How Henry Davis York’s head realised the firm needed to combine with NRF

In the same conversation, he reflected on his time as the managing partner of Henry Davis York (HDY) and the market conditions that led him and the partnership to agree to combine with global firm NRF.

Greene explained that he came into the role of managing partner at a time of significant macroenvironmental change, which precipitated a conversation about how the firm needed to evolve to meet those market conditions.

“It was a very successful firm. It had a very strong reputation, it had excellent partners and people, long-term, loyal staff members had a really good culture around our people and our partnership. But it came very clear to me not long after I stepped into the role that the kind of macroenvironment was changing, and our clients’ expectations were changing,” he said.

“Law was becoming increasingly global in terms of how firms had to be positioned, the investments that firms needed to make, and the kind of balance sheet that you needed to make those investments.”

As a result – approximately one year into his term as the firm’s head – he charged the partners with spending six months undertaking a “serious fact-finding consultation”, so the partnership could form a view about how the firm needed to position itself to remain successful.

Following this, Greene said: “I reported that back to the partners that I thought we needed to change our direction and to look for opportunities for growth and to kind of reposition ourselves in the market. And that’s when the board and the partners kind of sent me into the market to kind of look for opportunities.”

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The decision to do so, he continued, “weighed very heavily” on him and the other partners.

“The firm had a very proud 110-plus year tradition [across Sydney, Canberra, and Brisbane], and we took that history and tradition very seriously as custodians of the firm,” he said.

It eventually became “very clear” to Greene and the HDY partnership that the firm needed to look beyond Australia, “and that the way the market was evolving and the way our practice was evolving and at that stage, we had an international practice”. The firm had partners engaged in cross-border insolvency and corporate mandates, and a “burgeoning” global practice was something the partners wanted to “double down on”.

“We looked at a number of options, a number of growth options, a number of kinds of merger options, but ultimately settled on that something global was the right way to go for us to really reposition the firm in the market,” he said.

Greene had the benefit of knowing former NRF managing partner Wayne Spanner socially, he noted, and came to realise that Spanner had been having similar discussions with his firm’s board about NRF’s next stage of evolution.

“The conversation started very casually, and evolved from what the combination of the two firms could represent, and why it would be potentially in the best interest of all of the partners, both the current and future, to combine,” Greene said.

“They were thinking about their next stage of evolution. We were thinking about that as well. And the conversation really started from there.”

It was a rollercoaster of a journey for Greene, to have become managing partner of what was one of the nation’s biggest law firms, to then realising that firm needed to go global, and then becoming part of an existing major player worldwide.

“There’s no doubt it was the most challenging year of my career and certainly the most challenging kind of leadership initiative I’ve been involved in,“ he said.

“What did I learn? You really need to have the courage of your convictions. I mean, you need to be very clear in your own mind of why you are doing this and why it’s in the best interests of the firm. Because without having that kind of strong sense of conviction and purpose and kind of direction of travel, it’s very hard to persuade others.”

“I spent a lot of time in that year on the importance of being a persuasive communicator. It’s one thing to have a vision, it’s one thing to have a very clear view in your own mind about where the firm needed to go. And unless you can actually communicate that, persuade others to that same way of thinking, you’re not going to be successful.”

When asked whether he thinks the macroenvironment has shifted much since the combination between HDY and NRF, and whether other national firms need to be thinking globally, Green responded: “I think most firms probably are thinking globally, other than maybe boutique or specialist practices. How they embrace that will perhaps differ.”

“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was the right thing for [HDY] to do as a firm,” he said.

“[It came] after deep consultation with partners, and with clients particularly, and also with our up-and-coming young partners and aspiring partners about where they wanted to see the firm go.”

“But there’s no doubt that the firm has become even more global since then, and that the practice of law and the investments that you need to make in your firm to be a competitive law firm and to provide the level of services and the efficiency of services that clients demand around technology and AI, et cetera – means that a certain amount of scale is necessary.”

To view the full interview with Michael Greene, click here.