My colleagues and I are frequently asked by lawyers at all levels of post admission expressing  interest in the market for legal services which areas of practice are busier than others? Reliably and consistently - it remains Commercial Dispute Resolution/CDR. Also referred to as Commercial Litigation, Commercial Disputes or Commercial Recoveries as a matter of [...]

The direct, indirect and opportunity costs associated with the recruitment of new legal talent shouldn’t be underestimated. Costs of a new appointment include:- Resources applied to cover for a vacancy until replacement commences; The on-boarding process; The fees forgone while files aren’t receiving the usual dedicated attention and traction until the replacement gathers momentum and [...]

During the last 30 years there’s been a series of recurring themes when it comes to the topic of  legal careers and lawyers optimizing their potential in practice. For them to be rewarded from vigilance and openness to opportunity and by doing then experiencing due recognition to be derived from attentively managing their career. The [...]

May and June at the end of the financial years are traditionally the months when reviews are conducted by the law firms to be effective from 1 July for the review period to follow – usually for 6 or 12 months. The objectives are set in conjunction with the lawyers including charge out rates, budgets, [...]

There’s been much written on the topic of employment interviews. What follows are some handy tips for legal employment interviews. They’re unintended to be definitive nor fail safe. Many of the tips make for good common sense. Although most lawyers are possessed of excellent book smarts, when it comes to the pragmatics of employment interviews [...]

I’m commonly asked what effect I believe the GFC had on the profession. A decade on its effects are still evident. Some negative, but some have had a positive effect too. I liken the GFC as causing a worldwide metaphoric tsunami of disruption and change which swept through all businesses across all countries. It didn’t [...]

A vital element of any relationship whether it be a personal or a business relationship is trust. There’s a series of preceding events preceding a counter offer:- Employee has decided to seek employment with another employer Employee embarks on employment process including attending an interview or interviews, will sometimes need to sit assessments, attend to [...]

There’s a concept in economics called Opportunity Cost. In simple terms it captures the situation where one forgoes alternatives in favour of remaining with the status quo. Lawyers are generally risk averse. If they’re not already inclined to be that way by nature then their training and development reinforces the need to be across the [...]

It’s not a perfect world and there’s never a perfect time to make a career move either. In fact, if one were to leave it until the perfect time then it probably wouldn’t happen even though it should. I’m the first to recommend one looks to salvage, negotiate and compromise to address any workplace anomalies, [...]

It was originally an initiative of one of the top tier Chartered Accounting firms – Deloitte Australia (https://www.afr.com/business/accounting/afr23accdeloitte-20150617-ghq5wu) which broke from tradition and once yearly review. In doing so they became a pioneer of the the new age of an ongoing performance review process. They relegated the ritual of the yearly review to the annals [...]