Founder and CEO Deborah Mills comments on how to attract, develop, and retain top legal talent while engaging the workforce at all levels, in Legal Practice Management.
Deborah’s comments were published in the November 2024 edition of Legal Practice Management.
With shifting expectations around work/careers in legal, coupled with a hypercompetitive talent market, how is your firm (re)evaluating how you can drive engagement, performance and success across all career levels of your workforce?
“At Burlingtons, we are in the process of moving our firm from a limited liability partnership to a private limited company, which will enable us to move forward with two strategies to engage the workforce at all levels. First, we are establishing an employee benefit trust (EBT) with up to 10 percent of the shares of the company settled in the trust. Secondly, we are inviting key partners to become direct shareholders in the company. These moves will benefit both the firm and its current employees, who will have an even stronger stake in our long-term success.”
How are you considering career progression/pathways within the business (eg, codifying the path to partnership, or creating new roles such as that of the legal director, or paths given changing technology) based on your current/future talent needs?
“We have just recently appointed Partner Jo Mackie as our Business Development Director. Jo is prolific and is a strong voice in promoting our “more than law” business model, which entails a complete professional solutions offering to international high-net-worth clients. Clients often require not just legal advice, but also tax, structuring, wealth management, and a wide range of private office services, and they appreciate when these needs can be met under a single roof.
“Additionally, earlier this year we completed a strategic alliance with American law firm Practus, which allows for cross-referral for our international clients.”
What benefits/challenges are you experiencing around these initiatives?
“Following the implementation of these initiatives, we have seen a steady increase in fee income and an increasingly diverse client base, which speak to the impact on the overall health of the business.”
Is your firm using alternatives such as apprenticeships, either to bring new talent in or to keep the existing staff engaged in a future with the firm? Are you reevaluating the roles of paralegals?
“We value talent at all levels in our organisation and encourage juniors to aim high. Recently, we secured a substantive property client who asked us to manage their portfolio, and in response we moved an administrative assistant into a paralegal role with the aim of helping her secure a training contract.”
What kinds of competencies and skill sets (soft and hard) are you most focused on developing within your workforce?
“We place an emphasis on building client rapport and business development, as the success of any lawyer centres on their ability to win and retain clients with both a commercial and legal competency and flare.”
What USPs/incentives does your firm offer to attract and retain staff?
“We are establishing an employee benefit trust, which is targeted at staff retention and will include up to 10 percent of the shares of the company. We also offer flexible working arrangements to our employees, as we recognise that our staff have important commitments outside the office including childcare, and these should not be barriers to doing good work. We also pride ourselves on maintaining a pleasant, collaborative working atmosphere, which is crucial to facilitating cross-departmental collaboration, which is a key element of our offering.”
