Presidents Report

 

 

Bronwyn Pott ALPMA President CEO, Swaab Attorneys

 

 

 

 

One of the terrific (and at times frightening) parts of involvement with the conference committee (even in a peripheral sense) is setting conference program. Trying to work out what will be topical (and compelling) in 12 month's time is an excellent opportunity to do some navel gazing about your own firm and the challenges and opportunities on the horizon. This year has been no different and, as we wait nervously to see if the committee's view will strike a chord with our members and the wider legal community, I thought this column was a perfect opportunity to raise some of the issues we have been discussing around our 'virtual' national board table over the last few months.

This year,we chose the conference theme of 'refresh your law firm' and looked at all the areas where it's possible to take a fresh look at your practice. Whether it's reinventing your place in the market, reducing your carbon footprint, restructuring or just redirecting your energies to a higher performing culture, there is a lot of change on the horizon. For a long time we have sat smug in our place as an industry of choice for the best and the brightest, but in many areas we just don't cut the mustard any more. Our reputation for work life balance is woeful, our adoption of flexible working and paid maternity leave is one of the worst around and now I'm starting to hear (even from our best paid support staff) comments like 'I've been offered quite a bit more money in industry'. So while we remain a training ground for overseas law firms and in-house counsel and some of the best PA's in the country, it's probably time to start thinking about what it is we can do to make our businesses a real alternative to industry.

Around 60% of the recent law graduates were women. That's an amazing statistic when you consider we have some of the least family friendly workplaces in the country. While we try and hide from our staff churn or accept it as a 'cost of business' the reality is it will only get worse if we don't deal with the changing demographics of our workforce and mend our ways.
 

There are a number of board initiatives currently under way, including a paper on flexible working and paid parental leave, and I hope that these, coupled with our conference line up, will help bring these issues to the board tables in our firms and result in some real change in our industry.

To finish with a shameless plug, if you have already received your conference brochure, please talk to your management team and your partners about attending. If you haven't, download one from the website, or call Kerrie (on 03 9432 0335) for a copy. It will be a great 2 days of national and international speakers as well as discussion and networking with your peers, after which you will be well placed to go back and 'refresh your law firm'. So see you in Sydney on October 10 and 11!

 

 

 

Bronwyn Pott