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Building a positive work culture in a BigLaw firm
Here, the current and incoming managing partners of a BigLaw firm share insights on the crucial importance of cultivating a supportive workplace, emphasising that fostering such a culture not only attracts but also retains top-tier talent.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Amber Matthews, managing partner of DLA Piper in Australia, and Shane Bilardi, a corporate partner at DLA Piper who is poised to succeed Matthews in her role, discussed the significance of law firms dedicating time to fostering a positive workplace environment and culture.
In the same episode, the pair revealed how one of the primary challenges BigLaw firms such as DLA Piper will need to overcome this year is staying competitive in an increasingly competitive legal environment.
Matthews detailed how law firms, at their core, are people-driven businesses, and their success stems from their ability to comprehend and appreciate the diverse characteristics of individuals within the firm.
“Law firms [are] a people’s business, and therefore, not everyone’s [on] the same. We’re all human beings, we’re all different, we have different drivers in our lives,” Matthews said.
She pointed out that managing personnel within a law firm comes with its own distinctive set of “challenges”; however, she also emphasised that she perceives a “huge amount of opportunities” in this realm.
Matthews explained that this is the case as many individuals entering the legal profession are motivated by a strong desire to cultivate successful careers, which are admirable qualities to possess for a thriving work culture.
“What we see is people coming into the law because they want to develop their careers, they want to be good lawyers, they want the opportunities to develop and grow and work for great clients and potentially move around the world,” Matthews said.
However, Matthews emphasised that creating a positive culture is not a one-time effort but a continuous journey that necessitates ongoing attention and active involvement from staff members.
“It is really important that you try to develop a positive culture. [But] it’s something that is constantly changing and evolving that you need to focus on, and it is really important that you listen a lot to your staff,” Matthews said.
To ensure they meet these goals, Matthews revealed how DLA Piper conducts regular engagement surveys and facilitates open communication channels with its employees to understand their needs and expectations.
“We do regular engagement surveys, for example. We use that as well as the more day-to-day human interaction to better understand what our people are looking for in their careers, and we reflect on it, and we act on it,” Matthews said.
However, Matthews stressed that it is the responsibility of “leaders of law firms” to ensure that they are “listening” and “providing the opportunity” for their team members to share their needs.
Bilardi recognises that while technology and AI are reshaping the delivery of legal services, he expressed that it is still fundamentally a people-driven business, making it essential for firms to cultivate an engaging work culture.
“Despite the influx of technology and AI starting to play a part in how we deliver services, it is still, in the end, a business about having great people available to our clients. To do that, we’ve got to make ourselves, DLA Piper, a compelling place to work,” Bilardi said.
“We have to compete with that marketplace, and we do that by trying to make our place a really exciting, enjoyable place to work, offering great work, great development opportunities and taking a long-term view on how to develop people’s careers.”
