UK law firms will have to appoint non-lawyer managers if they are to succeed, according to the managing director of the global restructuring advisory practice at Duff & Phelps. Steve Billot predicted that most UK law firms would take this step in the next five to ten years. He said non-lawyer managers were critical to law firms being run as commercially-successful businesses as traditionally trained lawyers were often ill suited to making potentially-risky commercial decisions, he told Managing Partner magazine.

Lawyers 'abdicate responsibility'

Mr Billot said a corporate management structure was needed in law firms to enable effective decision making. 'Accountants have the same problem, but they have learned to delegate responsibility for business management to others,' he said. Lawyers don’t delegate – they abdicate responsibility and leave it for someone else to pick up and deal with, then grab back control when things go wrong, he said. Source: Managing Partner