Upstream strategy and capability-building for leading professional services firms
Mark Smith
Upstream means working at the point of highest leverage: with leadership teams, partner groups and emerging leaders, on how they read their market, make sense of AI and other shifts, and improve the quality of what they decide and how it gets done. Get that right and everything downstream improves with it.
Capability-building means the people I work with can do more afterwards than they could before, and keep building on it. I distil key developments and strategic insight into practical tools and a shared language that teams can apply immediately and go on using on their own.
What I Do
I work with firms on situations that matter to their performance. Leadership teams that need to align around strategy and execution. Managing partners making sense of AI, market shifts and competitive positioning. Partners stepping into new leadership roles who need to hit the ground running. Where capacity permits, I can also support the behavioural change that follows, helping leaders shift how they actually operate in boardrooms, client conversations and the decisions they make day to day.
Much of my current work is with firms working out what AI means for their strategy, their people and their clients, and how to keep that in proportion alongside everything else that is changing.
Typical formats include leadership-team working sessions, longer cohort programmes supporting key role transitions, and partner conference workshops and keynotes. Executive coaching is available on a selective basis for senior role transitions, where it supports the wider capability agenda.
Background
I trained and practised as a technology and outsourcing lawyer in City and national law firms, then led the international legal team for a global outsourcing business. After completing an MBA, I moved into strategy and market leadership, taking a legal process outsourcing business into a significant new market, before joining a global FTSE100 information and technology business where I continue to serve as Director of Strategic Markets.
Alongside this, I am a Fellow and Senior Advisor at a world-class business school, designing and delivering executive education for professional services firms. I co-authored The Relevant Lawyer: Re-imagining The Future of the Legal Profession and spent five years as an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.
I hold an MBA and an MSc in Behavioural Change from Henley Business School, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning from the University of Cambridge, and am completing a Professional Doctorate at the University of Essex, researching how senior legal professionals respond to AI disruption and the psychological and organisational dynamics that shape that response. I am an APECS-certified practising executive coach.
Clients
My clients include:
A&O Shearman
Addleshaw Goddard
Ashurst
Bird & Bird
Bristows
Eden McCallum
Eversheds Sutherland
Fieldfisher
Fox Williams
Lewis Silkin
LOD
Mills & Reeve
Osborne Clarke
Ropes & Gray
RPC
Shoosmiths
Sidley Austin
TLT
Watson Farley & Williams
What Others Say
“Mark is absolutely the leader in the field when it comes to professional services strategy. He draws on his dual experience as a practitioner and academic to give a deep insight into the issues impacting on the market.”
Head of Regulatory Practice, City law firm
“He’s always been the person to ask that extra question which unlocks a problem. He’s incredibly insightful and versatile, and can add value to any discussion or decision-making process.”
Managing Partner, international law firm
“Mark is an excellent speaker, one of the best I have heard. Mark effortlessly conveys complex content in a way that engages audiences with the perfect combination of empathy, insight and intellectual challenge, enriching audiences with practical solutions.”
Partner, City law firm
“He delivered a comprehensive report on short notice. Each conclusion was well researched, clearly supported with extensive market knowledge and relevant to our business. I would definitely engage him again for board level strategy.”
Board Member, national law firm
