Articles
Winning ways from firms thinking outside the box
Corporate Citizen Firm of the Year – Bell Gully
In an increasingly globalised legal sector, innovation and differentiation are likely to be key assets as law firms seek to better connect with clients and grow their business. Three firms excelled at the recent 2012 ALB Australasian Law Awards in categories which ALMJ believes demonstrates their ability to use their vision and implement strategies that help both employees and clients. The firms won in categories requiring innovation and strong management, and as such they provide inspiration for other firms. The three winners explain the strategies behind their success.
As part of the firm’s focus on community involvement and support, Bell Gully aids three local community law centres by providing lawyers, training, mentoring, advice, information and accepting pro bono work. “We take referrals for matters that fall outside their area of expertise or capacity, so if they have someone come in that they think we might be able to help then they can refer them to us to do pro bono work for them,” says Rachel Gowing, manager of Bell Gully’s pro bono program.
It is not just the legal team getting involved; Bell Gully’s IT team has designed and created websites for two of the community law centres. “We make a special effort to involve non-lawyers as well,” Gowing says. As head of the program, she aims to provide structure and processes around the management of the firm’s pro bono work, which encompasses community involvement and support, in addition to pro bono activities.
A committee of partners and senior associates oversees the program, which was formalised in 2009 to ensure the firm’s pro bono and community commitment is focused, organised and measurable, while providing structure and processes around how pro bono work is sourced, managed and promoted.
On a wider scale, all 26 of New Zealand’s community law centres have benefited from Bell Gully’s efforts, with the law firm renegotiating its funding agreements to secure ongoing financial support and also establishing a new national body to represent them. “We have continued to act for that new national body, facilitating efficiencies and information sharing between all of the centres nationally,” Gowing says.
Their work in the community is not all law-focused. Each year, participants in a Summer Clerks Program visit the homes of patients of their pro bono client and volunteer partner, Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand, to help them with household chores and garden maintenance. “We get such incredible enthusiasm from the students and the quotes they come back with in terms of what they got out of it always seems, to me, to be more than what the recipients get out of it. It’s a nice thing to be able to say about the firm that you work for.”
In order to meet the program’s aims, Gowing says applications for new work are assessed against established criteria, one of which is wider public interest. “We’re aware as a commercial law firm that our reach can only go so far without helping charitable organisations and community law centres, which can personally reach a lot further.”
Corporate Social Responsibility Firm of the Year – King & Wood Mallesons
Philanthropy is not always the first thing that comes to mind when the broader community thinks of law firms. So people outside of the sector are often surprised to hear of the community and philanthropic programs at King & Wood Mallesons, says Chris Wheeler, a partner at the firm. “One of the things that’s probably not really well known in the community is that lawyers and law firms actually do these things,” he says.
Wheeler is chair of the “Mallesons in the Community Program”, which has been instrumental in King & Wood Mallesons winning for four consecutive years the ALB award for Corporate Social Responsibility Firm of the Year. The program comprises a series of targeted campaigns, including pro-bono assistance, workplace giving and volunteering. Each is aimed at specific groups, such as The National Children’s and Youth Law Centre, which runs an online project providing free legal advice to young people.
Wheeler says over the past decade the firm’s Corporate Social Rewsponsibility and philanthropic initiatives have deliberately been designed to make a big impact in specific areas or within specific organisations, such as its Australia-wide community partners, the Australian Red Cross and The Smith Family. What the partners did not want to do was support too many programs and spread the efforts of contributors within the firm too thin. “Everyone agreed, across the spectrum of personalities in the firm, that we really wanted to make a difference. And to make a difference you need to focus your efforts,” he says.
King & Wood Mallesons’ specific charitable targets are to help children and young people at risk; and help alleviate poverty and improve community welfare. The Mallesons in the Community Program is overseen by a dedicated board, while each Mallesons centre has a pro bono and charities committee to initiate and organise community projects, as well as a pro bono partner and a pro bono coordinator. The program extends to the firm’s international offices; for example, the London centre has participated in the Lawyers in Schools program with the Citizenship Foundation since 2007; and the Hong Kong office engages in initiatives such as a volunteering program to provide support for young people facing social difficulties.
Wheeler describes the surprise from the public when they find out that he volunteers at events for the firm’s charitable partners, such as The Smith Family. “They look at you and go, ‘Oh. I didn’t know you did that. Why’d you do that?’ And it surprises me that people would have that view.”
The public’s appreciation of the legal sector’s philanthropic commitment may grow over time. However, Wheeler says public commendation was not the reason King & Wood Mallesons’ program was established. “One of the benefits of doing it and being involved in an organisation like this is that you also have the opportunity to connect. And that’s a strong aspect of the program … to actually connect our people to those less fortunate in the community.”
Innovative Use of Technology Firm of the Year – Gilbert + Tobin
Using an iPad and a $5.49 app, the firm’s IT team created an innovative way for its lawyers and clients to work together using iPads. The development formulates a way of storing files in a manner that allows everyone involved in a legal case to have simultaneous, secure access to them. Simon Gilchrist, innovation officer at the firm, says the tool has universal appeal.
“It wasn’t just the geeky types – in fact, none of these people are geeky – they all really took to it,” he says.
As far as Gilbert + Tobin is aware, the tool represents the first time iPads have been used in this way in the High Court and Federal Court. The inspiration for developing it grew from frustration, but Gilbert + Tobin has continued to refine the process. Thanks to a centralised server, lawyers, paralegals and clients can also update folders with the push of a button. Encryption software, the ability to wipe files remotely and building in electronic ‘policies’ (such as mandatory periodic password renewal) ensure the safekeeping of confidential files.
While Gilbert + Tobin has not done a formal cost-benefit analysis of the system, Gilchrist cites courier fees and other, more fundamental costs of the old system when assessing the app’s financial viability. “We haven’t actually done an analysis of the photocopying saving, but we think it’s paid for itself already,” he says.
Reaction within the firm suggests such a tool has been needed in the legal profession for some time. “It was a huge success – with the lawyers, the barristers and the clients because they could access these materials wherever they were,” says Gilchrist, who describes his role as innovation officer at the Gilbert + Tobin somewhat humbly. “I’ve previously referred to myself as a walking suggestion box. My role doesn’t mean that I am the font of all innovation – quite the opposite. It means that I have an easy job, because I just harvest all these ideas.”
Gilchrist believes innovation is crucial in today’s competitive legal market. “It’s a challenging market, it’s a challenging industry – clients are expecting more.”