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Warren Kalinko on Keypoint Law’s decade of growth
Here, the CEO of Keypoint Law reflects on the firm’s substantial growth in the Australian market over the past 10 years and the unique challenges faced by the firm’s business model in expanding nationally.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Warren Kalinko, the chief executive of national mid-tier law firm Keypoint Law, delved into the remarkable journey of the consulting model firm’s growth within the Australian legal market over the past decade.
Since entering the Australian legal market a decade ago, Kalinko revealed that Keypoint Law has experienced remarkable growth by employing approximately 80 partner-level lawyers across six major cities in Australia.
“We have about 80 partner-level lawyers now in Australia with a presence in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and recently in Perth. So we now are in most of the capital cities, and the firm has been growing very strongly,” he said.
Kalinko elaborated on the steady growth they have experienced, noting that they have welcomed a new partner on average every month over the past couple of years.
However, he acknowledged that despite the firm’s consistent growth, achieving the current status he originally envisioned has taken considerable time.
“But equally, it’s taking a long time to build the firm up to the scale that I envisaged when we established the firm here 10 years ago,” he said.
Kalinko mused that expanding the firm to its current scale has presented various challenges. He emphasised that venturing into the legal markets of new states often resembles the daunting task of launching an entirely new firm from scratch.
“It feels harder to me than I expected it would be, and I think what’s proven to be challenging is that every time the firm goes into a new state, it’s like we’re starting the firm again.
“When we opened up in Melbourne, or we opened up in Brisbane, the laws in those cities were not too interested about how we were going in Sydney; they want to know how we were in Melbourne or Brisbane or the other cities, and of course, when you’re just starting out in those cities, you’ve got nothing to show for yourself in that city,” he said.
He went on: “It’s like we’ve had to start the firm from the beginning six times over the last 10 years, and that really is hard.”
Despite facing various challenges, Kalinko articulated how the firm has effectively navigated these obstacles and successfully established a robust presence in each market it has entered.
“It’s hard to break into a new city where you’re not known and don’t have networks. But step by step, we have managed to not just establish ourselves in the different capital cities, but we’ve managed to build momentum in each of those cities,” he said.
Throughout the firm’s decade-long journey of expansion in Australia, Kalinko also indicated that fostering “confidence in people” regarding the firm’s innovation models has presented a significant challenge.
He said: “To build confidence that the firm is a good, solid firm, that takes time. And I’m pleased that 10 years into that journey, we have the level of momentum and are established and growing really well and performing well.”
