“Some people like that personal interaction with their colleagues. They like to be in the office and be able to go into somebody’s office and ask a question. Others would like to work from home or sit in their country house and work from there. They both produce the exact same amount of productivity and the profit for the firm, but they’ve just got different needs,” she said.

“And the best thing about Lehman Walsh is that we cater to everyone’s needs. At the end of the day, it’s about providing a type of environment for you where you can be the best that you can [be] for the firm and our clients. It doesn’t matter how you want to practise law.”

Particularly post-pandemic, Ms Eighani said it was important for her to support her staff and the legal community as a whole – via Lehman Walsh Lawyers’ partners-on-commission working model, which allows staff to be able to work completely independently whilst still under the umbrella of the firm.

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“I witnessed a lot of colleagues not being able to manage because one, they were never used to working from home, and two, there were a lot of colleagues who had just started out, and they had not managed to get any clienteles or any reputation in order to be able to continue on through COVID.

“The main purpose of this structure was to be able to provide for those who needed it. You can still focus on getting clients without having to worry about who pays the rent because we pay the rent for you and, in return, what we expect from you is to be an outstanding lawyer, whose name can go on our website, and we can say this person, who’s a great lawyer is part of Lehman Walsh Lawyers, which is a cycle,” she explained.

“It goes around, we give to you and you give to us, and we continue to give to the profession and, as a result, to the community as a whole because you are able to serve your clients to the best of your ability.”

Because of this working model, Lehman Walsh is able to brand itself as a multi-service firm.

“The referral system we have would mean that now we can be able to say two family lawyers, one who is just starting out and needs a bit of a hand and a family lawyer who’s been practising for 20 years and just doesn’t want to manage the admin part of the firm, they can come together and they can work on our referral system where the family lawyer with experience can refer some work to the new one and help them pick up and then later on that family lawyer can then have a client who’s got corporate needs or start-up needs, and they can refer to somebody else,” Ms Eighani explained.

“That’s the best thing about this structure, where it goes around and we’re actually able to help out colleagues, even if we didn’t know them before, and we were not within their area. Now, we are able to communicate with everyone, and this referral system will help the profession grow.”

The referral system has also improved the skills and legal knowledge of other partners at the firm, Ms Eighani added.

“It has helped me to learn more about all other areas of law. Prior to this, I was focused on litigation. I’m a corporate commercial lawyer. I specialised in that area, and that’s who I am. Now, this structure has meant that we’ve been able to, as a firm, to brief barristers from the family law bar or for criminal barristers, and it has provided this opportunity for our solicitors to be able to reach out to barristers and also help them out during this crisis where hearings were [being] cancelled, and they were not able to generate an income,” she said.

“Our system meant that solicitors could communicate, refer work, and then extend that to the bar by being able to brief barristers, which they would not have done before.

“The main benefit of this structure is that you have an image of a big firm whilst being independent. If you have many small firms executing this structure, then it, in my opinion, would defeat the purpose. The best way is that we take firms to come together, and that way you can advertise yourself as being a big firm whilst everybody maintains their independence.”

From implementing this sort of working model and structure, Ms Eighani learnt that whilst she never originally saw Lehman Walsh expanding past boutique level, it has since become a reality.

“I thought like many like-minded solicitors that I speak to think, let’s just be content with being a sole practitioner. We earn enough, we maintain our stackers as a lawyer, and it is just impossible to get into the big firms. It’s impossible to grow, to extend where we can call our firm a big firm. I have learned that one, if I put my mind into it, absolutely I can,” she concluded.

“And one thing that I really enjoyed through this process, this journey, and I’ve learned is that there are a lot of like-minded colleagues out there who are just wondering how can I do what I want to do? The most exciting part was meeting them and being able to discuss this idea together. I’ve learned that I can actually do what I thought I couldn’t do and what I always imagined my firm to be. Now, I can see that it’s going down that path.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Janya Eighani, click below: