Underlying the recent growth and expansion of national insurance firm Moray & Agnew is a remarkably loyal leader. Briana Everett speaks to Michael Pitt about his journey from articled clerk to managing partner. 

Waiting patiently for four long hours in the reception area of Sydney H Moray & Co in 1966 has paid dividends for Michael Pitt.

Indicative of the loyal partner Pitt would soon become, it was his patience and determination that landed him a spot in the Sydney-based law firm to complete his articles.

“It’s really quite funny but I got the job [at Sydney H Moray] as an articled clerk by chance. I had a 9am interview, when we were in 109 Pitt Street, as a fresh-faced 17-year-old having just done the Leaving Certificate,” says Pitt.

“The partner who was to interview me had completely forgotten and he was occupied with something else, so I sat in reception until one o’clock. Everyone was coming out and having a look. I think I really got the job because I just sat there for four hours, but it’s interesting how things turn out.”

Those four hours in the reception of Sydney H Moray have turned into more than 40 years with the firm, from its early days as a small Sydney practice to its current status as a national firm with six offices across Australia.

Rapid rise

After deciding last minute to drop his plans to study medicine, and to instead become a lawyer, Pitt graduated in law from the University of Sydney in 1971 and became partner of Sydney H Moray & Co in late 1972.

“Yes, it’s unbelievable,” says Pitt, conceding that his short trip to partnership would be almost unheard of today.

“When I started articles with Sydney Moray I guess it’s fair to say he was in retirement phase and the insurance side of the practice was very small and hadn’t been proactively advanced. In about 1968 Brian Agnew bought the insurance practice from Sydney Moray. The two firms operated side by side under the one roof.

“Shortly after my admission I swapped sides and joined Brian as Moray & Agnew. He then acquired the whole practice, almost at the same time, and I went into partnership with Brian. So that was the start of it.”

Taking on the role of national managing partner and chairman of the firm in 2003, Pitt says it took him a while to get used to life as a manager and not as a lawyer.

“I loved the challenge of [being a lawyer]. I loved the fight in it, the negotiation,” he says, recalling the influence of his good friend and Queen’s Counsel John Gleeson.

“There’s a certain amount you learn yourself … But really, the advocacy part, the negotiation part, the art of being face-to-face with a competent opponent and being able to negotiate a settlement, that I learned from John. He’s a tremendous fellow.”

While he says the first few years as the firm’s managing partner and chairman were “difficult”, Pitt quickly became comfortable managing the national firm and navigating its future expansion.

“I really did find it difficult [at first]. I was used to having hundreds of files and articles everywhere, but as the firm grew, this role became all consuming,” he says.

“With over 400 staff there is always a lot happening. A lot of my time is taken up not only with the management of the staff but with talking to people that approach us – practice groups and different firms. There is a lot of work that has to go into that before we take the next step and try to reach agreement with someone.”

Opportunity knocks

The start of Moray & Agnew’s national expansion began in 2000 after the firm’s partnership realised they needed to establish a greater presence along the east coast and ultimately go national.

“In the late 1990s there was a contraction of insurers in the market, through takeovers and mergers, and increasingly we sensed that insurers were looking for firms that could provide them with, if not national, an east coast representation,” he explains.

“So we decided if we were going to advance the firm we needed to look in that direction. We started in Brisbane in 2000, concentrated on building that up, and things went from there.”

Under Pitt’s management Moray & Agnew has gone from having offices in Sydney and Brisbane to establishing a presence in Canberra in 2003, Melbourne in 2004, Newcastle in 2006 and, most recently, Perth. 

Talking modestly of Moray & Agnew’s success so far, and his ambitions for the firm beyond 2012, Pitt says he has never had a particular growth strategy other than to establish a “premier insurance firm nationally”.

“My approach has been to progress, but on a softly, softly basis. We haven’t tried to turn the world upside down overnight. Before we looked anywhere else, we wanted to make sure we had a successful operation in Brisbane,” he says.

“[Becoming a premier national insurance firm] is our focus, but you can’t set timetables for these things and we’ve never tried to do that. We look for opportunities. We get a number of approaches. Some are interesting, some aren’t, but we look essentially to find the right people, the right cultural fit, because I think that’s the fundamental thing to a successful firm.”

In 2003, once the firm’s Brisbane office was up and running, Pitt and his partners set up a presence in Canberra.

Following a merger with Connery & Partners, Moray & Agnew formed its Melbourne office in January 2004. It expanded it further with the addition of Herbert Geer & Rundle’s insurance practice in 2006.

“We literally started Canberra as a one-man operation, with one of our partners going down and operating out of a serviced office. We did that for about 18 months,” he says.

Moray & Agnew was then approached by the partners of Hunt & Hunt Lawyers, which ultimately led to the firm’s establishment in Canberra and then in Newcastle in February 2006.

“That fell into our hands somewhat,” says Pitt.

The addition of 11 lawyers through a merger with boutique construction firm Dutton Lawyers in 2007 helped further develop the firm’s Newcastle office.

Going west

Finally, in 2011, Moray & Agnew ventured into the Western Australian market, setting up shop in Perth and snapping up a number of lawyers from Sparke Helmore’s Perth branch in the process.

“We’re very happy with Perth. It’s developing very well,” he says, noting the addition of partner Rosemary Waldron-Hartfield and her team from Sparke Helmore in March this year.

“We’ve settled them in well and we’re looking to expand it further from there with the right opportunities. Perth is the newest kid on the block and we’re very excited about the opportunities that are opening up for us in the west.”

Emphasising his slow and steady approach to the firm’s expansion, Pitt says finding the right people has been the key to the success of each merger or team acquisition.

“Too many firms have had partnership disputes and bust ups because of personalities more than anything else. You’ve got to get the right mix,” he says.

“I don’t close the door on anything, but at the moment we are concentrating on establishing Perth and developing that. We’ll evaluate other opportunities that come our way.”

Although Moray & Agnew now have Australia covered, with offices across the east coast and in WA, Pitt rules out the idea of one day going global.

“I think I could effectively rule that out for our type of practice. I don’t see the advantage, from our point of view, of that sort of international alliance or merger,” he says.

“It worries me a bit that there seems to have been undue haste to step in that direction. It remains to be seen whether [those firms] are successful … I query what might happen down the track.”

While choosing not to consider any form of international alliance, Pitt says there have been some benefits from the Australian legal industry’s rush to go global.

“I think there are definitely [opportunities],” he says, referring to the lateral movement of partners from global firms to national firms like Moray & Agnew, such as Peter Treddinick who left DLA Phillips Fox when it was to become DLA Piper.

“Those sorts of opportunities come our way from the fallout of those kinds of mergers.”

Keeping it in the family

With no plans of retiring any time soon – “My wife says if I ever retire she’ll kill me” – Pitt’s dedication to the firm has in no way waned over the years.

Although he’s a passionate horse breeder and racer, and likes to get out on the water on his boat whenever he can, Pitt plans to keep doing what he’s doing.

“I’m enjoying what I’m doing and I think things are going well. We seem to have a pretty happy crew here. I’m not one of those people who lives for the day that he retires,” he says.

“I enjoy being busy and have every intention of continuing to do what I do whilst this situation continues and whilst my partners are happy with what I’m doing.”

But when the day does arrive, and Pitt spends more time on his boat than in the office, he’s got a succession plan sorted - one of his sons is already a partner, while another recently joined the Pitt team as a graduate.