Delegates from all of the CMS firms met at the beginning of the month to agree the strategy, which will be implemented over the next two years and includes a series of measures aimed at presenting the network as one organisation.
Among the main changes are plans to introduce a joint conflicts checking system as well as encouraging joint pitches. The nine firms currently contribute around 1%-2% of turnover in joint costs sharing, a figure which will now be increased to 3%-4%. This benchmark would increase Camerons’ direct contribution to at least £5.9m per year.
The network also plans to draft in a common partner appraisal and human resources system, while business development and marketing will be combined. All staff from the firms will be sent to a dedicated ‘CMS academy’ for training.
The alliance will focus on 25-30 core clients, with a single partner leading each relationship on behalf of the entire network. A new website, costing several hundred thousand euros, is being created.
Although the firms will continue to operate as individual partnerships, they will attempt to present themselves as a single entity and will look at changing the firms’ names to give more emphasis to the CMS brand.
The changes will make the CMS network appear almost as integrated as some transatlantic mergers that have not combined financially, such as DLA Piper.
CMS executive partner Robert Derry-Evans told Legal Week: “We have been looking at ways to remain as independent partnerships but be viewed as one organisation. We need our strategies to be aligned but recognise the realities of different markets and different core areas that we need to grow.”
Camerons’ managing partner Dick Tyler commented: “We have seen the validation of our model but we are now looking at building depth rather than breadth. Our efforts will be concentrated on building integration.”
Camerons has 11 offices in the CMS network, which was established in 1999 and consists of nine firms operating out of 48 cities with around 600 partners.
