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Why this firm refuses to go full-service
While some of its competitors have upped the ante on the number of practice areas they cover, one law firm is holding strong on a specialised approach to distinguish itself.
Emma Musgrave
For Blackwattle Legal, a focused strategy on commercial litigation, insolvency and bankruptcy matters has paid off in spades.
Rather than opening itself up to other areas, Blackwattle Legal partner Trevor Withane said it’s important for the firm to knuckle down on those it knows best – something he said sets Blackwattle apart.
“Our mission is to be able to provide our clients with the highest quality legal services in our specialist areas with the best possible outcome with great customer experience,” Mr Withane told Lawyers Weekly.
“Now, that’s an interesting proposition, because the question is, how does that actually differ to what a number of other firms are doing?
“It differs in a couple of respects. We’re not a giant firm that is full-service. We only do what we know we’re good at. We know what we’re best at, we focus on [those practice areas] and we continue to develop our knowledge so that we’re even better litigators and insolvency lawyers than we were before.”
Mr Withane noted that while firms of similar size to his tend to look beyond specialisation to capture more clientele, it’s a strategy he’s not willing to implement at Blackwattle at this stage.
“The vast majority of legal practitioners in NSW are sole practitioners or [work in] small firms and a lot of those practitioners are multidisciplinary. For me, looking at that, it means that there’s actually quite a bit of competition and that competition pushes the price of the service down, as well,” he explained.
He noted rather than looking to expand practice areas, his firm is committed to focusing on a number of key priorities going forward. One of which revolves around increasing its presence as the go-to firm for such matters.
“[First] we want to be operating undoubtedly, within the Sydney market and in NSW market with a strong reputation for disputes work and insolvency-related matters,” he said.
Next, Mr Withane wants to partner with international firms with clients who have legal needs in Australia, but those firms don’t have that on-ground local presence.
“There was the rush of English firms that came into the local market over here and we’ve also seen some of the US firms come into this market in Australia, which is actually quite interesting because it’s opened up the opportunity for boutique offering firms like Blackwattle to [form referral relationships].
“So, we go out actively go to those firms who are global in their nature and offering, but don’t have a presence in Australia and we offer them referral relationships with our disputes, restructuring [and] insolvency offering.”
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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