By Chris Merritt<\/p>\n
When Curwoods Lawyers asked its staff what they thought of the business, someone replied that it was not like working at a law firm.<\/p>\n
Managing partner Scott Kennedy took that as a compliment.<\/p>\n
It was proof Mr Kennedy and his team had succeeded in creating a firm that was family-friendly, artsy, heavily female, flexible and just a little eccentric.<\/p>\n
Instead of cracking the whip over their lawyers, Mr Kennedy said his firm decided five years ago it wanted to be different.<\/p>\n
In percentage terms, this Sydney insurance practice is now the fastest-growing employer among the nation’s 35 leading firms.<\/p>\n
But the bottom line, while still important, is not the main game at Curwoods.<\/p>\n
"We are definitely efficient, but it’s an interesting practice," Mr Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
"We have fun with it. We are not focused on maximising return.<\/p>\n
"It gets back to a question of culture. You can have a culture where you flog your staff to death to maximise revenues, but we formed a view that that would not be a sustainable approach in the long term."<\/p>\n
The goal was to achieve a culture in which lawyers would actually enjoy coming to work. The firm’s very high staff retention rate of 87 per cent suggests this goal might have been achieved.<\/p>\n
In order to keep its lawyers stimulated, Curwoods has an artist in residence program in which it provides studio space for an artist, conducts an exhibition of the artist’s work and — as a byproduct — also runs kids’ days in which lawyers’ children come in and learn how to paint.<\/p>\n
"It sounds a bit trite, but we created a culture in which people want to work and don’t want to leave," Mr Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
The firm has just spent eight months upgrading its computer hardware to make it easier for staff to work remotely from home.<\/p>\n
"This really applies to our female staff who go off on maternity leave, then usually come back a couple of days a week and are happy to work from home a couple of days a week as well," Mr Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
"We also accommodate eccentricities — that is probably putting it too high. But we do have a number of people who are excellent lawyers but would not get on in a big firm. We see them as having huge value for our practice.<\/p>\n
"Their eccentricities add to the character of the place."<\/p>\n
On the business side of things, Mr Kennedy said most of the firm’s growth was coming from its insurance practice.<\/p>\n
"That’s our core business and when a lot of other firms got rid of their insurance practices, we saw that as an opportunity," he said.<\/p>\n
Curwoods’ key indicators<\/strong><\/p>\n GROWTH IN REVENUE<\/strong> CONTRIBUTION TO REVENUE STAFF NUMBERS Article from The Australian, July 2, 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Chris Merritt When Curwoods Lawyers asked its staff what they thought of the business, someone replied that it was not like working at a law firm. Managing partner Scott Kennedy took that as a compliment. It was proof Mr Kennedy and his team had succeeded in creating a firm that was family-friendly, artsy, heavily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
2009 financial year: 11%
2010 financial year: 22%<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Commercial and Property: 20%
Construction and professional indemnity: 42%
Compulsory third party: 24%
Employers liability and latent diseases: 21.5%
Public Liability: 16%<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Females total: 72%
Professional females: 52%
Part-time professionals: 19%
Part time support staff: 35%
Total part-time staff: 27% <\/p>\n