The most immediate and notable change effected for DWF Australia was merely a title change for partners to principal lawyers, but becoming an incorporated legal practice saw the firm become a company within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001, as opposed to a traditional law firm partnership model where partners were invested in the business.

With offices opened in quick succession across Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, and Sydney, DWF Australia’s reasoning behind the change to an incorporated legal practice is that it gives the firm a foundation for future growth and investment in the business and enables agility in decision making.

As a “growing global legal business”, DWF’s APAC Chairman Mark Hickey noted the firm’s adoption of “the right structure for each individual market” as a reason for the change to an incorporated legal practice for the Australian market. It was a move that had “the full backing of the senior team”.

He said the firm’s growth at pace in Australia reflects “ambitious plans to expand traditional practice areas as well as rolling out managed and complementary ‘connected’ non-legal services”. 

Incorporation enables the firm to raise capital to invest in technology and systems, people and acquisitions, Mr Hickey outlined, with further benefits seen in DWF’s ability to hire top legal talent and invest in complementary non-legal ‘connected’ businesses.  

VIEW ALL

“This structure will enable us to further scale up to meet the demands of our clients both nationally and internationally by expanding the capability of our Australian operation – with expanded expertise in traditional legal services and through the introductions of managed and connected services”, the chairman iterated.

“Our growth strategy in each market centres on three key areas; complex legal services (traditional legal work), managed legal services (legal processed work) and connected services (complementary non-legal services),” Mr Hickey explained.