All in the Firm
The Business End, Business Services: All in the Firm
BRW. February 21 2008
Page 57
LEGAL PARTNERS MUCT BE PREPARED TO ACT AS MENTORS TO DEVELOP STAFF RELATIONSHIPS AND ENCOURAGE CAREER DEVELOPMENT.
Legal brilliance alone may no longer be a golden ticket to partnership in Australia’s law firms. The role of partner in contemporary law firms now demands a mix of management and mentoring as well as legal practice.
“When I started in the law more than 20 years ago, you were a successful partner if you were able to foster outstanding relationships with clients, and if you were an excellent lawyer,” Freehills managing partner Peter Butler says. “Those things are still true, but there’s another level now, which is the need to be able to foster and develop relationships with staff.”
This amounts to a big challenge in the well−developed Australian market, where partners already operate at high levels of legal competence and deal with intense competition for clients.
For Freehills, the expanded definition of partnership mirrors a larger shift in organisational culture. The firm seeks explicitly to foster “outstanding” experiences for staff in the workplace as well as for clients.
“Staff attrition is one big focus,” Butler says. “We go to a lot of trouble to recruit people at university level and laterally, and it’s terribly expensive and damaging to the culture of the organisation to lose too many.”
Partners need to be able to offer graduate recruits and solicitors mentorship in legal specialties and, more generally, to encourage career development both theoretical and practical. Solicitors shadow partners at client meetings without amassing chargeable hours to strengthen their own relationships with clients and to learn by observation.
Staff attrition rates have fallen by 5 per cent since Freehills launched its vision two years ago. Greater support at partner level has also altered the pattern of attrition, with fewer staff choosing to leave in their first two years. Those who do depart do so later, most often on a leave of absence to gain experience in law firms overseas for a predetermined time.
Partners with more developed management and leadership skills are able to shoulder higher levels of leverage, especially valuable given the link between increased leverage rates and increased profitability for the firm as a whole.
Butler notes that Freehills operates with four solicitors to each partner, up from about 3.5 in 2006, a rate which doesn’t compromise the time that partners can devote to their practice, solicitors or direct contact with clients.
The new role adds another dimension to the process of partner selection, demanding senior associates display legal excellence as well the ability to relate well to clients and to engage with staff as a coach, teacher or supervisor.
New partners at Freehills are able to develop that natural aptitude in a formalised partner development program, comprising courses focusing on leadership and management skills. Almost all 218 partners have completed the largest of these: the two−day Chrysalis course explores the role of emotional intelligence as a complement to intellect in promoting success.
For Freehills, the need to source staff with the potential to fill the wider role of partner influences the first rung of the interview process; newly hired staff need to demonstrate the potential to grow into all aspects of partnership.
Butler believes these talents should be nurtured well before a solicitor applies for a graduate position. “I’d love to see more content at a tertiary education level that allowed young lawyers or aspiring lawyers to develop skills in the areas we now know are critical: emotional intelligence, dialogue skills, ability to persuade, interpersonal skills,” he says.
The evolving role of partners in the firm will continue to benefit business, Butler adds.If the plan is fully realised, “I know that from a competitive point of view we will be the best by far. “But, equally important, the culture in this workplace will be outstanding and the demand for that sort of environment can only be a good thing.”
SARAH NEILL