Daniel Wise, Partner
Former K&L Gates partner Daniel Wise explains why boutique employment law firm Osborne and Wise, based in the City of London, is well-positioned to respond to the current needs and expectations of its growing client base.
What is your number one priority for Osborne and Wise?
From my work as a partner at an international law firm working with organisations such as DuPont, Halliburton and Microsoft I have first-hand experience of the high service levels that top-tier clients quite rightly expect.
Now that I run my own firm, a key focus of my role is to maintain a cohesive and supportive structure to allow our lawyers to provide the excellent service that is expected by our clients. In doing so, we aim to give our lawyers the space to think creatively and provide that little bit extra to clients in the work that they do.
How does Osborne and Wise stand out from the crowd?
As a boutique firm we are immersed in all things employment law. So we have our eye on both market trends in the area as well as the up-to-date technical skills and knowledge expected of us. For example, when the recent Flexible Working Act came into force earlier this year, I was asked to speak about this by journalist and campaigner MotherPukka on her widely publicised podcast.
We also work closely with many of our employer clients in the areas of management training and workplace resolution. In this way, we hope to prevent problems arising, not just solve the ones that do.
Our lawyers are consistently responsive and we will always be prompt in getting back to clients. We ensure that we fit around our clients’ schedules; not the other way round.
Without a high level of fixed costs in our business structure we can offer more innovative and adaptable pricing structures to suit the varied needs of clients. This, in turn, allows us to work for a varied client base across a whole range of market sectors.
Because our lawyers feel looked after, our clients do too. Our clients regularly talk about the close partnership they feel exists between lawyer and client at Osborne and Wise.
What has been the biggest challenge to the legal market in the last three years?
In a word: flexibility. Many companies had to work hard to respond to the sea change in working practices that COVID-19 and three successive lock downs introduced. We have now had new legislation in this area and more will follow if Labour is successful in the next general election.
Employers continue to consult us in this area and it is a common thread in the training programmes that we provide to clients.
Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?
We took on a large international recruitment company as a client at the beginning of this year. They had spent a number of years dealing with numerous Tribunal claims and they wanted to move to a specialist firm that had a real focus on employment law.
We worked with this company through our innovative training programme that offers interactive lawyer led courses to line management at all levels. With board-level support we were able to address a number of areas that needed improvement in how employment law issues were being dealt with at various points in the corporate structure. This dramatically reduced the number of issues the company were facing and we continue to help them as and when further issues do arise.
Where do you see Osborne and Wise in three years' time?
Our three-year plan is for sustained but conservative growth. We continue to recruit team members, having brought in two fantastic new lawyers earlier this year. It is crucial that as we expand and work with new people we stay true to our core values. Our expansion as a firm is a response to the continued expansion in our client base and we feel very privileged as a firm to be in this exciting new phase of our growth