"Sometimes the best ideas come from being in a different place. The ambient noise of a half-empty beach, and the rest of my family in the sea, provided the headspace I needed to sketch out the beginnings of a very different type of legal service.

"It was perhaps more of what's been called a 'slow hunch' than a eureka moment, as prior to this, there had been various independent thoughts rattling around in my head. There were three areas of change that I'd been seeing – in attitudes to professional work amongst my friends and colleagues as Generation Y showed its influence; in the impact of changing technology enabling us to work differently; and in clients' new expectations of more for less.

"It was only when I was away from a task-focused work mindset, replaced by a more open and wandering 'holiday brain', that these three trains of thought came together for the first time and the seed for what became Lawyers On Demand was sown in my mind.

"On my return, scribbles were transferred to proposal document (I am a lawyer after all) and practical thinking about whether we could make Lawyers On Demand a reality as a side project began. That side project is now a separate 200-lawyer business that multiple other large firms have tried to copy.

"Of course, I've learnt along the way that a good idea isn't enough, and it's the execution that really matters. Sadly, not all that work can be done on the beach, but I'm convinced that it's important for us all to make a regular conscious effort to step outside of the daily grind and carve out space to think differently."

Simon Harper is co-founder of Lawyers On Demand. This article was commissioned for the Turning Points hub, an online career development resource from Legal Week in association with Berwin Leighton Paisner.

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