Global law firm K&L Gates is doubling down on its ambition to remain a dominant player in Australia’s legal market, with senior leaders outlining a deliberate and sharply focused growth strategy across its national offices.
Speaking on a recent episode of Legal Firesides, produced exclusively for Lawyers Weekly Premium members, Jason Opperman, K&L Gates’ Australian regional managing partner, and Craig Budner, its global strategic growth partner, shared how the firm intends to cement its standing as a dominant force in Australia’s legal market.
Opperman explained that K&L Gates’ growth strategy in Australia is both deliberate and highly targeted, emphasising that the firm’s expansion is driven by purpose rather than simply boosting headcount.
“We’ve got a very strong growth strategy for the Australian offices of K&L Gates, and it’s not just growth for growth’s sake; it’s very targeted,” Opperman said.
Specifically, he revealed that the global law firm is sharpening its focus on strengthening its foothold across key sectors – including energy, tech, health and life sciences, transport and logistics, and financial services – the latter of which “has always been a cornerstone of the firm here in Australia”.
Across the firm’s four national offices, Opperman emphasised that K&L Gates’ expansion within these key industries goes hand in hand with strengthening its existing capabilities and expertise.
“But really looking to bring in adjacent capability to our existing skill sets in those key industries and investing in the four markets in which we operate [which include] Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. We’re seeing a lot of opportunities in each of those markets,” Opperman said.
Alongside its plans for targeted service growth, Opperman revealed that the firm aims to expand its partnership ranks to more than 100 partners nationwide – up from its current 80.
“[The] overall headcount is just over 500. We’ve got 80 operations across those four cities. But to your point about where we see the firm in the future, we see ourselves growing beyond 100 here in Australia,” Opperman said.
“Again, not just growth for growth’s sake, but really targeted in those industries where we see strong workflows for legal services.”
Budner highlighted the significance of K&L Gates’ Australian operations, noting that many of the firm’s most successful global initiatives originated locally, positioning the Australian offices as a central driver of innovation for the firm.
“It’s such an important piece of the firm, and it’s driven a lot of innovation in the firm. We do a lot of client listening through general counsel roundtables. That idea basically came out of Australia,” Budner said.
“The concept of leveraging your business development team to do client feedback interviews came from Australia. It’s because of the positioning in the market as a top firm in Australia, it’s a mature market, and it brings a lot of sophisticated leadership capabilities.”
Alongside its sectoral focus, Budner also shared how K&L Gates is focusing on positioning itself as a leader in legal technology, noting the firm’s history of pioneering tech-driven solutions.
“We also try to be a leader in the use of technology. So everybody’s talking about AI. We were the firm that invented the e-discovery software system called the Attenex software system,” Budner said.
“So we’ve got a keen eye on how we can use technological tools to be transparent with our clients, on where projects sit, where their fees sit, are we meeting budget, and a lot of transparency in a really open environment. Clients really like that we’re ahead of the game in creating economies of scale with the technological tools and bringing.”
