What’s the main change you’ve made in Australia that will benefit clients?
When we established HFW’s first office in Australia in 2006 our principal service areas were shipping and commodities, being the industry sectors for which the firm is widely recognised internationally as having market-leading expertise. Australia generates about 10% of the world’s bulk freight requirement across the mining, agriculture, and energy sectors so in many respects Australia was a logical jurisdiction for HFW’s business model.
The firm’s presence in Australia provided our Australian clients with the option of a ‘one stop shop’ to service their global logistics and trading requirements through the firm’s fully financially integrated network of offices, and international clients with a trusted adviser in a key market.
Working examples of collaboration between the firm’s Australian and overseas offices in relation to Australian clients include advising on major shipbuilding projects in Europe and China, LNG trading from the Gulf of Mexico to South America, sanctions impacting trade into North Africa and the Middle East, acquisition of mining assets in Indonesia, major business interruption and property loss insurance claims in Africa and South America, marine casualties in China and Japan involving Australian bulk cargo, and enforcement of arbitration awards in China.
Over the past decade the firm has broadened its service offering both in Australia and across its international network to support our clients’ diversification of their businesses and entering new geographies which, for many international clients, has been Australia. In particular, we have focused on growing our capability to service domestic and inbound investment in supply chain infrastructure such as ports, warehousing and inland terminals, as well as mining and offshore oil and gas development, with the projects and construction group now being the firm’s largest practice area in Australia.
The firm’s development in Australia has been underpinned by a combination of organic growth and strategic lateral recruitment. This involves a longer process to build the business, however, we saw this as important to maintain the firm’s culture during this phase of our development rather than leaping into a major combination. This approach has allowed us to implement a growth strategy that is underpinned by the needs of our clients. Today our Australian practice can provide a ‘one stop shop’ across all of the firm’s six key industry sectors of shipping, construction, energy, commodities, insurance, and aerospace.
After opening our first office in Melbourne in 2006 we opened offices in Sydney and Perth, in 2009 and 2011 respectively, and are able to offer a truly national service in Australia.
Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients?
Absolutely, how we deliver legal services has undergone revolutionary change over the last decade, and this is largely attributable to technology. Clients are streamlining their businesses to be more efficient in how they serve their customers and they expect the same of their legal service providers.
Excellence in the quality of work product is a given, with accessibility and responsiveness becoming increasingly critical KPIs with technology driving a paradigm shift in clients’ expectation regarding the delivery of legal services. In practice, this means it is essential to embrace innovation as a point of differentiation in providing services. Building personal relationships with our clients remains a core value and we combine extensive face-to-face-time with technology platforms that allow clients to resolve issues in a streamlined manner.
One of the technology-driven services we have developed is the workplace advisory online platform iRES, which connects clients to their workplace relations team through a subscription service. iRES allows clients to log and track queries from any device and choose the required response time. It also provides access to reporting tools, which help clients understand trends and key issues in their business and identify areas for development for the HR team and managers.
The tiered system means that clients can limit user access to certain types of queries. Overall it is like having your own in-house legal team with the expertise of external legal advisers.
What do you do differently from your peers in the industry?
The firm is truly industry focused and has been since its inception in the late 1800’s which sets us aside from other law firms. In addition, all of our industry sectors are international, which underpins the firm’s entrepreneurial and adaptive mindset.
Our clients are moving commodities across countries, ports, terminals and oceans, running major energy-generating businesses, overseeing large-scale property and construction projects, including those offshore (and often in remote and/or hostile locations), and rely on our depth of experience to assess and manage legal risks in supporting their endeavours.
We have purposefully built the full spectrum of services we need to support our work in these areas, which means that no other firm in the market is able to advise clients on their high-value and high-risk projects across these six sectors – shipping, commodities, construction, energy, insurance, and aerospace – the way we do. Because of the nature of our work it is important that clients have unrestricted access to partners and senior staff, coupled with the cost-effective technology tools mentioned above.
What trends are you seeing in the legal services market?
There is an expectation that law firms align their value proposition with the commercial environments in which their clients operate. An unsurprising trend is that clients require greater certainty of their legal spend with a shift in pricing towards fixed and capped fee arrangements for contentious and non-contentious work, and the chargeable hour approaching its used by date.
From a resourcing perspective, we expect to see continued growth in the proportion of our personnel entering into agile working arrangements, with some already operating on a ‘hot desk’ basis.
Clearly technology is key to achieving the efficiencies required to meet clients’ expectations and providing the necessary support for lawyers and business support personnel.
You recently took on an employment team from Dentons. How does this feed into the firm’s strategy for Australia? Do you see employment as a growth area for HFW?
While employment and industrial relations is a key service area for many of our clients this is particularly the case for clients in the marine, ports, logistics, construction, mining, energy and agribusiness sectors. It has been part of our business plan for many years to grow our capability in employment and industrial relations, and Mark Sant and his team were a perfect fit for us.
The regulatory landscape in Australia is becoming increasingly complex, and industrial disputes present one the greatest risks of disruption to our Australian and overseas clients’ business interests in Australia.
Yes, I definitely see this as a growth area for HFW in Australia, with many of our offices globally also looking to expand their employment services offering.
What advice would you give to the next generation of partners?
The fundamentals remain the same in that commitment and innovation have generally led to success. Legal practice has been undergoing significant change for the past 50 years so change is nothing new and those who embrace change are far more likely to succeed.
However, the rate of change has increased and it is essential to look ahead and continuously reassess how your practice will be relevant to clients’ business in the next three to five years. Also strive to become clients’ trusted adviser, which requires an understanding of their business and the markets they operate in.
Focus on specialising in areas that are less susceptible to becoming commoditised and will remain an essential element of clients’ business.
What are your firm’s policies on diversity and inclusion in Australia?
Diversity has been a strategic priority of the firm for several years. In many respects it is part of the fabric of the firm as our business operates across culturally diverse geographies as is reflected in the composition of our clients, our people, and the firm’s culture of inclusiveness.
We are committed to achieving gender equality in all areas of our business and have set a target of 30% female partners by 2020. More than 50% of our construction lawyers in Australia are female and Carolyn Chudleigh who leads the team in Australia is also the firm’s global industry group leader for the construction practice.
We have also implemented programmes on social mobility, sexual orientation, and gender identity with the objective of ensuring that HFW provides a supportive environment that enables all talent to succeed.
What has been your greatest achievement, in a professional and personal capability?
I was a member of the foundation team that established the firm’s Australia practice 13 years ago in Melbourne with a team of ten lawyers and four business support personnel – today we have three offices and more that 90 lawyers. A former global managing partner of the firm described the integration of the Australian business as the most seamless combination the firm had done.
We have come a long way, and built a business that provides a strong service offering in all of the firm’s sectors. Several of the Australian partners are among the most successful partners in the firm. Importantly, our growth in Australia has not compromised the tight-knit and collaborative culture of the foundation team, which is something I am very proud of.