Building Stronger Businesses
Having harboured a desire to run my own consultancy practice for many years, I reached the decision in early 2022 to leave Simpson Millar and form PMB Services, a business and marketing consultancy that operates within the legal sector as The Legal Reach Partnership.
These things take time but I was delighted in June 2022 to be able to formally launch Legal Reach into the market.
Profile & Experience
A brief overview of my career is set out below. More information on my experience, achievements and expertise, and how I could potentially help you grow your business, can be found on my Linkedin profile or by contacting me at ian.powell@thelegalreachpartnership.co.uk
Chief Marketing Officer – Simpson Miller (2017 – 2022)
In my role at Simpson Millar, I was part of the new executive ‘turn around’ team that was put in place in October 2017 following the purchase of the business by Doorway Capital (a family-owned private investor/equity house) after its previous owner (Fairpoint PLC) had gone into administration. From then until March 2022, I was part of the executive team that developed the 5-year growth/investment plan which obtained a significant multi-million-pound investment from Doorway Capital to develop new channels to market and create a new national legal brand.
During my time, I was responsible, working closely with my colleagues, for launching a new market position, positioning Simpson Millar as the ‘open lawyers’ to remove the perceived barriers from individuals seeking legal support and advice. I was also responsible for building a new digital channel as part of a wider business strategy to remove reliance on ‘case acquisition’ from CMCs and created its own ‘direct-to-market’ capability, launching a ‘membership’ proposition to increase engagement and build client loyalty, and oversaw the creation of a 50+ head first response/New Business capture operation.
Marketing & Business Development Director – Co-op Legal Services (2014 – 2017)
Prior to Simpson Millar, I was part of a ‘re-build’ executive management team at Co-op Legal Services (CLS) which was put in place following losses of £5.2m in 2014.
During my 3 years at Co-op Legal Services (‘CLS’), the business reviewed its strategy and refocused on its strategic strengths (later life planning), reduced overheads by over 30% and realigned projected revenue against budget while re-gearing its legal teams, recruiting new and experienced Heads of Practice and re-engineered its end-to-end legal and client management process.
It also reviewed its product portfolio and re-assessed all commercial partnerships. This removed non-profitable distribution channels while also opening up/acquiring new channels to market/strategic partners. The business also built and launched a new digital platform to create a ‘direct-to-market’ channel and acquired Collective Legal Solutions (which became Co-op Estate Planning) in January 2016 as part of its later life planning strategy and to ‘open up’ a face-to-face sales channel.
The business moved back into profit in 2015 (£0.7m) and announced a £2.2m profit in 2016 with revenue up by 22%.
Business Development & Communications Director – Irwin Mitchell (1999 – 2014)
Before CLS, I spent 15 years at Irwin Mitchell (‘IM’) as part of a senior management team that transformed a traditional regional law firm (with a £34m pa turnover) into the 4th most recognised UK legal brand with a two-tier corporate structure and turnover in excess of £200m.
During this period, IM developed new technologies to drive operational efficiency and improve client service within its volume service operation while also developing its high-end value proposition for high end complex work. In additional to developing its SME offering, I was also responsible for developing new strategic business partners, launching affinity/white label offerings, developing and building a nationally recognised legal brand, managing its product and proposition development and also creating its ‘direct to market’ marketing and digital channels, which also saw it launch its first national TV advertising campiagns.
Enquire here
Please fill the form in full and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.