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Q&A: Jennifer Hetherington – "You're far more likely to grow your firm by doing one thing really well"
In this Q&A, Hetherington Family Law founder Jennifer Hetherington discusses the importance of volunteer work, why she isn’t afraid of artificial intelligence and how Facebook has been her friend in business.
Congratulations on winning the Sole Practitioner of the Year category at the recent Australian Law Awards and the Women in Law Awards. What qualities or factors do you think contributed to the wins?
“It’s more about the strengths of the firm. If you’re busy and doing well, that’s one aspect, but the award was about things outside the firm as well such as making a contribution to the legal community and the community generally. It’s not just all about the financial numbers on a page; it’s about all of those other things you do as well.”
You have volunteered as Chair of Mummy’s Wish, a cancer support charity, Women’s Legal Service and served on boards such as the Queensland Association of Collaborative Professionals, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and the Queensland Law Society. Do you think the pro bono work of lawyers is often underappreciated?
“Yes, it isn’t really recognised. People are very quick to bash lawyers, but lawyers provide so much pro bono time. For me that’s really important. We’ve got a real Legal Aid crisis in this state at least, if not the country and there are many people who just can’t access legal advice. If we didn’t have lawyers turning up to Women’s Legal Service, the Caxton Legal Service, the Nundah Community Legal Service and many other community legal centres that rely on lawyers donating their time, people just wouldn’t be getting the legal advice and the help they need. So to me that’s an important part of what I do and I’m committed to continuing doing that as are many of my other family law colleagues. I also take on pro bono cases when I can.”
Some industry analysts fear for the future of sole practitioner firms in an era when technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning is coming to the fore. Do you agree?
“To be honest, I’ve had so much success as a sole practitioner that I’m no longer solo. I’ve taken on another lawyer part-time. I still do the bulk of the work, but for me when you are working in personal law there’s only so much that can be automated. You can’t automate someone’s transition through their divorce. You might be able to automate the production of the divorce document, but that’s only one very small part of it. In terms of actually assisting people through the end of their relationship and the next phase, it’s about the service you bring to people and the strategic advice. I can’t see that everyone is going to want a settlement figure spat out from a machine and say, ‘Oh well, I accept that’. That already happens with child support and many people aren’t happy with that. Technology will make things more efficient and there are cost cuts for clients as a result of AI, but remember that family law decisions are discretionary. Judges don’t always agree, so for an AI platform to determine a property or child custody settlement, I don’t think that’s going to fly.”
Is specialisation important for firms of all sizes?
“Absolutely. In this current environment to not specialise is a recipe for disaster. I worry about some of the younger lawyers coming through who are struggling with the job market and who decide to hang out a shingle to start their own firm. There’s a real risk with doing that. Sometimes you find when dealing with those lawyers that things that should be elementary are missed. I see family law as a specialist problem. I’ve been specialising for 17 years now and I won’t take on anything outside my scope. You’re far more likely to grow your firm by doing one thing really well.”
You have a reputation as a family lawyer for embracing non-court decisions. Why?
“Because when you’ve been doing this for 20 years, you can see the better outcomes that people achieve by staying away from court. In the 2016-17 financial year, I was asked for the Australian Law Award submissions what I thought my greatest achievement was in that year – and I felt that it was that I hadn’t taken a single matter to trial that year. Our clients are happier as a result and there’s less conflict, and that’s especially important when people are co-parenting. When you’re in court people tend to throw mud and that mud might not stick in court, but it sticks in your throat. You’re a human being and it has an impact on your relationship with the other person. All the research tells us that children do best after divorce when the communication between the parents is high and the conflict is low. Court is the exact opposite of that.”
Doesn’t staying out of court hurt your firm’s bottom line?
“I disagree with that approach. A client who goes to trial and spends $80,000 to $100,000 is not the person whose going to walk out saying, ‘Wow that was a great experience, you’ve really got to go and see Jennifer, she’s a great lawyer’. They walk out hating the legal system. They tell everyone on social media how awful lawyers are. Even if they feel grateful towards their lawyer, they’re still going to be warning everyone to stay out of court. I get far more referrals from people who think they got a good result in an efficient timeframe and felt supported throughout the process. They’re the ones who will recommend you and become your ambassadors. That’s one of the ways I’ve grown my practice. I honestly can’t remember the last time a client walked in and said ‘I want to go to court’.”
What are the biggest challenges you face?
“It’s finding the balance between running the business and the client work. I’ve got better at that. I now have a fulltime PA paralegal and I have a bookkeeper. If I could turn back time, I would have got the bookkeeper right from the beginning. You have to know how much to do yourself and how much to outsource. You also have to decide how much personal time you want to spend working on the business rather than doing client work or having a life. Are you happy to stay up late at night working on an administrative aspect of the business, or should you leave that to someone else and spend your evening watching Netflix? I now have a rule where I don’t check emails after hours or on the weekends if my son is with me. It’s made family life a lot better.”
Your firm has a flexible work policy. Tell us about that?
“We all work remotely, including the PA paralegal. We share premises with another lawyer and a mediator, so we come into that office to see clients. We also have a serviced office in the city to see clients. I don’t believe we need a model where everybody sits at a desk and stays at it from this time to that time. I have staff who have children and who want flexibility, so we have built a model that gives such flexibility. There are no time sheets or clock watching – it’s about finding a way that works for everyone.”
Is there is risk that such flexibility could be abused?
“The first thing is to ensure you have the right person for flexible working. It’s not going to be suitable for everyone. The other thing is having really good technology behind it. All our files are secured electronically. We don’t use paper unless we have to print off a court document and head to court, which doesn’t happen very often. We have systems in place so we can communicate easily via online communication tools and we have an online project management tool for task management and delegation. If we need to catch up we have Skype and Zoom video calls. If we’re seeing clients we coordinate that so we’re all in the office at the same time. The key is that you’ve got to have the right people with the right attitude and the right setup around it. And they need to be technology embracers!”
You worked at other mid-tier firms before setting up you own business. How crucial has that experience been?
“It’s been crucial. I was in charge of the family law teams at two previous firms before I set up on my own firm. I saw what things work and what don’t and already had a referral network and the ability to be a manager. As lawyers, we typically don’t get taught to be managers or learn about business development. We’ve got this thing in the legal profession where if you’re good at legal work and finding clients you get promoted and start managing people, not necessarily because you’re a good manager. So that eight years in other firms really gave me a good grounding in the things that need to be done and what’s required to make a profit and run a good business.”
On the marketing front, what’s working?
“The internet brings in a different type of client. They tend to be the clients who are seeking advice about parenting issues or they’ve heard of you and they’re looking you up. Then there are referrals that come from accountants, financial planners and through personal relationships. I’m one of those people who never does a ‘Facebook cull’ because the year before I started my practice I looked at my fee sources and realised that 50 per cent had come from people who either were connected with me on Facebook or were referred by someone who was. I am very honest on Facebook and I think that a lot of people connect with that. Firms have to change the way we’re approaching business development. It’s going to change as the younger generation are coming through. They’re using social media a lot more and we have to try to stay ahead of the pack and engage with our potential clients the way they want to engage with us; not telling them how they should be doing it.”
Where do you go from here?
“I’m really committed to giving lawyers the opportunity to achieve what I’ve achieved without having to take the risk. By that I mean for me to have flexibility in my working hours and to be rewarded for bringing in clients and doing the work, I had to set up my own firm. So my goal, and it’s already starting, is to create a firm where people don’t have to have a break from their career if they have young children, be they male or female, if they want some flexibility while their children are young. I want to create an environment where that’s possible. I also want them to be able to choose whether they want more flexibility or to earn more money. I want them to be able to do that without having to do it on their own.”
Jennifer Hetherington, the founder of Hetherington Family Law, is an award-winning Brisbane family lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience in the legal profession. She has been an Accredited Family Law Specialist for the past 12 years and was the highest graduate of the 2005 specialist accreditation program.