Peter Blair is the founding director of Mar-aon Consulting Ltd and works with law firms and other organisations in the areas of strategic planning, governance, risk management and conflict resolution. He also works directly with managing partners and other law firm leaders as an executive coach. He was the first chief operating officer at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP and before that worked in a number of roles at The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (one of the Inns of Court), before working as deputy chief executive and director of finance. He is chairman of the Trust for Sustainable Living and The Living Rainforest, a leading sustainability charity based in Newbury.

• Executive summary... V About the author...VII Acknowledgements...IX Part One: Effective Governance Models and Measurements of Success Chapter 1:The norm A C Or law firm 1.0... 1 Chapter 2: Other models... 7 International jurisdictions... 7 The US model... 9 Alternative business practices... 9 Chapter 3: 21st century governance A C Or law firm 2.0... 13 The small firm... 13 The medium-sized firm... 16 Example A C Firm C... 18 Supporting the business... 19 The larger law firm... 20 Partnership or limited company... 23 Chapter 4: Roles in the law firm... 25 Managing partner... 26 Senior partner... 27 CEO... 28 Board partners... 29 Non-board partners... 31 Non-executive board members... 32 Other members of the board... 32 Rotation... 33 Benefits... 33 Chapter 5: Change management... 35 Chapter 6: Current measurements of success... 39 Example A C Firm B... 41 Example A C Firm X... 42 Average changes A C 2009 to 2010... 43 Clifford Chance A C Average changes 2009 to 2010... 44 Chapter 7: Other measurements of success... 45 Chapter 8: New measurements of success... 49 Example A C Firm M and Firm N... 49 Example A C Firm X... 50 The starting point A C Revenue and PEP... 51 Net Profit per Fee Earner (NPpFE)... 52 Net Profit per Equity Partner (NPpEP)... 53 NPpEP as a percentage of revenue... 53 Example A C Firm H... 54 Net Profit per Total Staff (NPpTS)... 55 Summary of new external measurements... 57 Internal measurements... 58 Matter contribution... 59 Example A C Firm P... 60 Chapter 9: Improving performance... 65 Part Two: Case Studies Case study 1: Firm A... 69 An evaluation of Firm A AZs governance structure... 70 Case study 2: BrookStreet des Roches... 73 Case study 3: Ashton Graham... 77 Appendix: Law firm comparison data... 79 Index... 107