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How Wotton + Kearney grew from a boutique to a BigLaw firm
Here, chief executive partner David Kearney discusses how Wotton + Kearney has expanded from a practice with half a dozen lawyers to an international firm with offices in Australia, New Zealand, and recently Singapore – and how it plans to keep growing.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, David Kearney, chief executive partner of W+K, shared valuable insights into the firm’s growth strategies and highlighted the contributions of all team members in achieving the firm’s remarkable growth.
To achieve such substantial growth, Kearney emphasised that the primary strategy for the firm is to focus on the specific areas where their clients demand services and to expand their operations accordingly.
“Our growth strategy is all about growing in accordance with our client’s desires in our chosen market, which is the insurance market now more broadly the insurance and risk market,” he said.
One of the aspects that Kearney praised for contributing to the firm’s international growth is its ongoing efforts to recruit individuals to help enhance the overall skill set within the organisation.
“I think if we’ve done one thing right, and I like to think we’ve done more than one thing right, but if we’ve done one thing right, particularly, we’ve been able to hire some wonderful people over the years. So [we] started the business and then grew with some wonderful hires over the years,” he said.
Kearney revealed how the firm has been able to retain two of its founding lawyers while also recruiting three partners for its three distinct offices in Australia, which has proven to be instrumental in driving the firm’s growth.
“We still have two of our founding lawyers, Adam Chylek and Belinda Henningham, leading our team. We hired a guy called Cain Jackson to lead our Melbourne office. Paul Spezza led our Brisbane office, [and] Will Robinson, our Perth office. We have just been able to make some really great people choices at the end of the day,” he said.
Within the firm’s team, Kearney mentioned how they have a collaborative approach to brainstorming and developing strategies to help identify the necessary measures required to facilitate and support the company’s growth.
“Together with the rest of our executive team, we think hard and often about where the growth areas are against our chosen strategy. And what people do we have within the team, or what people do we need to hire to ensure that we’re able to pursue a strategy within the confined markets that we’re really targeting?” he said.
The recruitment of these individuals has not only contributed to the company’s expansion but has also played a key role in fostering a positive work environment that attracts top talent.
“Law firms, of course, they’re about supportive clients, but they’re also about working with people who sit neatly with your culture, the culture you’re trying to build and are part of a team,” he said.
He also conveyed that cultivating a thriving work culture encourages collaboration among partners within the organisation, benefiting their clients and their needs.
“I like to think we have a very collaborative culture. Partners working together to, at the end of the day, grow in accordance with our client’s desires,” he said.
Kearney further expressed passion for growing a firm: “Of course, growth needs to be on the back of clients objectives. But what I also love about growth is it gives a growing number of people the opportunity to pursue a career in a law firm.”
The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with David Kearney, click below:
