Australasian Lawyer issue 1.04

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE HOW EMPLOYEES RATED THEIR FIRMS australasianlawyer.com.au Issue 1.4

SYDNEY AND CANBERRA REPORTS LEGAL MARKETS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE BACK TO LAW SCHOOL POSTGRADUATE OPTIONS FOR LAWYERS

AHEAD OF THE CURVE Westpac Group’s Rebecca Lim on banking’s revolution and preparing for the challenges of tomorrow

EDITOR’S LETTER / 1.1

1 | APRIL 2014

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

Contents

12 COVER STORY

Ahead of the curve Westpac Group general counsel Rebecca Lim on banking’s revolution and the challenges of tomorrow

34 FEATURES 16 | Employer of Choice Find out how employees rated their firms

32

GROWING GLOBAL

CEO MARK RIGOTTI on what’s next for Herbert Smith Freehills

26 | Sydney in the spotlight There’s cause for optimism in Sydney’s law firms

26

32 | Capital thinking The latest from Canberra’s legal market 38 | Back to law school How a postgraduate degree can advance lawyers’ careers 46 | Making it in Mongolia Elisabeth Ellis on opportunities in this awakening market 50 | From production to premiere Behind the scenes in Australia’s film industry

REGULARS 04 | News analysis 06 | Deals round-up 10 | Appointments 52 | Legal insight: The changing legal landscape

OCTOBER 2014 | 1

EDITOR’S LETTER / 1.4

WORKING ON WORKPLACE CULTURE

COPY & FEATURES EDITOR Kathryn Crossley CONTRIBUTORS Dr. Adam Fraser, Sophie Schroder PRODUCTION EDITORS Roslyn Meredith, Moira Daniels

Kathryn Crossley

When you ask a law firm representative what sets their organisation apart from the competition, “the culture” is usually one of the first examples offered. The supportive and collaborative working environment, work-life balance, the approachability of partners, and open-door policies are all frequently cited.

Firms have invested significant time and effort in initiatives to ensure that employees are engaged, yet based on this year’s Employer of Choice survey (p16) it is clear that not all lawyers believe their firm has succeeded in creating or maintaining the desired workplace culture. As one survey respondent put it, “I don’t like it! Get me out of here, please!”

It may be that the benefits of certain initiatives are yet to be felt, but for some firms extra work is needed. It takes more than the occasional team-building exercise to bring colleagues closer together.

Creating a supportive and productive workplace culture doesn’t happen overnight. It is an ongoing process that involves seeking and responding to employee feedback, responding to changing employee needs, and ensuring that all new staff members understand the firm’s vision and feel part of the team. A positive workplace culture should be something employees experience daily, rather than something they read or are told about on arrival.

The results of the Employer of Choice survey indicate that law firms are at different stages of this journey, but it’s heartening to see firms’ commitment to creating positive workplace cultures for employees. It is clear that employees appreciate firms’ efforts in this space, and it is also worth noting that a good workplace culture can often lead to good business outcomes.

I will give the last word to another survey respondent who thought highly of their employer’s dedication to improving workplace culture: “My firm is trying hard to understand and appreciate its staff and their needs. It is not easy, but I respect their genuine desire to get this right and to improve.”

ART & PRODUCTION DESIGN MANAGER Daniel Williams DESIGNERS Kat Vargas, Loiza Caguiat

SALES & MARKETING SALES MANAGER Paul Ferris MARKETING EXECUTIVE Alex Carr TRAFFIC MANAGER Maria Katsiotis

CORPORATE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Mike Shipley CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER George Walmsley MANAGING DIRECTOR Justin Kennedy CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Colin Chan HR MANAGER Julia Bookallil Editorial enquiries Kathryn Crossley tel: +61 2 8437 4702 kathryn.crossley@keymedia.com.au Advertising enquiries Paul Ferris tel: +61 2 8437 4703 paul.ferris@keymedia.com.au Subscriptions subscriptions@keymedia.com.au Key Media keymedia.com.au Key Media Pty Ltd, regional head office, Level 10, 1–9 Chandos St, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia tel: +61 2 8437 4700 fax: +61 2 9439 4599 Offices in Auckland, Toronto, Denver, Manila australasianlawyer.com.au Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept, as Australasian Lawyer magazine can accept no responsibility for loss

Kathryn Crossley, editor, Australasian Lawyer

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Contact the editor:

kathryn.crossley@keymedia.com.au

2 | OCTOBER 2014

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NEWS ANALYSIS

Will international firms still call Australia home?

Tight competition and sometimes challenging market conditions mean it hasn’t always been an easy journey for some of the international entrants to Australia’s legal market Recent years have seen numerous international legal brands make their Australian debut. With a number of overseas firms merging with local players and others opening their own offices, the Australian legal market has shifted significantly.

Yet it hasn’t been smooth sailing for all international firms. With the weakening of the Australian dollar and a slowdown in the mining sector, some of the factors that made Australia a popular destination for international firms are starting to ease.

“It is important to remember that when a lot of these European or UK-based law firms came into the Australian market, the Australian dollar was much stronger. That has changed now. I’d be surprised if there’s many more [international firms] to enter the Australian market. I think there might be a few firms that exit the Australian market or which have a presence in the Australian market in a different form,” predicts Lander & Rogers partner Jackie Solakovski.

While market conditions have changed somewhat since many international firms opened their doors in 4 | OCTOBER 2014

Australia, K&L Gates chairman and global managing partner Peter Kalis says his firm approached the Australian market strategically and as a long-term commitment, and that short-term movements in the market would not sway the firm. “Markets always move in cycle, and the destination has to make great strategic sense against the backdrop that today’s bull market is tomorrow’s bear market,” he explains.

“Even in my darkest moments I can’t work myself up to be gloomy about the Australian legal market. I think it is a bunch of firms who are getting spooked because of relatively normal cyclical movements in the market, and frankly you shouldn’t get spooked over that,” Kalis says. “If you get spooked over that, you shouldn’t have come in the first place.”

PARTNERS ON THE MOVE For Kalis, the quality and professionalism of Australia’s lawyers, and the fact that it’s an English-speaking nation with a strong rule of law culture, were some of the things that drew his firm to the market. “That allows us in the Asia-Pacific market to put lawyers on the field that share our perspectives and values,” Kalis says.

Although the local talent pool has also been a drawcard for international firms, staffing is another area where some firms have experienced pressure.

“While you can always recruit people, the real question

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

is can you recruit really high-quality people that are going to move your brand up the food chain in a particular market,” says Kalis, noting that some merged firms have experienced a number of partner departures in recent times.

“I think the market for talent would be very challenging for international firms that are here but not here strategically,” he says.

INTERNATIONAL VS LOCAL FIRMS Mills Oakley CEO John Nerurker says international firms are also facing pressure on another front: clients. Despite their prominence, in Nerurker’s view international legal brands aren’t always going to be the first choice of local clients. “The issue is how many Australian clients need cross-border capability from week to week or month to month.

Many don’t, so national legal brands are a logical choice for day-to-day legal requirements and clients are increasingly making that choice,” he says. “We offer better-value pricing, the majority of our partners have top-tier experience, and we aren’t distracted by having to report back to head office in a distant jurisdiction.”

DISAPPEARING DEALS? Another attraction for international firms has been the major transactional work, but “some of the

headline-grabbing deals you see with less regularity these days,” Kalis observes.

Solakovski agrees. “It’s been interesting because the size of the Australian legal market has not changed significantly, and the type of deals that these international firms like to be involved in and what they see as their sweet spot, the Australian market really doesn’t produce that with regularity,” she says.

That a number of international firms have moved to Australia to chase mega deals has also significantly increased the competition for work in that space.

“International brands focused on cross-border work are competing in a tight niche, so it’s likely that only the very best will survive in each market. Over the longer term, we may well see some of these brands choose to exit Australia because the share of high-end work that they can secure isn’t sufficient to justify maintaining a presence here,” Nerurker says.

However, Kalis does not believe all international firms will be equally impacted by the difficult deals market. “Firms, especially the UK firms, are so predominantly deal driven in their perspectives that I think they may have concluded that Australia doesn’t have the juice for them that they thought it would,” Kalis observes.

WHAT NEXT? Despite the dip in deal volumes and the fierce competition for major transactional work, Kalis believes it’s unlikely that international firms will leave the Australian market: “I think that would be an embarrassment of global proportions,” he says.

But Herbert Smith Freehills CEO Mark Rigotti believes international firms’ futures in Australia are dependent upon how they initially entered the market.

“I think for firms that have ‘scrambled the egg’ like us, they’re not going to leave. They might change strategy.

Will some firms who’ve dipped in dip out again? I think that’s probably right,” Rigotti says. “If you look at other markets, that tends to be what happens.”

He also predicts that some firms may restructure their Australian presence to better align with their strategy.

Despite the mixed fortunes of international firms in Australia, Rigotti believes conditions overseas could also be a determining factor in whether some firms stay down under. Even if a firm’s foreign office enjoys moderate to good success, Rigotti says the status of a firm in its home market often features in the decisionmaking: “I could see some [firms] going back not because what they’re doing here is wrong or bad, but because the mothership requires that,” he says. AL OCTOBER 2014 | 5

NEWS / DEALS

Deals round-up $960m

Transaction

Affinity purchase of 35% stake in Velocity Frequent Flyer Program

Abacus and KKR World Trade Centre (Melbourne) joint venture

Affinity Equity Partners, one of the largest private equity investors in the region, acquired a 35% stake in Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer Program in September.

King & Wood Mallesons advised Affinity on all aspects of the establishment of the joint venture. KWM has also previously acted on Affinity Equity Partners’ acquisition of Primo Smallgoods. The acquisition, which values the program at $960m, is part of the airline’s plan to grow membership numbers from 4.5 million to 7 million by 2017.

$120.4m

Adviser

Client

Lead lawyer(s)

Arnold Bloch Leibler

Asset 1

Tyrone McCarthy

DLA Piper

KKR

Les Koltai

Herbert Smith Freehills

Abacus/KKR joint venture

Justin O’Farrell, David Sinn

Affinity purchase of 35% stake in Velocity Frequent Flyer Program

$960m

King & Wood Mallesons

Affinity Equity Partners

Mark McNamara, Lee Horan, Ros Anderson, Diana Nicholson, Yuen-Yee Cho, Tim Sherman, Scott Bouvier, Alex Elser

AGL Energy capital raising

$1.2bn

King & Wood Mallesons

Citigroup Global Markets Australia, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch Equities

David Friedlander, David Eliakim

Arrium capital raising

$750m

Herbert Smith Freehills

Arrium Limited

Philippa Stone and Tim McEwen

King & Wood Mallesons

UBS

David Friedlander

Minter Ellison

Baytex Energy Corp

Paul King, David Pratley

Norton Rose Fulbright

Baytex Energy Corp

Jeremy Wickens

Baytex Energy Corp takeover of Aurora Oil & Gas

$2.8bn

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank offer of Convertible Preference Shares 2

$250m

Allens

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

Robert Pick, Julian Donnan, Martin Fry

Challenger capital notes launch

$250m

Ashurst

UBS, JP Morgan Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac

Sarah Dulhunty

King & Wood Mallesons

Challenger

Jason Watts, Ian Paterson, Jo Dodd, Esther Touma

Coles and GE credit card joint venture

Undisclosed

Herbert Smith Freehills

Coles

Brendan Earle

Commonwealth Bank capital notes offer

$2bn

Ashurst

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgans, UBS, Westpac

Sarah Dulhunty

Herbert Smith Freehills

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Philippa Stone, Philip Hart, Patrick Lowden, Lauren Magraith

DLA Piper

Australian Government (Department of Defence)

Caroline Atkins

Department of Defence contract for hardware and software services with IBM

6 | OCTOBER 2014

Value (A$)

$264m

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

MAKE SURE YOUR FIRM’S WORK IS RECOGNISED To ensure your firm and its lawyers get the recognition they deserve for their fantastic work, send all your deal details to kathryn.crossley@keymedia.com.au

Transaction Dimension Data Australia agreement to purchase Oakton Limited

Fosun proposed takeover of Roc Oil Company

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures’ Moree Solar Farm project

Value (A$) $171m

$489

$164m

Adviser

Client

Lead lawyer(s)

Herbert Smith Freehills

Dimension Data Australia

Raji Azzam, Rodd Levy

Minter Ellison

Oakton Limited

John Steven

Herbert Smith Freehills

Roc Oil Company

Tony Damian, Robert Merrick

Norton Rose Fulbright

Fosun International

James Stewart

Herbert Smith Freehills

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures

Brendan Quinn, Toby Anderson

Norton Rose Fulbright

Australian Renewable Energy Agency

Vince Sharma

Global Payments acquisition of Ezi Holdings (Ezidebit)

$305m

DLA Piper

Ezidebit

Bryan Pointon, David Ryan

GPT purchase of CBW property in Melbourne from CBUS Property

$608m

Norton Rose Fulbright

GPT Group and GPT Wholesale Office Fund

Justin Lucas

HostPlus and Charter Hall Group joint venture

$603m

Holding Redlich

HostPlus

Chris Lovell, Steve Aitchison

Infratil sale of Lumo Energy and Direct Connect Australia to Snowy Hydro

$605m

Minter Ellison

Infratil

Jeremy Blackshaw

Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and Oji Holdings consortium acquisition of Carter Holt Harvey pulp and paper packaging business

NZ$1bn

Buddle Findlay

Innovation Network Corporation of Japan

Simon Vodanovich, David Thomson

Investec sale of private banking business to Bank of Queensland

Undisclosed

King & Wood Mallesons

Investec

Susan Hilliard

Macquarie Bank capital notes issue

$400m

Herbert Smith Freehills

Macquarie Capital, ANZ Securities, Citi, CBA, Evans and Partners, J.P. Morgan, NAB, Morgans Financial

Philippa Stone, Lauren Magraith

ME Bank subordinated notes issue

$300m

Herbert Smith Freehills

Members Equity Bank

Andrew Booth

Nido Petroleum proposed takeover by BCP Energy International

$120m

Clayton Utz

Nido Petroleum

Mark Paganin, James Clyne

$164m Fotowatio Renewable Ventures’ Moree Solar Farm project Fotowatio Renewable Ventures’ Moree Solar Farm project (advised by Herbert Smith Freehills) received $101.7m in grants from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which was advised by Norton Rose Fulbright, and a $47m loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), making it the first large-scale renewable project to have the backing of both ARENA and CEFC. The project will see a 56MW solar photovoltaic power plant constructed in regional NSW, and it is expected to be the first plant in Australia to be built on a merchant basis – electricity generated will not go through a retailer but be sold directly into the national electricity market.

OCTOBER 2014 | 7

NEWS / DEALS

$3.7bn North West Rail Link operations contract The North West Rail Link is currently Australia’s largest public transport project.

Ashurst has advised the Northwest Rapid Transit consortium on its bid for the $3.7bn Operations, Trains and Systems (OTS) contract.

The OTS contract includes building eight new train stations, supplying the rapid transit trains, installing tracks and signals, converting the Epping to Chatswood rail link to accommodate the new rapid transit system, and operating and maintaining the North West Rail Link for 15 years.

The assumption of responsibility for the upgrade of the Epping to Chatswood railway line, and the integration of tunnelling works and surface works which have been completed under separate contracts have added to the complexity of the deal.

The 23km rail link includes 15km of tunnels, and is expected to open in late 2019.

Value (A$)

Adviser

Client

Lead lawyer(s)

Nine Entertainment and Fairfax media subscription video-on-demand joint venture

$100m

Gilbert + Tobin

Rachel Launders

Nine Entertainment

North West Rail Link operations contract

$3.7bn

Ashurst

Northwest Rapid Transit consortium (Leighton Contractors, John Holland, UGL Rail Services, MTR Corporation and Plenary Group)

Gareth Sage, Simon Irvine, Ross McKinnon

Pacific Equity Partners block trade sale of Veda shares

$578m

Allen & Overy

Veda Group

Tony Sparks

Proposed lease of the Port of Melbourne

Undisclosed

Minter Ellison

Government of Victoria

Peter Block, John Steven, Lloyd Baggott, Anthony Poynton, Geoff Carter

QBE Insurance equity raising

$810m

Allens

QBE Insurance Group

Jon Webster, Robert Pick

QV Equities IPO and ASX listing

$185m

DLA Piper

QV Equities and Investors Mutual

Martin Jamieson

Senex Energy and Queensland Gas Company asset swap

Undisclosed

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Senex Energy Limited

Bruce Adkins

SpeedCast International IPO and ASX listing and new debt facilities

$150m

Gilbert + Tobin

UBS

Peter Cook

Herbert Smith Freehills

SpeedCast International

Michael Ziegelaar, Nick Golding, Emma de Carle

Bell Gully

New Zealand Transport Agency

Hugh Kettle

Chapman Tripp

Accident Compensation Corporation

Mark Reese, Tim Tubman, Alan Lester

Herbert Smith Freehills

Wellington Gateway Partnership consortium

Josh Sgro, Gerard Pike, Andrew Griffiths

King & Wood Mallesons

ANZ, Bank of New Zealand, CBA, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, NAB, The Bank of Nova Scotia Asia, United Overseas Bank

Jeff Clark, Katherine Vines, Andrew Maynes, Charlie Detmold

Russell McVeagh

The Positive Connection consortium (Fletcher Construction, Fulton Hogan, John Laing, Morrison & Co)

John-Paul Rice

Simpson Grierson

Wellington Gateway Partnership consortium, Leighton HEB JV, Leighton

Simon Vannini, Michael Weatherall

Allens

ANZ, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Agricole CIB, Export Development Canada, National Australia Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Westpac

Michael Ryan

Transaction

Transmission Gully Public-Private Partnership

Westlink M7 refinancing

8 | OCTOBER 2014

NZ$1bn

$1.27bn

Firm Profile

HEALTH AND SAFETY CULTURE CHANGE IN NEW ZEALAND New Zealand has historically had a poor workplace accident and illness record compared to other OECD countries. This came to a head in November 2010 when 29 miners lost their lives at the Pike River Mine. Following a Royal Commission and an Independent Taskforce, New Zealand’s government announced a comprehensive package of reforms in August 2013. These will completely overhaul New Zealand’s health and safety regulatory regime. The vision of the reforms is a health and safety culture change led by the boards and senior managers of New Zealand’s businesses.

A new regulator, WorkSafe NZ, took charge in December 2013 and the main legislative response came in March 2014 with the introduction of the Health and Safety Reform Bill. Despite New Zealand’s recent election, the Bill has had significant cross-party support, and is expected to be in force by June 2015.

The Bill largely follows the Australian Model Law so will sound reassuringly familiar to Australian businesses. It will be supported by detailed regulations, codes of practice and guidelines, which should hopefully give New Zealand businesses the practical support and information they will need to comply. The significant changes proposed are: • A single and more inclusive definition of the relevant duty holder, being “a person conducting a business or undertaking” (PCBU), rather than the current various duty holders such as employers, principals and “people in control of a place of work”.

• The primary duty will change from taking “all practicable steps” to eliminate, isolate or minimise hazards to “ensur[ing], so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety” of their own workers, any workers “influenced or directed” by the PCBU, as well as all other persons. The new test is thought to give duty holders a better sense of what is expected of them.

• If multiple PCBUs are involved in work at the same location, they must “consult, cooperate and coordinate” to meet their workplace health and safety obligations,

as well as supervision and monitoring where a PCBU is not directly involved on site.

• The duty will now be owed to all “workers”, which covers all employees, contractors, volunteers, apprentices and trainees.

• There will be new, specific health and safety duties for PCBUs that design, manufacture, import, supply, install, construct or commission plant, substances or structures. These PCBUs will need to consider all people who may come into contact with their plant, substances or structures in any capacity, and ensure their health and safety whilst doing so.

• “Officers” of organisations will be required to exercise due diligence to ensure that their PCBU complies with its health and safety obligations. “Officers” will include company directors, partners, comparable directors of body corporates or unincorporated bodies, and “any other person who makes decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of the business of the PCBU”. The definition will include chief executives and, most likely, other members of an organisation’s senior management team, as well as receivers. They will be under a positive duty to proactively manage health and safety in the workplace, including taking reasonable steps to acquire and update their knowledge of health and safety matters and understand the operations of their business and the hazards and risks within it. If they fail in this duty, then they may be held personally liable.

• “Notifiable events”, made up of workplace deaths, “notifiable incidents” and “notifiable injuries or illnesses” will replace serious harm incidents. These are more prescriptive than before, meaning what needs to be reported will be clearer.

• There will be greater emphasis on worker involvement and engagement.

Health and safety representatives and committees will have clearer roles and greater powers and responsibilities.

• There will be considerably larger penalties for duty holders who fail in their obligations. The maximum penalty for body corporates will increase six fold to NZ$3 million, with officers or other individuals who are PCBUs liable for a fine of up to NZ$600,000 and/or five years’ prison, and individuals who are not PCBUs liable for a fine of up to NZ$300,000 and/or five years’ prison.

This is because increasing personal responsibility and liability is seen as the most effective way of improving New Zealand’s health and safety culture and outcomes.

The message from WorkSafe NZ is that businesses that currently have good health and safety practices will likely comply with their obligations under the new legislation. Nevertheless, we recommend that businesses prepare for the reforms by checking their current health and safety systems and processes, and ensuring that they comply with their existing health and safety obligations now. The key going forward will be to ensure that health and safety is not just a box-ticking exercise, but that people at all levels of the business become actively engaged in ensuring one another’s health and safety at work.

Sherridan Cook

Alexandra Wallace

This article was written by Sherridan Cook (partner) and Alexandra Wallace (senior solicitor) - both based in the Auckland office of Buddle Findlay. Sherridan and Alexandra specialise in all aspects of employment law and health and safety. Sherridan can be contacted on +64 9 357 1858 or sherridan.cook@buddlefindlay.com.

Alexandra can be contacted on +64 9 358 7041 or alexandra.wallace@buddlefindlay.com.

www.buddlefindlay.com

NEWS / APPOINTMENTS

Presented by

Appointments  DLA names new Australia head

DLA Piper has confirmed the appointment of John Weber as the firm’s next managing partner in Australia. Weber, who has been chief executive partner at Minter Ellison for more than five years, will assume his new role in November.

He succeeds Andrew Darwin, who is approaching the end of his two-year term. Darwin will continue as DLA Piper’s COO and will return to the UK in 2015.

 HSF’s COO joins Minter Ellison

Minter Ellison has appointed Herbert Smith Freehills’ chief operating officer Janet Young as its new COO. Prior to the merger of Freehills and Herbert Smith, Young was the COO of Freehills. As global COO for Herbert Smith Freehills, Young took a lead role in the integration of the merged firms.

In her new role with Minter Ellison, Young will oversee the management of the firm’s non-legal functions, such as finance, technology, business services, business development, and people and development, with a focus on skills development and using technology to enhance the firm’s capabilities.

10 | OCTOBER 2014

LATERAL PARTNER APPOINTMENTS NAME

PRACTICE AREA

LEAVING

GOING TO

Aaron Suine

Construction

Norton Rose Fulbright

Piper Alderman

Adam Wallwork

Construction

King & Wood Mallesons

McCullough Robertson

Allan Kawalsky

Banking

Norton Rose Fulbright

TurksLegal

Carrie Follas

Real estate

DLA Piper

Johnson Winter & Slattery

Danella Wilmshurst

Transport

HWL Ebsworth

Holding Redlich

David Beckett

Debt finance

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Johnson Winter & Slattery

David Kerwin

Insurance

Clyde & Co

David Reid

Corporate

Reid Commercial

Sparke Helmore

Geoff Farnsworth

Transport

M+K Lawyers

Holding Redlich

Hazel Brasington

Transport

Holman Fenwick Willan

Norton Rose Fulbright

James Roland

Banking

National Australia Bank

TurksLegal

Jeff Derix

Contracting, procurement and commercial law

Grains Research & Development Corporation

Maddocks

Jeremy Rees

Corporate

Fox Tucker

Minter Ellison

Ken Saurajen

IP and technology

Gilbert + Tobin

Clayton Utz

Matthew Bode

Banking and finance

Gadens

CBP Lawyers

Matthew Broderick

Restructuring and insolvency

Gadens

HWL Ebsworth

Michael Eyres

Estate planning

Sole practitioner and consultant

Keypoint Law

Michelle Meyer

Estate planning

NextGenLaw

Keypoint Law

Natasha Crowe

Insurance

Hall & Wilcox

Sparke Helmore

Nathan Cecil

Transport

Norton White

Holding Redlich

Nick Calnan

Insurance

Lee & Lyons

Sparke Helmore

Robert Milbourne

Energy, infrastructure, resources

Norton Rose Fulbright

K&L Gates

Robert Watson

Government

Minter Ellison

Sparke Helmore

Simon Rear

Corporate

Allion Legal

Squire Patton Boggs

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

 New Adelaide office head for Piper Alderman

PARTNER PROMOTIONS FIRM

LAWYERS PROMOTED

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Jane Hall

 HDY elects new managing partner

Michael Greene, one of the top litigation partners at Henry Davis York, was elected for a three-year term after a robust selection process which culminated in a partnership vote in August.

Greene, who has also held numerous senior leadership roles including as a member of the board, leader of the firm’s commercial disputes group and head of the firm’s government sector practice, told Australasian Lawyer that the announcement of his election “was one of the best moments in my professional career”.

He’s already been instrumental in formulating and implementing sector, client and performance strategies to strengthen the firm’s market position.

“I feel privileged to have been with Henry Davis York for 21 years, for the opportunities I have been offered and for the great people I have worked with.

Henry Davis York is part of who I am, and I am excited about the possibilities for all of us that lie ahead,” he said.

He will take over from outgoing managing partner Sharon Cook on 1 January 2015.

South Australian lawyer Tim O’Callaghan has been selected to lead Piper Alderman’s Adelaide office. O’Callaghan, who has been with the firm since joining as a university graduate 29 years ago, specialises in intellectual property strategy and management.

“The goal is to be the corporate law firm of choice in South Australia,” O’Callaghan said of his plans for the role.

“We want to give the best experience of a professional services firm to the clients, the people who work here, and to the community in general.”

Providing opportunities for the firm’s lawyers to develop their professional and technical skills will also be among O’Callaghan’s aims during his time as Adelaide office head.

He succeeds Tony Britten-Jones, the outgoing head of office who has now finished his six-year term. Britten-Jones will maintain his role as the national deputy managing partner and head of the firm’s property and projects unit.

Our business is to find the best lawyers for your business. www.mahlab.com.au Melbourne (03) 9629 2111 Sydney (02) 9241 1199

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30/09/2014 2:01:00 PM

OCTOBER 2014 | 11

PROFILE / REBECCA LIM

12 | OCTOBER 2014

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

Ahead of the curve

Westpac Group general counsel Rebecca Lim speaks to Kathryn Crossley about banking’s revolution and preparing for the challenges of tomorrow “Private practice was something that I really enjoyed but I was always very keen to get closer to the end customer,” says Westpac Group’s chief compliance officer and group general counsel, Rebecca Lim. Although she started her career in private practice and spent time in New York and London with law firms, it seems it was almost inevitable that she ended up playing a crucial role in an in-house team.

In her 12 years at Westpac, Lim has helped steer the organisation through the GFC and worked on the St.George merger. During this time, Lim has also held a combination of senior business and legal roles within the organisation, which she believes has helped her bring a broadened customer focus to her current position as general counsel. In addition to working on the M&A, group corporate and treasury legal teams, Lim has also served as chief of staff for CEO Gail Kelly, general manager of St. George Private Bank and general manager of HR for the St.George Banking Group.

“We do have quite a number of lawyers at Westpac who’ve gone on to be very successful in business roles,” she says. “I think the law provides you with a great framework for those types of roles.

It teaches you very good analytical skills, very good communication skills, very good influencing skills and reasoning skills,” Lim says, adding that she drew on these abilities in her roles outside Westpac’s legal team.

“Westpac has not only supported me when I’ve wanted to work flexibly or part-time, which I absolutely have done – I have three children – but more importantly they’ve supported me when I’ve

wanted to step up and take on a challenge,” she says.

When asked about flexible working options for women in the law, Lim observes that the legal profession has come an enormously long way, both in-house and, in particular, in private practice.

“From my perspective as a client of those firms, what I’m interested in is outcomes, and I’m also interested in outcomes that reflect the strength of that firm as a whole,” she says. “I am very open to services being delivered by a team that includes people who work on a part-time or flexible working basis; as long as they communicate really strongly together and get the best out of each other, that’s fine by me,” she says. “Perhaps the more overt clients are about saying that to law firms, the more law firms will feel the support they need to continue to change their business model.”

IN THE TRAFFIC “A large part of what I do is work very hard to make sure that I’m in the traffic of what’s going on in the organisation,” Lim says. Managing 160 people across legal and secretariat functions, Lim tries to spend a few hours every month with one of her legal teams “to better understand what they do on a day-to-day basis”, and “that helps me to be better informed as I make decisions about how I lead the team”, she says.

“One of the things that always strikes me every time I do that is the real depth and breadth of each of the practices within my legal team … I get a chance to see the breadth of their practice, how they’re working with our business partners to really help simplify and streamline and make things

OCTOBER 2014 | 13

PROFILE / REBECCA LIM

better for our people and also for our customers, but I do also get struck by the ongoing complexity of our business and the huge amount of change, not just for Westpac but the industry.”

From these sessions, she generates ideas around areas such as training and support for teams, as well as prioritisation of work and information-sharing across the teams, which are based in Australia, Asia, New York and London.

In addition to sitting with Westpac’s legal teams, Lim also makes time to attend customer events, meet with regulators and spend time with her peers.

When asked how she fits this into her working week, she says “lots of lists and lots of prioritisation” is key to structuring her time. “I am very organised. I get teased a lot by my family and by my team,” she laughs.

“I sit down once a quarter and work out what it is I think I need to achieve in the next quarter … and then I sit down once a week and say, ‘in my week coming up and in the weeks ahead, is the way I’m spending my time going to enable me and my team to achieve our goals, and if not, how might I structure my week differently?’ ” Lim says this approach allows her to ensure that the work she does each day contributes to the fulfilment of these longer-term goals. “What that

TRENDS SHAPING WESTPAC’S LEGAL NEEDS THE NEW RULES OF BANKING “Governance and regulation surrounding banks and financial services is only going to increase, and that has been with us for a while, and will be with us for some time.”

REVOLUTIONISING CUSTOMER INTERACTION “The end customer has much more opportunity to engage with banks and other companies on their own terms. People want to engage with us now on their mobile phones, on their iPads, as well as using traditional bank branches and contact centres … I think for us that’s a really exciting opportunity.”

WHAT IT MEANS FOR WESTPAC’S LEGAL TEAMS “This ongoing process of regulations and new rules for banks, and this trend of digitisation … both of those have big implications for the legal teams, and we’re looking to make sure we have the right capabilities both internally and on our panel to enable us to proactively deal with a lot of those issues.”

14 | OCTOBER 2014

helps me to do is make sure I’ve covered off the issues that aren’t necessarily urgent but they’re deeply important,” she explains. “In my line of work if you’re not careful you can spend all your day dealing with the latest emergency to cross your desk, and it’s very important for general counsel, I think, to be taking that horizon-scanning view and looking out for emerging risks and making sure your organisation is prepared for them.”

A BUSINESS WITHIN A BUSINESS Ensuring that Westpac’s legal function is run like a business is one of these longer-term goals. In Lim’s view, in-house teams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and Westpac’s legal team has its own strategy, which was developed in consultation with the organisation’s lawyers. “With a team of our size it’s very important that we run our function like a business so we have a focus on strategy, on capability, on high performance, on optimising resources, and all of my legal leaders run their own practice groups that way,” she says. “We’ve done some benchmarking tours over the last three years, going to the US and the UK, seeing what’s the absolute best practice in terms of in-house legal teams and how can we benchmark ourselves against that and learn from it.”

Lim’s team is currently focused on what she terms ‘the service revolution’. “We’re in an environment where there is increasing pressure and where there is increasing competition. In banking services what will really differentiate us and set us apart is the service we can offer our end customers,” she says.

For Westpac’s lawyers, this involves tasks such as simplifying and streamlining legal documentation.

Recognising the impact of advances in technology on financial services and its possible legal implications, leaders in legal and compliance roles undertake training in relation to emerging areas such as big data, cybercrime and electronic records. “We are trying to get ahead of what we see as emerging issues for the industry, and making sure that all our lawyers, not just our technology lawyers, know and under­ stand the new world that they’re going to be advising in,” Lim explains.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PANEL FIRMS While there is considerable legal talent within Westpac’s ranks, external advisers are also used, and

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

Lim says her team gives a lot of thought to achieving the right balance between internal and external advice to deliver the best legal value to the business.

“We really look and see what capability we need inhouse and how we complement that with expertise externally,” she says.

“Generally speaking, we find huge value in having a really experienced in-house team because they then very effectively partner with the business – they have such a deep understanding of that part of Westpac, what our customers’ needs and issues are, and they also have a lot of corporate memory, which really helps when you’re working in a big organisation,” Lim explains. But she says external legal firms are critical for Westpac, particularly in specialist areas of expertise, and panel firms often act on taxation and litigation matters, for example.

From Lim’s perspective, Westpac’s relationship with its external advisers is about much more than simply outsourcing. Panel firms have also been invited to assist Westpac with training, practice management techniques, and advice about stream­ lining workflow. “We work with our panel firms to make sure they can deliver us value that goes above and beyond pure legal services.”

In order to maximise the partnership, Lim says the organisation also briefs its top panel firms on its strategy, how Westpac is performing, and goals for its internal legal function.

Proactivity is one of the things Lim says she appreciates most in external legal advisers. “Some­ thing we very much value is when a firm is scanning

the horizon and thinking about issues that could impact Westpac now or in the future and brings that to our attention in a way that is really userfriendly for us,” she explains. “I don’t regard that as pressure-selling; I regard that as an essential part of what the firms do.”

CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY For Lim, the constant challenges and variety of work are what she enjoys most about her role. “There is so much to do and such challenge facing the industry. We’re also in an industry that’s under increasing scrutiny from regulators and media. The challenges for me really go to making sure that I can appropriately identify emerging risks [and] have my team work proactively to help deal into those,” she says. “The other [highlight] is really working alongside a great group of people, because when you are confronted with great challenge and great opportunity you really do need some top team players right around you.”

Although it’s not for everyone, the move in-house has paid off for Lim. “There are a lot of people who are very passionate about private practice and they love the fact that they serve a range of clients and they can become deeply expert in their particular area; but for people who are very much drawn to the commercial elements of the work that they do, who really want to really know and understand what’s going on for the end customer … and how they can add value from a legal perspective, then I think in-house is a fantastic opportunity.” AL

“In my line of work, if you’re not careful you can spend all your day dealing with the latest emergency to cross your desk”

OCTOBER 2014 | 15

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE 2014

The votes are in, and the results have been tallied. Find out how employees rated their firms in this year’s Employer of Choice survey In any business, attracting (and retaining) the right people is crucial, and law firms in Australia and New Zealand are no different. Legal employers have invested significant resources in training staff, creating opportunities for lawyers to do interesting and challenging work for quality clients, facilitating access to technology to make it easier for staff to do their jobs, and promoting employee wellbeing and greater work-life balance.

So have these initiatives achieved the desired

result of a happier and more engaged workforce?

Australasian Lawyer surveyed more than 1,000 employees from the legal industry about what firms are doing right, and where there remains room for improvement. Based on this feedback, we reveal the overall Employers of Choice, and take a closer look at the firms that were rated highly by their staff in particular areas, such as remuneration, quality of work, and work-life balance.

METHODOLOGY Date of survey: August 2014 Method: Online survey Number of respondents: 1,249 Employer of Choice status was determined by responses to the following questions/statements:  How satisfied are you with your current remuneration?  “My work provides sufficient opportunities for training and professional development”

16 | OCTOBER 2014

 “My work offers a clear career progression path for all employees”  “My firm has a strong commitment to achieving gender equality in the workplace”  “My firm provides me with sufficient opportunities to do interesting and challenging work”  “My firm gives me access to the technology I need to do my work effectively”  “My firm has a strong work culture and a high level of engagement”

 “My firm helps me to achieve a work-life balance”  How satisfied are you with your employer’s support for your wellbeing?

Survey participants responded to these questions/statements by providing a rating between 1 and 5, where 1 indicated very dissatisfied or strongly disagree, and 5 showed where respondents were very satisfied or strongly agreed.

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SNAPSHOT OF SURVEY PARTICIPANTS This year’s survey attracted a diverse cross-section of legal professionals. Solicitors/associates, followed by senior associates, were the two positions most represented in the survey, and the vast majority of employees surveyed had been in their roles for five years or less. Almost 60% of respondents were female.

More than 75% of respondents reported working an average of 50 hours or less each week, and most law firm employees had taken between two and four weeks of leave during the previous year. A snapshot of the respondents to the 2014 Employer of Choice survey is presented at right.

EMPLOYERS OF CHOICE

Gender

Time in current role

40

Male

40.4%

20

Female

59.6%

0

37.6% 36.5% 13.7% 12.2% Less than 2 years

2-5 years

6-10 years

More than 10 years

Position Other

Managing partner

(includes paralegal and legal secretarial staff, practice managers, HR administrators, graduate solicitors, business development and communications staff, and IT support)

Partner

In-house counsel

Australian firms with more than 500 employees 1. Maddocks 2. Herbert Smith Freehills 3. Gilbert + Tobin Highly commended: Sparke Helmore and Corrs Chambers Westgarth Australian firms with 500 employees or less 1. Squire Patton Boggs 2. Wallmans Lawyers 3. Carter Newell Highly commended: Australian Business Lawyers and Salvos Legal New Zealand firms 1. Chapman Tripp 2. Simpson Grierson 3. Buddle Findlay Highly commended: Russell McVeagh

Special counsel

Solicitor/Associate

Senior associate

Average hours worked each week 40h

50h

32.0%

43.6%

40 hours or less

50 hours or less

60h 20.0% 60 hours or less

70h 3.4%

70 hours or less

>70h 1.0%

More than 70 hours

Annual leave taken in the last 12 months

6.1%

9.7%

17.9% 23.9% 27.7% 14.7%

I have not taken annual leave

Less than 1 week

1-2 weeks

2-3 weeks

3-4 weeks

More than 4 weeks

OCTOBER 2014 | 17

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE 2014

REMUNERATION

As with most polls of lawyers, respondents to this year’s Employer of Choice survey were split on the question of pay. Just over half of employees (55.2%) were satisfied or very satisfied with their current remuneration, while 20.6% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their pay.

Partners were most satisfied with their pay, giving their firms an average rating of 4.14 out of a possible 5, followed by managing partners (3.97). Perhaps unsurprisingly, solicitors and associates were not as satisfied, giving their firms an average rating of 3.13.

However, it was in-house counsels who were least happy with their pay, rating their employers 3.10 for remuneration.

CAREER PROGRESSION

Although most respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their employers clearly communicated their career path and the steps to be taken in order to be considered for promotion, approximately one fifth of respondents believed their employers could do better. Managing partners were most likely to agree that their firms offered a clear progression path (giving their firms an average rating of 4.44 out of a possible 5), although other employees weren’t so sure: senior counsel rated their firms 3.32, senior associates 3.30, and solicitors and associates gave an average score of 3.35. Again, it was in-house counsel that scored their employers the lowest, giving an average rating of 2.33.

18 | OCTOBER 2014

HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU WITH YOUR CURRENT REMUNERATION? Very dissatisfied

6.4%

Dissatisfied

13.7%

Neutral

24.8%

Satisfied

34.0%

Very satisfied

21.2% 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Gilbert + Tobin Wallmans Lawyers Buddle Findlay

‘MY WORK OFFERS A CLEAR CAREER PROGRESSION PATH FOR ALL EMPLOYEES’ Strongly disagree

9.5%

Disagree

11.1%

Neutral

20.9%

Agree

30.8%

Strongly agree

27.8% 0

5

10

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Corrs Chambers Westgarth Carter Newell Chapman Tripp

15

20

25

30

35

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE 2014

GENDER EQUALITY

‘MY FIRM HAS A STRONG COMMITMENT TO ACHIEVING GENDER EQUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE’

Gender equality in the legal profession has been an area of focus for many firms in recent years and, based on the feedback from respondents, initiatives such as mentoring programs for female lawyers, initiatives to increase the number of female partners, and facilitating more flexible working practices to better accommodate employees with family commitments have been positively received. Close to three quarters of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their firms had a strong commitment to achieving gender equality in the workplace.

LAWYERS’ MOST PREFERRED FIRMS In addition to questions about how lawyers rated their current firms, the 2014 Employer of Choice survey included questions about which Australian and New Zealand firms respondents would most like to work for.

The larger firms stood out for voters when it came to choosing their preferred firms. Yet while perceptions of a firm as an employer may impact on the likelihood that a lawyer will work there, as one survey respondent noted, “You don't know 'til you get there”.

20 | OCTOBER 2014

Strongly disagree

5.7%

Disagree

7.2%

Neutral

13.7%

Agree

24.3%

Strongly agree

49.1% 0

10

20

30

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Maddocks Squire Patton Boggs Simpson Grierson

Which Australia-based law firm would you most like to work for?

1. Clayton Utz 2. Allen & Overy 3. Baker & McKenzie 4. Gilbert + Tobin 5. Curwoods Lawyers Which New Zealand law firm would you most like to work for?

1. Simpson Grierson 2. DLA Phillips Fox 3. Minter Ellison Rudd Watts 4. Bell Gully 5. Russell McVeagh

40

50

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

In contrast to remuneration, training and professional development was a far less divisive issue. Almost three quarters of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their employers provided them with enough opportunities to develop their skills.

‘MY WORK PROVIDES SUFFICIENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT’ Strongly disagree

4.7%

Disagree

7.9%

Neutral

14.1%

Agree

26.9%

Strongly agree

46.4% 0

10

20

30

40

50

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Maddocks Squire Patton Boggs Chapman Tripp

QUALITY OF WORK

Most survey respondents were positive about the quality of the work they did in their firms, with less than 10% of employees raising complaints about a lack of interesting and challenging work. But for one survey participant, the low quality of work was not due to the firm they worked at, but to the legal market more generally: “The current Australian legal market makes me want to go overseas ASAP to get more interesting and engaging work.”

‘MY FIRM PROVIDES ME WITH SUFFICIENT OPPORTUNITIES TO DO INTERESTING AND CHALLENGING WORK’ Strongly disagree

3.7%

Disagree

5.6%

Neutral

12.7%

Agree

29.7%

Strongly agree

48.4% 0

10

20

30

40

50

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Gilbert + Tobin Squire Patton Boggs Chapman Tripp

OCTOBER 2014 | 21

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE 2014

SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYEE WELLBEING

‘HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU WITH YOUR EMPLOYER’S SUPPORT FOR YOUR WELLBEING?’ Very 6.0% dissatisfied Disagree 7.7%

Neutral 15.3% The wellbeing of law firm employees has been the subject of countless studies, forums and industry news reports in recent years, and employers have responded with a range of initiatives, including mental health first aid training and employee assistance programs. It appears that these strategies are having the desired impact, with most employees reporting their satisfaction with the wellbeing support provided by their employers. Seventy-one percent of survey respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the mental health support at work.

ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY

Slow servers, unreliable printers and complicated remote working procedures can make even the simplest office tasks unbearable. Fortunately, most of the employees surveyed felt that the technology they had access to at their firms had helped rather than hindered their work. Only 11% of respondents believed they did not have access to the tools needed to work effectively.

Agree 27.6%

Very 43.4% satisfied 0

10

30

40

50

40

50

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Maddocks Wallmans Lawyers Chapman Tripp

‘MY FIRM GIVES ME ACCESS TO THE TECHNOLOGY I NEED TO DO MY WORK EFFECTIVELY’ Strongly disagree

4.0%

Disagree

7.0%

Neutral

12.6%

Agree

32.0%

Strongly agree

44.5% 0

10

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Sparke Helmore Squire Patton Boggs Buddle Findlay

22 | OCTOBER 2014

20

20

30

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

EMPLOYEES ON THEIR EMPLOYERS “My firm is trying hard to understand and appreciate its staff and their needs. It is not easy, but I respect their genuine desire to get this right and to improve.”

“I am very happy at my current workplace. I have been provided with clear progression path and have no desire to work for another firm. This firm has a commitment to work-life balance and making the workplace an enjoyable and friendly environment. I have worked at several law firms and this is, by far, the best experience I have had.”

“My firm has a number of added benefits that all staff receive, including health insurance, gym memberships, birthday leave, etc.”

“I would not go back to working in private practice as my job is far more varied.”

“There are a number of firms that will be able to provide higher quality work at better remuneration, but I do not know of any that can offer current worklife balance or relaxed working environment that I currently have.”

“I don't like it! Get me out of here, please!!!!!”

OCTOBER 2014 | 23

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE 2014

WORKPLACE CULTURE

Workplace culture is difficult to define, but employees are usually unequivocal when judging whether a firm has it or not. Legal employers in Australia and New Zealand performed well on this front. For the majority of respondents, their firms offered a strong workplace culture and a high level of engagement; only 12.9% of survey participants believed their firm was lacking in this area.

‘MY FIRM HAS A STRONG WORK CULTURE AND A HIGH LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT’ Strongly disagree

5.1%

Disagree

7.8%

Neutral

12.6%

Agree

28.7%

Strongly agree

45.8% 0

10

20

30

40

50

30

40

50

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Maddocks Squire Patton Boggs Minter Ellison Rudd Watts

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Almost 70% of employees surveyed agreed that their employer helped them to achieve a work-life balance, although a sizeable group (13.4%) did not feel that their firm provided adequate support for their worklife balance.

As expected, employees working an average of 40 hours or less each week were most likely to rate their firms highly for work-life balance. As average working hours increased, lawyers’ satisfaction with their employers’ support for their work-life balance decreased.

‘MY FIRM HELPS ME TO ACHIEVE A WORK-LIFE BALANCE’ Strongly disagree

5.5%

Disagree

7.9%

Neutral

18.2%

Agree

30.3%

Strongly agree

38.2% 0

TOP-PERFORMING FIRMS Maddocks Carter Newell Chapman Tripp

24 | OCTOBER 2014

10

20

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

EMPLOYEES CONSIDERING THEIR NEXT MOVE Close to 13% of employees surveyed reported that they would be likely to change their employer within the next 12 months. On a position basis, managing partners and partners were the least likely to leave their current roles, with 90.6% of managing partners and 95.2% of partners saying they were unlikely to change employer in the coming year. In contrast, 24.4% of special counsels and 22.4% of solicitors/ associates reported that they were likely to move in the next 12 months.

Unsurprisingly, the number of hours worked in an average week appears to play a role in how likely an employee is to change firms. Approximately 16.7% of lawyers working 70 or more hours each week were likely to move jobs in the next year, compared to only 9.1% of lawyers working 40 hours or less in a week. Interestingly, of those lawyers working 70 hours or more each week, 83.3% of respondents said they were unlikely to leave their firm – the highest retention rate of the average working hours categories.

Time spent in current role also appears to have an influence. Of the employees that had been with their current firm for more than 10 years, 82.3% were unlikely to move within the next year. Lawyers who had spent two to five years in their role were the most likely to seek out new opportunities, with 17.2% predicting they would change employers.

HOW LIKELY ARE YOU TO CHANGE YOUR EMPLOYER DURING THE NEXT 12 MONTHS? Likely 12.8%

Unlikely 72.6%

Not sure 14.7% 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

WHAT THE EMPLOYERS OF CHOICE SAY Maddocks CEO Michelle Dixon “In my almost twenty years with the firm one thing stands the test of time, regardless of our growth trajectory; the people here interact as friends and family would – while the work we do is important, there’s a feeling of belonging, support, respect and humour.”

Squire Patton Boggs managing partner John Poulsen “From the Partners of Squire Patton Boggs perspective, the firm initiatives that have given rise to our recognition in the Australian Lawyer Employer of Choice Awards make perfect business sense. There are a number of reasons for this and they all revolve around having empowered and engaged people. Empowered and engaged lawyers do better work and engage better with clients. Empowered and engaged support staff do better work and engage better with our lawyers.

This, in turn, supports our core reason for existence, which is to deliver value to our clients. Our clients really notice and comment on this. Being a place where people want to work means that the costs associated with staff turnover are considerably reduced. It also means that when the employment market is competitive, we stand a better chance of hiring the best people. It becomes a virtuous circle and creates a sustainable business which delivers good returns over the longer term.”

Chapman Tripp managing partner Andrew Poole “The quality and commitment of our people is key to the firm’s success so it’s great to see that they share my pride, both in the results we deliver for our clients and in our unique culture. It’s important to me that people enjoy working here and feel that they can be themselves, while still providing the highest level of service to our clients. It’s that combination of success and fun that makes Chapman Tripp such a good place to work.”

OCTOBER 2014 | 25

SYDNEY / SPECIAL REPORT

Sydney in the spotlight After several challenging years, there’s finally some cause for optimism in Sydney’s legal market Sydney’s law firms have had a bumpy ride in recent times, but this year the mood is far more positive.

While Sydney has experienced a quieter period compared to those centres focused on the mining sector, with the slowdown in the mining boom, Sydney is coming to the fore again.

According to Mills Oakley partner Michael Down, Sydney has been a good growth market and presents good opportunities and a relatively consistent flow 26 | OCTOBER 2014

of work for firms. “Our Sydney office has doubled in size within 18 months, and that’s testament that there are still significant opportunities in this market,” he says.

“I think there’s also a general optimism in the economy. I know that there’s a lot of naysayers … but overall the economy appears to have good credentials and there’s a lot of saving going on,” Down says, citing lower interest rates, the moderate decline in the Australian dollar assisting the manufacturing sector, and the mining boom declining but not turning to bust as some had predicted. From Down’s perspective, clients are looking very optimistically to the future, although he says it’s a cautious optimism for now.

For Patrick Ibbotson, partner in charge of Maddocks’ Sydney office, the local market is a

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

OCTOBER 2014 | 27

SYDNEY / SPECIAL REPORT

“Once you see somebody go in and make a good deal and make some good money, then others will follow”

Michael Down Mills Oakley

28 | OCTOBER 2014

buoyant one for firms, but it’s also a competitive environment: “There is a lot of work out there at present, but to be in it you have to compete and perform. It's an essential time to get the basics right – quality, responsiveness, understanding context, and value,” he says.

Although there has been an improvement in market conditions and many firms have had a strong year, Gilbert + Tobin managing partner Danny Gilbert believes there remains some uncertainty, and Sydney can still be a challenging market for firms. “I think the economy is inconsistent. There’s been a lack of confidence in the strength of the economy; we’ve had the weakening of the terms of trade, the slowdown in the resources industry, and just general uncertainty about the future,” he says, adding that competition and pricing pressures and the growth of in-house legal teams have added to increased levels of competition among firms.

David Walker, principal at Allion Legal, likewise believes firms’ experiences in the Sydney market have been mixed. “For the last 12 to 18 months it’s been a very strange market. You hear a lot of people complaining about a lack of transactions, and there have been pockets of activity, but I think in general the market here has been very lackadaisical in the last 12 months. A lot of people have kept their hands firmly in their pockets; they haven’t been doing things,” he says. “It’s not because of money; I think there’s so much uncertainty about where things are all going that the boards have almost been a little bit frozen and not wanting to do things, and I think there are some signs that that’s beginning to break down a bit … I’m not sure we’ve reached the fullblown recovery; it’s still a little bit stop-and-start, but certainly from the feeling we’re getting around us there’s more activity occurring at the moment.”

Despite the sometimes difficult conditions, there are some encouraging signs, and firms report a good year across a number of practice areas. At Maddocks the employment and workplace safety, property, corporate, construction, planning and environment, tax and commercial litigation teams have all been busy, with Ibbotson observing that clients in the government, infrastructure, healthcare and energy sectors are the most active.

Down reports a number of standout practice areas at Mills Oakley from the past year, including financial services, construction, corporate advisory, insurance, family law and commercial litigation. Gilbert + Tobin also reports high levels of litigation activity, along with a busy year in corporate and banking and

finance practice areas, coupled with activity in the competition and regulatory group.

For Allion Legal, the focus has been on sectors such as energy and resources, construction and agribusiness, with a particular emphasis on inbound Asian investment. “One of the purposes of Allion opening its office in Sydney was in fact because the firm was doing more and more work with the Asian region, and simply having an office in Perth wasn’t sufficient from a presence perspective for the Asian market. And also the debt market in Australia is centred out of Sydney, so if you’re looking at finance and helping clients to finance, you want to be where the debt is,” Walker says.

M&A Many of the firms interviewed by Australasian Lawyer observed that there has been an increase M&A activity over the last year, but this has been patchy. “There is more interest in M&A and there are more deals being explored,” says Walker. “There are smaller deals that are happening; whether the bigger deals will happen I’m not sure … I think M&A is certainly picking up, but it’s certainly not at the levels that it used to be.”

In Ibbotson’s view, some M&A work may have moved overseas. “My sense is that with the level of foreign capital in the country, a lot of M&A advisory work can now occur in Singapore or other centres offshore where the owners are resident. If that is right then mega deals that can drive the profitability of the largest firms will be decreasing in number, and there will be more and more competition for the local deals.”

Down believes that companies are taking a wait and see approach to M&A work and are keeping a careful eye on the Chinese economy and how the local economy performs in a post-mining boom environ­ment, but he adds that “once you see somebody go in and make a good deal and make some good money, then others will follow”.

“People don’t talk these days like they used to about the American economy, but once it comes back into its strength it’s going to be a whole different ball game for everybody, because it really does play a very important part,” Down says. “Even though Australia is very Asian-focused – and it has to be because it is part of Asia – and there is such an enormous amount of trade that goes between Australia and Asia, particularly China, I still think once America gets over its woes, and it’s well on its way, you get an awful lot of confidence coming back

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

CONSTRUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

“I think M&A is certainly picking up, but it’s certainly not at the levels that it used to be”

Activity has increased in the construction and infrastructure space over the past years and firms are optimistic that the pace will continue. Down says Mills Oakley’s construction lawyers have been busy with both front-end and back-end work, and the firm has advised on a number of office building and residential tower projects. He adds that foreign investment in property and construction projects has remained strong.

Major projects have also been a key source of work at Maddocks during the past year. “We have major matters ranging from significant transport infrastructure projects for most of Australia's largest contractors, through to health facility PPPs, and upgrades to large intermodal facilities and trigeneration plants, residential towers, roads, dams and commercial buildings, etc.,” Ibbotson says.

With a number of government infrastructure projects, particularly those relating to rail and roads, getting underway or expected to come online in the near future, firms are expecting it to be a growing area of work going forward. “In New South Wales that’s very much where growth is going to start occurring in the next 12 months, and the activity is occurring at various levels at both government and at private levels in that regard,” says Walker, who adds that Allion Legal’s next Sydney hire will be in the infrastructure space.

Sydney has been the preferred destination for international firms in recent years, and lawyers believe there is still a way to go before the market settles down after the arrival of international firms.

“There has been and continues to be a huge structural shift. My perception is that work that is not centred around the international debt and equity markets is increasingly migrating to the Australian firms from international firms,” says Ibbotson.

“Clients have realised they don’t need to use large international firms for everything … we find ourselves competing with the international firms, winning often, and not just on price.”

Down agrees, and adds that if clients see that the work is done well by those mid-market firms and completed for a good price, there won’t be a reason for clients to return to the top-tier market, perhaps even as the economy improves. “My view is that the introduction of the global firms into the Australian market, but particularly the Sydney market, does not appear to have been as successful as they all anticipated it would,” he says. “Most of them have suffered from significant partner defections. That state of flux and the apparent partner dissatisfaction leading to the defections provides opportunities for well-positioned, nimble, mid-tier firms.”

into this market and an awful lot of investment coming back in.”

Although there have been some encouraging signs, Gilbert believes the M&A space will strengthen overall but continue to be patchy over the next year.

AN INTERNATIONAL CITY David Walker Allion Legal

OCTOBER 2014 | 29

SYDNEY / SPECIAL REPORT

“There’s been a lack of confidence in the strength of the economy; we’ve had the weakening of the terms of trade, the slowdown in the resources industry, and just general uncertainty about the future” Danny Gilbert, Gilbert + Tobin

30 | OCTOBER 2014

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From Gilbert’s perspective the main impact of the arrival of international firms in Sydney has been on competition. “Firms that have rebranded as part of global firms have shifted their focus to making those arrangements work, particularly those that have a full economic merger. But by and large I think the partners who come to work every day are probably doing similar work to what they did previously before those mergers,” he says. “[International firms] create additional levels of competition in that they give clients a wider variety of choice, and indeed some of the names there are very significant global names.”

THE YEAR AHEAD Looking to 2015, Gilbert expects that it will be a reasonable year for Sydney’s law firms, but the work will be patchy. Ibbotson predicts that work relating to utilities and infrastructure operators, the health sector, transport infrastructure, urban renewal, IT and telecommunications will keep Sydney’s lawyers busy. Walker is cautiously optimistic about the year ahead and expects energy

and resources, agribusiness and a lot of M&A activity will keep his team busy. To that list Down adds finance, property, construction, and business services work.

Before the year is out, Walker expects to see a number of IPOs coming to market: “I think that you’ll find that before Christmas there’s going to be a number of transactions that are going to be announced and hitting the market,” he says. “There have been a few successes so people have got a bit more confidence, but that market is a very fickle market, and how long the door remains open no one knows.” In addition, Walker believes a steady flow of Asian agribusiness investment will continue to create opportunities for Sydney-based firms.

Down also predicts that as economic conditions improve, there may be a slowdown in commercial litigation work. “If the economy does continue to grow and that optimism that we find in the market moves through into actuality or greater income, you’d expect to see a reduction in commercial litigation because people are focused more on quality of business outcomes,” he says. AL

Danny Gilbert

Patrick Ibbotson

OCTOBER 2014 | 31

CANBERRA / SPECIAL REPORT

Capital thinking Canberra lawyers speak to Australasian Lawyer about the latest news from the capital

For Canberra’s law firms, it is always a relief when an election is over. It’s now a little over a year since the Abbott Government was sworn in, and Canberra firms have been enjoying the increased workflows.

“If you think about the last election campaign, it straddled from effectively the time the announcement was made in January, through to September, and whilst it wasn’t officially a caretaker period, it was a long period of heightened uncertainty, which does have an impact on activity and what can and can’t be done,” says Ashurst Canberra office head Paul VaneTempest. “With change in government there’s often a little bit of a lead-in time while people change the priorities and change the thinking, and ministers get their feet under the desk, etc., but since that has occurred, there’s been quite a flow of work,” he observes.

With the government’s first budget now behind it, Simonetta Astolfi, partner in charge of Maddocks’ Canberra office, says work for firms has risen further in recent months. “We've observed a real increase in work coming out of the Commonwealth since the budget, as projects have now either commenced or continued after the pause in activity typically seen between the election and the budget in May. It’s back to ‘business as usual’,” she says.

32 | OCTOBER 2014

A NEW AGENDA The change in government has brought with it a change in policies and a different mix of work for firms. Vane-Tempest says large projects in the commercial space have been a dominant feature of the last six months, with Ashurst advising on several major projects, including working with the Departments of Finance and Defence on the Air Warfare Destroyer reform project.

In more recent months, Vane-Tempest says the firm has advised on several scoping studies for the Department of Finance, including those for the Defence Housing Authority and the ASIC registry, and this work has arisen out of the change in government and the government’s new direction.

“I think it’s fair to say that that’s part of what has been a noticeable uptick in terms of the size of matters that are being considered by the government, the size of the issues that are being considered and therefore the size of the work orders and opportunities that are flowing,” he says.

Workplace relations has been another area of activity, Vane-Tempest says, explaining that the firm has been heavily involved in the award modernisation process for the APS and the Commonwealth public sector. Enterprise bargaining negotiations for a

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number of agencies have been running for the last three to four months and are expected to continue for some time to come.

Meanwhile, cases such as the equine influenza class action have continued to keep litigation teams busy, and there has been an increase in infrastructure work, with more activity expected in that space in future.

Astolfi has observed an increase in large projects such as privatisations, divestment programs and outsourcing activities, and an increase in significant projects undertaken by the ACT Government, such as the Capital Metro Light Rail PPP. “There has also been an increased focus on the deregulation agenda,” she says. “We have helped a couple of agencies restructure their regulatory activities so they take a more risk-based approach.

This has required us to work closely with the relevant clients to analyse their legislation and their operational activities in order to identify the areas of greatest risk, and then to match them with appropriate response tools. The outcome is that these clients have, or will in the medium to longer term have, more effective regulatory approaches, but will also reduce costs as they focus on areas of greatest risk.”

Other matters from the past year have included advising on a number of major human services outsourcing processes and assisting on mission-critical procurements by different agencies. “In terms of the procurement space I think there’s an emphasis on just being careful with the Commonwealth’s money and ensuring that the procurement processes work effectively,” Astolfi observes.

NEW FIRMS IN TOWN “Law firms that are relatively new to the Commonwealth market seem to be trying to gain a toe-hold in Canberra by opening offices here,” observes Astolfi.

Vane-Tempest has also witnessed the entry of new players and notes that Canberra is already a highly competitive market. He believes the success of firms’ new offices is very much dependent on what the firms are trying to achieve, and what work they are hoping to win.

“The reality is also that the Commonwealth is fairly substantially lawyered internally, so there are a lot of internal lawyers now doing work for the Commonwealth, which means that some of that sort of work which might have previously been done by external firms is not available,” he says. “Some might be disappointed to find that there isn’t the volume of

work in areas that they’re interested in as much as they might expect; others will find that there is, but it does depend a little on what you say you can deliver for the Commonwealth.”

THE YEAR AHEAD Procurement work, construction and infrastructure matters, scoping studies and divestments are among the types of matters expected to keep Canberra firms busy into 2015.

Vane-Tempest also expects that there will be work around the disestablishment of smaller Commonwealth bodies: “I suspect that there might be a consolidation of the various small bodies back into the ‘heartland departments’, which will give rise to legal work being required to be done – we’ve seen some of that already,” he says.

On the employment and workplace relations front, he believes there will be further work on the award modernisation process and a continuation of enterprise bargaining negotiations.

Astolfi predicts: “There will be a continued focus on probity, governance and assurance. Debt recovery is another area that will feature in the mix over the coming year.”

Taking a broader look at the Canberra legal market, Vane-Tempest says the competition between firms is quite fierce and likely to remain that way for some time to come. In response to this competition, he believes firms are focusing a little more on the work they are known for in the market, and he expects this will continue in the coming year.

Increased client interest in secondments also can be expected in 2015, Astolfi says. “Secondment requests have been common, with agencies and departments increasingly looking to resource their needs in this way, given the downsizing of teams and the reluctance to employ additional employees.

In addition to traditional secondments, virtual secondments have become more common,” she says.

The trend of clients being more cost-conscious, and the demand for advice that is easy to apply within an organisation, have been making their mark on the legal landscape in Canberra. But Astolfi believes there is another trend Canberra’s law firms will need to continue adapting to in the year ahead: “There is a continued focus on keeping costs down, but also a stronger interest in innovative pricing structures. There is a move towards using firms that are delivering practical, commercial solutions, not necessarily lengthy advices on the law.” AL

“Whilst it wasn’t officially a caretaker period, it was a long period of heightened uncertainty, which does have an impact on activity” Paul VaneTempest, Ashurst

OCTOBER 2014 | 33

PROFILE / MARK RIGOTTI

Growing global Herbert Smith Freehills CEO Mark Rigotti talks to Australasian Lawyer about what’s next for the legal giant Two years on from the second largest ever international merger of law firms, Herbert Smith Freehills joint CEO Mark Rigotti is reflecting on how far the firm has come. Since Freehills and Herbert Smith joined forces in 2012, the firm has beaten all its targets around revenue and new work.

“I think Herbert Smith Freehills is the top Australian law firm at the moment, but that’s a position that’s been earned over the years and I quite like the challenger mindset that runs through the DNA of the place,” he says. “Even where we are now, it’s like, ‘What’s next? How are we going to improve?’ and that connects with my own personal values.”

This shared perspective is one of the reasons why Rigotti has stayed with the Freehills brand since joining the firm as a graduate. “I like learning … and [the firm] has given me opportunities to do different 34 | OCTOBER 2014

things, so I haven’t felt the need to go somewhere else to do something different; I’ve been able to experience that and do that here,” he says. “I’ve been lucky to have multiple careers inside of one firm.”

JOINING FORCES In his latest role as the firm’s joint CEO, part of Rigotti’s remit is to oversee the continued integration of the two predecessor firms. He sees cultural integration as being one of the biggest challenges of bringing the two firms together.

“You can’t just throw all these people together … who’ve all had different career experiences, from different cultures who see things in different ways, and expect it all to gel,” he says of bringing together almost 4,000 people working across 24 offices.

“Trying to create a culture of freedom within

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CAREER TIMELINE 1988 Joined Freehills as a graduate 1992 Moved to London to work at Freehills’ UK office, returning in 1995 1996 Appointed partner 2004 Made practice group head of banking & finance boundaries so that we can adapt the business to be relevant and suitable for purpose without making it so laissez-faire that standards drop and quality falls away and the brand gets diminished – that’s the challenge,” Rigotti says.

“The world doesn’t stop while you get what I call the ‘internal plumbing’ and the internal culture sorted out. So while we’re going through this transformation internally and sorting ourselves out, the world’s gone and changed a lot, and one of the things I obsess about is not falling too far adrift of that.”

TAKING IT TO THE WORLD Looking externally, Rigotti says there has been a strong response to the merger, with many key clients providing feedback that it’s helpful to have the one firm that can look after a matter from origin to

destination. Conversely, the feedback that the firm has had from some large multinationals that it would like to have as clients is that they’re looking for even greater spread. “There’s a whole bunch of clients who said, ‘You need to be broader again if you want to look after us’,” he says.

The next regions of focus for Herbert Smith Freehills are the US (where the firm already has a New York office), Africa and Latin America. In the developing regions, the key areas of interest are predominantly energy, mining, and supporting infrastructure to some extent. Opportunities in Africa also include matters involving clients in the telecommunications and consumer products sectors.

“For us, Africa is not necessarily about having lots of offices everywhere. Over time I would have thought we’ll be on the ground somewhere, but it’s

2005 Becomes practice group head of corporate 2012 Appointed managing partner (client & sectors) for Herbert Smith Freehills in Sydney and then in London 2014 Assumes role as joint CEO of Herbert Smith Freehills

OCTOBER 2014 | 35

PROFILE / MARK RIGOTTI

having some way of looking after clients that is relevant to them,” he says.

“You can be this international firm, but you don’t need to be everywhere,” Rigotti says. “It’s a growth story about being in more places in the right proportions for the client needs, so it doesn’t mean lots and lots of mergers … [but] you could easily see law firms being 10,000 or 15,000 lawyers. I actually think over a period of time there will be more consolidation, and that will drive larger firms, and firms like ours will want to participate by being in more places.”

“The world’s gone and changed a lot, and one of the things I obsess about is not falling too far adrift of that”

36 | OCTOBER 2014

SHARED LEADERSHIP Law firms have traditionally had a single managing partner or CEO as leader, but Rigotti is convinced that having joint CEOs makes sense considering the size and complexity of the firm he oversees with Sonya Leydecker. “I don’t know how I would do the whole role by myself, to be honest,” he says. “If you didn’t have two of you, you’d effectively have a deputy, and that starts to look like two of you anyway.”

Rigotti believes the decision to have joint CEOs is particularly appropriate given that in some ways Herbert Smith Freehills is a firm that is still in the process of integrating: “There’s still two cultures, two perspectives, and you need both of them represented,” he says.

While in many major international firms most offices will see a sole managing partner or CEO once every two to three years, Rigotti says that between himself and Leydecker they see every office two to five times a year. “You can’t be integrating if you’re sitting in Melbourne and you see your CEO for one day every two years,” he says.

Before assuming their roles, Leydecker and Rigotti sat down and discussed how they would approach sharing leadership of the firm. They decided to divide up the practice groups, each taking primary responsibility for two, and sharing the fifth. The pair also divided up the regions. “We deliberately swapped what would be natural … Sonya looks after Australia and Asia. I don’t look after corporate and banking; I look after competition and disputes. We wanted to do that on purpose to bring fresh thinking.”

Although it sounds like there is a clear demarcation between their portfolios, Rigotti says in reality it is far more blended. “I’d easily speak to Sonya every day wherever we are in the world.”

Rigotti says his tenure as joint CEO with Leydecker differs from that of their predecessors, David Willis and Gavin Bell, in that they have had more of an opportunity to get to know the other part of the firm.

“David and Gavin had this enormous merger to get done … whereas Sonya and I are probably a little bit more comfortable swimming in some ambiguity and letting things emerge a bit more, rather than just getting onto the next thing,” he says, noting that the difference in leadership approach between the two sets of CEOs predominantly derives from it being a different moment in time for the firm. “What’s different is that Sonya and I are able to manage less in the moment and more for the future.” AL

FEATURE / POSTGRADUATE STUDY

Back to Law School 38 | OCTOBER 2014

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Returning to study might seem daunting, but for many lawyers it’s an opportunity to expand their practice and advance their careers. Australasian Lawyer weighs up the postgraduate study options for lawyers In a competitive market, everyone is looking for an edge. For some lawyers, obtaining a postgraduate qualification can provide that differentiation. “With the large number of people applying for jobs now, it does become those additional qualifications that separate people out,” says Catherine Brown, Queensland University of Technology’s director of postgraduate programs for law.

A postgrad degree helps lawyers to demonstrate their superior knowledge in a particular area, expand their practice within their firm, or even develop a specialisation in a new practice area. “A master’s degree provides a lawyer with an opportunity to specialise in a particular field and develop substantial depth of knowledge, expertise and skills in that field,” says Melbourne Law School associate dean Caron Beaton-Wells.

Associate professor Tim Stephens, associate dean (postgraduate coursework) at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Law, agrees, and says a master’s qualification can assist lawyers at all stages of their careers. “For early career lawyers a master’s can provide an opportunity to broaden and deepen knowledge and skills in their main area of practice, and to enhance their prospects for career advance­ ment. For more experienced legal practitioners, a master’s presents an opportunity for updating and enhancing their expertise and capability within their area of specialisation. We also find that many of our students undertake the LLM or other master’s programs in order to develop expertise in new areas

OCTOBER 2014 | 39

FEATURE / POSTGRADUATE STUDY

STUDYING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF ‘THE DITCH’ For practitioners interested in studying overseas, the idea of paying international student fees can be off-putting. New Zealand citizens planning to study at an Australian university are able to do so without a student visa, and pay domestic student fees instead of international student fees. Australians are also able to study in New Zealand and pay the same fees as local fees.

of law, or the law and legal systems applicable in other jurisdictions.”

STARTING WITH THE END IN MIND

Tim Stephens University of Sydney

For lawyers considering postgraduate study for the purpose of advancing their career or building their practice, there are a number of factors to consider.

Although the choice of master’s depends largely on a practitioner’s preferred specialisation, the substance, not just the subjects in a course, needs to be evaluated.

“It goes without saying that a lawyer planning to do a master’s degree to advance his/her career should choose a course that will enable them to gain depth of legal knowledge and skills, but also exposure to insights and challenges concerning the way in which the law is practised,” says Beaton-Wells.

Although the specialist knowledge that a lawyer will gain from postgraduate study is a key factor, Brown says prospective students should also consider the ‘soft skills’ they may also develop, such as advanced research and writing skills.

According to Beaton-Wells, an opportunity for making connections is another potential benefit that would-be postgraduate students should consider. “A prospective master’s student should also look for a course in which he or she will have the opportunity to participate in small classes and interact in a meaningful way with other students from the field, as this presents an invaluable networking opportunity.”

“Many of our students undertake the LLM or other master’s programs in order to develop expertise in new areas of law, or the law and legal systems applicable in other jurisdictions” 40 | OCTOBER 2014

DECISIONS, DECISIONS… The options for postgraduate study go well beyond simply choosing a university. The first and most obvious question is whether to do a research or coursework-based master’s. While a research master’s comprises a single research paper, usually running for 40,000–50,000 words, a coursework master’s is completed by undertaking a number of subjects.

“Master’s by coursework degrees are aimed mostly at practitioners seeking to specialise and hone their legal and practical skills to a high standard.

Master’s degrees by thesis alone require the student to focus on a very specific research topic or question and thus are generally better suited to students considering the option of an academic career. A research master’s is often a stepping stone to a PhD,” Beaton-Wells explains.

Although a research master’s is generally perceived as an option for those with more academic aspirations, it can also be a suitable choice for lawyers.

“Postgraduate research programs allow established legal professionals to consolidate knowledge of their field and to become recognised national and global leaders in the profession,” says Stephens.

“A growing number of partners at Australian and international law firms, and advocates at the bar in Australia and globally, have undertaken doctorates or master’s by research.”

University of Auckland associate professor David Grinlinton agrees. “You do get some practitioners who have quite an academic interest in the law … I think the ‘research-only’ option is most appropriate for a person who is looking for an academic career, but not necessarily. It may also be a good option for a practitioner who’s too busy to come up and do coursework but, because of the specialised nature of the work they do, they already do a lot of research, for example, as part of a litigation practice.”

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OCTOBER 2014 | 41

FEATURE / POSTGRADUATE STUDY

HOW DO AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND LAW SCHOOLS RATE INTERNATIONALLY? International ranking

University

8

University of Melbourne

13

University of Sydney

14

University of New South Wales

15

Australian National University

16

Monash University

28

University of Auckland

37

University of Otago

46

University of Adelaide

49

Victoria University of Wellington

51–100

Griffith University, Macquarie University, Queensland University of Technology, University of Queensland, University of Western Australia, University of Canterbury

101–150

University of Technology, Sydney; University of Waikato

151–200

Deakin University, James Cook University, RMIT University, University of Tasmania Source: QS World University Rankings by Subject 2014 – Law

Yet the decision between doing a coursework or research-based master’s program isn’t quite cut and dried. Within a coursework master’s program, many subjects are assessed (in whole or in part) on the basis of research essays, and a number of law faculties also offer the option to include a more in-depth research paper as part of a coursework-based degree.

For example, postgraduate students at the University of Auckland can substitute a 15,000-word dissertation or a 30,000 word minor thesis for some subjects from their coursework master’s.

Within a coursework master’s, there is also the question of which subjects to take. Although law faculties may not offer the same subjects every year, prospective students should consider the variety of courses offered and the expertise of those who will be teaching the subjects. For example, some of the visiting academics scheduled to teach at the University of Auckland in 2015 hail from law schools in Australia, America and the UK. Similarly, other 42 | OCTOBER 2014

law faculties also offer students the opportunity to learn from international academics, current and former judges, barristers, and former attorneys general. Specialist research centres, such as QUT’s Commercial and Property Law Research Centre and the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, may also be a drawcard for lawyers with an interest in corresponding areas.

As an alternative to a more general master of laws qualification, students who study enough subjects pertaining to a particular area can graduate with a more specific degree, although the specialist qualifications offered depend on individual universities. For example, the University of Melbourne offers specialist qualifications such as the Master of Construction Law, Master of Competition and Consumer Law, Master of Commercial Law, Master of Energy and Resources Law, and Master of Environmental Law. At Sydney Law School, specialist degrees such as the Master of Taxation, Master of Business Law, Master of Health Law and the Master of Labour Law and Relations are among the more popular qualifications with postgraduate law students. These more specific qualifications can help set a lawyer apart from their peers practising in the same area, and may be the most appropriate study option for lawyers working in or wanting to work in a specialist area.

When it comes to selecting subjects for a course­ work master’s, academics’ advice balances likely career outcomes with students’ areas of interest: “My advice would be for students to take units that align with their career goals, and which they find intellectually interesting and stimulating,” says Stephens.

For lawyers who are toying with the idea of additional study but are uncertain about committing to a master’s program, graduate certificate courses have half the number of subjects, making them an ideal option for getting started. Subjects taken on law postgraduate certificate courses can count towards a master’s if a student then decides to pursue that qualification. Certificate courses are also sometimes used as a stepping stone into master’s courses for lawyers who lack the requisite marks to enrol in the degree directly.

BALANCING WORK AND STUDY Juggling work, study and other commitments is never going to be simple, but the majority of law

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“Master’s by coursework degrees are aimed mostly at practitioners seeking to specialise and hone their legal and practical skills to a high standard” schools offer a range of subject formats to fit in with lawyers’ schedules. The delivery mode depends on the individual subjects, but daytime face-to-face classes are usually reserved for units preferred by full-time international students. For practitioners there’s external (all online) subjects, and courses that are taught intensively in a block of two to five full days (often over weekends), or units that combine both online components and block classes. Some law faculties also offer night classes over one to two evenings a week over the course of a semester.

Block mode subjects require students to do preparation such as course readings in advance, but total contact hours for an intensive course are the

same as attending class each week for a semester.

This condensed approach, which is popular with many lawyers, has other benefits: “This format also allows for some of our units to be taught by leading practitioners, including senior partners, barristers and members of the judiciary,” explains Stephens.

Both intensive and external subjects allow students to fit study time around their other commitments, and also open up the possibility of studying at a university interstate or even overseas, with students taking a few days off work to attend face-to-face class time for their course.

With postgrad subjects able to be counted towards continuing legal education requirements, one benefit

Caron Beaton-Wells University of Melbourne

OCTOBER 2014 | 43

FEATURE / POSTGRADUATE STUDY

“With the large number of people applying for jobs now, it does become those additional qualifications that separate people out” Catherine Brown, Queensland University of Technology of studying part-time over several years is that it maximises the number of CPD points that can be claimed from postgraduate study. According to Grinlinton, one subject will typically more than cover the hours needed for one year of CPD, and he says the University of Auckland is in the process of developing more focused subjects of lower credit point value to cater for practitioners looking to fulfil their CPD requirements. These subjects, which would count towards a master’s qualification, will be offered from later in 2015 or early 2016.

While there is a tendency for lawyers to try to fasttrack their study in order to finish their qualification

in a shorter space of time, the academics Australasian Lawyer spoke to cautioned against this and observed that most domestic students are studying for their postgraduate qualifications in law on a part-time basis and completing the degree in two to three years. In their view, taking on a full-time study load is not always the best option for students who are also working full-time.

“It’s important not to overload yourself. You can do the master’s by part-time study, so I think it’s better to do it that way if you’re working so it won’t intrude too much on your working life. Even with the best of intentions, work generally takes priority, and people scramble to complete assignments or make presentations. For a person who is working full-time, I’d recommend doing just one paper per semester,” says Grinlinton.

Although the availability of flexible study options is helpful to lawyers, going back to university is not without its challenges. “A colleague of mine when I was a student many years ago said to me, ‘Sleep faster!’ And I think that was very good advice,” laughs Brown. Jokes aside, “I think that studying smarter is quite important,” she says. Particularly for lawyers

POSTGRADUATE TRENDS 1. A TWO-WAY APPROACH TO LEARNING The days of one-way lectures are long gone for postgraduate students, with more interactive class formats becoming the norm. Most law schools offer smaller seminar-style classroom environments, where discussion is encouraged and students are sometimes even assessed on their class participation. “Ideally it’s more of a partnership approach to teaching, rather than a lecturer standing there and telling the class how it is,” explains Grinlinton.

2. MOVING AWAY FROM FACE-TO-FACE CLASSES TO EXTERNAL LEARNING Online study options allow students to study from home at their own pace, without necessarily having to go to a campus. “Technology has now developed to a point that it is possible to offer an extremely high-quality learning experience online, together with the obvious benefits of not being constrained by location and time,” says Beaton-Wells. “In five to 10 years’ time I expect there will be more online courses available in postgraduate legal education, as well as courses that involve blended learning (that is, a combination of online and on-campus teaching).”

3. GREATER DIVERSITY IN SUBJECTS Law schools are offering increasingly specialised and practical subjects to better cater for practitioner students. The range of subjects to choose from is also increasing. For example, the University of Sydney offers up to 150 units of study in its master’s program each year, and Melbourne Law School currently offers 160–170 subjects.

44 | OCTOBER 2014

AUSTRALASIANLAWYER.COM.AU

who haven’t been studying for some time, Brown recommends reviewing study skills and strategies in conjunction with course material.

“There’s a tendency with postgrad students to have higher expectations of themselves,” Brown observes. Although lawyers might set the bar high, she encourages them to speak up early if they need assistance with their study or are struggling to balance the competing demands of work and academia.

TAKING THE LEAP “Some practitioners are a little bit hesitant to embark on postgraduate study. They feel a bit nervous because they’ve been out of law school for a few years,” says Grinlinton. “But in fact most practitioners cope very well – better in some respects than younger students that are straight from law school, because they’ve got that experience and they can actually contribute quite a lot to the class.”

“It’s not just a meal ticket or a way to improve your employability; it’s also a way to expand your horizons” While the career benefits of a postgraduate degree are a key motivation for many practitioners, Grinlinton cautions against evaluating options for postgraduate study solely on the basis of likely career outcomes.

“It’s not just a meal ticket or a way to improve your employability; it’s also a way to expand your horizons,” he says. “Follow what you’re really passionate about. That’s important because if you're passionate about something, if you’re really interested in a subject area, it’s not like work – you actually enjoy doing it.” AL

David Grinlinton University of Auckland

OCTOBER 2014 | 45

PROFILE / ELISABETH ELLIS

Making it in

Mongolia 46 | OCTOBER 2014

Minter Ellison’s Mongolia office head, Elisabeth Ellis, speaks to Australasian Lawyer about opportunities in this awakening market

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Minter Ellison’s Mongolia office head, Elisabeth Ellis, speaks with Australasian Lawyer about opportunities in this awakening market.

Mongolia’s legal landscape is a movable feast, says Minter Ellison’s Ulaanbaatar managing partner Elisabeth Ellis. “In terms of laws and regulations, things here can change quickly and quite dramatically. The end result is that you can’t be sure what you’re dealing with most of the time,” she says.

“This is a new democracy – it was only created in 1990 – so the laws are scrambling to keep up with the economic development. Until two months ago there was a petroleum law that was three pages long. And the companies law was only rewritten in 2011.”

While the constant changes in the law can be

challenging, Ellis says it’s rewarding to be able to help clients navigate Mongolia’s legal environment.

In addition, the rapidly evolving legal system also gives firms the chance to offer input to the working groups drafting new legislation, based on lawyers’ experience of systems in other countries. “There are a lot of sectors or industries that haven’t traditionally existed here or that aren’t very developed – and that the laws simply don’t contemplate,” she explains.

Ellis admits that she initially had some trepidation about being the person to start up an office, and this almost put her off the opportunity to work in

OCTOBER 2014 | 47

PROFILE / ELISABETH ELLIS

you need to know but just aren’t told because of what you asked.”

PIONEERING A MONGOLIAN PRACTICE

Ulaanbaatar. But looking back she says that training and growing Minter Ellison’s Mongolia team has been an incredibly rewarding process, and that helping Australian companies enter a new country is one of the highlights of her career. “I feel real pride in everyone in terms of what we’ve achieved and what we’re offering.”

According to Ellis, working in a developing economy requires patience and the ability to work things out from first principles. “You haven’t learnt the law; you can’t even read the law. You’ve got to be able to think about it objectively,” she says.

Asking the right question is also an essential skill for lawyers working in developing nations. “You’ll get an absolutely correct answer to a question you’ve asked, but it may be that you haven’t asked the right question and there’s a whole lot more that 48 | OCTOBER 2014

“If you look at the periodic table of elements, 82% of the elements on that table are here in Mongolia in commercially viable quantities. It’s a massive resource and obviously the whole world has its eyes on it,” she says.

With 18 staff, Minter Ellison is one of the largest firms in Mongolia. While other firms have lawyers flying in and out, Ellis says Hogan Lovells is the only other international firm with a permanent presence in the country.

When the Ulaanbaatar office opened in 2012, Minter Ellison initially focused on advising Australian clients in relation to mining, mining services and mining sector M&A projects for the first 18 months.

However, recent events have slowed this investment, and Ellis says that, while the firm has retained its Australian clients, it is now seeing other international clients, particularly clients from Europe and China.

The Mongolian government, which has been grappling with foreign investment in the resources sector, passed a series of laws last year to restrict investment without approval, resulting in a slowdown in foreign investment. Despite the fact that FDI in Mongolia is down 61%, Ellis says the office has been busy with disputes work and enforcement, bankruptcy, liquidation and redundancy matters.

Notwithstanding the slowdown in the mining space, infrastructure investment and development has continued, in anticipation of the next resources boom. “Everyone is absolutely confident this place will continue to grow … The resources are there; the demand is there. It will come back; it’s just a question of when,” she says.

One such project on the horizon is Rio Tinto’s agreement with the government to develop a copper and gold mine. Rio Tinto has already invested $8bn in the project, and, once it is operational, revenue from the mine will be equivalent to 30% of Mongolia’s GDP. Ellis and her team are currently acting for Rio on its agreement with the local community in relation to how the mine will contribute to and work with the community.

THE ROAD TO MONGOLIA Ellis’s Ulaanbaatar posting is the latest instalment in what has been a career largely spent in Asia. As a second-year lawyer working with Allens Arthur Robinson in Sydney, Ellis received an email saying

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the firm was looking for lawyers to work in Bangkok for six weeks. “I packed my bags and literally went on a day’s notice,” she recalls. “That was in 1995 and I haven’t quite made it back yet.

“As a two-year lawyer at a big firm in Sydney you’re one of many … In a small office in Bangkok working directly for the partner, I was getting amazing work.”

After three and a half years in Bangkok, she joined Minter Ellison’s fledgling office in Hong Kong as one of only two lawyers working there at the time. With the Hong Kong office working on matters in Ghana, India, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, Ellis was able to continue pursuing her interest in working on matters set in developing nations.

The idea of setting up an office in Mongolia came along in 2010. “We’d been asked to help the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to rewrite the rules for listing mineral companies in Hong Kong, because we’re Australian and we know about mining,” Ellis says.

“Having done that, we started to see these Mongolian companies turning up looking to raise capital in Hong Kong.”

Sensing an opportunity, the firm sent lawyers to Mongolia to investigate. On arriving at the airport in Ulaanbaatar, Ellis recalls spotting a sign for Leighton Holdings. “Suddenly I was in a place where being Australian was incredibly relevant; there were Australian construction companies, Australian mining companies; even the Canadian companies were headed up by Australian executives,” she says.

“There wasn’t a specialist mining law firm in town, and that’s what excited me about the opportunity to come here and be relevant and bring the expertise that we’ve got in Australia.”

LIFE IN ULAANBAATAR Although life in Mongolia sounds vastly different to Sydney, Ellis says in many ways her routine is similar to what it would be in Australia. “I’ve got three little boys so my lifestyle is really not too dissimilar to what it would be in Sydney or Hong Kong,” she says. “They ride their bikes and we catch up with their friends on the weekend and we have barbeques at home.”

Ellis counts her time in Mongolia in winters, and it’s easy to understand why. With temperatures dropping well below zero, it’s too cold to go outside for three to four months of the year. Despite the extreme temperatures, Ellis says the real challenge of winter is pollution. Due to Mongolia’s nomadic culture, winter sees a massive influx of people into the cities, burning coal and whatever other materials they can access in order to keep warm.

But according to Ellis, these long winters make the summer months precious. Instead of pitching tents or staying in caravan parks, she and her family travel to traditional ger camps in the countryside for holidays. “It makes you appreciate the seasons,” she says. “When you’ve had freezing cold for seven, eight, nine months and you see a green bud, it’s so exciting and you really make the most of the summer.” AL

“There wasn’t a specialist mining law firm in town, and that’s what excited me about the opportunity to come here and be relevant and bring the expertise that we’ve got in Australia”

OCTOBER 2014 | 49

PROFILE / SONIA BORELLA

From production to premiere Sonia Borella talks to Australasian Lawyer about working behind the scenes in Australia’s film industry “I have had more than one person work for me [who was] surprised that I am not out at film premieres and screenings and cocktail functions most nights,” says Holding Redlich partner Sonia Borella. “There is a little bit of that, but mostly it is reviewing contracts and advising on and negotiating deals – usually over the phone as the deals are often international – which is an exciting part of the work for me.”

It’s easy to see why Borella loves her work. Mad Max: Fury Road, Happy Feet Two, Sanctum and Knowing are among the films she has advised on.

One of her most recent projects, Deepsea Challenge, premiered in Australia in August. The documentary chronicles James Cameron’s recordbreaking solo dive to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench – the Earth’s deepest point. Borella acted for the production company behind the film and advised on all aspects of the production and 50 | OCTOBER 2014

financing of the documentary, including advising on the structure of the film and the requirements of the Australian screen production incentive, reviewing and drafting chain-of-title documents, negotiating and drafting the finance and distribution deals, and contracting the cast and crew and other participants and suppliers, including negotiating with James Cameron (of Avatar and Titanic fame).

“There are a number of factors which make Deepsea Challenge different from the other film projects I have worked on,” Borella says, citing the astounding risks associated with the dive as a key hurdle. “Of course the dive was successful; however, what no one could ever have imagined was the tragedy that would take place prior to the dive: our client and friend Andrew Wight [the producer and director of the film] and cinematographer Mike deGruy were tragically killed in a helicopter accident a short time before the originally scheduled dive,”

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she says. “Andrew was so passionate about this film and, in the most tragic of circumstances, it was amazing to see the entire team, and others who came on board, come together and go on and fulfil this dream of Andrew’s.”

It was almost inevitable that Borella would end up working in film. “I have always had a deep interest in the arts, film and television,” she says. She joined the firm as a summer clerk and was promoted to partner in 2007, and has spent most of her career working in Holding Redlich’s media and entertainment practice.

For her, being part of a creative and collaborative process, and working with a team of talented and driven people, is one of the joys of working on film and television projects. “More so than some of the other parts of my practice, this type of work requires a lawyer to have an excellent eye for detail and to be creative and strategic in their advice,” she says.

Advising on a number of films and television projects has also opened up other opportunities to contribute to the industry. Borella lectures at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, volunteers at the Arts Law Centre, sits on the Screen Producers Australia policy committee and is an active member of AusFilm – “all of which are ‘perks’ for someone like me who is passionate about the film and television industry”, she says.

“On a more personal note, seeing my children [nearly two and nearly four] watching some of the children’s television projects and family films I have worked on has been particularly rewarding.”

According to Borella, there are a number of challenges currently facing the Australian film industry, including the increasing difficulty of raising finance for film and television projects, increasing costs, and piracy. “Further, our Australian screen production incentive to attract large-budget film and television productions to shoot in Australia, the location offset, is no longer competitive in the international marketplace, particularly with the high Australian dollar, which is making it difficult to attract those sorts of productions to Australia,”

“It is an ever-changing media and entertainment landscape, so it is sometimes a challenge, in terms of time, to keep on top of the trends and the great many industry issues” she says. And while studio-backed Australian films such as The Great Gatsby and other Australian films have enjoyed success, a number of local films are having difficulty finding audiences. “It is an everchanging media and entertainment landscape, so it is some­times a challenge, in terms of time, to keep on top of the trends and the great many industry issues,” she adds.

Beyond the silver screen, Borella also advises on a range of other matters for clients in the media, entertainment and advertising industries. She specialises in intellectual property, corporate and commercial law (including M&A and joint ventures), competition and consumer law, IT law, and regulatory compliance. She counts a large broadcasting acquisition and regulatory matter, which involved managing 30 lawyers across three offices, as one of the highlights of her career to date. Other memorable matters include the restructure of the Australian arm of a global television production company, and a tripartite official co-production of a children’s television project.

To an outsider, her role might sound like one of glitz and glamour, but for Borella the best thing about her job is its diversity. “I enjoy the variety of my work. I also enjoy my various roles in supporting, and advancing policy matters in, the media, entertainment and advertising industries.” AL

SCREEN PRODUCTION IN AUSTRALIA

13,414 people employed in production

$555.3m in production wages and salaries

$2.19bn in production income 64.5% of production income from NSW

24.1% of production income from Victoria

2,346 people employed in postproduction

$137.6m in postproduction wages and salaries

$329.6m in postproduction income Source: Screen Australia, 2013

OCTOBER 2014 | 51

LEGAL INSIGHT

THE CHANGING LEGAL LANDSCAPE Practice management research reveals the priorities and concerns of Australasian law firms

FACTORS DRIVING CHANGE IN LAW FIRMS

78%

72%

64%

61%

61%

47%

47%

46%

40%

Increasing customer demands for better value

Increasing demands for work/ life balance

Emerging technology

Increasing commoditisation

Declining customer loyalty/ retention

Increasing competition

Increasing number of female lawyers

Ageing of those in the legal profession

Flat or shrinking demand

FIRMS’ RESPONSES TO FACTORS DRIVING CHANGE

Investing in growth

Investing in technology

92%

New ways of working

52 | OCTOBER 2014

$

93%

97%

85% Changing pricing strategy

83% New business models

92%

Focusing on cost cutting

48%

Undertaking mergers

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BARRIERS TO CHANGE AT LAW FIRMS

SATISFACTION WITH FIRM’S PROGRESS IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS

Satisfied

39%

Resistance/ lack of support for change

34%

Lack of partner buy-in

31%

30%

29%

Lack of staff engagement

Very satisfied

No sense of urgency

45%

12%

Inadequate funding/budget

13%

27%

3%

Poor 28% Inadequate 22% Poor resourcing strategy/ 14% project plan

Neutral

management Very dissatisfied

7%

8%

Supplier/vendor issues

Dissatisfied

No barriers

CONFIDENCE IN LAW FIRM’S LEADERSHIP

27%

45%

17%

11%

Very confident

Confident

Ambivalent

Concerned

Source: The Impact of the Changing Legal Landscape on Australasian Law Firms – 2014 ALPMA/LexisNexis Research Results

OCTOBER 2014 | 53

BUSINESS STRATEGY / BURNOUT

7 steps to wiping out burnout

Do you wear your tiredness and busyness as a badge of honour? Are you too flat out to take time out for yourself? Do you feel like you’re on a spinning hamster wheel which never stops? Do you keep saying you will take time off ‘later’? Or when things quieten down (which they never do)? If this sounds like you, and you’re ready to make a change, read on to find out what Dr Adam Fraser says you can do 54 | OCTOBER 2014

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The rock star anthem is “It’s better to burn out than fade away”. Sounds extreme but sadly it seems that the average corporate employee is trying to emulate this. Ask people how they are and you will generally get one of two answers: “busy” or “tired”.

The pace of life is outrageous. Most people I talk to say they feel like they’re handcuffed to a roller coaster that is stuck on repeat. I was coaching a CEO recently and when I asked her how she would describe her life, she said, “I feel like the hamster is dead but the wheel is still spinning!”

We are jamming more and more into our alreadycrammed lives.

One executive confessed to me that she gets her eight-year-old to read her four-year-old a story while she sits on the bed and answers emails on her phone. She has outsourced story time.

The fallout of all this haste is that many people have lost the ability to slow down and recharge, and as a result the burnout rate in business is rapidly climbing. So, why is it such an epidemic?

There are two big problems in how we handle burnout.

“One executive confessed to me that she gets her eight-year-old to read her four-year-old a story while she sits on the bed and answers emails on her phone. She has outsourced story time”

Many times in my conversations with people who are burnt out, I ask, “What are you going to do about that?” Their reply is: “Well, I have a holiday in three months; I will keep pushing until then and then I will relax!” You can’t put off addressing burnout.

to decline, they get sick and their performance plummets. Obviously this is a significant problem and one we put a lot of resources into solving.

What didn’t work was working an athlete until they showed signs of burnout and then giving them long periods off to recover. In contrast, the solution existed in giving them small, regular, consistent bursts of recovery. It was a shift in mindset; instead of ‘how do we help them recover when they are feeling burnt out’, we looked at how they recovered each day, each week and each month. Recovery became something they did perpetually rather than something they resorted to when exhausted. Techniques such as meditation, relaxation and improved quality of sleep were daily rituals that stopped burnout in its tracks.

PROBLEM 2: WAITING FOR THINGS TO SLOW DOWN

HOW WE APPLY THIS TO THE BUSINESS WORLD

I have lost count of the number of times I have heard the phrase ‘‘I will look after myself/relax when things quieten down”. With margins being constantly squeezed and the rise of leaner organisations, that ship has well and truly sailed.

Don’t expect workloads to lessen; it’s simply not in our business DNA.

When I transitioned into working with corporations I found that people talked about trying to address burnout; however, they wore exhaustion as a badge of honour. People would literally compete with each other to be the hardest worker, the most tired, and the one closest to complete physical and mental breakdown. Over the last 10 years I have run countless programs with corporate executives to prevent burnout. Here are the seven critical components that kept people burnout-free:

PROBLEM 1: PUTTING IT OFF

WHAT TO DO? What is a practical solution? For this we have to turn to the world of elite sport. When I worked with Olympic athletes, burnout was a frequent and very real challenge. Often you hear in the media that athletes get sick just before or during the Olympics. Why? Because they are always on the verge of overtraining or undertraining. If you overtrain an athlete you simply push them too hard for too long, and their immune system starts

1

Decide whether you are serious about avoiding burnout

Notice if you are using burnout as a status symbol. Does exhaustion define you as a person, and unless you are stressed and exhausted do you feel guilty and think that you are a slacker not pulling your weight?

OCTOBER 2014 | 55

BUSINESS STRATEGY / BURNOUT

When trying to prevent burnout in Olympic athletes, what didn’t work was working an athlete until they showed signs of burnout and then giving them long periods off to recover. In contrast, the solution existed in giving them small, regular, consistent bursts of recovery

2

Develop the capacity to say ‘no’

Your organisation and leaders will always try to get more and more out of you. Don’t expect them to manage your burnout; it sounds cynical but it’s just the way the world works.

You have to be responsible for this. Develop the capacity to have some boundaries and ways to say no.

3

Dr Adam Fraser is a human performance researcher and consultant who studies how organisations adopt a high-performance culture to thrive in this challenging and evolving business landscape. Phone +61 2 9564 5763 or visit www.dradamfraser.com

56 | OCTOBER 2014

Do something that relaxes you each day

Just like shutting down your computer, your brain needs the capacity to turn off and recover. Not only does this let the mind and body recover, but it also builds our capability to put the brakes on when we need to. Often people reflect on their holidays by saying, “It took me a week to unwind; I had a couple of good days and then started to worry about coming back to work”.

We have lost the ability to go slow, and in some instances going slow seems to be punishment. The actor Will Ferrell put it best: “Before you marry a person you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to find out who they really are!” Doing something that relaxes you each day, even if it’s just for five or 10 minutes, builds up that muscle. Meditation, listening to a relaxation tape, yoga, and deep breathing while stretching

before bed are all great ways to recharge your mind/body each day. Oh, watching TV doesn’t count.

4

Each week do something that gives you a shot of vitality

This is taking the daily relaxation principle and turning it up to 11. We all have things in our life that fuel our soul, whether it is socialising with friends, going out for breakfast, walking on the beach, doing yoga or being out in nature. It is something that not only relaxes you but also juices you.

5

Each month have a day with no responsibilities

Our lives are so scheduled that there is always something to do. Psychologists report that children are experiencing anxiety from trying to keep up with a vast array of extracurricular activities. When was the last time you had a day when you woke up with nothing to do and no responsibilities? Days like this are restorative and freeing. Each month, schedule a day that is responsibility-free. Our research showed that a day like this is ideally spent by yourself. Busy couples with kids got around this by taking turns with their partner and having the other person look after the kids.

6

Every quarter, take a long weekend

Four times a year take a day off either side of the weekend and have a mini break, whether you go somewhere or simply stay at home. These regular mini holidays are great sanity breaks.

7

Have an off season

All sports people factor in an off season when they give their body and mind a complete break. No one can keep going all year. Australians have amassed a concerning amount of holiday leave. Don’t become one of those people who never take a holiday; aim to wipe out your annual leave each year.

There you go: a seven-step process to eradicate burnout from your life. I have used this process with many executives and I have found that, no matter their external stress, it helps them dramatically reduce their chances of burnout.

Go forth and recover. AL

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