After her co-founder left, Ms Rey hired Ms Scadden as a senior associate, who became managing partner five years down the track. 

“I had reached a bit of a crossroads in my career prior to joining Justitia where I was thinking that I probably need to choose between practising in law, so in private practice. I had two young children at the time, and it was going to need to be a choice between being the lawyer I wanted to be and being the mum I wanted to be ultimately. Sadly, it’s a position where many, I think, female lawyers find themselves in. And I came across Justitia, and they had a very different way of working in terms of the very presumptive, flexible working model and supportive of women in law,” Ms Scadden explained. 

“I was very fortunate that I was able to continue practising because it’s something that I quite enjoy doing and joined the firm about five years ago now, I think. Interestingly, when I came on board, it was a bit of a revelation. But at that stage, it’s still becoming a partner, and certainly, becoming managing partner wasn’t on my radar. And then when Sarah approached me about it a couple of years later, it was still a bit of a surprise. But a very, very welcomed one. But then shortly after that, the pandemic hit and everything changed as we all know.”

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Having gone from a co-founder to running a firm completely by herself, Ms Rey started to think about the future much more seriously. 

“My leadership style did change, and I became a lot more collaborative and transparent. I thought I had been like that when I was co-leading with my co-founder, but I found that when I was on my own, you are so reliant on your colleagues and your team. And it takes another level of transparency, I think, about what the firm’s mission should be, what are the priorities, what sort of culture do we want to create? I know that I was much more reaching out to my own team. I was also looking at them differently. So, I was looking at them from the perspective of what is the skill set in the team,” she said. 

“Is there going to be an appetite in that group with some of them to take up a leadership role? What is the breadth there? And you can’t always assume that just because you’ve got senior lawyers, for example, that they’re going to have some appetite to either run a business or run a law firm and take on a leadership role.” 

“It’s not for everyone, and nor should it be for everyone. Fortunately for me, in those early days, I had at least one other person that I knew was going to be one of the foundation stones for the future. And thus, all recruitment decisions from then on in were made through the prism of bringing people on board who would be interested in building that future of the firm.”

Within a smaller firm, this consisted of building capacity and confidence within potential leaders, as well as gauging whether they have an interest and understanding of the business of the firm. In addition, Ms Rey emphasised the importance of legal practice management courses and leadership programs. 

“It’s been a gradual period of running the firm essentially now as a threesome. And so, coming to your really interesting question about, at what point did I think that I was getting to my end date as a managing partner. So having been in the role for seven years, I think certainly the pandemic doesn’t help in terms of throwing major challenges at any leader of a law firm. But I think you start to, one, look at those around you to say, well, maybe they’ve got a skill set that is better than your own, firstly,” she said. 

“Secondly, at what point does your firm need further rejuvenation with new leadership? And thirdly, what is your own both energy level and compassion level to yourself and to your colleagues? And I think I noticed over the last year to two years that I was starting to get a little bit less compassionate towards people.

“And, of course, that was the time when the greatest amount of compassion was actually required over the last two years. And I thought, now that’s actually telling me that I need to start rethinking whether this is the exact role for me. It’s best not to make any of these decisions under pressure; those decisions get carried out in a more positive and a more practical way and in a supportive way when you’re not under pressure to make them.”

And in terms of business owners moving forward with their firms, Ms Rey added that “every effective leader should be working towards making themselves redundant in some shape or form”.

“That doesn’t mean it has to happen quickly, but they need to be always on the lookout and nurturing either internally or thinking about the planning around bringing in those people that are going to step into their shoes. The firm’s success depended on no longer being reliant on me in any shape or form. And that’s been the plan really for the last seven years,” she said. 

“And I’m almost there, and I’m really pleased about that. And that doesn’t mean I’m stepping away or it doesn’t mean I’m going away, or that I’m not still doing the same work. But it just means that it’s reached a certain level of maturity as an organisation that it’s no longer dependent on its founders.

“And, as we know, and as we’ve observed probably from many other organisations, when an organisation gets to that point, it needs a different type of leadership. The founder leader is not necessarily the right person to then carry it on to the next phase of the development and growth of the organisation. So, I think Justitia, over its long 17 years so far, has got a great foundation, great reputation, and is now under wonderful further leadership from Melissa going forward.”

In addition, it’s never too soon to start forward thinking, Ms Scadden added.

“I’m conscious that I’ve been given an opportunity to be at the helm of a firm, but I’m its custodian. I’m its caretaker. The idea is that the firm exists outside of any one, two, three people,” she said. 

“And so, I need to make sure that it’s in a state that is able to then be handed over. And so yes, that absolutely requires me to be thinking about what it is and how it will exist without me.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Sarah Rey and Melissa Scadden, click below: