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‘The maritime industry knows who I am’
Being so secure in her industry has allowed the principal of this maritime law firm to work more collaboratively with other lawyers – and she has some invaluable advice for others in this space.
Lauren Croft
Alison Cusack is the founder and principal of Melbourne-based maritime law firm Cusack & Co. Speaking recently on the Boutique Lawyer Show, Ms Cusack reflected on what she’s learnt dealing with the myriad of issues and challenges within the maritime law space over the last two years – and what other lawyers can learn, too.
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First and foremost, she said she’s learnt not to find large numbers intimidating.
“We do not blink at large numbers. Large numbers are just like nothing to us. I worked in a $400 million M&A. I was talking to a potential client about a 32 million ship sale. If the numbers intimidate you, take the zeros off because your skill set and the diligence that you put in should be the same, regardless,” she said.
“The other thing to do early on is to really drill down into what the client’s best outcome is that they want, and also the why. If you can learn the why of your client, you can really tap into, what is it really about?”
Whilst it’s a lawyer’s job to educate their clients on the legal system, Ms Cusack said it’s also important to keep “your client’s feet to the fire down the track”.
“Remember, it’s not business as usual for them. It’s our business as usual to be in litigation, and dispute, and contracts, and knee-deep in all of that. It’s not theirs. And so, I always say to my client, ‘I want to be holistic for you. Where does your energy, time, attention, and money go?’ And use that to inform what we’re doing,” she explained.
“When it comes to supply chain issues, and bills of lading, and other weird concepts, if you’re a lawyer and you’re involved in that, please check in with a maritime and shipping lawyer. Not only because there [are] lots of conventions that sit very quietly behind a lot of it, what we do internationally, which won’t be referenced in any contract, and it won’t be referenced anywhere because everyone who’s in the industry knows it exists. We have some gnarly deadlines that are fatal.”
Ms Cusack has been in maritime law her whole career – and said that being so secure in her line of work means she can be more collaborative rather than competitive.
“I love collaborating with other lawyers. I have a really collaborative approach. And I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t grow up in my career in a firm, where everyone’s waiting to try and get to partner, and it’s scrappy. And once you’re partnered, you have to hold it tight.
“But yeah, I’ll happily collaborate. I’ll come in and just do the shipping and maritime part. And then, just let myself out through the side door. I mean, I run my own firm. My name’s out there. I do a lot of advocacy space in the maritime industry. The maritime industry knows who I am,” she said.
“They don’t need to know I was involved. I mean, if it’s maritime, people are just going to probably assume I was involved in one way or another.”
The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Alison Cusack, click below:
