Ms Maxwell has been practising in family law for the past decade before starting Anchored Family Law in early 2022 — a firm she described as a “new family law” practice that is completely “online by design” and where clients pay a monthly subscription and pay to add on extra services as needed.

“Being very new and very small means that we’re agile, so I’ve been able to test, in a market research type of way, a lot of our billing methods before implementing them.

“So, I’ve had a variety of different subscription methods that I’ve tested out and landed on this one. And I figure, the more I can keep testing things and working out what works for our clients, the more robust the model will be,” she said.

“Every decision that I make, I think about why I’m making that decision. Is it because it’s just something I’ve always done, or I’ve always seen [it] done in other practices? Or is it something that needs to be changed, or can be changed to better suit both myself as a practitioner and my client?”

This also means that Ms Maxwell has been consistently testing new practices and working models whilst her firm is still small.

“I’ve done that over the past year; I have tried to be really intentional about testing new things because why wouldn’t I at the moment where it only affects me? Not so much my clients, but the impact of it is only on me at the moment,” she said.

There are also a number of exciting opportunities within this area of law, especially in terms of NewLaw practices.

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“There has always been that big missing middle, particularly in family law. So, you have people that qualify for legal aid, and you have the people that can afford sometimes the exorbitant amounts that get spent in family law matters, and the traditional models just don’t cater to that middle. So, finding new ways to work with that middle, depending on where you want to assist that middle, I think is the way forward,” Ms Maxwell added.

“Coming from a regional practice, where it is pretty much expected that every firm will do legal aid work because there is such a need for it, means that you learn really quickly how to run those matters efficiently, in combination with full fee-paying clients, and taking the skills that I’ve learned in running family law matters through legal aid in a cost-effective way, and applying them to that middle means that I’m able to do what I’m doing.”

And moving forward, Ms Maxwell said that in terms of seeing more innovative strategies in family law, a number of firms are utilising the same mindset she is currently adopting.

“I’m keeping an eye on those firms, not just in Australia, but the UK seems to be pushing forward with them as well. But at the moment, we’re in a world where fixed fees for a lot of firms are mind-boggling, so pushing past fixed fees into different models from there is a little bit scary for a lot of firms at the moment, I think.

“I think the fear for me from the beginning was that clients would take advantage, that they would want to use their subscription a ridiculous amount, and I find that that doesn’t happen,” she concluded.

“I think there’s a reassurance for clients that knowing that you’re there, and it’s not going to cost them anything every time they reach out, gives them the security not to always be reaching out. And there’s peaks and troughs in all family law matters, and sometimes they get a break just as much as you do.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Emma Maxwell, click below: