“More and more, lawyers decide they want to be their own boss. They want to be the master of their own destiny,” he said.

Although the profession does not have up-to-date figures, 2018 data indicated that over 80 per cent of lawyers in Australia are sole practitioners. In Queensland, for example, that cohort is closer to 90 per cent.

As such, the idea of sustainably scaling a law firm is hugely important, he surmised.

Speaking recently on The Boutique Lawyer Show, Mr Schultz (pictured) said that sustainability in this context refers to “the ability of the practice to endure, to stand the test of time, to offer career paths for those who start out in it and who stick on, and to achieve and to continue to achieve their goals and aspirations, to retain a vision and to keep moving in that direction”.

In the absence of defined professional conduct rules prescribing a duty to ensure one’s firm does not fall over, it is incumbent, he argued, for firms to use certain building blocks to sustainably grow, or at least stay afloat.

“The biggest mistake that we as practitioners seem to make is failing to lay the foundations, failing to put in place the pillars, the building blocks from which we intend to launch our strategy and to launch the organisation. I think across all practice types, the four key things when you’re setting up your foundations are to have: access to sufficient capital, number one. Number two, use a sound strategy. Number three, you need the right human resources, and number four, engagement,” he detailed.

Capital is an especially critical consideration, Mr Schultz stressed, not least of all because of regulatory and compliance hurdles.

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“If you don’t have the resources to do that, you’ve got a real problem, and that’s why I say you need access to sufficient capital. If you need to be able to pay someone to do those tasks, then that’s what you need to do. But you’ve got to have the capital available, whether that be through borrowings or reserves to be able to fund that,” he said.

Access to capital is also critical, he added, because the barriers to entry are “very low now”.

“Anyone with a law degree who ticks all the right boxes is able to hang out their shingle, so to speak. And in these years where you no longer need bricks and mortar, you can have a virtual office, a serviced office, you can work from home with just a mobile phone, a laptop, and some practice management software, you can become a law firm,” he reflected.

“It doesn’t cost what it used to cost to set up a law firm or any professional services firm, for that matter. So, there’s a real risk that people see setting up their own law firm as been something which is quick, cheap, and easy, without appreciating that once you do that, there’s a lot of work to be done, and some of it is just unpleasant when it comes to the compliance side of things.”

On top of the aforementioned building blocks, Mr Schultz said there are additional blocks that have emerged in the age of coronavirus that boutiques must implement if they are to flourish.

He called them the four Cs: community, credibility, conscience and culture.

“We need our community to support us so we need to support them. You’ve got to keep giving to your community, support, nurture, give your time, give freely, give to organisations, be engaged and involved – especially with this shift away from CBDs and into the regional, remote, and other areas,” he said.

“With respect to credibility, we need to ensure that we have an ongoing and very high level of professional developers. We need to all be life-long learners. We need to make sure that there’s a consistency of knowledge across the firm, and that knowledge management processes are in place.

“Thirdly, there’s having a conscience. We need to behave in a way which is consistent with the values that our clients expect of us. We need to demonstrate by the way we act, by the way we charge, by the way we service our clients that we put their interests ahead of our own. And we need to act with a community conscience, as I call it.

“And then, of course, there’s culture. My view is that I prefer to hire on attitude rather than aptitude. I don’t necessarily want the smartest person in the room on the team. I want the best team player who’s going to contribute, going to share our vision, share our purpose, and contribute in a meaningful way while striving for continual improvement, continual improvement for them and for the firm as a whole. We want a team who care about their clients, care about their teammates, and are prepared to go the extra mile if it’s going to make a difference.”

If boutiques use these building blocks, Mr Schultz posited, and retain relevance via established networks “rather than gimmicks and flashy advertising to generate the inquiries”, sustainability will follow.

From there, he said, job security for one’s team will arise, as will the ability to scale – if that is indeed part of a firm’s strategy.

Are you looking to launch your own practice but not sure where to start? Lawyers Weekly’s Boutique Law Summit returns to Sydney this month, designed for individuals who are looking to maximise their competitive edge in a post-pandemic marketplace. The event will be held on Friday, 26 March at the Four Seasons Hotel with a full agenda available to view here. To learn more about the event, click here.

To listen to the full conversation with Travis Schultz, click below: