We are pleased to announce that the very first in the series of WK Law seminars in Guildford kicked off on 27th April with a bang. We had a full house of more than 40 guests who gathered together at the County Club on Guildford High Street for a highly insightful talk, relaxed networking and drinks.
Wilkins Kennedy has offered a specialist accountancy arm for solicitors for some years now. WK Law, as it is known, already runs seminars in other localities around Wilkins Kennedy’s other offices. However, its continued growing success has allowed us to hold an event here in Guildford for the first time.
We were also lucky enough to welcome our guest speaker, Steve Arundale, who is from NatWest Bank’s commercial and professional services sector. He gave an excellent, engaging presentation on benchmarking, demonstrating how effective benchmarking can give the legal business community an overview of their performance, how they rate against their competitors and among other businesses nationally.
Steve mentioned that the recession took a firm grip on the legal landscape and for a while many firms took a hit. However, during the years of recovery, there had been somewhat of a bottle neck, and this pent up demand had actually allowed more legal firms to set up and flourish, to the point where Steve mentioned that for every one that closed, another opened.
This growth in demand had also allowed fee earners to increase their fees. According to NatWest’s Benchmarking Report, 65% of firms believed their fee income will grow over the next year – so the landscape is looking strong. In terms of revenue growth, this has also grown on average by around 11% in the last year. This suggests that the sector is confidently looking forward to future growth.
Steve ended his presentation with some slides on cybercrime and it seems this is an ever increasing threat to lawyers. In fact, when asked for a show of hands for the number of people who had been affected by cybercrime, just within their own firms, the results were astonishing.
Cybercrime is a growing concern and something we should all have in our sights all the time. Steve had some great tips for us all which are mostly common sense, but it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves. Firstly, banks will never ask for your personal information, such as PIN numbers or passwords and we should all be vigilant against any unsolicited calls and emails, checking back with clients ourselves if necessary. Little things such as these can go a long way and can help prevent fraudulent transactions.
The next WK Law event in Guildford is expected to be held on Wednesday 21st September, but we will post further details on our events page (link), where you can also find more information about how to join us for our next event. Look forward to seeing you there!