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Danny Gilbert on making a firm ‘a more attractive place to work than your competitors’
BigLaw firms should be prioritising their staff and office culture as we move into a post-pandemic market, according to the G+T co-founder and managing partner.
Lauren Croft
Danny Gilbert AM is the co-founder and managing partner of Gilbert + Tobin, which he co-founded with Tony Tobin in January 1988. In conversation with Lawyers Weekly, Mr Gilbert reflected on the challenges of a turbulent two years and what his priorities are for the firm moving into 2022.
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Although leading the firm through the pandemic was tough, G+T was in a “privileged position” with busy clients, according to Mr Gilbert.
Last October, G+T announced increased parental leave entitlements across the firm, as well as pay raises for all employees, based on the firm’s “strong revenue performance in 2021 combined with high client demand”, as well as “extraordinary efforts from staff in recent months and intense competition for talented people”.
“Our clients were busy and we were getting a lot of support from our clients, so we had a lot to do. The economy, private equity, many parts of business have been very strong throughout the pandemic and we’re a beneficiary of that, because we act for large businesses, banks, and private equity firms. We actually did have a lot of work on. So, from the perspective of worrying about workflow, that wasn’t a problem,” Mr Gilbert said.
“The big problem was having enough people to do the work. I think managing a workforce in COVID-19 when people are not in the office and keeping up their spirits, giving them the support they need, the encouragement they need, the guidance and mentoring, I think that is a new challenge across the world.”
Whilst many have embraced hybrid working, Mr Gilbert raised concerns that “when you’re working from home, it’s harder to draw the dividing line between work and your own private time” and added that presently, it’s hard to tell whether these issues and challenges will still exist post-pandemic just yet.
“We don’t know what will happen post COVID. When it’s behind us and people feel confident, it’s not clear what it will be like. Certainly, most people will want to spend some time working from home. What proportion of the working population in law firms will want to do this, we don’t know,” he said.
“My own perspective is that the office is terrifically important. It’s here that people build relationships, become bonded in their teams, are visible to one another, share information and knowledge, in ways that are often spontaneous and in the moment. All of that is lost if you’re doing it all online. And that will, ultimately, have quite a deleterious impact on the world of work.”
Despite the office being a valuable asset to Mr Gilbert, G+T will continue implementing flexible working practices moving forward – a move he described as “ambitious” when trying to meet different employee needs.
“We will be working with people who want to work flexibly. And we won’t have a mandatory requirement that they must be in the office all of the time. And hopefully we will be able to do it in a way that’s not too prescriptive – and that meets the needs of everybody,” he explained.
“I think the office is quite important for young people – they want to get access to work and be able to work with senior lawyers and partners. A world where management operates in an authoritarian, top-down way is gone, I think. It will have to be much more nuanced and less prescriptive. But it remains to be seen; this is something I think will take a few years to sort itself out.
“You have to be constantly attentive to all of these issues, you can’t take your eye off them.”
And over the next year, Mr Gilbert said his priorities were with his employees and their wellbeing – as well as the attraction and retention of staff and the firm’s evolving growth strategy.
“Being able to attract to the firm a sufficient number of outstanding lawyers to do the work we have [is a priority].
“But lawyers that have been locked down for a few years are now looking to go to the US or the UK, travel and perhaps do other things. The answer to this problem is to make the office a truly excellent place to work in, so people would prefer to work in the office. I think you have to be agile in your strategy, agile with your clients and agile with your people. You’ve got to make the firm a more attractive place to work than your competitors,” he added.
“We’ll continue to grow; we’ve got a lot of young talented people who we want to bring into the partnership and we’re always looking at new growth areas we think are going to provide interesting and demanding work.”
