PEOPLE
MALCOLM HURLEY CAREER TIMELINE
1986–1987 Solicitor Bell Gully (Buddle Weir)
1988–1996 Solicitor Stephenson Harwood (London)
1996–2000 Partner Stephenson Harwood (London)
2000–2004 Partner Tite & Lewis (London)
2005–2006 Special counsel Anthony Harper
2007–present Partner Anthony Harper
2011–present Managing partner Anthony Harper
Hurley would go and see the chief and negotiate the lease for the land with him. “But you wouldn’t speak to the chief directly; you’d speak to his spokesman. So you’d take along a bottle of Schnapps, and have a ceremony with Schnapps and discuss business and create the terms of the lease. So it was absolutely fascinating stuff.” Hurley went from Stephenson Harwood to Tite & Lewis, the firm set up in the UK by professional services giant Ernst & Young. “It was the time when all of the accounting firms were getting into law – it was going to be the next big service line.” But after the Enron scandal and ensuing dissolution of Arthur Andersen LLP, with a couple of exceptions they closed the law firms down again; and it was at this point that Hurley and his family decided to head back home to New Zealand. “When we decided to come back in 2005, we went to Christchurch, because that’s
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where my wife is from.” Hurley joined Anthony Harper in the role of special counsel for a 12-month fixed term contract, after having been partner at both Stephenson Harwood and Tite & Lewis – a move which he says was “quite hard”. Thankfully, Anthony Harper was a longestablished firm – “it’s our 150th anniversary this year” – with a strong client base. But he personally didn’t have a client base, nor was his overseas experience wholly transportable, so it took him two years to become partner on the corporate advisory team in 2007. In November 2011, he became managing partner.
The changing role of managing partner When Hurley started at Anthony Harper there were 11 or 12 partners. Now there are 23 (soon to become 24), and around 70 lawyers at the firm. “There’s a lot more management,” Hurley says. “We have grown 70% in terms of lawyer numbers over the last two and a half years. We’ve had seven new partners in the last 12 months. It’s been extraordinary growth.” He estimates half his time is spent on management matters and the other half on legal work for clients.
manager, finance manager and HR manager. “All of that, as managing partner, has taken a tremendous amount of time and effort over that period. Because of that growth, I suspect the role of managing partner has been slightly different from what it will be going forward.” Despite that time and effort, Hurley has enjoyed overseeing such significant change. “I’ve loved it – absolutely loved it.”
Increasing profitability Hurley really enjoys the business side of law, having studied both law and accounting – even envisaging he would go in-house at one stage. “Being managing partner allows you to do both things, because I am now really involved in our business.” It’s an exciting time to be involved in the business – the firm’s revenues are also up 80% over the last two and a half years, and lateral hires with a strong client base were a big driver of that, Hurley says. “We brought in some absolutely fantastic lawyers and they have brought some absolutely fantastic clients.” Another driver was the firm’s change in focus to become more of a specialist firm, he says. “Many mid-sized law firms don’t really
“I think for a mid-sized law firm to be successful you actually have to have some areas where you are the best” “[The hands-on work] is reducing over time, inevitably. Because we’ve grown so quickly, there’s been a lot of work involved in that growth.” And all that growth has taken time in terms of recruitment and making sure everyone is operating as a team, he says. During that time, the firm has also overhauled its processes and infrastructure – “we’ve got new premises in Auckland, new computers, new telephone systems, a new website” – and its management team, including a new COO, a new business development role, and a new systems
specialise – a corporate lawyer will be a corporate, commercial lawyer who probably does property and trusts as well. “We operate along the same lines of the very largest firms. I’m a corporate lawyer and I do M&A work and corporate, commercial work. I don’t touch property, I don’t touch trusts, I don’t touch employment – I have other specialists who do that.” It’s also been a case of identifying particular areas in which the firm is the best, he says. “I think for a mid-sized law firm to be successful you actually have to have some