Halliwells is the one of the UK's most successful law firms, with offices in Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield, and over 1000 employees. It delivers pragmatic, solution driven advice and is committed to adding value to clients' businesses.

The issue

In recent years, Halliwells has been through a series of mergers, growing significantly in size. Such rapid growth raised the issue of succession planning amongst partners. The company identified a need to develop a pool of people with the potential to take on senior positions in the future. Current management capability amongst the existing group of partners also needed to be improved, with an emphasis on helping them to develop the skills required to manage the business strategically.

The programme

Halliwells approached Manchester Business School to work with them in developing a programme which addressed these issues. Following conversations between Dr Maria Stafylarakis and Dr Mark Batey of Manchester Business School and Joanne Edwards of Halliwells, an original, customised programme design was crafted to meet the organisation's requirements. Final content, method of delivery and the application of learning was based upon a collaborative relationship at all times. "We work on the principle of 'intelligent commissioning.' This means we look for continuous dialogue with our clients to ensure that the final intervention is both rigorous, drawing on the latest research and thinking, and relevant in that it is shaped and tailored to meet the client’s desired objectives," Dr Stafylarakis explains.

A sequence of modules was proposed with 'knowledge inputs' based on agreed themes around enabling participants to understand their personal leadership footprint, creating and embedding a people-centred and client-centric culture, and strengthening participants' business and commercial acumen. These ‘knowledge inputs' were shaped by conversations between the programme leaders, the relevant module contributors, Halliwells' Learning and Development Officer and other representatives from the firm. They agreed on four modules based around the areas of leadership, people resourcing, strategic financing and business-to-business marketing. The first two modules addressed leadership behaviours and partners' personal response to people resourcing and management; the latter modules were more business-oriented.

The pilot programme was held at Halliwells' Manchester offices in Spring 2008. Eighteen of the firm's 160 partners - both full and fixed share partners - were selected by Halliwells to take part. Participants completed a 360 degree survey before the programme which involved managers, peers and direct reports commenting on how the individual was perceived within the firm. Feedback was used in facilitated sessions during the taught element. Dr Stafylarakis and Dr Batey further facilitated a rigorous data collection exercise with participants to derive an organisationally specific leadership model and competency framework. This was then developed into a new 360 degree instrument to form the backbone of an integrated performance management system.

The benefits

Participants' feedback on the programme has been excellent, with some key benefits highlighted:

  • leadership capabilities have been sharpened
  • there is a greater understanding of how to resource and manage teams
  • interpersonal skills have been developed that allow partners to work
    • collaboratively to achieve the organisation’s goals
  • professional networks within the organisation are deeper and broader
  • a more strategic business orientation will be adopted moving forward.

One satisfied participant passed on "a big vote of thanks to all those who were involved in designing, administrating and participating in the course to make it such a positive experience that will produce tangible benefits to the partners involved and hopefully the teams and clients they work with."

Next steps

Participants have undertaken a series of HR-focused projects since finishing the taught element. These included changing the organisation’s culture, examining pay and reward schemes, and reviewing the organisation’s recruitment procedures and other processes with a view to improving staff retention and turnover.

"The feedback from our partners on the programme has been phenomenal. We've been delighted with the impact it has had on the way people are working and are excited about running the programme with a new group in 2009. We've worked closely with Manchester Business School again to further tailor the content so that all our objectives continue to be met," comments Joanne Edwards, Learning and Development Officer.