One notable proclamation from that presentation was its stated intent “to be Australia’s largest personal services law firm”. When asked about this core vision, AFL CEO Stace Boardman – who was named chief executive at the time of the release of the firm’s financial results, promoting her from her former role as COO – said that being a large company comes with “opportunities of scale” that benefit clients, employees, and investors alike.

“Aiming to be the largest family law firm means we can explore different ways of working and thinking, and in return realise efficiencies and opportunities for improvement. That is good news for clients who benefit from the depth of professional expertise, good news for employees who will enjoy growing career pathways and good news for investors,” she told Lawyers Weekly.

“We are very focused on continuing to do more of the same, not just delivering, but actually driving our strategic growth plan for the long term.”

The investor presentation further noted that AFL intends to capture approximately 10 per cent of the family law market in Australia by this time next year.

“Our team is constantly in the market talking with like-minded professionals and businesses, discussing synergies and mutual opportunities,” Ms Boardman said.

“It’s simple: we want to be the largest, and we want to be in this for the long term, and so it becomes a question of ‘how’ that we spend most of our time on,” she outlined.

“We may be a publicly listed company, but at our heart, we are a professional services law firm. We will continue to focus on identifying what our clients need from their trusted advisers, we aim to deliver a more consistent level of professional service to a larger group of clients.”

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Elsewhere in the listed firm’s plans for FY22, Ms Boardman went on, are plans for expanding into adjacent sectors of legal practice and adding “add-on services” to its professional services bow.

“We’ve already started our new year expansion into alternative dispute resolution, with the launch of the Faculty of Arbitration and Mediation (FAM). We are growing our experienced team of qualified mediators and arbitrators to support Family Law clients struggling to get time in the family courts. FAM was ahead of the game on this issue and we saw this as a natural next step in the evolution of supporting Family Law clients,” she said.

“Our corporate services support package is gaining some real traction. We know that employers of a client going through a family law issue are experiencing many complex challenges of their own. We are excited to be able to offer employers, their management team and employees support with addressing some of these challenges.”

This all said, Ms Boardman noted, whilst AFL is striving to be the largest family law firm in the country, it is “very important” to the leadership team that it also be considered the best.

This means, she said, being considered “best in class for client service, best in class for our professional expertise and finally best in class as an employer of choice. These are the goals our team strive to deliver every day”.

When asked if AFL considers itself a “challenger firm”, Ms Boardman said this isn’t the ultimate goal, but acknowledged that how it is going about achieving its goals, “by default we may challenge some of the industry’s status quo”.

“We’re comfortable with that,” she mused.

“Every business has their goals that they're trying to achieve, we are very transparent about ours, we want to be the largest national family law firm, but in a sustainable way, for the long term,” she explained.

“We know this focus offers genuine opportunities for all our stakeholders, depth of expertise for our clients, stability and development opportunities for our employees, and a commercially innovative operation for our business partners and investors.”

Looking ahead, Ms Boardman said, it is “inspiring” to see the AFL team adapting to the new normal created by the age of coronavirus. She is also excited, she said, “by our committed and talented leadership team, by our hunger to learn junior lawyers, and by our expert support staff with all their problem-solving skills, ideas and support of us all”.

“I am driven to fully realise all the opportunities of our recent mergers. We have such a wealth of experience and expertise in our team and a large bank of ideas that we look forward to integrating across the business.” 

The Lawyers Weekly Legal Firm of Choice Survey is now open, giving legal professionals the opportunity to confidentially say what areas their firm is responding well to – and where they could improve. The annual survey, which is partnered by Momentum Intelligence, also forms the basis for the Top 25 Attraction Firms ranking, identifying the firms legal professionals most want to work for. To take part in the survey, click here. The survey will close on 15 September.