Her firm – which does “everything related to” patents and trademarks in the life sciences space – started out nearly five years ago “with just myself and a computer”, she mused. Now, the firm is close to 20 professionals.

From its inception, she recalled, Pearce IP had a “work-from-anywhere model”.

“For us, it was business as usual when coronavirus hit, while everyone else had to think about doing things differently,” she said.

“In some ways, COVID-19 legitimised what we knew all along: that working virtually does work.”

The past two years have also been “incredibly busy” for her firm, given its focus on life sciences.

“Health has been on the front page of every newspaper. Our clients have been very busy, and so, we have been very busy.

“We have grown amazingly in the last couple of years during COVID-19 because our clients needed extra assistance, and that’s been a great privilege for us to be able to support them through these crazy days, and to be part of bringing some of the incredible health technologies and developments to market in our own way, to be part of supporting the community by providing great and legal services to clients operating in this industry has been a great privilege,” she outlined.

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“I somewhat envy those people who talk about baking bread and going for long bike rides with their family and going for nice walks. That has not been our experience, but we have in the process managed to secure some great talent and do some great work.”

The age of coronavirus came at an opportune time in the life cycle of Pearce IP, Ms Pearce continued, because – as much as her focus on a niche area of practice and remote working set-up was validated – she had learned, by the time of the onset of the pandemic, which approaches were perhaps not serving her as well as she would have liked.

Two-and-a-half years into her firm’s journey, she noted, “it felt to me like every time a new person joined us, I had relief for a couple of weeks, and then we were looking for our next person”.

Such a realisation, she said, reinforced another truism for her: that preparedness, across the board, is pivotal.

In being able to adjust to the new normal amidst the onset of COVID-19, “what I had that perhaps others didn’t was the preparedness to do things differently, and to be flexible and adaptive and creative”, Ms Pearce declared.

“In those early years of Pearce IP, I was reactive. Every time that we were splitting at the seams, we drew a new person in. But there’s a better way.

“I think because it was new, and I was cautious and I didn’t know where we’re going to land, I backed myself and I backed the business, and I was very particular about the team to make sure that we had the excellent talent that we needed to pull this off, but this was not me seeing around the corner,” she mused.

“This was me being reactive and flexible. The bigger the ship gets, the more it takes to turn it, and the small ship turning in a pandemic is something that is an opportunity that was presented to us, and we took it.”

When asked how a boutique law firm leader can ensure they are prepared for every eventuality, Ms Pearce responded, “You can’t.”

“You can’t see around corners all the time. You can’t know the crises that your team will experience. You don’t know when you’re going to die.

“But, what you can do is put in place a culture that is flexible and adaptive. You need to be resilient, calm, careful, strategic and intentional, and that intentionality includes being flexible because everything is going to change, and if you expect that things will change, then you can flex with it,” she advised.

“You never know what is going to come tomorrow, but if you’re good at what you do, then I would encourage you to swim in your lane,” Ms Pearce suggested.

“Get people around you who are complementary to that, and do your utmost to be flexible when the world changes tomorrow – because it will.”

Ultimately, Ms Pearce surmised, “don’t delay to resolve pain points”.

“If there’s something that’s hurting you, find somebody to do it. By doing so, you’re giving yourself back an hour of your day in the evening to rest, or spend time with your family, or do something else that you love,” she said. 

“If there’s a pain point, fix it.”

Such forward-thinking, and holistic preparation, is the best way to open one’s legal business up to a successful journey – even in a pandemic.

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Naomi Pearce, click below: