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How Clayton Utz secured a spot as a top firm for lawyers
The “down-to-earth” culture and its commitment to mental health strategies is a selling point for Clayton Utz when recruiting and retaining staff.
Naomi Neilson
Source: claytonutz.com/people/kate-jordan
Clayton Utz’s deputy chief executive of partner/people and development Kate Jordan, credited these traits to the firms fifth-spot ranking in the Legal Firm of Choice Survey, research developed by Momentum Intelligence in partnership with Lawyers Weekly.
Clayton Utz has made health and wellbeing a priority, having “ramped up our initiatives in this area”. It has been recognised with a Gold Accreditation from Mental Health First Aid Australia as a mentally skilled workplace.
The firm has also appointed a clinical psychologist to work as the firm’s mental health manager to assist its people in delivering its mental health strategy.
“We’ve worked particularly hard to look at how we can best support people’s mental and physical wellbeing, an area where we know that as a legal profession, we need to do more,” Ms Jordan said of the firm’s mental health commitment.
She added that based on feedback from its people, the firm has also focused on some key areas of improvement. It includes how it looks at rewards and values contributions to the firm, its training programs and how it can foster an inclusive culture.
“We see it as a welcome opportunity rather than a challenge to make Clayton Utz a more attractive place to work. What’s been really important is actually listening to our people and getting their feedback on what they’d like to see less or more of,” she said.
Ms Jordan said Clayton Utz is “not your traditional law firm”, and is known for its down-to-earth culture and for recruiting people who have more to offer than just their skills.
She said the firm looks for people who are smart, commercial, good with people and have skills and interests outside of law, “which we think makes them better lawyers”. Ms Jordan added the firm wants people who are “true to who they are”.
“We’ll continue to listen to our people,” Ms Jordan said of the firm’s future plans. “We actively encourage open dialogue and two-way communication to ensure we support our people in the ways that most appropriately reflect their needs,” she said.
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Top 25 Attraction Firms ranking – methodology
The annual Lawyers Weekly Top 25 Attraction Firms ranking was based on the results from one question in the recent 2019 Momentum Intelligence Legal Firm of Choice Survey, which asked:
“Which firms would you most likely consider a move to if you ever decided to leave your current firm?”, with respondents able to select more than one firm.
This year’s survey was conducted between 3 June and 3 August 2019, recording the views of over 1,000 legal professionals across Australia.
About the Legal Firm of Choice
The Legal Firm of Choice is an annual report produced by market research firm Momentum Intelligence designed to reveal the attitudes, perceptions and priorities of legal professionals.
It is the resource for helping business leaders attract and retain Australia’s best legal talent by uncovering the key trends in the talent attraction market including the key drivers of satisfaction, retention and attrition.
These insights are delivered on an online interactive data platform that enables users to drill down across the complete five-year history of the survey that includes over two million data points revealing the sentiments of legal professionals over time.
The Legal Firm of Choice is available for purchase via the Momentum Intelligence website.
For more information, visit the website or contact
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
