Putting people first

In conversation with Lawyers Weekly, Mr Kearney – who is the chief executive partner of international law firm Wotton + Kearney – said that the age of coronavirus has reinforced the importance of such forward-thinking plans, particularly those that ensure a focus on the people who make up such firms.

“There has never been a more important time for businesses to demonstrate how the ‘employer of choice’ rhetoric they post on their websites and LinkedIn pages is the reality,” he proclaimed.

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“We’ve used the last nine months as a catalyst to supercharge our strategic objectives – becoming a destination for diverse talent, becoming more inclusive, enabling a flexible workforce, training to transform, and rewarding outcomes that bring value to our firm, our clients and the communities we support.”

W+K, Mr Kearney noted, is in the midst of the first year of its five-year “Towards 2025” plan, that he said is witnessing “significant progress towards the aforementioned strategic objectives.

“Of particular note, we have continued to attract insurance law talent with the highest growth of non-partner lawyers (20.2 per cent) of all Australian law firms in the last six months,” he said.

When it comes to reaching these business goals, he submitted, “if you put your people first, the rest follows”.

“That doesn’t mean providing employees with a blank cheque! It means that you consider commercial decisions through the people prism, you engage your people to find out what matters to them and you do something about it,” he explained.

“We all know you can’t please everyone all of the time but our constant communication about what we were doing and what it meant for our people made some significant deposits in the emotional bank account, to use the vernacular. Our clients were also quick to tell us what they were hearing from our lawyers which was a great litmus test of our approach.”

Singular industry focus and firm success

W+K is an insurance-centric firm, that – particularly in the age of coronavirus – has contributed to growth: this year, Mr Kearney said, the firm has seen a 30 per cent rise in partner numbers and 24 per cent increase in fee earners.

“We advise the insurance industry, which as always is playing an important role in helping Australian individuals and businesses respond to the challenges 2020 has thrown up including weather related events and of course the pandemic. That’s led to strong work levels for the firm and demand for specialist insurance law advice,” he said.

Operating as a specialist firm, rather than having a full-service offering, plays into the success of its “people first” approach, Mr Kearney noted.

“‘People first’ means truly valuing and caring for team members, providing progression opportunities and encouraging everyone to be their true self in the workplace. A ‘people first’ business has united engagement around a common purpose,” he advised.

“In a client service business at least part of that common purpose is centred around how our lawyers engage or ‘partner’ with clients. A specialist law firm is more readily able to articulate the purpose associated with partnering with clients; in our case, a law firm playing an integral part in an industry (insurance) which protects individuals, businesses and communities.”

Looking ahead

Surveying the horizon, Mr Kearney is well aware of the looming challenges that face businesses such as his – specifically, cyber security.

“Law firms like W+K house a significant volume of data which has tremendous value to both our business and our clients’ businesses. Whilst we have been developing data solutions for some time, effectively capturing and mining all of this data in a way which delivers value will continue to be one of our major challenges,” he detailed.

“Given the importance of data, we have embedded it as part of our strategic plan with specific initiatives. In this regard we have invested in a smart case and matter management technology which will allow us to capture data points from every action we take on a matter for a client and analyse it to produce different services and client specific data reports and industry-wide insights that will assist our clients by supplementing their current data sources to make better business decisions.”

Such a focus will run in conjunction with the ongoing “people first” drive, that – for Mr Kearney, who co-founded W+K 18 years ago and has seen it grow from a six-lawyer firm to now having 250 practitioners, including 42 partners, and offices across Australia and New Zealand – serves to inform how the rest of the business thrives.

The approach has to be all-encompassing, with the firm pushing for progress in pro bono to diversity and inclusion to flexible working arrangements. Taking a holistic attitude further allowed, Mr Kearney said, for the firm’s people to remain a priority in the height of the pandemic.

“Unlike other firms, [W+K] did not cut staffing positions, salaries or working hours. In fact, the firm continued hiring new staff and running remuneration reviews and bonus processes as normal. The firm already had robust crisis management plans in place, as well as secure, remote working capabilities. That meant it could rapidly implement a COVID-SAFE work plan across its business,” the firm noted in a statement.

“Law is a people business. If we continue to put our people first, I know our clients will benefit and growth will follow,” Mr Kearney concluded.