North East Lincolnshire

Slater Heelis—Will Newman & Lucy Spilsbury

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Property team boosted by two solicitor appointments

NEWS
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NLJ this week: Tightening the screws on JCT terminations
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
NLJ this week: Old rules, fresh warnings in employment law
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
NLJ this week: The rise of the ‘ChatGPT client’ rattles the profession
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
NLJ this week: Surrogacy children caught in succession gap
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
NLJ this week: Online safety law at a crossroads
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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