Throughout history, people have flocked to see great leaders speak.
On October 20, 2008, for example, people flocked from all corners of the globe to watch former US president George W. Bush speak about the state of financial markets. He kept a Louisiana audience captivated with his charisma, funny anecdotes, and “Bushisms“. Bush had the opportunity, at this epochal event, to show the strength of his economics pedigree by telling the audience, in response to a query on market liquidity, that:
“This thaw — took a while to thaw, it’s going to take a while to unthaw”
But that momentous occasion, and indeed those populating the annals of history in which great leaders have spoken, are dwarfed by the momentous occasion that will occur on this very day.
ROBERT MILLINER WILL SPEAK!
You’ll recall that the Firm Spy has, for many months now, taken delight in dispraising Mallesons Chief Executive Partner Robert Milliner and his views on economics. We christened him “Gandalf” when, notwithstanding the RBA Governor’s assertion hours earlier that the GFC was over, Milliner declared that markets were, in fact, trending down.
Durrrrrrr … thems markets gotsta unthaw!
Today, the Milliner clairvoyant roadshow moves on. And the partnership is flocking to see him.
Two anonymous Mallesons spies sent us the following email, apparently sent by Milliner to the firm yesterday:
…We have our annual partners conference this weekend in Melbourne. Starting with meetings of our global practice teams on Friday morning our discussion over the next 2 days will cover our plans for the next few years under the theme “Brave New World”. The partners and I are looking forward to this opportunity to review the rapid changes to our landscape over the last 18 months, coming into and emerging from the GFC, and agreeing on the refinements we will make to our strategies to reflect the longer term impacts of those changes.
..remember that we cannot afford to let our client service slip – we have done extremely well to make an observable service difference part of our DNA. Pay attention to the details; focus on quality at every step. Make every day count.
Kind regards,
Robert Milliner
Pay attention to the details; focus on quality at every step. Make every day count.
Forgive us, for a moment, as we disgorge our brekky on our keyboard! Golly gosh – we can see parts of our DNA … all over the computer!
But today is so much more than a handful of wanker corporate idioms. Today is the first day of The Brave New World. What will happen in this new world, you ask?
Well, in the book authored by Aldous Huxley, of the same name:
the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of futurism.
The white wizard dabbling in the future? Nothing “new” there. Perhaps a “brave” approach to staff remuneration will herald something “new”.
However, hopes that Milliner and the partnership might resolve today at the partners conference to lift purportedly oppressive pay conditions being placed on overworked staff, are dealt a blow by the following comments, received from an anonymous Mallesons spy last week:
Those readers of your forum from Mallesons, responding to your “weekly poll” that we’ll be the last to unfreeze pay, ought to take pause and consider that the firm paid staff a healthy bonus just prior to Christmas. That bonus will very likely exceed annualised CPI for this financial year. To my mind, none of our major competitors have acted so generously with staff at a time when revenue is falling across the legal market.
So where will pay go over the next few months, as signs of a more general market thaw become apparent? Employee salaries will remain frozen until the pay review cycle foreshadowed to staff in December, meaning no pay rises will take effect until July 1.
As an aside, there is much talk that our competitor Freehills will, in effect, give staff “two” pay reviews in the period that we will give staff one review, the latter of which will take effect on July 1. The Mallesons pay review will have the effect of lifting staff salaries as of July 1 2010. We paid staff Christmas bonuses which largely offset CPI. Placed side by side, the patterns of thawing remuneration freezes between Mallesons and Freehills are therefore probably quite similar.
A “Brave New World”, or the boring old rubbish that lawyers are fed up with?
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The comment by your anonymous MSJ source screams of a desperate attempt by that firm’s HR to defend its thawing policy. At least now we know HR departments are reading this website! Sorry, People & Development departments …
I’m no MSJ insider, but none of my contacts at that firm used the adjective “healthy” when describing their December 2009 bonus and nor were they particularly confident MSJ will step up and reward people for pushing through the hard times while top tier partner revenue has taken a beating.
Your source seems to suggest that fed up MSJ lawyers would only consider moving to its “major competitor” Freehills, which the source claims, is offering a pay freeze thawing that is “probably quite similar” to MSJ on balance (talk about paying attention to the details). Good to hear “top-tier till I die” mentality is still “healthy” at MSJ irrespective of the poor pay conditions.
As predicted, new job opportunities are opening up across the board as we all emerge from the GFC. You only need to look to the recent influx of cold-calls from recruiters, not to mention that A&O interviews have started.
Firms with strict remuneration bands/systems that don’t also have effective programs in place to recognise and reward exceptional talent (and effort) face the very real risk of losing their up and coming stars. Working consistently until after midnight (let’s all face it, it happens) is not factored into base salary but needs to be compensated for some how and the smart firms know this.
The Brave New World all law firm partners need to face up to is that savvy lawyers won’t hang around for 5 – 10 years for the delayed gratification of advancement at a top branded law firm if they can go somewhere else that offers them a greater opportunity to take control of their career, salary and development at a much earlier stage.
Given that the traditional law firm model is predicated on delayed gratification, I wouldn’t hold out for a revolutionary new approach to remuneration at MSJ after this junket (but would love to be proved wrong).
Totally agree with the comment above. The MSJ mouthpiece quoted in the article is a pretty good example of the type of thinking that pisses non-partner lawyers off so much.
Note to law firms – you hire us because we’re clever so stop thinking that we revert to sub-simian IQs whenever pay is discussed. For example, we are aware of the difference between revenue and profit per partner.
We also know that a “bonus” which “will very likely exceed annualised CPI for this financial year” is not actually generous, especially when our individual charge out rates have generally increased by 15-20% over the same period (taking into account increases for PQE).
I’m sure Mallesons is no worse than the majority of firms in this respect but I do find the willingness of the inmates to defend the warders amusing (a trait I associate with the firm…)