Articles and papers
A selection of the many published articles are available to download in PDF format.
- Switching Costs and the US Market: Can London access new business?
An article outlining the impact "switching costs" can have on brokers and insurers when attracting new business. - Gracechurch Alumni Monitor coverage in the FT
The Financial Times used the Gracechurch Alumni Monitor as the basis for an article entitled 'Value of firm friends left untapped'. The article supported the study's findings that alumni programmes are an excellent source of contacts and business, but not all firms fully exploit their potential. As well as highlighting headline findings, the article explored the topic further through interviews with Chris Aujard, an alumni of Norton Rose and now at Singer & Friedlander, and Linklaters' London Managing Partner Tony Angel. - What Makes Key Account Planning Work?
Gracechurch has developed the Fulcrum programme for Key Account Management. This programme draws on our extensive experience of designing and helping to run key account programmes for professional firms. - Brand & Strategy
The whole point of branding is to make a product or a business look distinct from its competition. In a competitive environment, brand is much less about what you do and much more about how you are perceived. - Lawyers of the Future
How a panel of experts envisages the law firm of the future. - How does change happen in organisations?
The formal processes and the risks of ignoring the role of informal coalitions in partnerships. - Innovation - Reducing the Risk
The tension between professional firms' need to innovate and cultures which are founded on minimising risk. - Critical Path - or Pioneer Trail?
Whether lawyers can be introduced to process management. - Power or Success?
The dilemma facing partners in firms which are attempting to move to a more corporate management approach. How much personal power will they give up in the interest of the firm's future success? - On-line access - Are firms paying to give it away?
Just how much do your clients value your technical legal advice and knowledge? Our research tells us they value something quite different. In which case why are firms so reluctant to give clients access to their knowledge management systems? - Online Services - Way Forward or Dead End?
There is now a growing body of opinion that all the soothsayers were wrong and that online services were never meant for the legal world. Is it time to turn off the life support machine? - Legal Firms and Contact Management - Research Findings
Gracechurch conducted research amongst legal firms to investigate the area of contact management. We asked questions of each firm that led us to measure their success to date and identify approaches that worked. - Law Firm IT more Culturally Sensitive than Marketing? Surely not!
The surprising finding is revealed in a recent survey, by Gracechurch, of what makes for a successful implementation of contact management systems in law firm. - CRM - The Human Dimension
Since its inception, scarcely a week has gone by without Legal Week's reporting on some new advance of English firms into Continental Europe, or some dramatic setback in their attempts to do so. - Making Key Clients Matter
Seldom in the evolution of law firm marketing has there been so much common interest in a subject whilst at the same time so little agreement on how to proceed. - Measuring the ROI of your Marketing Strategy
Can you do it? Should you bother? A conference company recently told me that "Measuring the return on investment in marketing" is the most common topic of interest on their law feedback forms. - More Research Less Value
Professional firms are sensing an increasingly pressing need to compete more effectively, and are using research to support their objectives. - Research Not Working?
Until five years ago, research spend by law firms was close to zero. That is changing rapidly. Larger firms now have significant research budgets and the investment in this area seems likely to continue to grow - 'Global Brand - Inside and Out'
Firms are growing larger and trying to establish one global brand, this article looks at the possible gains and losses of the globalisation phenomenon. - The Indispensable Law Firm
The value chain concept is updated and explained in terms of legal providers and their clients. Several points and recommendations are made in order to promote law firms as intrinsic and valuable parts of this chain.
