Thanks to the tipster who sent us a link to this gem of an article discussing recent competition from global law firms entering the Australian market. Referring to recent raids, defections and wholesale meltdowns, the article commented that top-tier law firms are seeing another trend — defection towards mid-tiers:
For partners to leave the nation’s best-known and most profitable firms to join relatively obscure names would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But Matt Harris, a Sydney recruiter with Taylor Root, says mid-tier Australian firms have flourished in recent years, making them much more competitive for talent.
“The mid-tier firms have really risen during the [financial crisis],” says Harris. “With their lower charges, they have stolen work from large top-tiers like Freehills. Seeing that, partners are questioning whether they want to spend the rest of their legal careers in large firms, or join the mid-tiers to help build a business.”
Top-tier firms acknowledged the threat of defections and the realignment of their practices towards “big ticket” work, presumably to compete with the UK and US firms in league tables.
And then there’s Clayton Utz. From the article:
Not everyone agrees there’s a problem. Clayton Utz chief executive partner Darryl McDonough says his firm is “bucking a bit of a trend” and not losing many partners to smaller firms. “You do not see a lot of that happening in Clayton Utz,” says McDonough.
Woah, nelly! What kind of Delusional Darryl have we got here? Remember, this is the same Clutz who “haemorrhaged” 14 partners to the A&O raid, putting a major dent in its Sydney corporate practices, and who allegedly settled for $700,000 with defector Grant Fuzi, who tried to jump ship with them.
Has your firm bled any partners lately? How is it reacting to the presence of international firms?
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Strictly speaking Darryl’s right, they aren’t going to smaller firms. With all their staff fleeing in droves to the other top tier/magic circle firms, there aren’t any left to go to smaller outfits. Congratulations on “bucking a bit of a trend”.
well he’s right they’re not loosing to partners to small firms – A&O is big!