Announcing the launch of the new group for small law firms and sole practitioners.

The Yorkshire Lawyer Leadership Group is an independent leadership development forum for legal businesses based in Yorkshire.

Tim Stone, 3volution ‘I would recommend the group to prospective members because it’s very helpful to be able to discuss issues with peers.’

Following on from the success of the Yorkshire Lawyer Leadership Group (which has been running for 8 years), Lisa Lister (Progress Marketing Ltd) is delighted to be joined by Ann Page (Yorkshire Courses for Lawyers) to launch a second group aimed specifically at the small legal practices and sole practitioners sector.

This new Forum includes small firms, sole practitioners, (who work on their own or run a small practice) and consultant solicitors who may be attached to a virtual or ‘real’ firm.

Its focus is to provide leadership support in a confidential arena where like-minded lawyers can discuss with others the challenges of running a legal practice.

Michelle Hazlewood, JG&P Solicitors ‘I enjoy attending the group because of the insightful discussions on relevant topics. It provides an opportunity to have open communication within a direct and relevant peer group.’

Zoe Robinson, Raworths Solicitors‘ It is an opportunity to share and discuss problems in a safe forum and learn about topical issues/trends. It can be reassuring to find that others experience similar problems and hear how they deal with these issues.’

The format is 8-11am and includes breakfast and informal networking followed by facilitated discussions on issues and challenges raised by group members.

Members will feel supported and able to sense check their ideas based on other peoples’ experiences and grow their legal practices using peer group feedback.

There will also be opportunities to provide business referrals to members within the Forum.

The Forum will be chaired by Lisa and Ann and will meet 6 times a year at Carrwood Park, Swillington Common Farm, Selby Road Leeds LS15 4LG

The dates are as follows:

1. 3^rd October 2018
2. 21^st November 2018
3. 23^rd January 2019
4. 13^th March 2019
5. 22^nd May 2019
6. 10^th July 2019

The cost for the first session is £150+vat which would then be deducted from the annual £895+vat membership should you chose to join. We look forward to welcoming you to the Forum

To register your interest in attending the first session on 3rd October please contact Lisa Lisa on 0787 9820725 or email: lisalister@progressmarketing.co.uk

If you’re not already creating video content the chances are that you and your firm have thought about it. But what should you create and why, and how do you make sure you get a return?

Julie Tumilty, Managing Director of Feature Media will deliver a workshop including top tips for providing engaging content, from strategic planning: what content to produce, what to include and how to structure it, through to delivery and what platforms to use in order to realise maximum impact?

This workshop will:

• Present you with the pros and cons of producing video content internally or with an external provider so you can make a more informed decision.
• Give some top tips for creating engaging content internally.
• Provide a template brief to help you get the most from external providers.
• Provide strategy ideas and tips to measure engagement and ROI.

We’ll also look at how and what you should be measuring to work out your ROI, using some basic free and more advanced paid for technology.

If you are a professional services but not currently a member of PM Forum click here to come along and see what it’s all about.

The Yorkshire PM Forum was delighted to welcome Nick Girling from NGA Ltd to talk about resilience and poor mental health in the workplace. The event was hosted by Lupton Fawcett Solicitors, who looked after us wonderfully as always.

The Thriving at Work report, published in 2017, puts the annual cost to the UK economy of poor mental health at up to £99bn, of which about £42bn is borne by employers. The authors were shocked to find the number of people forced to stop work as a result of mental health problems was 50% higher than for those with physical health conditions.

Nick covered three important areas:

• Don’t wish for more time, wish for more skills
• Managing your DSDE patterns (Device, Sleep, Diet & Exercise
• Emotional resilience

I wanted to thank Nick personally for a thought provoking session and would recommend him to work within your businesses helping the senior management team to set a framework to enable all emplyees to thrive in the workplace and achieve a sustainable work life balance.

Thanks to all who attended the last Yorkshire Lawyer Leadership Group on 10th May. As always lively debate on the challenges faced by the legal sector and the roles Managing Partners have to play. The next and final meeting for this 2017/18 season will take place 5th July at Carrwood Park.

Denis and I look forward to seeing you there.

The Yorkshire Leadership Group (which I run with the wonderful Denis Kaye) and Professional Marketing Forum (where I am Regional Director for Yorkshire) partnered last week with the Leeds Fashion Ball @FBFashionBall. The star studded, black tie event is organised by Lisa Darwin @eventium and manages to combine great people, glitz and glamour with a very relaxed atmosphere. Around 1000 of the good and the great are there from most of the Professional Services world and Lisa even manages to persuade employees from Managing Director to trainee to model on the catwalk.

I organised a table including Chamberlain & Co Insolvency Practitioner, Hudgell Solicitors, Northern Media and HR180 and their guests over from Ireland, the PM Group. Even though a few of us had ridiculously early starts the following day, including two flying at 7am back to Ireland, I am pleased to report that at least some of my trusted cohort made it to the aftershow party until the wee hours!!

I was delighted that two of my clients joined in the modelling and strutted their stuff with aplomb. I presented 2 awards on behalf of the Professional Marketing Forum for Marketing Team of the Year which went to Clarion Solicitors (pictured) and Social Media Team of the Year which went to Resource – congratulations to both companies.

All in all a great night, Lisa’s enthusiasm is infectious and I can thoroughly recommend this to firms for their client and staff alike to see that the professional services market are completely approachable and able to let their hair down away from the day job.

Images: Left to right: Jenny Rennocks, Laura Courbet, Lauren Perry;  Clarion Solicitors and Lisa Lister, Progress Marketing Ltd

We are delighted to announce that Progress Marketing have achieved Infusionsoft Certified Partner accreditation status following a rigorous training and certification process. Read More “Infusionsoft Partner Certification”

We are delighted to announce the official launch of our new Enquiry Management System for UK Law Firms to help you:

– Prevent enquiry leakage
– Increase conversions
– Boost productivity
– Get control of enquiry management data to help grow your practice Read More “Enquiry Management System for Law Firms”