Speaker details

Biography

Rob founded Cambridge Strategy Group in 2012. For nearly twenty years, his advisory work has focused mostly on law firms ranging from some of the largest in the world, down to quite modest sized businesses. In recent years he has also advised accounting firms, other kinds of professional services firms and regulators (the latter on strategies for special economic zones.) Prior to that, he managed a consulting firm in South Africa which he founded and grew over the course of a decade into one of the preeminent businesses of its kind in the region, with a total headcount of nearly 100 people. In 2010-11, he was an in-house business strategist with Linklaters (in London.) Before joining Linklaters, Rob lived in and worked from The Bahamas for four years, working mostly at that time with U.S. law firms. Rob is past co-chair of the International Bar Association (IBA)’s Law Firm Management Committee and he served on the steering committee of the IBA’s Presidential Task Force on the Future of Legal Services. He is also a past chair of the American Bar Association’s International Law Practice Management Forum. He is a founding co-chair of the IBA’s signature ‘Building the law firm of the future’ conference held in London each November. He has co-authored eight books on law firm strategy and management topics and is currently busy with a ninth. Besides his mainstream strategy and business consulting work, Rob’s practice increasingly involves advising firms on digital alignment of their business models with the emerging legal needs of clients who are being disrupted as the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ gathers momentum. He is a prolific writer and speaker on this topic. As part of his own ‘pro bono’ work, Rob plays a leading role in IBA initiatives to enhance business management practices among smaller law firms in sub-Saharan Africa. This has involved work so far in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Rob holds a Masters in Business Administration degree from Henley Management College in the United Kingdom. He is currently undertaking a PhD research project with the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow, on value creation in large law firm mergers over the past two decades.