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How boutique owners can develop international relationships
Award-winning migration lawyer Marial Lewis reflects on why new firm owners need to prioritise fostering international relationships among their many other responsibilities.
Grace Robbie
Marial Lewis is the principal lawyer and founder of immigration boutique law firm Crossover Law Group, which was nominated for Innovator Law Firm of the Year at the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards in 2021.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, Lewis expressed the great importance of building international relationships for her as a boutique firm owner and the need for new firm owners to attain this mindset. She also revealed practical ways to foster these relationships, which won’t carve too much of their essential time.
When she started her immigration boutique law firm, Lewis expressed that she “didn’t necessarily think of international relationships as something that’s extremely important”.
However, this mindset swiftly changed when she started to network with other practitioners in the migration legal space.
Lewis commented: “From what I’ve realised, based on the international relationships that I’ve been building the last few years, how important they actually are and how useful they are, not just to bring referrals or to allow me to help others who might stumble across Australia and want to be there, but it’s vice versa as well.”
Going from not having any networks in the legal industry to now having numerous international relationships as a boutique firm owner, she offers valuable knowledge to new firm owners who want to achieve something similar.
“I would say if you are after international relationships and you think it’s going to bring value to your practice and to your professional career or network, then you can.
“Start by asking the question: Is this something that’s going to help me and my practice? If the answer is yes, then I would suggest looking within your network. You might already have a network of uni, friends from school, friends of family or other practitioners that you knew that perhaps went and are now working overseas,” Lewis stated.
However, several new law firm owners may find it challenging to prioritise building these relationships with the various other new responsibilities they have to juggle.
To overcome this time barrier, Lewis offers advice that “if you don’t make [time], you will never find [it]”.
Lewis commented: “My advice would be, and this is what I shared at the start of the episode, have a plan, have a goal, have some vision, where at the start of the year you might say, ‘OK, well, this year maybe I will try to build one international relationship somehow.’”
She provides practical ways for these owners to build these important relationships that don’t require significant amounts of their time.
“A good way to start is by finding, for example, a short conference that can be an online conference or a face-to-face conference that is related to your practice area,” Lewis stated.
Lewis expressed how utilising platforms like LinkedIn is another avenue to network with individuals within the legal space.
“But you might find groups that connect lawyers within that area of law that you’re in, or you might find lawyers with similar interests or similar life stages that you might want to join.
“It can be other social media platforms, and that can be a way of building that relationship or starting to build that relationship without investing too much time at the start, and then see where you go from there,” she commented.
However, Lewis also expressed how important it is to “look at your actual network” as you may “already have an international relationship”.
The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Marial Lewis, click below:
