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Two-day event 18 September 2009
2-3 December 2009, London and save £ 239
This brochure is printed using Forest Stewardship Council Accredited

Managing Partner magazine presents the fourth

Financial planning, budgeting


and forecasting for law firms
Harnessing effective techniques to improve accuracy in an
unpredictable economic climate

attendance at this event can count towards


CPD for ICaEW members, if it meets the
training and development needs relevant to
the member's current role.

Planning, budgeting and forecasting in today’s unpredictable economic environment calls


for an exceptional set of skills and the highest level of accuracy. Expert case studies
and contributions
aligning your business plan to the strategy, forecasting reliable revenue, and adopting
rolling forecasts and budgets are just some of the complex and challenging tasks facing from:
law firm finance teams, and with little room for error, it is essential these processes are done
right. Allen & Overy LLP
The benefits good planning, budgeting and forecasting can bring are extensive, but Anderson Strathern LLP
ultimately, it can significantly improve a firm’s profitability and in the current climate, enable
firms to prepare, react and change with the times to counter difficult and unpredictable BDO Stoy Hayward LLP
market conditions.
Blake Lapthorn
Unless your firm’s planning, budgeting and forecasting processes are 100% robust, can you Boyes Turner
really afford to miss Managing Partner's Financial planning, budgeting and forecasting for law
firms event? Brodies LLP
Clarke Willmott LLP
a two day event designed to help you plan, budget and forecast in an unpredictable
economic climate to ensure a firm’s ultimate survival and growth. Hightlights include: Consergo Ltd
• Brian Dunlop, Chief Financial Officer - London, Allen & Overy LLP: Hammonds LLP
Driving accountability and ownership with forecasting and budgeting
• Paul Chandler, Strategic Procurement Consultant, Simmons & Simmons: Jarrett-Kerr Consulting Ltd
Managing your costs throughout the budgeting and forecasting process Lewis Silkin LLP
• Amanda Loran, Head of Finance, Clarke Willmott LLP:
Forecasting revenue accurately and effectively Ogier
• Aaron Le Cornu, Group Finance Director, Ogier:
Leveraging the information produced from your plan, budget and forecast to maximum effect Simmons & Simmons
• Steve Billot and Tim Young, BDO Stoy Hayward LLP:
an interactive workshop on implementing and managing rolling forecasts and budgets Wilkinson Read & Partners

Researched by: 5 easy ways to register


FDLegal tel: 020 7549 2500
fax: 020 7324 2373
e-mail: events@ark-group.com
web: www.ark-group.com
or see back page for mailing details
Day 1 – Wednesday, 2 December 2009
09:00 Registration and refreshments »» Getting the most out of your budgeting and forecasting tools
»» The future and evolution of budgeting and forecasting tools
CHAIR’S OPENING REMARKS Barry Wilkinson, Partner, Wilkinson Read & Partners
09:30 Paddy Linighan, Director of Financial Planning, Hammonds LLP
13:15 Networking lunch break

09:45 Open keynote: Economic analysis and predictions


14:15 Examining the different approaches to budgeting and devising
»» Analysing current economic trends and forecasting the economy’s
an appropriate budget for your firm
outlook for 2010
»» How will the economic conditions continue to affect law firms? »» Identifying the purpose and target of your budget; is it for external
reporting or internal targeting purposes?
»» Examining the impact of an unpredictable market on business
planning, budgeting, and forecasting »» Assessing the pros and cons of zero-based, activity-based,
incremental or a rolling approach to budgeting; how suitable,
»» Preparing and positioning your law firm for a market recovery
flexible, secure and robust are they in the current climate?
Andrew Hillman, COO, Blake Lapthorn & Corporate Finance
»» Devising a suitable budget with realistic targets for fee earners to
Partner, Deloitte 1988-2006
aim towards
»» Offsetting different budgeting processes to identify inconsistencies
10:30 Defining your firm's strategic goals and objectives
»» Securing peer review into the budgeting process
»» Identifying your firm’s most profitable practice groups and clients
David R Edwards, Finance Director, Brodies LLP
and discarding the rest
»» Incorporating innovative business practices such as outsourcing,
offshoring, sub-contracting, leasing, automatic document drafting 15:00 Afternoon coffee break
and workflow technology into your firm’s business model
»» Restructuring departments and practice groups and getting rid of 15:30 Forecasting revenue effectively
under-performing partners
»» Which measures, indicators or type of modelling can help with
Edward Gordon-Hall, Finance Director, Lewis Silkin LLP predicting turnover?
»» Measuring revenue predictions against past revenue trends
11:15 Morning coffee break »» Opening the dialogue between finance and the fee earners to
ensure everyone is kept in the loop
11:45 Developing your firm’s business plan in accordance with your »» Offsetting the budgeting process against the revenue pipeline
firm’s strategic business objectives »» Ensuring your model has built-in sensitivity analysis
»» Drafting and aligning your financial plan with the firm’s business Amanda Loran, Head of Finance, Clarke Willmott LLP
objectives
»» Involving the partnership in the financial planning process 16:15 Managing your costs throughout the budgeting and forecasting
»» Working closely with the business development function to form an process
integrated plan »» Scrutinizing your direct and indirect cost base
»» Resource planning and the role of finance in driving team »» Implementing a cost reduction exercise
optimisation
»» Integrating new costs and the impact of those cost savings into the
»» Planning in an unpredictable market; incorporating changes in budget
utilisation, leverage, available work, business development time into
»» Effectively managing cost control to make the reforecasting
your plan
process more efficient
Jeremy Sleap, Finance Director, Boyes Turner
»» Incorporating changes in costs into the rolling budget
Paul Chandler, Strategic Procurement Consultant, Simmons &
12:30 Examining the available budgeting and forecasting tools Simmons
»» Assessing the pros and cons of the current budgeting and
forecasting tools
17:00 Chair’s closing remarks
»» Integrating budgeting and forecasting tools with your practice
management system and tailoring to suit
»» Making your financial information usable 17:15 Close of day one

Delegate comments from previous three events:


»» “Normally, days such as this tend to have a 50% “hit-rate” in terms of relevance to what I’m interested in, today was as
close to 100% as it gets…Excellent event.” Chris Hawley, formerly Director of Finance & Operations, Kemp Little LLP
»» “Very useful – wide variety of topics and participants but all relevant to me.” Katie Briton, Ward Hadaway
»» “Well worth attending.” Ray Black, Chief Operating Officer, Barlow Robbins LLP
»» “Very good. I attended [the] conference last year and was worried [the] content would be similar, but delighted at the new
issues addressed.” Amanda Loran, Head of Finance, Clarke Willmott
»» “Excellent.” Peter Tibke, formerly Finance Director, Anthony Collins Solicitors
»» “Very useful.” Derek Galliano, Finance Director, Triay & Triay
»» “Good stuff!” Nigel Greg, Director of Finance and Administration, Shadbolt
»» “V. good.” Des Murray, Director of Finance, Mason Hayes+Curran

tel: 020 7549 2500 fax: 020 7324 2373 e-mail: e


Day 2 – Thursday, 3 December 2009
09:00 Registration and refreshments INTERACTIVE EMBEDDED WORKSHOP
Implementing and managing rolling forecasts and budgets
CHAIR’S OPENING REMARKS
This highly interactive workshop will focus on how to devise and
09:30 Nick Jarrett-Kerr, Director, Jarrett-Kerr Consulting Ltd manage a rolling forecast and budget for your firm and will take the
form of facilitated discussion around key areas drawn from BDO Stoy
09:45 Leveraging the information produced from your plan, budget and OR Hayward's considerable experience in advising professional service
forecast to maximum effect firms and from your own objectives and experiences.
» Providing partners with clear, manageable goals and linking Facilitated by Steve Billot, Director, and Tim Young, Senior
business planning objectives to remuneration to encourage Manager, BDO Stoy Hayward LLP with contributor Mark Feeney,
individual, department and office target setting Director, Consergo Limited and Founder Member, The Winning
» Monitoring actual performance against budget and identifying Firm Alliance
variances
13:30 Introduction and welcome
» Remediating areas of underperformance or increased expenditure
» Using the budget as a lever to drive or manage real activity or 14:00 Understanding how rolling forecasts and budgets work
behaviour
» How rolling forecasts and budgets work
Aaron Le Cornu, Group Finance Director, Ogier
» Is it necessary to produce a rolling budget from a rolling forecast?
» Assessing the benefits and limitations of rolling forecasts and budgets
10:30 Using scenario planning as a technique to reduce uncertainty
and provide for contingency 15:15 Afternoon coffee break
» Planning different scenarios for different financial events with the
senior managers and heads of practice; securing their buy-in to 15:30 Devising and managing a rolling forecast and budget for your
scenario planning firm
» Financing and modeling each scenario so each solution is
» Creating and implementing a rolling forecast and budget
carefully planned
» Educating the partners, department heads and management team
Alan McGhie, Director of Support Services, Anderson Strathern
and securing their buy-in
LLP
16:45 Summary
11:15 Morning coffee break Steve Billot is a Director in the business restructuring team in London
and specialises in dealing with Professional Practices. Having been
the practice manager and then joint managing partner of a mid tier
11:45 Driving accountability and ownership with forecasting and accountancy firm he understands the challenges of running a firm. He
budgeting has particular expertise in the legal sector and in the last 18 months
» Identifying who’s accountable for what and how accountable each he has reviewed over 80 firms of all sizes and now lectures widely on
individual or team really is the issues facing the profession.
» Ensuring the firm’s culture supports a more pro-active lawyer
Tim Young currently works as a Senior Manager within BDO Stoy
approach to budgeting and forecasting and providing lawyers with
Hayward's Professional Services Sector Team. Before joining BDO Stoy
the skills and training to be able to do it effectively
Hayward, Tim was a Financial Controller with law firm Wedlake Bell.
» Testing the relevant parties to ensure their budget or forecast is sound
» Ensuring the ramifications of not budgeting or forecasting
OR Prior to that, he worked with Ernst & Young in their Mid Market Sector
team. Tim has experience of implementing enhanced management
effectively are clearly understood information tools in practice as well as managing local and global
» Addressing accountability issues with sharing budget costs statutory audits. His current clients include a range of Top 100 law firms.
between teams or departments
» Tailoring your management approach to each practice area Mark Feeney is Managing Director of Consergo Ltd and a founder
depending on each area’s performance member of the Winning Firm Alliance. Mark is an ACA who has been
FD and CEO of substantial law firms and who now advises legal
Brian Dunlop, Chief Financial Officer - London, Allen & Overy LLP
firms as a consultant. This has encompassed numerous instances
of planning, budgeting and forecasting; including monitoring and re-
12:30 Networking lunch break forecasting. Mark has recently written the Finance Chapter for the Law
Society published Practice Management Handbook 2nd edition.

17:00 Chair's closing remarks

17:15 Close of conference

ADVISORY BOARD
This event has been validated and researched with a broad range of finance professionals from across the legal profession. We are
grateful for the ideas they have provided us with for the speakers and the programme content. In particular our special thanks go to
the following for their invaluable input:
Sarah Wilkinson, Finance Director, FIELD FISHER WATERHOUSE LLP
Ann Cummersdale, Director of Finance, MUCKLE LLP
Chris Kemp, Finance Director, BENNETT GRIFFIN
Laurence Milsted, Finance Director, FRESHFIELDS BRUCKHAUS DERINGER LLP
Karl Wingfield, Chief Operating Officer, B P COLLINS
Arthur Ferry, Finance Director, DWF LLP
Chris King, Finance Director, DRUCES LLP
Adrian Bourne, Partner & Chief Operating Officer, STEVENS & BOLTON LLP

events@ark-group.com web: www.ark-group.com


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Financial planning, Two-day event 1. Fax: +44 (0)20 7324 2373
2-3 December 2009, London 2. Tel: +44 (0)20 7549 2500
budgeting and forecasting 3. E-mail: events@ark-group.com
for law firms Booking ref: 1081-09b
4. Online: www.ark-group.com
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