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Colin Biggers & Paisley repays sacrificed remuneration to staff
National law firm Colin Biggers & Paisley, which has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, has decided to pay all staff and partners the salary they agreed to forgo in the wake of COVID-19.
Jerome Doraisamy
In late April, Colin Biggers & Paisley reduced the salaries of all staff members by 20 per cent, and partners saw their remuneration cut by 20 to 40 per cent, depending on their level of seniority. Those covered by the Legal Services Award saw their working hours reduced by 20 per cent (with pay being reduced accordingly).
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No one’s salary dipped below the full-time equivalent of $75,000, the firm noted, and those with an FTE package of $75,000 and below were not asked to salary sacrifice.
The request to professionals to reduce their remuneration by such amounts was intended to be across 10 pay periods, from 11 May to 30 September 2020. However, the firm was able to return staff and partners to their usual salaries two months ahead of schedule in mid-August.
Now, following “careful analysis” of current and projected revenue and cash reserves, Colin Biggers & Paisley has decided to repay those professionals the remuneration they’d agreed to sacrifice back in April.
All repayments were made late last week.
“It is a decision that we could only make now, after a detailed review of our financials at a time when the Eastern Seaboard states are finally progressing into COVID-19 management rather than ‘COVID reaction’ programs and economic and financial trends are a bit more certain to predict,” the firm’s managing partner, Nick Crennan (pictured), told Lawyers Weekly.
“Our approach to leading the practice is grounded in our values of loyalty, respect, integrity and balance and guided by our shared purpose – collectively to build and secure the future of our clients, colleagues and community. These touchstones guided every decision and every communication and I believe that they resonated with our people who signed up for a huge discretionary effort. We are proud that our culture meant that the vast majority (96 per cent) of our people signed up for our shared strategy. Without their support, hard work and collective sacrifice, an early exit from the strategy would not have been possible.”
2020 has been difficult for the Colin Biggers & Paisley community, Mr Crennan reflected, noting that all staff and partners have been working “incredibly hard at work and they’ve faced challenges of COVID-19, lockdown and home schooling”.
“Their performance and outperformance to budgets and targets, greatly contributed to our practice’s current financial position. Without their commitment and hard work, we would be in a very different position,” he argued.
“So, while it was a difficult decision to ask our people to reduce their remuneration or working hours, when we analysed our financial position, the way forward was clear – it was the right thing to do to repay them for their trust, sacrifice, hard work, commitment and dedication to our practice.”
The firm knew, Mr Crennan continued, that it had a “strong and unique culture”, which was reinforced by how staff responded to the remuneration strategy.
“The strength of our culture is evident in the extraordinary effort of fee earners and others during COVID-19 – this crisis brought the business together and the experience (shared across the practice) has been an important bonding element for everyone in our practice,” he said.
When asked how Colin Biggers & Paisley feels about its professional and fiscal prospects moving forward, following repayments to staff and partners, Mr Crennan said: “We have a healthy balance of anticipated work in all our practice areas and industry areas, and we are confident that this will remain the case for most sectors at least the rest of this financial year and next financial year as well.”
“We are monitoring the broader economic indicators in the state and federal economies, and are prepared for a surge in some areas – insolvency and litigation services particularly – which we are confident will offset any potential slowdowns in other legal service areas,” he added.
However, what was most critical to the firm’s success during this period, he submitted, was “acting decisively and our focus on honest, clear and timely communication”.
“When we went to our people to ask them to join in the reduction, we said we would be open with them about how we were tracking,” he said.
“During the time since we announced the remuneration strategy, we have provided regular updates on our progress and made it clear that we would exit early if we could, i.e. if the performance from the practice supported it.
“Thanks to our people’s hard work, dedication and shared commitment to our strategy, we were able to end our salary reduction strategy nearly two months in advance of our original end date, and later return the remuneration they agreed to sacrifice.”
