Case study: Minter Ellison
Leadership Development Program helps break the mould of traditional law firm
Law firms are usually typecast as bastions of tradition, hierarchy and convention. Minter Ellison is breaking the mould by driving leadership, innovation and communication to the fore, through the programs delivered by Mt Eliza executive education.
Samantha Fernando, National Learning and Development Manager, Minter Ellison, approached Mt Eliza executive education to develop a Leadership Development Program that would challenge both its senior partners and senior managers of shared services such as HR and IT.
Minter Ellison’s new strategy in learning development aimed to foster leadership within the international firm and to stem staff turnover. “We wanted to get the edge on our competitors. To be the employer of choice,” she says. “And we identified that one of the biggest gaps for any law firm is in leadership capabilities.”
While lawyers are recruited for their specialised expertise, Ms Fernando says, “as they move up the ranks, inevitably they have to manage people, run client relationships and the practice, manage finances, their budget – and they don’t get taught that in law school”.
Mt Eliza executive education identified the program’s key components and then briefed the program facilitators for implementation. Access was also granted to the national managing partner and the managing partners from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to customise the design of the program and ensure that key issues facing the firm were addressed.
Tempering the negativity which can be an asset in a lawyer but a liability in a learning environment, the content mixed theory, practise and reflection, with workshops providing room for debate.
This collaboration between Mt Eliza executive education and Minter Ellison engendered a trust that was critical to the program’s success, she says. “It takes the right kind of facilitator to work with lawyers. To be practical, not too academic, to allow for the egos to be present but not take over. All of those skills are just essential to the program.” The program directors proved to be “seasoned professionals”.
Mixing senior partners with shared services managers made everybody more aware of their colleagues’ contributions, opened communication and broke down a cultural tendency towards “us and them”. “We learned from each other,” she says. “Whatever we run in the future, we’ll use that as a model.”
Applications for places on the programs were keenly contested; 96 participants, including staff from as far as Hong Kong, completed the program over a two-year period.
For a law firm to run a leadership program of that magnitude was innovative she says, as were the self development topics covered, such as emotional intelligence and self leadership. “That’s not something that most lawyers were used to.”
The investment was, in itself, innovative. “It was 11 days over the year. To get lawyers to do that was pretty amazing, and to keep them engaged and going to each module was amazing – that speaks volumes in itself.”
What was the return on Minter Ellison’s investment? Ms Fernando says it can be measured in the program’s impact on individuals. One partner, for example, had been a very reluctant participant and deeply sceptical about “this people rubbish”.
“He went through the whole program and stuck it out and ended up being a great contributor to it,” she says. “And just as he finished, an opportunity arose for him to take on the leadership of his practice group. And people say, if he hadn’t done the Leadership Development Program, he wouldn’t be doing the great job he’s doing now.
“He really changed because of it.”
