Four trainee solicitors from Bath-headquartered law firm Royds Withy King fought off stiff competition from 15 other teams from across the South of England to win a contest that simulated a legal practice for a day.
The Law South Business Experience Cup is staged every year for trainee solicitors and legal executives by Law South, a group of high-profile law firms based in London and Southern England. 
Contestants are put into teams of four or five to run a simulated legal practice for a day. To win, they need to score highly on profitability, client satisfaction and staff engagement.
Royds Withy King’s winning team included Ellen Goodland, Isobel Cairns and Becky Randel – all based in Bath – and Jessica Dutton from its Swindon office.
Ellen said: “The game was a bit like a big monopoly board, but with a balance sheet and profit/loss accounts. As we went around the board we were faced with different challenges, for example, in relation to risk, staff absences, recession and volatile market conditions.
“We also had to make sure we were winning clients, as well as continually managing cashflow, paying increased overheads as we grew, balancing debt, managing slow payers, deciding marketing budget, investing in innovation and coming up with a new strategy for every round.
“It was a really great day, the event was run brilliantly and it was an insight into some of the challenges and difficult decisions that come with running a law firm.”
Royds Withy King’s team won because of its tight control of cashflow and debtors, and because its staff were always fully utilised in relation to the number of clients it was servicing.
Ellen added: “Also because we invested in marketing and our brand and paid extra for market research so we would know which practice areas, would have more clients and were prepared for the round which had tougher market conditions during recession.
“We are very pleased with the win and we had a consistent strategy throughout – we weren’t the cheapest, we invested in the brand and reacted to market conditions. We would absolutely recommend that others take part in the competition next year if they have the opportunity to.”
Law South CEO Mark Day said the Royds Withy King team had worked extremely well together.
“They asked lots of questions, were very organised with meticulous planning and their expertise was noticed by the facilitators very early in the day,” he said.
Royds Withy King managing partner Graham Street added: “The Business Experience Cup is a difficult challenge, and competition within the Law South Group is always strong. To win is a fantastic result and we are incredibly proud of the team’s achievement.”
