In June this year, now-partner Tony Macvean stepped down from his role as managing partner after running the firm for 17 years. Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Macvean revealed where the firm is headed moving forward following its recent leadership change and how it plans to differentiate itself in the current legal market.

Macvean became the managing partner in 2007 after starting at Hall & Wilcox as a graduate lawyer in the ’90s.

According to Macvean, his former role was more of a business leader position – and as such, the managing partner role in the firm was replaced with a chief executive partner, with Graydon Dowd elected to step into this position in July this year.

This process, Macvean said, was led by the Hall & Wilcox board, chair and external director, as well as with external advice.

“We’re really pleased with how our whole process has gone. Firstly, we did a big governance review where we surveyed our partners and reflected on our governance and leadership structure, really to make sure that the way that we were governed and the way that we’ve been led reflected best practice and was right for the firm,” he said.

“Overwhelmingly, that was the outcome from that review. But still there were some things that we felt we could change and improve, for example, changing the title from managing partner to chief executive partner. Then we undertook a strategy review, which I led really to help us understand the type of leader that we needed to succeed me in the role. And that culminated in a partners offsite in Sydney. And then we embarked on the actual chief executive partner appointment and transition process.”

Candidates at the firm then undertook leadership development before presenting a roadmap for the firm to partners – and have been “working through that transition” since the end of last year.

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“We’re really, really pleased with how that process is run, and many firms have found that these sorts of transition processes, particularly when someone has been in the role for a long time, can create tension and disharmony and be a real distraction. That hasn’t been the case for us. We feel that it’s been a really great process,” Macvean said.

“We think that we’ve got really good support. We think that those involved in the process handled themselves really well, and it was really embraced by partners. And so we’ve avoided all the politicking and posturing and all of that stuff that you sometimes hear that firms go through.”

Having such a “comprehensive, holistic process” and review has also meant that Hall & Wilcox has a good idea of where it stands in the current market – and how it can improve from here on out.

“We feel that the firm has grown substantially and successfully compared to a few years ago. If the firm is bigger, it’s better. We have better clients, better people, we’re better run. We think we have an outstanding client service proposition, and our clients tell us that. And external benchmarking tells us that. We think we have a culture that is very highly regarded, and we’re almost famous for [being] well run and profitable. But we think that we can really take the next step as a firm and become even a more prominent leading independent firm in the Australian market,” Macvean said.

“We feel that perhaps our brand hasn’t caught up with the quality of the work that we do and the quality of our clients and the quality of our people. We feel that perhaps we’re still a bit of a well-kept secret. And so there’s some work to do there. And more generally, the way that Graydon has coined our strategy is to be courageous. We feel that we have a great base; we’ve got a great story to tell. We need to be courageous to get into the market and help people understand what we can do and how we can help them.”

In terms of how Hall & Wilcox is looking to differentiate itself through being courageous, Macvean said that having more of a “market-led strategy” and investing in client relationships are key priorities.

“As well as having very strong practices and service lines, we really want to think about the market sectors, where we think that we have strength and where we think we know something that differentiates us from other firms. And that’s a role that I’m going to be playing. Supporting our market and sector leads to get into the market and build brand in those markets and sectors.

“Likewise, we think that we can invest more heavily in some of our major client relationships to deepen and broaden those client relationships, and perhaps to be a bit less transactional than they are now. Even in how we look to attract people to the firm. We have a great people value proposition. But still, there’s this sense of firms like ours being mid-tier, maybe being a stepping stone, we don’t necessarily accept that,” he said.

“We think that we offer people fabulous work, great client experiences, great development opportunities, good remuneration, lots of opportunities for progression. So, we feel that we can be more courageous and confident in how we sell our people value proposition.”

However, Macvean said he uses the term “mid-tier” somewhat “reluctantly”, as the firm doesn’t see itself that way.

“In terms of size, we are one of the, say, 10 largest firms in the country now. So, I mean, defining the market and segmenting the market is challenging by nature. But I think that, unfortunately, it’s fair to say that that is how we are still perceived in the market by many market participants. So that’s something that we’re keen to change in the markets and the sectors and the practices where we’re strong,” he said.

“We want to be considered amongst the leading firms, amongst the best firms, not mid-tier or mediocre or ordinary in any way. In terms of our aspiration, we’ve never really had an aspiration that we’ve defined in terms of size, or headcount, or revenue. We have grown, and I think we will continue to grow.”