As the troops filed in for the first cocktail reception of the conference, I turned to Linda Urquhart, our Chief Executive, and muttered – “Well, I suppose it’s too late to cancel it now!”  Not because of any lack of warmth or hospitality, you understand; more an all consuming nervousness as to how the conference, in general, and the business programme, in particular, would be received.  As it turned out, we need not have worried.  Everyone tells us it was very successful and great fun.  I do not think they were just being polite – now. 

In total, we had 55 delegates and 11 accompanying persons.  In addition to representatives from pretty well every firm in Europe, plus Nigeria and South Africa, whose Interlaw region this is too, we welcomed delegates from Canada, Brazil, Australia and the US.  Prior to the conference itself we had three preliminary sessions – European Women of Interlaw, convened by Linda Urquhart of Morton Fraser; the European IP&E Business Group convened by Lorne Byatt of Morton Fraser; and, uniquely, a meeting of the present and former chairmen of Interlaw, who had been asked by the Board to look at some important policy issues. 

For the business sessions, our main theme was “Managing your people - in law firms”.  This occupied both Friday and Saturday mornings.  It was convened by Elspeth Dalgleish, Morton Fraser’s award-winning HR Director.  She talked about (and moderated group discussions on) working out career paths for solicitors/ associates on the basis of competencies gained and displayed, the detail of what those competences might be at each stage of the progression, and how progress should be assessed and feedback given.  The relevant competencies, of course, are not just legal, but must focus on personal and social development and the realisation of what, ultimately, a lawyer must do to become a partner.  Elspeth linked this to Morton Fraser’s experience of giving every partner and employee his own “Training and Development Plan” which, if achieved and all added up together, should amount to realisation of the firm’s business plan.  On Saturday, this was followed by sessions on coaching, to help improve an individual’s holistic performance as a team player, and a talk by Linda Urquhart on her experience of mentoring.  David Stewart of Morton Fraser then convened a panel session involving Detlef Rahmann of the Düsseldorf member firm and Jan Gruvstad of the Stockholm member firm recounting tales from the courts of how law firms had got things seriously wrong in the past in their respective jurisdictions. 

The other principal business session was a presentation by Christian Hook of Morton Fraser, Simon Hersom, the head of International Real Estate Investment for the Royal Bank of Scotland group and Mark Hunter, a sponsor of Europe-wide property funds, on how such property funds went about investing in property throughout Europe.  As a follow up to this session, Morton Fraser intends to contact all the delegates from European firms at the conference with a view to helping put together a pack on how fund managers should go about investing in commercial/ retail property in the various European jurisdictions.  We then intend, working with S J Berwin, to present this pack to relevant property funds in the UK in the hope that it can generate business for Interlaw firms. 

But, enough of the business; what did we do to enjoy ourselves?  The highlight for the delegates was probably the dinner on the former Royal yacht, Britannia, in Leith docks on the Friday night.  All enjoyed a splendid dinner on board, which was preceded by a fascinating tour of the vessel, which has been preserved exactly as she was when the Royal family stopped using her a couple of years ago.  The sleeping arrangements particularly caught the eye – no money wasted there!  On Saturday, there was an afternoon tour of the new Scottish Parliament building – the one which the Government said would cost £40m but, in fact, cost £415m, and which is sometimes unkindly referred to by those gentlemen of the press unable fully to appreciate its architectural charms as “Fort Apache”.  To finish, on Saturday evening the delegates had to endure a walking ghost tour of Edinburgh’s Old Town followed by a very traditional dinner in a subterranean vault, with Scottish entertainment.  If you want to check if your own delegates were paying attention, ask them to give you a detailed précis of the plot of the Robert Burns poem, “Tam o’ Shanter” which was brilliantly presented by a corporate lawyer from Morton Fraser’s Glasgow office, pretending (?) to be a wild Scotsman.  Then, on Sunday, a few of us whose livers were still functioning journeyed to the famous Murrayfield rugby ground to watch the European rugby cup final.  Even those who had absolutely no idea of the rules seemed to have an unhealthy relish for the violence on the pitch – that’s lawyers for you. 

A good and, I think, valuable and interesting time was had by all.