Hall & Wilcox move to embed innovation with board appointment

HALL & Wilcox has moved to entrench a culture of innovation by appointing a new board member, Peter Williams, who is chief executive of Deloitte Digital.

New Hall and Wilcox board member Peter Williams, who is chief executive of Deloitte Digital.

HALL & Wilcox has moved to entrench a culture of innovation by appointing a new board member, Peter Williams, who is chief executive of Deloitte Digital and chairman of the Deloitte innovation council.

Managing partner Tony Macvean said the legal services industry was facing significant changes in technology, pricing and service delivery and having Mr Williams as a board member would help the firm respond.

He said the market for legal services was mature, intensely competitive and populated by clients who were demanding more for less.

“All of those things lead to firms having to innovate if they are going to survive and prosper — and that has been a journey we have been on for a little while now,” he said.

Changes already in place had enabled Hall & Wilcox to ­increase revenue by 20 per cent last year but Mr Macvean said market changes were permanent and it was important to keep ­innovating.

He said Hall & Wilcox was likely to increase its online presence, which he described as Mr Williams’ “sweet spot”.

“We are really trying to face up to the disruptive change that technology is causing,” Mr Macvean said.

Mr Williams said there was a view in parts of the profession that knowledge of the law meant firms would not be ­affected by the impact of technology.

“But what we are seeing across almost every profession is that access to knowledge and information is being democratised, if you like,” he said.

“There is a raft of new technology coming that is going to make the process of knowledge work, information and structuring arguments and documents very ­different.”

He said the rapid take-up of technology within the community would lead to an expectation from clients that legal services would also become readily ­accessible online.

“I see huge opportunities for the legal profession. But I do think that many of the firms might not necessarily have the leadership at the top who can see these changes. If you want to predict the future the best thing to do is invent it — and that is part of what we are doing here.”