Fiona Westwood

Fiona Westwood became an enrolled solicitor with the Law Society of Scotland in 1976 and worked in private practice until 1993, latterly as an equity commercial partner in large legal firm with offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh. She was a member of the Management Team and Business Development Partner of that firm and managed their post-merger culture change and image re-launch.

She established Westwood Associates in 1994 as a management and training consultancy specialising in strategic planning and management development for professional firms in particular and currently focuses on business coaching and strategic change.

Her book, Achieving Best Practice – Shaping Professionals for Success, was nominated by McGraw-Hill as their September 2000 Book of the Month. Her second book, Accelerated Best Practice – Implementing Success in Professional Firms was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2004. In addition, she writes regularly for business and professional publications, including The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland and the PMS Managing for Success magazine and has developed on-line module for their HR Toolkit on managing the mobility of professionals.

Since 2000 she has been involved in legal education as a part-time tutor and senior lecturer in Legal Practice at Glasgow Graduate School of Law, working on the Diploma in Legal Practice and Professional Competence Course. Her recent academic publications relate to professionalism, team working and reflective practice. She is a Registered Practitioner of The Higher Education Academy.

She has served as a co-opted member of the Practice Management and Client Care Committees of The Law Society of Scotland, and is currently a member of their Standards Working Party.

Speciality

Strategic development and leadership coaching

Based in her expertise of working with professionals firms, Fiona Westwood has developed her ‘Model for Success’, explained in detail in both her books. This highlights the importance of establishing effective management and leadership along with the efficient use of resources, delivering value to clients, implementing a successful strategy and matching this to developing skills and the correct shape for the firm.

Her specialities are strategic development and leadership coaching. Her main focus in both is helping her clients achieve strategic change, as implementation of change is especially difficult for professional service firms with their complicated ownership structures and the need for professionals to retain their independence and values.