Holding Redlich managing partner Chris Lovell thinks that equity partnerships which run on ‘eat what you kill’ models should learn some table manners. He shares his viewpoint with Renu Prasad

Australian law firms may be flirting with “eat what you kill” partnership models in increasing numbers, but Chris Lovell is standing his ground. “Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I really hate it,” says the managing partner. “If the sole test of the partner is how much work you bring into the firm, you’re building silos. What incentive is there to actually go out and work as a team? What incentive is there to do the work and do it well, to manage your junior staff? I know some of those ‘eat what you kill practices’ are very successful. Good luck to them, but that’s not the way I would want to operate; that’s not the way this firm operates.”

Lovell is one of those managing partners who adds that undefinable spark of energy and personality to a law firm; a visceral and quintessentially Australian quality. “We’re not too up ourselves,” he says cheerfully when asked to describe the firm culture. “We’re collaborative, pretty friendly, striving to be the best we possibly can. I’m firmly of the view that if you do  everything else right, the [financial success] will follow.”

Revenues
After over 10 years of double-digit revenue growth, Holding Redlich hit a lean patch during the GFC; in the most recent financial year it experienced a 6% decline in revenues to A$58m. However, Lovell points out that the firm was also four or five partners short of its FY2009 contingent, which meant that revenues per partner actually remained steady. Still, he acknowledges that the GFC was a time to refocus the firm’s efforts. “The GFC affected each firm very differently,” he says. “Some firms did well, some did less well.”

“I would say we were a firm that did less well, but we’ve used that opportunity to do a lot of housekeeping. We’ve shed some partners and then we’ve recruited more partners – brought on some terrific laterals and three or four young partners. In my view we’re much stronger than we were two years ago and we’re now seeing the benefits of that.”

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