Corrs CEO Gavin MacLaren dumps billable hours, adds 1 week leave
Giving your staff an extra week's holiday and more super is a sure way for a new boss to become popular. But Gavin MacLaren insists it makes good business sense.
The incoming CEO of Corrs Chambers Westgarth also says he is getting rid of daily billable hours targets to "create a sense of humanity in a law firm".
"You have to avoid creating an environment where perseverance is the number-one skill set in your staff," he said.
Gavin MacLaren aims to "create a sense of humanity in a law firm".
Mr MacLaren, who joined Corrs from Magic Circle firm Freshfields in July, said he doesn't accept that the extra leave will be a hit on the bottom line, saying five weeks was common practice in London.
"If your staff can deliver on a high-performance basis the extra week's leave costs you nothing," he said.
Mr MacLaren said Corrs would also make superannuation contributions during both paid and unpaid parental leave, a move he described as "a positive step towards achieving pay equity".
On the move to annual billing targets, he is happy to be a market guineapig. "I'm perfectly happy for us to test it; whether the rest of the market follows us is a call for them to make.
"People want more autonomy as to how they spend their time – and if you can give them that and give them the opportunities …"
Flexible work
He believes that with daily targets "you are filtering for endurance".
"People can work in spurts, people can work flexibly," Mr MacLaren said.
"As a lawyer, it's quite difficult to manage your workload to a daily target because legal work doesn't come in daily packages, it comes in huge waves then it recedes.
"So holding someone to account for their position on a given day is somewhat inconsistent with a high-performance culture.
"High performance relies on you being prepared to give your staff the right to set their own work patterns and balance out their lives."
And the extra week? "Five weeks is better than four weeks because it gives you more flexibility in how you run your life."
Mr MacLaren took over from long-standing CEO John Denton in July after six years with Freshfields in their London and Singapore offices. He was at Allens for 18 years, but left just before it announced the alliance with Linklaters.
Corrs was one of the "stay at home" firms that avoid any alliance with global players and Mr MacLaren suggests it will stay that way.
"If you look at the international market place there are a number of pre-eminent independent firms that do exceptionally well in almost every market," he said.
"In the Australian market there is a limited role for firms to sit in that space, and that has got to be us."
Increased regulation
Mr MacLaren believes this is the best legal market we have seen in Australia in a decade, partly because of increased regulation across multiple sectors.
"A lot of the regulation is extraterritorial and that is going to be an increasing theme for Australian business. It makes your international capability as a law firm quite relevant," he said.
"It can be either by having boots on the ground in other jurisdictions or it can be with good connections with the best international independent law firms and that's our focus."
By the time Mr MacLaren completes his 90-day transition into the leadership of Corrs Chambers Westgarth he will have spent 180 hours in meetings with the firm's partners and visited the firm's five offices (four in Australia and one in New Guinea).
He has a five-year contract and is already marvelling at the fact Mr Denton – now in Paris as head of the International Chamber of Commerce – had 17 years at the helm.
"I'd love to be able to match John on many levels and one of them would be endurance."
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