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‘Our strength lies in our people and our tech’
Following its acquisition of a team from BigLaw firm HWL Ebsworth, boutique practice Bugden Allen Graham is continuing its growth across the country.
Jerome Doraisamy
In late June, Lawyers Weekly reported that Bugden Allen had hired HWL Ebsworth partner Tim Graham, and that he was bringing his team of four with him. The appointment of the team of five to the boutique marked a change to its name, with the firm now to be known as Bugden Allen Graham.
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Speaking to Lawyers Weekly following the appointments, chief executive David Bugden (pictured) said that now that Mr Graham is onboard, the firm plans to consolidate its presence in NSW, Queensland and Victora.
“We also aim to expand our capabilities in regional centres experiencing growth in strata such as the Central Coast, the Tweed and Gold Coast. We do not have immediate expansion plans for new markets, unless the right opportunity presented itself,” he said.
When asked how the firm intends to grow as the post-pandemic market looms, Mr Bugden said that the firm’s strength “lies in our people and our technology”.
“In order to build our profile in the development and management industry we will continue to utilise our extensive expertise, delivered in a practical and ethical way,” he posited.
“We also plan to embrace the seismic shift we’re seeing towards digital contracts and self-service law by commercialising our two cloud platforms, OPEX and By-Law Builder.”
The firm intends to be recognised as experts in structured titles and community living, Mr Bugden explained, in spite of hurdles that must be overcome: “We service a huge market that touches a lot of people, so I want us to stay specialised and not get distracted with work that is not in our sweet spot.”
“Our biggest challenge is that we are not a top tier brand, even though our partners are from top-tier firms. This makes it difficult sometimes to get an opportunity to present our services to larger property development firms and government. We overcome this challenge by positioning ourselves as collaborative partners. We often work with in-house legal teams and other law firms by complementing their offering, not competing with it," he detailed.
Looking ahead, Mr Bugden said that he is “lucky” to have some of the nation’s best strata lawyers leading the firm in some of our biggest property markets.
“In just two years, we have built a great team under them. Now it is about executing our growth and technology strategy,” he concluded.
“What excites me the most is that we are just getting started.”
