Welcome back to our 2026 edition of the Professional Training miniseries. We have a brand new regional edition continuing on from the last conference we attended, but packed with even more highlights and insights. Filmed at Manchester Hall, these minisodes explore high performance leadership, career growth, innovation and what it takes to thrive in today’s legal world.
In the final minisode of the regional edition, we talk to Simon Price. He is the Learning and Development Manager for Kennedys and he argues that high-performing legal teams are built less on output metrics alone than on a culture of learning, reflection, feedback, and knowledge-sharing. Simon tells us about hybrid leadership requiring intentional inclusion through regular opportunities to connect and collaborate, while psychological safety means people can ask for help, admit uncertainty, take considered risks and learn from mistakes without lowering standards. He also stresses that lawyers and business-services teams should work as one around the client problem, that resilience includes recognising when to pause rather than simply enduring pressure and that a curiosity mindset helps people reframe challenges and keep on improving.
You can Hear Rob and Simon talking about:
– Building learning into everyday work
– Creating connection across hybrid teams
– Encouraging speaking up and learning
– Solving client problems across teams
– Recognising limits and restoring resilience.
Connect with Simon Price – https://uk.linkedin.com/in/simonpricecoach
Transcript
Rob Hanna (00:00)
Welcome to our legally on the move professional training regional mini-series from the Legally Speaking podcast sponsored by Clio. Recorded live in Manchester with Professional Training. We’re talking to leading voices across the legal profession about high performance, leadership, careers, innovation, and what it takes to thrive in a rapidly changing legal world. Short conversations, practical insights, so let’s get into it.
Welcome to our Legally on the Move Professional Training Mini Series Regional Edition. I’m joined by…
Simon Price (00:31)
Simon Price.
Rob Hanna (00:33)
And you are working for and doing what?
Simon Price (00:35)
I’m the learning and development manager for Kennedys for the UK and IMA.
Rob Hanna (00:39)
Yeah, and it’s been lovely to meet you today. And we are here in Manchester Hall recording live and we’re talking about high performance and it’s often measured in revenue and utilization. In your view, what is the most misunderstood driver of performance in legal teams?
Simon Price (00:55)
I think for me the most misunderstood driver is learning. We tend to measure output, but teams that consistently perform well have learning and reflection at the heart of the culture. They share feedback, share knowledge and have that ability to really think about what’s working, what isn’t working and what needs to change. So in my experience, if people can incorporate reflective practice, so for me that’s like a superpower. So one of the things we teach at Kennedy’s is Borton’s framework.
Which is a really simple reflective practice. So what happened with that conversation with a client of that deal? so what? What difference did it make? And then the idea is is now what? So what do I do differently? And we’ve just heard from the wonderful Emma Wiggs, the Paralympian, around that curiosity and being intentional. And I think learning and reflective practice is the key for high performing teams.
Rob Hanna (01:47)
Absolutely. And yeah, Emma’s a phenomenal story, you know, 13 time world champion, Paralympian, incredible. Okay. And I always say when it comes to l learning as well, if you drop the L from learn, it spells earn. So we all need to be continuing to learn to ensure we can advance our careers and everything else. Okay, we’re in a hybrid world. So what leadership behavior most strengthens collaboration and what quietly weakens it?
Simon Price (02:10)
Yeah, it’s it’s a great question. I think for me it’s the the signals that leaders send out in the behaviours and how they how they talk, how they communicate. And I think in pre-hybrid days, I’m old enough to be in the office five days a week. Yeah. And it was those learning moments that we got from leaders, how they answered the telephone, how they dealt with a client meeting, that often you can miss if you’re remote. So hybrid’s a great way that we don’t have to come in the office every day. But what we do miss is those
Serendipitous moments, those catch ups, those how you doing, Rob? Shall we get a brew? Yeah. So I think the the kind of behaviour that leaders need to engender is in i is intentional inclusion. Yeah. It’s to make the effort, it’s to schedule these meetings. It’s to if you’re gonna be in the office two days a week, make sure you’ve got the opportunity to collaborate and learn. What I particularly like, I is I like coffee catch ups. Okay. whether that’s a hybrid or whether it’s in person. Fifteen to twenty minutes, scheduled in the diary.
And for me that gives me the opportunity to kind of have that learning opportunity to sort of collaborate ideas. I work in Manchester, my line manager’s based in London. So again, he’s a great example of that intentional inclusion. We collaborate a lot remotely rather than kind of in person.
Rob Hanna (03:26)
I love that proactive approach as well in coffee catch-ups. like you say, those water cooler moments you need to get back, particularly in the hybrid world. Okay, another important aspect is psychological safety, particularly in the modern working world. very widely discussed. What does it genuinely look like inside a very high pressure legal environment?
Simon Price (03:43)
Yeah, I mean it’s a great question. I I think for me if we look back at the Amy Edmondson definition, it’s a kinda good place to kinda start. It’s a shared belief that the team is safe to take interpersonal risk taking. Like that. And I think for me, if you work in I mean, I’ve worked in law for over thirty years and it’s a risk averse profession. Yes. So what we need to do is have those signals from leaders. So again, if you have a head of department or a partner saying, Rob, I’ve not got the answer to this, what do you think?
Yeah. it can create that environment where I’m not afraid to take mistakes. What psychological safety isn’t is being soft and kind and nice. Yeah. And it’s not it’s not dismissing risks. Clearly we have to take a measured approach. But for me, things like being able to ask for help, seeking feedback. Emma talked a lot about that in her keynote today about you have to be able to give and receive feedback, but be open to it and learn from errors. And I think it’s going back to the point we just talked about in terms of reflection.
What we’re really keen to do at Kennedy is is is empower our our colleagues to think about, okay, well what what could I have done? Yep. What could I do differently? but if we create an environment where I’m afraid to take a risk, then no innovation takes place. The service we give to clients isn’t effective because we’re we’re we’re kinda locked in that status quo bias.
Rob Hanna (05:00)
So it’s so true, isn’t it? And you don’t want to suffocate all of that potential opportunity you’re missing by creating that non psychological safe space. Okay. I say it all the time collaboration is domination, but cross functional collaboration between lawyers and business services can be quite complex. So what have you seen work when aligning different incentives and priorities?
Simon Price (05:19)
That for me, when I started my career as a young lawyer, I had no idea the value that business services offered. Yeah. Since I’m in business services these days, I can look at it from a completely different perspective. Yeah. What we need to do is think about what problem we’re trying to solve and who’s the best sub meta expert to help solve that problem. Whilst I don’t have any direct contact with clients these days, the service we give to our clients is still very much on how I develop our people. So I think for me is around
working as one team. And again, to go back to Emma’s talk about being a team, we’re not a collection of individuals, we’re one firm serving clients both internally and externally.
Rob Hanna (06:01)
We is greater than me, isn’t it? I think if you all come together as one, that impact on what you deliver to your clients is infinite. We’ve heard the resilience word a lot today, key theme. So at what point does resilience become unhealthy endurance and how should leaders recognise that line?
Simon Price (06:16)
Yeah, when I saw this question, I was taken back to an interview by Ian Dowie, the film of footballer. Yeah, yeah, remember Ian, yeah, yeah. The football player and manager when he said about bounce back ability. Yeah. And I think the thing for me is around I’m again harping back to Emma on a canoe. So she s kind of canoe through troubled waters, you know, it’s very busy. Yeah. And when we go through life, we don’t want to calm waters. We want that challenge, we want that comfort zone to be challenged. And I think for me it’s around.
noticing what good looks like for you. Yeah. And I think for me in terms of when resilience is is knowing when to take a break. Yeah. It’s when I’m not functioning, when I’m not sleeping. It’s again, it’s about having that opportunity to develop that kind of key skill.
Rob Hanna (07:01)
And the comfort zone’s great but nothing ever grows there, right? And I think that’s a a key point. Okay, t zooming out a bit, why did you decide you’re busy, you know, you’re in a very high performing law firm? Why did you choose to take the time to attend the this conference and what has stood out most thus far to you?
Simon Price (07:15)
Yeah, for me, I’ve known Nadine for quite a while. Yeah. and unfortunately I’ve not been able to make it down to London for the conferences as so as soon as it was up up north and in Manchester, I jumped at the chance. And I think for me it’s incredibly well organised. It’s very reflective. Already in the first hour I’ve got three pages full of notes to take away to have actionable
Rob Hanna (07:36)
And I think it’s very practical, tactical content, but in a in a nice setting and everyone feels that they can share openly, collaborate with one another. So before I let you go, if you could implement one practical change in your firm tomorrow to improve team performance, what would it be and why?
Simon Price (07:52)
I’d have to nick what Emma talked about before, about having a curiosity mindset, helping people reframe constant challenges.
Rob Hanna (07:59)
Yeah, I think that’s so true, isn’t it? And context is super important. Simon, it’s been absolute blast having you on the League of Vegas podcast recording live here in Manchester at Manchester Hall. If people want to get in touch with you or learn more about your firm, where can they go? Feel free to share any social media handles or any websites. We’ll share them this episode for too.
Simon Price (08:15)
Wonderful. Thank you. Yes. So connect me with LinkedIn. That’s absolutely fantastic. Kennedy’s law dot com. looking forward to kind of hearing the rest of the conference and great to meet you. Thanks, Rob. Like
Rob Hanna (08:24)
Alright
it’s been absolute pleasure and from all of us here recording live over an hour. And that’s a wrap for our 2026 regional edition of the Professional Training Miniseries filmed right here at the incredible Manchester Hall. It’s been an absolute pleasure returning to this fantastic event, bringing together some of the legal profession’s most inspiring voices.
From Emma Wiggs, MBE’s powerful insights on resilience, curiosity, and defining success on your own terms to thought-provoking conversations around leadership, psychological safety, collaboration, and high performance. One message has really stood out. Great performance starts with people, clarity, connection, and a culture where everyone feels empowered to thrive. A huge thank you to all our great guests, speakers, leaders for sharing their knowledge and perspectives. But we’re not stopping here. Next stop.
Boston, Massachusetts for ClioCon. For now, this is Rob Hanna from the Legally Speaking Podcast, sponsored by Clio, Over and Out.