Speaking recently on The Lawyers Weekly Show, produced in partnership with Plenti, the trio reflected on what makes a family law business successful post-pandemic.

Ms Little has been running her firm for eight years and works in a suburban area in western Sydney – and said she enjoys working where she grew up.

“I do focus a lot on my local community, providing quality services to people in western Sydney at prices they can afford to the market out here, collegiate environment, opportunities to people out in western Sydney that wouldn’t have otherwise have been here.

“So, for employment perspectives, access to information and knowledge that they otherwise wouldn’t have. So, it is the same as Grant, but on a smaller scale, more dedicated to my local community, so that’s my focus. And for me, success is about providing that,” she said.

“I grew up out here and 20 years ago, a woman owning a firm, offering positions to other women and growing and developing. So, having that offering to my community and to my colleagues, and to just give and show people, the opportunities out in western Sydney is what I see as success.”

Mr Dearlove had over three decades of legal experience before joining forces with Ed Finn, the founder of Australian Family Lawyers – which is now the largest family law firm in the country. He said that in terms of measuring success, there are three stakeholders: the clients, the staff and the business owners.

“We’re here to serve the clients, that’s our duty as lawyers. Our clients and family law have special needs, they’re not like corporate clients. They have high emotions, children’s issues, financial issues. They’re our focus, and when they’re happy, they refer other people to us. And when their outcomes are to their needs, then it advises our jobs. So, the clients are first and foremost for us, an adequate client focus is one of our key drivers and values.

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“Law firms are people-based businesses. And in the modern world, there are demands, 90 per cent of our staff are female. They juggle families, they juggle partners, and they juggle a professional career. So, you need to create an environment where those people and other professionals that join us can prosper and succeed. They can be rewarded and motivated. So, we’re very heavily people-focused in creating the best people in the market,” he said.

“And lastly, it’s the business owners. And for us, it’s the executive, the board and the people that invest in us to see us be a success. They’re the people who trusted us with their money to grow into this market. So, we run our business tight. We like to deliver performance metrics and goals and achieve them.”

Plenti has a vested interest in the family law space and helps fund family law matters – and Ms Dravitzki said she’s been “lucky enough to work with several hundred law firms in different ways” and learn how each of them operates.

“They all have different goals. So, some sole practitioners want to be the best-regarded in their field, give the best service, but stay a sole practitioner. And the overall majority of lawyers are sole practitioners, most of the firms are. But then you have firms that really want to grow,” she said.

“We help fund family law matters. There’s a lot of clients that don’t have a lot of access to funds for upfront fees. Divorces can be quite expensive, unfortunately. We work with a few groups that work really closely with mediation and amicable separation. But unfortunately, that’s not always what happens. And there does need to be some more funds provided to help bring that matter to resolution.”

Plenti, therefore, provides the finances for these matters and helps lawyers and clients reach resolutions – something which has been increasingly useful over the course of the pandemic.

“We’re definitely seeing that there’s people that previously had stronger incomes that are also suffering in that way or their money is better. They don’t want to liquidate investments that they might have that sort of thing. So, there’s actually quite a few clients that we look after, that aren’t just people with no incomes or little income, but people who already have that income,” Ms Dravitzki added.

“People who already have that income allocated to school fees and that sort of thing that they don’t want to reduce over this period. So, we’re finding more and more people who, like I said, have great incomes, maybe are asset-rich and cash flow. That’s a growing cohort over this period.”

In terms of having a good cash flow within a boutique firm and effectively managing its finances, Mr Dearlove said that “family law businesses are not any different to any other commercial enterprise”.

“Cash is king, you want to run it so that you don’t have bad debts, and you’ve got plenty of cash to continue to work on cases. For us, we’re very goal-oriented. So, we set budgets for our staff. We reward them with performance over that, and we drive to those budgets. And when you’ve got those disciplines as a lawyer, when you focus on goals and seek those goals, it tends to lend itself to how you conduct the client’s case at the same time, which is goal orientated.

“We’re very goal-focused. And lastly, is the ability to keep your overheads down. So, we are very focused on using technology to create every efficiency that we can to reduce overhead. Some of the firms that we deal with in family law or acquire the very heavy paper, some have 15 photocopies. We don’t have paper, they have a server, we’re in the cloud. So, all of those efficiencies,” he added.

“So, and these are very simple applications that are cost-effective that really reduce your overhead and expense, so that’s a focus as well. So, very similar to most other businesses out there. [But] I really think family law is harder, because when you’ve got someone coming to you, they’re highly emotive, they’re in a tough situation, and they don’t have the money to pay you, to take that on as a big risk, and people by their nature want to help them. And that’s the real hard part of our game is dealing with the clients and where they’re at.”

Access to litigation lending has “completely changed” Ms Little’s business model, taking pressure off the lawyers so they’re able to better work on their clients’ cases.

“It gives the client certainty that they’re going to be able to continue to have representation, whether or not they have cash available. And also means that there’s not any competing interest between the lawyer, the business, and the client. So, everybody’s being looked after properly,” she said.

“From my perspective, I agree with cash flow being king, and that’s one of the most integral parts of running a successful law firm. You need cash flow to pay your staff. Well, paid staff are happy staff, but you also need to be able to provide the service to all clients, everybody that needs you. And when somebody is cash- or asset-rich, or has dedicated their wages to other things, access to a service or access to something that provides them with the cash that they need to be able to fund you through litigation is absolutely integral.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Rose Dravitzki, Grant Dearlove and Amanda Little, click below: