Latest news Major firms back Law Council equality drive private offices on the way out knowledge workers in demand

Equality boost as firms embrace Law Council briefing policy

The Law Council of Australia’s National Equitable Briefing Policy has received a major boost, with a large number of the nation’s leading large law firms, as well as three major corporations, signing up to a commitment to briefing women barristers. The new policy, launched this year, aims to increase the number of briefs to women barristers. It includes interim and long-term targets with the ultimate aim of briefing women in at least 30 per cent of all matters and paying 30 per cent of the value of all brief fees by 2020. Firms backing the policy include Allens, Ashurst, Baker & McKenzie, Clayton Utz, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, DLA Piper, Henry Davis York, Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Wood Mallesons, Minter Ellison and Norton Rose Fulbright.

The Law Council also announced the support of three large corporations, with Telstra, Woolworths and Westpac the first of the ASX 200 companies to signal their support for the policy. Law Council of Australia president-elect Fiona McLeod SC said it was extremely encouraging to see support for diversity measures building rapidly. “The policy is intended to support the progression and retention of women barristers, address the pay gap and the under-representation of women in superior courts,” McLeod said. “The preparedness of the legal profession and the Australian business community to adopt the policy signals a significant cultural shift in our support for equality. The Law Council is grateful indeed for the leadership of the profession and these businesses in recognising the importance of diversity measures by signing up to this commitment.”

The new signatories join the Australian Bar Association, various Bars and Law Societies of Australia, as well as numerous individual legal practitioners, who have committed to the policy. The Law Council will continue to promote the Equitable Briefing Policy and support signatories in their implementation of it across the country through ongoing events and reporting templates.

Lawyers abandoning their private offices

Architectural practice Bates Smart has identified four key trends for the design and layout of law firm offices in its second white paper on the topic. The paper, called The New Legal Workplace, updates an inaugural report from 2013. The first trend Bates Smart observes is that lawyers are leaving their private offices, with only 35 per cent still working in an office this year, compared with 50 per cent in 2013. This is forecast to drop to just 10 per cent by 2020.

The second trend identified in the report is that lawyers are increasingly sharing space, with a 25 per cent increase in open collaboration spaces and a 15 per cent increase in enclosed collaboration spaces. The third trend is that a new legal workplace model is emerging, known as the integrated team layout, to provide a flexible arrangement of spaces for each work mode. The fourth trend is that the hospitality revolution is here, with the size of spaces dedicated to client meetings and hospitality spaces more than doubling, from 6 per cent in 2013 to 14 per cent this year. While lawyers are sharing more space than ever, they are not doing it in the same way as other industries. The report suggests the focus has been on shared quiet working areas.

Employers set sights on ‘knowledge workers’

Lawyers are among a cohort of ‘knowledge workers’ who are increasingly being targeted by employers across Australia, according to a new report from recruitment consultancy Hays. The Hays Quarterly Report for October-December 2016 reveals that Australian employers are looking to recruit highly skilled professionals, or knowledge workers, to add value and adapt to the rapidly changing and digitising world of work. The recruiter says “almost all” organisations require knowledge workers, especially those who are technologically savvy.

Knowledge workers are those employees who work primarily with information. They are highly skilled and experienced, with extensive technical expertise and problem-solving abilities. The report notes that, across the eastern seaboard, there is demand for commercial property, construction and planning and environment lawyers. The construction boom is driving demand for candidates with top-tier backgrounds for in-house roles in large infrastructure and development companies, while law firms want property and construction law specialists. Corporate and commercial lawyers with solid mergers and acquisition backgrounds are also highly sought, as well as senior banking, finance and restructuring lawyers who are open to contract roles.

“The biggest hiring trend this quarter is the growing number of knowledge-intensive jobs that are now on offer and for which suitably skilled, experienced and educated candidates are in short supply,” says Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand. “These include roles for analysts, architects, teachers, nurses and lawyers, all of which require highly skilled professionals who perform non-routine jobs. Layer this with the ever-increasing need for technology and digital skills across a broad spectrum of professions and industries, it’s no wonder the talent pool is tight.”