Law leader ensures all are on same page

By VICKI JAYNE

A sense of pride bubbles as Maggie Callicrate plays tour guide around Bell Gully's airy, art-filled 21st-floor reception area.

Four years ago, as the legal firm's national practice manager, she was involved in the conception of this space - its range of comfortable meeting and seminar rooms, its central library, the painting-hung walls.

Now she is back from the United States enjoying both the concept-made-reality of Bell Gully's offices and her new role with the firm - that of chief executive.

What she describes as her perfect job opportunity is not without its challenges.

For starters, she is not a lawyer. Second, she is a woman in a profession whose upper echelons are still male-dominated.

Callicrate does not find the gender imbalance a problem. She's used to it, having recently gained her MBA through Pepperdine University's presidential/key executive programme. Of 20 participants, she was the only woman.

Although more than half of Bell Gully's legal staff are women, that falls down at partnership level. Out of 58 partners, just four are women.

It's partly a generational phenomenon, says Callicrate. While most law graduates are now women, that is not yet reflected at partnership level.

The need to take time off to have a family also slows women's progress through the ranks. Callicrate does not have children but is well aware of the problem and keen to mitigate its effect through more flexible work practices.

"It's critical for us to hang on to that talent. For instance, one of our senior associates works two days a week so she can spend the rest with her family.

"That suits her and means her expertise is staying in the firm."

And retaining top talent is no mere sidebar to her role - it's central.

"For professional service firms, it's a must. People make us productive."

Which means that all the usual facets of good people management - providing vision, inspiration, challenge, career development, an optimum work environment, coaching, collaboration - become crucial.

It also underlies a growing trend to put non-lawyers at the helm of law firms.

The fairly specialised area of management has been highlighted by Boston professional services management guru David Maister, whose books on the subject include Managing the Professional Service Firm, Practice What You Preach and First Among Equals.

Maister says most professional service firms have nothing to sell but their people.

His research also shows that keeping those people happy and motivated is the best recipe for keeping the dollars rolling in.

Not that this is an easy task. Certain characteristics of professionals that allow them to do their jobs effectively can create barriers to them being successful in groups, he says.

They are savvy, sceptical, trained to question, and used to working independently - in other words, as resistant to being managed as cats to being herded.

For Callicrate, that is both a familiar and enjoyable challenge.

Her entire working life has been in law practice administration. She is a member of the Association of Legal Administrators and a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management.

She knows the issues well, loves working with what she describes as "highly talented, energetic, fun people", and is a fan of Maister's management creed.

Hence her strong focus on creating an attractive workspace, a stimulating environment, a structure that encourages teamwork and fosters learning.

"To best serve our clients, we need to attract and retain the top talent," she says. "That means applying best practice to every aspect of human resources administration - working all the avenues to keep people happy and motivated."

At Bell Gully, this ranges from providing an on-site gym, massage services and yoga classes to flexible work hours and ongoing skills development.

"We have a learning programme manager whose role is to map a learning pathway for each individual based on existing skills sets and what would help in their development."

Because law is a fast-paced, high-pressure environment, getting the work-life balance right is vital, says Callicrate.

"Clients do require responsive services and that can mean working around the clock. It's up to all our leaders here to ensure people are getting the right balance and to take a genuine interest in how they can help to achieve that."

Bell Gully's physical environment reflects the firm's flat structure and collaborative work style.

"We set the floors up so partners work right alongside their solicitors and juniors. That provides opportunities for real teamwork and contributes to training and development - in terms of having questions answered quickly, or of being able to hear how partners interact with clients on the phone."

The latter has less to do with technique than underlying values.

"Those values were crafted when I was here four years ago - things about our commitment to our people, commitment to our clients, how we deal with and treat one another.

"It's not rocket science, just good common sense stuff to do with building good relationships.

"Those are values that I live by - they're part of my fibre.

"And so that my job is not like herding cats, we need people right throughout the organisation to be on the same page, to understand the direction we're going in and be working to achieve that."

Callicrate points to recent accolades the firm has received (clients voted it tops in Butterworth's latest guide to law firm ranking) as evidence those values and HR practices do work.

"This is a world-class firm and the opportunity for me to lead it is as top-notch as [any opportunity] I could receive in the United States.

"To combine my ambition to be a CEO with work in the legal industry I know and in a firm I love - it's just my perfect job."

* vjayne@iconz.co.nz