June, it seems, is the month of the year when retiring partners engage the media to alert future employers that they need a job. Such is the case with the objectionable comments made in today’s BRW by retiring DLA Phillip’s Fox CEO Tony Crawford.

winners are grinners

Crawford, a stickler for using wanker corporate idioms and verbose, ‘I’m-a-smart-lawyer’ language, has today taken out the inaugural Firm Spy Partner Award.

Here are a few choice quotes from Tony that we have been able to dig up (from here, the BRW (4/6) and AFR (29/05)). Warning: they call to mind David Brent.

• Walking the talk is something everyone does; its not just me and the executive team. So that was the base camp for us;
• Law is a business paradigm;
• In a partnership you do really lead through coalescence and pursuit of common goals;
• The directive approach has never really worked well in a relative sense to the corporate world;
• If your values are embedded people tell each other when they’re not congruent;
• This is business critical;
• Boiling it down to the emotional competency inventory we take every couple of years is very important;

As if this cringe-worthy corporate parlance wasn’t enough, Crawford recently spoke of the things DLA Phillips Fox could do to improve the firm, noting:

…this leadership issue hit us in the face. We couldn’t avoid the conclusion that if we didn’t put leadership development at the top of the list we weren’t going to be able to differentiate ourselves as an employer of choice and get our number [of employees]… $100,00-$150,000 would be the sort of leakage that would occur in good lawyers that you lose from the business.

Then, in today’s BRW he said:

All firms are taking a much greater interest in how to engage and retain the very best people. The competition is intense, so firms need to invest heavily in their understanding of people…Maintaining a focus on the values and standards of the profession is critical.

Yet, despite the monetary value of each lawyer and the need to engage and retain staff,  some saff have criticised Crawford for presiding over what is arguably one of the most extensive GFC redundancy processes yet witnessed in Australia. So, for all those employers now considering the services of a soon-to-be available Tony Crawford, some might say his guide to being a law firm CEO should read:

1. tell the world how much the firm cares about nuturing new leaders/quantifies their value to the firm ($150k!);
2. tell the world how much the firm wants to retain and understand its employees;
3. tell the world how much the firm endeavours to uphold the values and standards of the profession.

Then, when the doors are closed, preside over a firm that allegedly:

1. is among the very first to act when partner profit is threatened;
2. leaves junior lawyers in the cold for many months, wondering if they will have a job;
3. freezes pay when partnership profit is jeopardised; and
4. dispassionately wields the axe in a second wave of redundancies, whose purpose remains unclear.

Is this the work of a Foxymoron? You decide. Send the Firm Spy your news and views!

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