Agenda

14:25 Chair’s opening remarks
Seema Jones, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer, Town Legal

14:30 Interview/panel – PE without the hype: What private equity teaches finance leaders about how law firms really operate
This is not a session about whether law firms should take private equity.
Instead, it asks a more useful question for finance leaders:

• • What does exposure to private equity reveal about how law firms really operate from their governance, behaviours and decision-making to performance discipline?
  • Drawing on real, lived experience from within a PE-backed environment, this session cuts through the noise, myths and market hype to focus on what finance leaders actually see once the headlines fade and the real work begins.
  • Through an honest, finance led conversation, we’ll explore:
  • What PE exposure uncovers about leadership, accountability and decision-making in law firms
  • Where PE discipline genuinely improves clarity, pace and commercial focus and where it clashes with traditional firm behaviours
  • How the role, authority and pressure on finance leaders changes in practice
  • Which lessons are transferable to all firms, including those with no intention of taking external investment
  • Why PE is influencing the market far beyond the firms that actually take it

Our host: Paul Finnegan, Founder, CxO Services Limited
In conversation with: Glyn Morris, Partner – Projects, Higgs LLP
Axel Koelsch, Chief Operating Officer, Lawfront

15:00 Roundtables
Peer-to-peer Roundtables are 40-minute discussion groups, each led by a finance leader from a legal firm.

The hallmark of an Alternative Event, the peer-to-peer roundtable discussions are like group therapy for firm leaders. These small groups, following the Chatham House rule, allow everyone to share problems and solutions. These facilitated discussions will deliver insights and takeaways from peers that are simply not otherwise available.

1. Building financial resilience for the next 10 years
Capital tension, investment sequencing, and planning for a world with little/no client account interest
Alison Powell, Finance Director, Bates Wells

2. Strategic finance for growth: Creating value, not just revenue
Which growth strategies genuinely increase the long-term value of the firm?

• What makes growth valuable rather than simply bigger?
• How do you fund growth without weakening cash flow or partner returns?
• What should firms put in place now to become more attractive to future investors, buyers or merger partners?
• How do you balance realising value today with building a stronger firm for the future?

Zachary Brech, CFO, Ignition Law

3. Partner performance: The conversation nobody wants but everyone needs
How do you surface underperformance without becoming the villain?

• Do you rank partners, formally or informally?
• What metrics actually change behaviour?
• Where does finance have legitimacy and where does it get shut down?

Neil Aitken, Finance Director, Woodfines

4. Working capital management: Why it’s not a finance problem
Working capital is often treated as a finance issue: lockup, WIP and billing cycles. In reality, it’s shaped by leadership behaviour, pricing confidence and how firms operate day to day.
This roundtable explores where working capital really breaks down, the behaviours firms tolerate that undermine cash flow and why finance often carries responsibility without control.
A practical peer discussion focused on ownership, culture and what actually improves outcomes.
Jason Bigg, Head of Finance & Operations, Girlings

Alternative Legal Finance will break at 15:40.

If you could rebuild your firm tomorrow, what would you change?

• Designing the 2030 operating model: people, pricing, structure, governance, tech
• Mapping “what stays / what goes / what must evolve now”
• Creating a blueprint your board can actually use
• Group design sprint: “The One-Page New Firm Model”

Resetting partner expectations for ownership and leadership

• Avoiding 3–5 year vacuum periods
• Structuring succession for SME vs platform firms
• Ensuring succession aligns with culture, not just numbers
• Case work: diagnosing your succession risk level

Every firm has good lawyers. The firms pulling ahead are the ones whose lawyers act like owners; of their work, their clients and the firm's future.

As AI compresses the work that used to develop juniors, that shift is no longer optional. Bring one role you’re wrestling with. Leave with a redesign.

Continuation of Alternative Legal Finance programme.

16:10 – Six years on: What are we still talking about and why?

Format: Interactive Reflection (40 mins)

Step 1 – Flashback (10 mins)
Chair reads out 3–4 themes from:

• 2021
• 2023
• 2025

Step 2 – Table Poll (15 mins)
Each table answers:

• What’s genuinely new?
• What have we failed to fix?
• What are we still avoiding?
• What conversations should we be having and who with?

Step 3 – Room Share (15 mins)
Short, honest reflections, no solutions required.

16:50 Chair’s closing remarks
Seema Jones, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer, Town Legal

Peer-to-peer Roundtables are 45-minute discussion groups, each led by a managing partner from a mid-market law firm.

The hallmark of an Alternative Event, the peer-to-peer roundtable discussions are like group therapy for firm leaders. These small groups, following the Chatham House rule, allow everyone to share problems and solutions. New for this year, each discussion will run longer allowing for a more in-depth discussion on your chosen topic.

These facilitated discussions will deliver insights and takeaways from peers that are simply not otherwise available.

Ask-the-Expert sessions are focused and interactive sessions where participants have the opportunity to engage directly with a seasoned professional in a specific field. The sessions are designed to provide valuable insights, practical advice, and in-depth knowledge on particular topics of interest.

1. Integration playbooks that work
For firms merging, acquiring, or building a platform: what actually makes integration successful?
Hayley Davies, Director & CEO, JCP Solicitors

2. Innovation isn’t AI, it’s a way of thinking
Innovation isn’t only about adopting new technology, it’s about building a repeatable system for spotting opportunities, driving change and staying competitive. In this practical session, discover why innovation has become a matter of survival, how firms can embed it into everyday decision-making, and the practical steps to create a culture and system that consistently turns ideas into action.
Andrew Wingfield, Director of Operations and Innovation, Farringford Legal

3. Unlocking the value of your Top 50 Clients: how to build a ‘must win’ client strategy that drives cross-sell, recurring revenue and lifetime value
This round table will focus on client growth / value creation proposition around cross sell and the impact of a strategy to increase gross reoccurring revenue and client life-time value.  Focusing on the importance of clear objectives, key results, harnessing behaviours, incentivising engagement and building trust.
Abby Winkworth, Director, Ambire Advisory Limited

4. Better business, stronger culture – why PE doesn’t have to be the villain
PE has a reputation problem but for firms that get the relationship right, investment doesn’t erode culture – it funds the conditions for it to thrive. One year in, Rob Dillarstone shares his experience.
Robert Dillarstone, CEO, Greenwoods

5. Ask-the-Expert – Think like an investor: A value creation mindset
Alongside investment capacity, external investors bring a value creation mindset to work with management teams to improve the business throughout the hold period. This session aims to explore:

• What investors look for in legal firms and how to assess your own firm through that lens
• How an investor mindset can be applied by leaders to identify value within the firm, regardless of PE involvement

Mike Strotz, Director, EY-Parthenon & Fredrik Burger, Private Equity Operating Partner, EY

6. How can firms harness AI to drive efficiency and enhance wellbeing while safeguarding mentorship, professional development, and firm culture?
AI could be the most important productivity tool since the coffee machine, but if robots are doing the heavy lifting, why is everyone still so tired? Join us as we discuss how to support our junior talent, promote our culture and values, and figure out what to actually do with the hours AI saves us….besides giving everyone higher targets of course.
Mark Kiteley, Managing Director, Rawlins Davy Reeves Solicitors

7. The 4-Day Week, flexible working and productivity
Flexible working models, from four day weeks to staggered hours and hybrid patterns, are increasingly attractive to firms and staff alike. But many leaders are still grappling with a harder question: what actually happens to productivity, collaboration and decision-making when traditional working patterns disappear?
This roundtable explores how different working practices are really playing out inside law firms, and the unintended consequences they create – particularly around meetings, availability and accountability.
A practical peer discussion on designing working practices that support focus, performance and client service.
Marcin Durlak, Managing Partner, IMD Solicitors

8. Beyond AI: Why EI and relationships are the real competitive edge
As law firms invest heavily in AI, it’s easy to overlook what the profession is built on: relationships. This roundtable explores why emotional intelligence and culture remain the real differentiators for law firm leaders, shaping trust, judgment and client outcomes, and why firms that combine AI with strong human insight deliver better results for clients.
Vijay Parikh, Managing Partner, Harold Benjamin