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How to build a new BigLaw practice area
Jason Symons discusses his process of building the new cyber security practice at Mills Oakley.
Jess Feyder
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Partner and cyber security practice head Jason Symons joined Jerome Doraisamy on The Lawyers Weekly Show, where he discussed the opportunities and challenges in cyber and the importance of in-person connection for building a new practice area.
Mr Symons began his career in sports law and commercial litigation, subsequently acting for insurers and insureds. When the opportunity to begin a new practice area in cyber arose, he was eager to take it on.
He said what really stood out to him about the cyber area was that they could help organisations deal with the incident at the time it is happening — right in their moment of crisis.
“Cyber work can be very stressful for an organisation when they’re in the heat of it.
“The work touched upon a part of what makes me. I like working with people, and I like to help them through when times are quite stressful,” he said.
Mr Symons reflected that his desire to build the practice tapped into a part of his nature. “I had this deep passion to want to grow something from the start.
“My brother grew his own business, and my father. It’s in my DNA,” he said.
Mr Symons also reflected on how necessary the return to regular work has been post-COVID lockdown, as it has facilitated the kind of communication and connection needed to help his ideas form and build business partnerships.
“My diary is full of coffee catch-ups with all sorts of people, friends, colleagues of all different areas of the cyber industry.
“I am drinking more coffee than I ever have in my life,” he said.
“I think relationships, whether you know the person or not, require a face-to-face element for it to turn from someone you know and get along with, to doing some business together.
“Human interaction is required a lot of the time.
“There’s got to be trust,” he said. “Part of trusting that the person knows what they’re doing and they’re going to look after you requires a bit of eye-to-eye contact.”
Mr Symons discussed some of the challenges that have arisen in starting the practice.
“To start a new practice when you’re wanting to recruit in this environment is particularly tough.
“It’s also a real challenge to get your name and your brand out into a busy Sydney legal and insurance market,” he said.
“There’s a challenge for a law firm in particular in this space to be able to demonstrate why it offers a unique type of service, why clients should come to them for their incident response services or cyber risk advice.
“There’s a challenge there in differentiating us in a fairly busy marketplace right now.
“There’s a lot of noise out there with regards to cyber, and organisations probably struggle wading through all the information out there, so how you stand out from that crowd is a challenge.”
Although he noted that “demand is high for law firms to be providing specialty cyber risk and insurance advice”.
Mr Symons talked about the courage it took for him to say yes to the opportunity.
“If someone asked if I could start a new practice at a law firm 15 years ago, I probably would have laughed and said, ‘you’re kidding me’,” he said.
“And I think until you make that leap of faith, you’re going to have doubts.”
