A significant challenge that Australia’s legal profession is facing, Fionn Bowd (pictured) argued, is that the life of a partner is something that a lot of lawyers don’t aspire to.

Speaking recently on The Lawyers Weekly Show, Ms Bowd – who is the founder and chief executive of Bowd, a full-service, flexible legal resourcing firm – said that there remains much autonomy and excitement that can and does come with being in the partnership ranks of a big firm, junior practitioners are increasingly considering where they might want to be later in their careers and “so many are saying to themselves, ‘No, I actually don’t want that life’”.

Adding to this, she said, is that lawyers have greater awareness of the fact that there are no vocational guarantees in this market.

“They can’t just stay and pay their dues, expecting that at the end of the line, they’ll get rewarded and recognised. As such, they decide that such a path isn’t for them and that there’s something else they can be doing,” she said. 

This shouldn’t be the case, Ms Bowd submitted. Lawyers shouldn’t step away from work they love doing simply because they can’t see themselves having the lifestyle they want in conjunction with the undertaking of said work.

Her ambition, in light of such considerations, is to help lawyers stay in the profession doing the work they love and in ways that make sense for them, while also bringing a culture of service back to the legal profession.

The case for capacity exchange models

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Solving the aforementioned issue is essential, Ms Bowd posited: not just for the sake of vocational satisfaction for lawyers of all stripes, but also to rectify capacity concerns for businesses.

“Capacity is the biggest problem that law firms have,” she proclaimed.

The job of her business, she explained, is to help law firms manage their capacity issues by providing practitioners on contract. The vision, she detailed, is for firms to retain 65-70 per cent of fee earners as permanent employees and then have capacity exchange practitioners make up the balance depending on resourcing needs at any given time.

“[The 65-70 per cent] are your future partners and special counsel. They are the future of the firm, and should be protected as such. Then, in order to help them grow and for them to see that there is a way to have a life outside of law, you balance out your capacity needs by going out to market,” Ms Bowd outlined.

“If the firm doesn’t have enough staff [for a given transaction, instead of hiring new full-timers], you go to a business like ours to help find people who can come in and do that work. They’re only there as long as the work is on, or until the matter is finished.”

Such a model, Ms Bowd insisted, will help firms retain their full-time staff who end up burnt out from overwork when there aren’t enough staff on hand.

When asked why 65-70 per cent might be the magic figure for the quantum of full-time staff versus capacity exchange contractors, Ms Bowd said that while there are some professional services firms that may be closer to 100 per cent of outsourced staff with just a principal to manage, lawyer-client relationships remain integral to optimal outcomes, as is the need to understand a client’s needs in-depth.

Why Australian firms should be investigating capacity exchange

The day is “definitely coming”, Ms Bowd predicted, where firms that aren’t actively exploring or utilising capacity exchange models will be falling behind their rivals.

Some firms already use satellite businesses when they need more internal resources – with varying success, she added – but it is getting to a point “where there’s only a couple of firms who aren’t doing it and we think that they can’t be too far behind”.

“They’re going to feel a pinch pretty soon,” she said. “It will become quite a competitive advantage.”

That pinch may come sooner rather than later, Ms Bowd mused, in the wake of extraordinary marketplace shifts in the age of coronavirus – in this context, the movement towards flexible working and scattered workforces being the most notable.

“Lawyers are no longer willing to accept an argument that they have to work five days in the office, if at all. It’s clear they’ve been able to demonstrate that they can perform well from wherever they are, and that’s creating plenty of tension,” she surmised.

“Flexibility creates all finds of flow-on effects, and it’s going to be an even tighter market in terms of managing capacity and lawyers leave firms that aren’t accommodating.”

Fee earners are wising up to the idea, Ms Bowd identified, that what they are selling to law firms is their capacity. Law firms want to buy that capacity, and they may not be able to buy it in the ways they have traditionally – that is, a full-time employee.

An exchange model, therefore, may be the best way to ensure everyone wins, she determined.

Why lawyers should consider such a path

Capacity exchange models, Ms Bowd said, “provide a pathway for lawyers who want to work differently”.

“They get to completely transform the ways they work. They get to work in a way where they’ve got control and autonomy, as well as the fruits of their labour by way of being an independent contractor who makes money based on how many hours they work,” she said.

Ultimately, being part of a capacity exchange model isn’t going to be for everyone, Ms Bowd noted, given the breadth of characters and personalities that makes up Australia’s legal profession.

“For some people, the law firm model and partnership track are exactly what they need. They love it and thrive in that environment. Others, however, just want to be doing the work,” she said.

“Partners have to spend a lot of time on partnership issues, management issues, money issues, strategy issues. Not everyone wants to do that. They don’t want to do business development, or mentoring, be involved in team activities, spending time with clients, or trying to win work. They just love being lawyers.”

Some lawyers, she continued, know what makes them feel good and are happy just going from deal to deal, doing a good job, getting a pat on the back, and moving on to the next transaction.

Ultimately, Ms Bowd mused, vocational pathways in law such as this will be a “horses for courses” situation. However, she added, it remains incumbent upon all legal professionals to work out who they are as people and where they should fit.

“We have to get better at understanding ourselves, what we’re good at and what we really like. We have to stop asking ourselves to be good at everything, because nobody’s good at everything. Instead, ask yourself what you really love, and once you do that, ask yourself where do you fit and where should you be to do that stuff,” she concluded.

“That’s what I want to see: more and more lawyers doing work that they love.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Fionn Bowd, click below: