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ATTICUS FINCH AND FALLING INTO THE LAW Wirral Life talk to Richard Burnett , HM3 Legal .
Why did you set up HM3 Legal ? I ' m being honest , I fell into running a law firm . Although I ’ d spent much of my working life instructing lawyers on a personal level and to look after my business interests ( buying houses , reviewing contracts , business acquisitions , HR issues , commercial debt recoveries , commercial lease renewals and more ), it was never my ambition to run a legal business .
So , what happened ? In 2011 , the increasing cost of commodities and competition from eastern Europe made me act . Having Wirral connections , I chose Hillyer McKeown ( as it was then ) to handle the sale of my Liverpoolbased print and design business .
I was no novice , but this time something was different . Being a client of Hillyer McKeown was slightly better than other legal experiences . Don ’ t get me wrong , it still wasn ’ t British Airways or BMW , but it was OK . The outcome ? I successfully sold my business for the value I was hoping for .
Why was this experience different ? Feeling valued . The lawyers were interested in me and my business and let me tell you - there ’ s no substitute for that . They respected that I wanted to be kept up to date , and needed legal jargon explained in plain English . And there was something else ; I had the lawyer ’ s mobile number . Believe me , this was forward-thinking in 2011 ! Imagine having a direct line to your lawyer when things get stressful .
They recognised that selling a business was like seeing a child grow up and leave home to begin their own life ’ s journey . It was an emotional time !
When was your lightbulb moment ? Straight after the sale . The moment came when I realised that providing a great legal service was not just about the lawyer ’ s technical ability . Being a truly good lawyer meant clients like working with you because of how you treated them . Here was an opportunity , because too many traditional lawyers were so wrapped up in their files that they had forgotten who funded their fees : clients !
Why do you want to shake up legal services ? Because a decade on , the ‘ vanilla ’ service I experienced first-hand with other law firms persists . Changing our name to HM3 Legal ( from Hillyer McKeown ) felt right as our business had evolved to directly address frustrations with the legal sector .
And to sense check that I wasn ’ t alone with this idea , we commissioned a YouGov survey . It asked over 1000 SME businesses about their experience of working with lawyers . The results were interesting to say the least !
What surprised you most ? The fact that respondents felt ‘ To Kill a Mockingbird ’ s ’ advocate Atticus Finch was the fictional character who best represents a stereotypical lawyer was reassuring . Finch defends black man Tom Robinson against a rape charge before an all-white jury in Harper Lee ’ s novel . Business owners chose Finch over The Godfather ’ s Tom Hagen , Ally McBeal and Tom Cruise ’ s iconic Mitch McDeere in The Firm .
This choice depicts lawyers in a good light but as I expected , it wasn ’ t all praise from SMEs .
Around a third chose the phrase ‘ over-charged ’ to describe how they feel when working with law firms . Nearly two-thirds said they would need to be in ‘ serious difficulty ’ before contacting a legal expert for help . Ouch !
At HM3 Legal , we knew we wanted to do things differently to save clients time and money . At the least this meant no legal jargon and offering fixed fees , replacing surprises with reassurance .
Are you really making a difference ? Regular feedback from clients suggests we are . Our latest Investor in Customers gold-standard Net Promoter Score ( NPS ) was + 79 . This puts us in the top percentile of firms ever assessed by the IIC . Our fresh question became : how can we build a legal team that pro-actively contributes to someone ’ s business success ?
The major transformation started in early 2022 when we launched Six New Standards to deliver a ‘ wow ’ legal service . We wanted to end people feeling over-charged and under-valued . And our ‘ no chase pledge ’ guarantees that our lawyers check in with clients , not the other way around . To cap it all we put our money where our mouth is by offering a Service Level Guarantee .
Let ’ s fast forward . Today I say , instead of being known as ‘ bloody lawyers ’ I want our clients to think of us as ‘ bloody brilliant lawyers .’ We are working every day towards that goal , so please get in touch if we sound like the type of legal team you would like to work with .
Richard Burnett , Partner and Commercial Director , HM3 Legal . M : 07983 637149 E : rhb @ law . uk . com
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