Refocused Practice Consulting

Practice Operations AI Governance Data Privacy

People & Culture

We work with legal practices on people, systems, compliance and growth

The business behind the practice.

Operations and transformation for legal practices.

You trained for years to master your profession. Nobody trained you to run the business around it. We do that part with you: the people, systems and structure that make a practice efficient, profitable and ready for its next stage.

Law firms are being asked to change faster than at any time in their history. AI is changing how legal work is done, investors are taking an interest in practitioner owned firms, and clients expect more for less.

We manage the operational side of that change, so partners can stay focused on clients.

Practice experience from outside the law

  • We have spent thirty years helping Australian professional practices run better.

  • Law firms are professionals who are the top producers, revenue tied to professional time, practice management software full of data nobody fully trusts, and owners weighing up investment and succession.

We bring three disciplines to your firm:

•     Organizational psychology: how people adopt change, and how to design work so the right behaviour becomes the easy behaviour

•     Business systems: workflows, dashboards and reporting that people use when they are busy

•     Legal and regulatory literacy: grounded in postgraduate legal study with a focus on technology and AI regulation

Legal

The problem

  • Working harder than you should, for less than you deserve?

  • The diary is full. The team is busy. Yet the results do not match the effort, and every decision still comes back to you.

  • It is rarely a skill problem. It is a systems and perspective problem. When you are inside the practice every day, inefficiency starts to look normal.

  • We see it from the outside, name it, and help you fix it.

What we work on

1. People and AI

Bring AI into the practice without losing your team. We plan the change, redesign roles and build the capability so new tools are actually used.

Selecting, piloting and embedding AI tools, and managing the training, role changes and culture shift that make them stick. Most AI projects fail on people, not technology

‍ ‍2. Compliance and Risk

Protocols and frameworks that make compliance part of how work gets done, not an extra layer on top.

3. Systems and Performance

Matter workflows; capacity and productivity; reporting and data your team can rely on, designed to lift efficiency, productivity and profitability.

4. Growth, Investment and Restructure

Preparing for private equity, a merger, a sale or a restructure, and supporting the integration that follows.

How We Work

Clear steps, honest assessment

1.    Understand. We learn how your practice actually runs, not how it is supposed to run.

2.    Diagnose. A structured audit of performance, people, systems and compliance, with a written report.

3.    Plan. A clear, prioritized action plan you and your team can follow.

4.    Implement. We stay alongside you while the changes take hold & measure the results.

Your Project

Clear scope, clear outcomes

1.    Operations review. We map how your firm runs today: people, systems, data and processes.

2.    Report and roadmap. A written assessment and a prioritized plan.

3.    Project delivery. We manage the agreed projects alongside your team, with regular reporting to partners.

4.    Handover. Documented systems and a team equipped to run them.

A clear line

What we do, and what your lawyers do

  • Refocused provides operations and management consulting.

  • We do not provide legal advice.

  • Where a project needs legal advice, such as the regulatory terms of an investment, your firm's own lawyers advise and we manage the operational work around it.

Right Fit

Who we work with

We work best with principals and partners who:

•     Run an established practice & want it to perform better without working longer hours

•     Want an honest, outside view, & are ready to act on it

•     Are planning for growth, investment, succession or the integration & maximization of AI technology

About

Erica King

Erica King

Practice Operations / AI Governance / People & Culture

  • Organizational psychology, management consultant & practice transformation specialist with thirty years of experience.

  • Currently completing a postgraduate law degree.

  • Transitioning into legal practice operations.

  • Member, Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA); Law Institute of Victoria (LIV); Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC); Australian Legal Technology Association (ALTA), Governance Institute Australia (GIA), International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)

  • Completing: Legal Practice Management Certification (LIV); AML/CTF for legal practices (ALPMA); AIGP Certification (IAPP); Certificate of AI Governance (GIA); CIPP/AU Certification (IAPP).

  • I have spent a lifetime inside Australian professional practices, not as an observer but as a consultant, practice owner, builder and transformer.

  • Your priorities & outcomes are my focus.