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Lessons ex-nightclub owner learnt to stand out as a lawyer
Former nightclub and bar owner Jeremy Koadlow’s time in the hospitality industry has equipped him with invaluable skills in managing and serving people – takeaways the average lawyer will not have been exposed to.
Grace Robbie
Jeremy Koadlow is an associate at M A Legal, which has been nominated for the commercial team of the year at the Australian Law Awards in 2022 and 2023. He is also a former nightclub and bar owner with more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality scene.
His profound passion for the hospitality industry stems from his first jobs in this space and “being entrepreneurial, running and prompting at underage events”.
This deep-rooted passion only intensified as he accumulated significant experience in the industry, eventually culminating in establishing his own nightclub and bar.
He expressed how working in the hospitality industry gave him “a real foundation of understanding how to deal with people and communicate with people, how to understand risk, [and] how to navigate a compliance landscape”.
During his entrepreneurial journey in the hospitality scene, Koadlow gained his “first taste of law” as “there are certain legal requirements that one has to meet”.
Finding satisfaction in navigating the legal aspects of the hospital industry, coupled with frustration towards the legal professions he encountered as a client, fuelled Koadlow’s ambition to support other businesses and become a lawyer.
His extensive background in the hospitality industry has equipped him with invaluable insight into client service – a perspective not typically found in the average lawyer’s repertoire.
The most valuable lesson he learnt from his experience as a nightclub and bar owner, which he has seamlessly integrated into his legal career, is the importance of communicating with clients to make them “feel respected and heard”.
Koadlow commented: “So the way I speak with my colleagues and the language that I use will be very different from the way that I would speak to a person whose language is the English language is maybe their second or third language, and so I wouldn’t speak with them with any difference in terms of respect.”
“But I may be slower, ask more questions, and just be more patient. I [may] also understand that they may not understand me and ask them if I can explain it better, being more accountable for how I’m communicating.”
Koadlow has also found it essential to continue applying the “understanding that people are driven by their emotions” in his role as a lawyer.
He commented: “If I have to deal with a difficult customer who may be getting kicked out of their venue, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I need to be disrespectful to them. In fact, it probably means that I should be more respectful to them.”
Koadlow applies this experience and attitude when engaging with “opposing” lawyers with differing opinions and views.
“That’s been a very important lesson because, quite often, what I want might be the opposite of what someone else wants. But I have to make these decisions and be firm in them, but in a very respectful and compliant way because you can’t treat clients, whether they’re your legal clients or your venue clients, in some sort of illegal or immoral way,” Koadlow stated.
Having this extensive experience in the hospitality world has enabled him to treat his clients and team members “with an ethos of hospitality” – a distinctive mindset that sets him apart from other lawyers.
