Law firms are often accused of having weak management which allows them to drift when radical action is necessary. Decisions are taken too late and half-heartedly, if they are taken at all, claim the critics.

By then, key rainmaking partners have long since departed, frustrated at the firm's lack of direction while, internally, grudges and resentments fester over the allocation of resources.

At face value, then, the new executive committee at Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) has been remarkably decisive. The shake-up has taken everybody, including most people at the firm, completely by surprise.

Three weeks ago, Stephen Houston, the partner-in-charge of the Manchester office was extolling the success of DAC's earlier strategy to focus on five industry sectors. He gave no inkling that his days at the firm were numbered If action was needed – and the firm's management clearly believes it was – DAC chose the best way of going about it.

It is far better to take the market by surprise than to be seen to be reacting to a series of setbacks. Not only has the strategy shake-up been decisively executed, but the reasoning behind it appears to make a great deal of commercial sense.

By concentrating on its strengths, so the argument runs, the firm can invest its resources in the areas that it is best at and, perhaps more importantly, makes the most money from – dispute resolution and property and banking. And by investing in core areas where the flow of work is more consistent and more profitable, DAC should see a greater return on its outlay.

The firm certainly sounds bullish about its ability to increase its market share in the highly competitive insurance sector and has promised a series of new initiatives.

The firm's new management team, led by its new managing director Nick Sinfield, must not rest on its laurels. Indeed their work has only just begun. As soon as word of the redundancies started leaking out, they embarked on a concerted PR offensive to explain the firm's strategy. They will have been well aware of the need to present the changes in the best possible light – not just for the general legal market, but also for the staff.

Making such a large number of people redundant all at once – the final figure is expected to be more than 90 – will rock morale within the firm. It will take a long time for it to recover, and it is unlikely to do so at all unless the management can convince the remaining fee earners and staff that no further cull is needed. Potential recruits will also have to be convinced that they will have a future if they join the firm.

To succeed, the DAC's young guns will need to mount a concerted, sustained campaign to win the hearts and minds of their staff and fee earners. It will not be easy.

After all, why should the staff believe any promises that there will be no further job cuts? Until the start of last week, the firm was telling its staff that everything was working like clockwork.
But even if they do succeed in settling down the firm after such a traumatic bloodletting exercise, the management will be well aware that no matter how good their presentational skills are, they are doomed to failure unless their strategy itself is the right one.

And that, as the saying goes, remains to be seen.