Winner: DLA Piper

Finalists 2011: DLA Piper, Irwin Mitchell, Keoghs, Norton Rose, Roberts Jackson, SJ Berwin

DLA Piper secured the Education and Training Initiative of the Year Award for the imaginative training programme that was implemented to support the roll out of a new budgeting tool. Following its introduction, usage of the tool increase eightfold in less than a year.

This has allowed the firm to meet client demands for a more far-reaching and accurate flexible fees programme. The software programme Budgeteer allows users to create budgets for client matters that estimate the number of hours it will take fee earners working at different levels and hourly rates to complete the work. With the help of historic data, partners can then calculate the impact different gearing, discounting, recovery rates and other factors have on the work. This means that partners can have a more informed conversation with clients about fees and fee structures at the start of the case. They can also make commercial decisions on how to run the case as it unfolds.

After Budgeteer was trialled successfully in one practice group, it was decided it would be rolled out across the firm. The project team signed up the firm's most senior partners to sponsor the project, including joint chief executive Nigel Knowles, and engaged Huron Consulting to design and deliver the training. The programme was rolled out to all partners in the Leeds office first and then across the firm.

As part of this process, a 'getting the price right' manual was created as a training resource and the finance department developed enhanced financial reports to provide more information about the profitability of teams.

To provide a further incentive for engagement, partner responsibilities were reviewed to make them more accountable for financial performance. Eight months into the project, 177 UK partners had attended training sessions and the number of partners using Budgeteer had increased from nine to 79.