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What makes a good law firm executive?
For those willing to heed the lessons learned from the age of coronavirus, the post-pandemic world will provide a strong foundation for bolstering a firm’s strategy, vision and values, says Kiri Brain.
Jerome Doraisamy
TurksLegal chief executive Kiri Brain’s win in the Executive of the Year category at the 2020 Women in Law Awards came as a surprise (albeit, a welcome one) to her, given that she had only been in her role for just over one year at the time of the awards.
“To receive this recognition in probably one of the most challenging years of my career was a great way to end 2020!”
In conversation with Lawyers Weekly, Ms Brain said that leadership skills and optimal behaviours are transferable to whatever industry one operates in.
A great executive, she outlined, “[engages in] consistent, transparent communication, makes decisive not emotional decisions and has the data/information to support their decision process, and genuinely shows interest in their people and walks the floor. It’s difficult to have people buy into your vision and strategy when they don’t feel they have a connection with you”.
Such traits, she noted, have proved critical in the age of coronavirus, where the biggest challenge facing executives was “the unknown”, and how it would affect staff and clients alike, both in the short-term and long-term, as well as personally and professionally.
“There were no clear answers or past precedents that we could draw on. However, being consistent and transparent with communication, being empathetic, available and listening to our people and clients along with having the backing and support of our leadership team all contributed to how well TurksLegal performed during this time,” she recalled.
“Other challenges included the logistical issues of moving an entire workforce to remote working. Fortunately, pre-planning and investment into a robust and secure virtual desktop infrastructure years before COVID-19 hit allowed us to transition seamlessly to working from home with no disruption to our staff or clients.”
2020 tested, Ms Brain continued, the resilience, culture and infrastructure capabilities of law firms across the board, and therefore the executives governing them.
“It provided executives invaluable insights into how its business performs operationally and culturally during a crisis and revealed what is truly important to its people and clients. Taking on board the lessons learnt provides a strong foundation for revisiting and building on a firm’s strategy, vision and values,” she opined.
From this, she added, there are numerous opportunities for executives to grasp in ensuring their firms can leverage such strong foundations so as to thrive in a post-pandemic world.
“Humanising the workplace by continuing to show empathy and genuinely caring about your people and clients, re-inventing ways in which we can service and engage with clients, and leveraging off the speed and adaptability of change through technology,” she detailed, are the best paths forward for executives now that 2021 is upon us.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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