The Australasian Legal Practice Management Association is excited to open our Financial Benchmarking Study for New Zealand law firms once again, in partnership with IT Simply and Moore Markhams.
All New Zealand law firms are invited to take part in this free, 30 minute survey, for the opportunity to benchmark their firm’s financial performance against similar firms, identify areas for improvement, then implement strategies to address them.
Firms can participate here: https://www.alpma.com.au/research/financial-performance-benchmarking-nz-2023/
Key financial performance indicators
This benchmarking study rates financial performance against a range of key indicators specific to the legal sector and critical to the success of New Zealand law firms, including:
- Revenue received by practice area
- Overall profit rate
- Profit per partner
- Salaries as a percent of expenses
- Rent & occupancy costs as percent of expenses
- WIP days, debtor days and working capital
- Clients with debts as percent of all clients
- Current charge-out rates
Growth strategies and predictions
Participants will gain insight into the New Zealand legal sector’s financial performance expectations for the coming year and law firm growth strategies.
In particular, we’ll learn whether firms with a strategic plan outperform the industry!
Set your firm up for success in 2024
Law firms who participate in this study will start the new financial year armed with a financial benchmarking report to guide their strategic planning.
The 2023 New Zealand Financial Benchmarking Study closes on Friday, 19 January 2024. Results will be released in March.
ALPMA Financial Performance Benchmarking Research
ALPMA conducts regular financial performance benchmarking research in the Australian and New Zealand legal sectors. This research is free to participate in and the reports provide a great opportunity for firms to understand how they’re performing compared to similar firms across a wide range of financial benchmarks, including Profit per Partner, Occupancy Costs as a percentage of expenses, Debtor Days and plenty more.
Over 150 Australian firms have participated in recent years, gaining insight into the industry’s financial performance expectations, law firm growth strategies and charge-out rates.
The Australian Financial Benchmarking Study for FY2023 will be open for participation soon.
About IT Simply & Practice Intelligence
IT Simply was established in 2015 to deliver managed IT services, quickly expanding to provide a reporting platform and business intelligence capabilities that bring business data to life in a usable and understandable format.
Practice Intelligence is a reporting dashboard developed specifically for partners and managers of progressive law firms who want to understand what is happening in their firm on a daily basis. Developed on the customisable Power BI platform from Microsoft, Practice Intelligence breaks down data into 5 main areas including company overview, team, solicitor, client and fees.
For more information on Practice Intelligence and IT Simply, visit https://www.itsimply.co.nz/en-nz/practice-intelligence
About Moore Markhams
Moore Markhams New Zealand forms a network of locally owned chartered accountancy and business advisory firms plus specialist audit firms, situated across New Zealand. They provide assurance and accounting, tax, business advisory and business management services, while their specialist accountancy knowledge across a range of industries adds a commercial advantage to their clients’ decision making.
Moore Markhams maintains a leading team of experts specialising in a range of forensic accounting and investigation services for the legal profession. Their professionals understand the nature of their client’s requirements and act for a significant number of legal firms and barristers throughout the country, providing services including:
- advice on firm mergers, partner admissions and retirement
- law firm valuations
- litigation support
- expert witness support including valuation work and Income Diminution and Enhancement Calculations for the purposes of quantifying an award for an Economic Disparity claim under Section 15 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976
- audit and forensic accounting.
For more information on Moore Markhams New Zealand, visit https://www.markhams.co.nz/industries/legal
About ALPMA
The Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA) is the peak body representing managers and leaders working within law firms, legal departments or government agencies. ALPMA provides an authoritative voice on issues relevant to legal practice management across the industry. Members of ALPMA provide professional management services to legal practices (et al) in areas of financial management, strategic management, technology, human resources, facilities and operational management, marketing and information services and technology.
ALPMA’s learning and development framework includes pillars covering finance, operations, information technology, human resources, knowledge management, business development, marketing, project management to name just a few. Content planned for members in 2024 will include topical challenges facing the industry today including legal technology, cyber security, anti-money laundering, regulatory updates, ESG and sustainability.
In FY2023 ALPMA delivered 124 events, including the flagship three-day ALPMA Summit, ALPMA Awards, the 5th Regional Law Firm Management Forum held in Singapore, a one-day HR Workshop, 39 webinars, 18 local events, 20 practice management breakfasts, various networking events and workshops, and 12 Mental Health First Aid Training Courses.
ALPMA also produces benchmarking reports for members including the various Salary Surveys conducted across Australia, New Zealand and for the Intellectual Property & Trademark sector, Financial Performance Benchmarking surveys (AU and NZ), annual Changing Legal Landscape report, Cyber Security report and our first State of Sustainability Priorities in the Legal Industry report.
ALPMA has around 3,000 members which includes individuals and corporate subscribers (law firms, legal departments and government agencies) across Australia, New Zealand and various other countries.
For more information about ALPMA, visit www.alpma.com.au
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Media Contact
Emma Elliott
Chief Executive Officer
Australasian Legal Practice Management Association
M 0402 471 659
E e.elliott@alpma.com.au
W www.alpma.com.au
