Ms Jacquet has been in family law since she was studying — a year after starting at Our Lawyers, she had an opportunity to take over the business, whilst still commuting from Sydney and being six-weeks pregnant at the time.

“I was walking into a firm with a really established client base, a firm that did other areas other than family law. So, I had to also train up in those areas. I took on conveyancing work before I was offered that, which is one of the reasons why he did see that passion in me. And also, I had about 10 staff when I took over. I had to walk in and manage as a new owner, and also just the dynamics of taking over a firm. And I was relatively young at the time, early 30s,” she said.

“And the personal side, how could I be a mother and a business owner, and a full-time solicitor at the same time? So that came down to a very, very generous decision that my husband made and that was to give up his career in construction as a quantity surveyor to jump on board as my practice manager and bookkeeper, and help me run the business.

“We made that decision pretty early on in the pregnancy and the whole negotiation process took probably about three or four months to finalise the purchase and I started about five months before I actually gave birth. So, we had time to transition into ownership before we had our baby.”

This move, whilst being a big one for her life and career, also changed Ms Jacquet “for the better”, because even as an employee, she was always thinking about the expansion of the firm.

“That side of me just absolutely accelerated from day one of taking over and I was really excited and enthusiastic about it. And it helped me develop a strategy and plan and vision of who we were, and who we would be and how we would set ourselves apart from the market down here, particularly in the Highlands,” she said.

“And one of the key things I do as a manager is I make sure that I treat my staff the way that I would expect to have been treated as an employee. And I practise quite differently to what a lot of Sydney firms do is we focus on client and service delivery. Are we meeting their expectations? Are we making sure that the file is where it should be at and matters? And are clients happy in coming back to us? And the fees just naturally come with that. So, we’re not budget-generated at all, which my staff find incredibly refreshing and they find this environment quite different to any other firm they’ve ever practised in.”

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In terms of not being budget or fee-generated, Ms Jacquet said that this business model has had a number of positive impacts on both her firm and her staff.

“One of the things that I struggled with as an employee in the highly litigious family law market up in Sydney [is that] whether or not it’s deliberate, you are a figure on a bottom line at the end of the day. And the other aspects that you bring to the business were put to the wayside a little bit because when a business is struggling and is under stress, they will look at the bottom line and they won’t look at what else you are doing,” she added.

“[By] just providing an approachable service to clients in an approachable manner, making sure that we are being the best lawyers that we can be. The fees just naturally came. So, my staff have a general idea of what their budget expectations are and I give them reports when they want it regularly. But it’s not a ‘You must do this or we’re going to consider demoting you or reducing your pay’ or anything like that, because they’re meeting those targets anyway without the constant conversation and stress and pressure on them.”

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