In this Q&A, Noel Jordan, COO at Burness Paull, examines the expertise those from different backgrounds can bring to the COO position, how he approaches the first few months of a new role, and how the profile of business services functions is evolving.

Noel Jordan was appointed COO at Scotland-based law firm Burness Paull in June. As the firm’s first-ever COO, Jordan has overall responsibility for Burness Paull’s business services and legal operations functions, helping drive the firm’s ongoing strategic growth plans.

With a background in technology – Jordan previously served as Ashurst’s Chief Technology Officer and in CIO and other senior IT roles at GE Capital – he brings considerable technical and transformation expertise honed over a near 20-year career.

What attracted you to the COO role at Burness Paull?

I started my career in military aircraft engineering, and I’ve always been interested in how things work and how to make them work better, whether with complex machines, technology or business processes.

At Burness Paull, the opportunity exists to do that with the business services functions and in collaboration with the partnership. We’re looking to join up all the skills in the firm and make them more than the sum of their parts, as we align to help deliver the firm’s strategic three-year growth plan. Our primary focus is how we best support our partners and legal professionals as they deliver client services.

The dedication to client focus is something that attracted me to the role. Previously, I had done some consulting work at the firm and during that period I spent a lot of time with Managing Partner, Mark Ellis, the firm’s leadership, and the wider partnership. From these interactions it was clear that the culture of the firm was special, and it was well aligned around transformation to support growth. It’s very collegial here and people are open to taking on best practices from other areas. I liked the feel of the place, and its clear vision, and felt like my experience, coupled with the skills of the teams and support of the partnership, could really help in creating a platform that scales with the firm’s growth.

Are there any specific challenges being the firm’s first COO?

As with any new role, it is important to explain to your key stakeholders what your focus is going to be whilst leaving wiggle room for issues and requirements that arise through those conversations.

What was helpful was the working relationship I had with Mark [Ellis] and the board. I knew the environment I was coming into and had the beginnings of a support network. Additionally, there was not immediate pressure to have a complete strategy.

My first 90 days have really been about talking to people and using the ratio of ‘one mouth, two ears’ to pick out the important themes. Of course, operational issues are always going to crop up along the way, but I’ve spent a lot of time on the road speaking to our partners and two business services teams. What’s working well? What can be improved? It’s important not to take directional decisions until people know you and what you’re thinking.

Obviously, any change journey has challenges. I led a lot of transformational change in different businesses and what is key is to start by understanding your environment and getting a good feel for the business. What works in one business might not in another – you must be adaptable.

We are already working as a business services team to come up with aligned priorities, making sure that the changes we make are done correctly, rather than kicking off lots of projects simultaneously. Then, we will come to a place where we have structure and have created a multi-year portfolio.

You come from a technology background. How do you see that impacting your approach to being COO?

In all businesses, sustainable change and efficiency will predominantly be delivered via technology solutions, so it is logical to expect more COOs to emerge from a technology and change background.

Working in IT gives unparalleled visibility to how the business works and how things should join up. At GE we focused on process engineering before undertaking major digital projects – in that world, you couldn’t take digital projects for investment until the underlying process had been streamlined. This approach increases knowledge of what is important to each function in delivering business imperatives whilst creating an environment of constructive challenge. Analysing processes helps to fully understand business operations through a functional and technical lens – this builds essential stakeholder credibility and demonstrates valuable knowledge and business acumen.

Cross-functional knowledge will have a large impact in this role. Starting with good functional understanding means I can provide support, as well as challenge, way beyond just technology.

How has technology in the legal sector evolved?

There is now a real acceptance that law firms must have their enabling technology rock solid and that this comes at a cost. I’m referring to basics like mobility, video conferencing, and effective document management. Firms that got this right before or during Covid grew through the toughest times while others had to scramble. The broad acceptance of the cloud has been an important step forward for the legal sector and as well as the incumbent suppliers moving their offerings in this direction, there are numerous innovative entrants to the legal software market, especially with the explosion of Gen AI.

The legal world is, of course, very well-placed to take advantage of AI. In my opinion, for all firms it is a case of when, not if, they start to leverage AI-powered solutions for the benefit of their clients. Smaller firms will need to choose where resource is applied in relation to AI given the number of offerings. This occupies quite a lot of LinkedIn articles, but what is not always clear is the ROI or the scale of implementations. I think in the short term, products like Copilot will become a commodity and believe that Robotic Process Automation still has a role to play in efficient operations for legal firms.

One thing that remains a challenge is tech adoption and getting busy people to adopt new systems. I believe that the best outcome is to get technology that applies to the most people in your firm and gives them efficiencies in how they deal with clients before moving to more niche solutions.

That’s the challenge for business services functions. If you roll out a new system or process, why are you doing that? How is it making the fee earner’s job easier? How is it ultimately benefitting the client? It might be that it allows you to attract better talent, simplify and standardise how you create pitches, or that it improves ESG reporting. Making that connection is essential in getting the business to engage and thus maximise technology investment.

What advice would you give to a functional leader looking to become a COO?

You must truly understand your business and plug the knowledge gaps that you don’t have. Before I worked in the legal sector, I imagined that busy lawyers would not have time to engage with the implementation of technological solutions and other business services matters. Fortunately, that has not been the case. Be curious about how your business will grow. Have the ability to connect and build relationships both up and down. If you’re a CIO or CTO and the COO role is newly created, you’re in a great position. As I said, the IT lead has a broad outlook that looks across everything so is uniquely placed to take on that position.

Has the profile of business services changed during your career?

It has changed massively. If we take IT as an example, previously you might see IT directors reporting to finance in a world where technology was once seen as a cost. That’s not to suggest finance leaders cannot be innovative, of course. Now, technology is integral to every part of the business, the average level of digital knowledge has increased, and it is commonplace to have lawyers pushing for solutions that can help their practice area. Everything has become more sophisticated and there’s an acceptance that you can’t make sustainable change without it being underpinned by technology, data and process – the lawyers know that.

A good example of where business services demonstrate value is clients’ interest in their suppliers’ ESG progress – this can form part of the tendering process and makes the facilities teams (and their measurement of ESG performance) an integral part of winning new business.

There are numerous other examples of how business services are becoming more visible. I ultimately believe that it will be the firms that forge effective working partnerships between legal and business services teams that will be the biggest winners.

To learn more about Totum’s Technology Practice, get in touch and say hello to Ross Mackenzie, Head of Technology Practice [email protected]

To learn more about Totum’s Operations Practice, get in touch with Laura McNair, Director and Head of People & Operations Practice [email protected]