Innovation should be at the heart of the strategy of every law firm. It drives the competitive advantage that a law firms needs not just to set itself apart from its competition but also to survive. The purpose of strategy is to understand and cope with competition. Innovation and creativity are core to that strategy. Competitive advantage impacts your bottom line. It answers your clients' key questions of ‘Why should I do business with you?’ ‘What are you offering that no one else does?' Innovation is key to answering these questions.

This book will show you how to reinvent yourself to create a culture that encourages and spawns innovation at every level, both on the micro and macro levels. It leads you through the creation of the infrastructure that is necessary to encourage creativity and that is unique to law firms as well as setting out the creative process to produce new thinking. It deals with leadership, handling change, communication, culture, teamwork and accountability that will lead to real and necessary innovation.

The author, Darryl Cooke, is co-founder of gunnercooke, one of the UK's fastest-growing challenger law firms.

Its accessible style highlights the innate challenges to overcome and introduces the right solutions for a law firm to shed century-old thinking, question routines and make a real difference, whilst maintaining the very best of its profession's heritage.
Colin Turner
CEO Mentor, Entrepreneur & Author A Brave New Business World

A wake-up call for law practices.
Julian Richer
Entrepreneur, Author, Philanthropist

This very readable and thoughtful work pulls together many strands of what makes for effective law firm management and leadership in times of huge change. Its call for a sense of urgency, yet with a sense of realism about the pace with which firms can change, is timely. It covers the basics of communication, culture and the disciplines necessary for the effective execution of any strategy.
Charles Martin
Macfarlanes LLP

Cooke rightly concludes that the management of law firms is “an awesome responsibility” because management decisions don’t just impact those who work at the firm – those decisions also impact their families and friends. Sprinkled throughout the stories, discussions and facts supporting why and how firms can evolve, are many insightful (and for law firms, revolutionary) Cooke-isms.
Mitchell Kowalski
Strategic Advisor on Legal Operations and Author

This book gives the unequivocal answer that to innovate is to succeed. Darryl Cooke delivers a realistic and practical “… Blueprint for the Law Firm of the Future.” As he says, “This is not a book just about innovation but a book about growth.” It is essential reading for all lawyers now.
Pippa Blakemore
The PEP Partnership LLP

Darryl Cooke
Executive chairman, gunnercooke LLP
[email protected]

Darryl Cooke began life as a barrister in Lincoln’s Inn before joining the legal team of a major multinational corporation. He started working in private practice at SJ Berwin, where he quickly grew a thriving private equity practice, and he continued at Addleshaws, where he started what soon became one of the firm’s strongest practice areas, joining the board at the same time. He later moved to DLA Piper where he headed private equity in EMEA.

In 2010 Darryl set up the game-changing law firm, gunnercooke, with its unique model to challenge the leading law firms. gunnercooke is now one of the fastest growing law firms in the UK. Darryl has always had entrepreneurial instincts: alongside existing work commitments he established a property company and a business conference company, and he also realised his dream of owning a pub. He has also served as a director of numerous businesses in various industries and has established inspire*, gunnercooke’s charitable foundation. Having worked across all parts of the legal industry as well as in other sectors, Darryl is well equipped to consider the legal profession and its need for innovation. He is passionate about the legal industry, which he describes as his first love, and he is equally passionate that it must change in order to continue to be effective.

Darryl is also author of Sweet & Maxwell’s Private Equity: Law and Practice, now in its sixth edition and sold in 40 countries.