Dispute Resolution Partner or Special Counsel

Location: Brisbane
Discipline: partner & special counsel
Job type: Permanent
Salary: 650000 to 1500000
Contact name: Craig Ashton-Sward

Contact email: craig@lawstaff.com.au
Job ref: DRP011124
Published: about 2 months ago
  • Resourceful International Law Firm with strong growth plans
  • Large Disputes feeding through Nationally and Internationally
  • High Rem and Equity Structure
  • Deferred Start Negotiable

THE FIRM 

This is a firm with a deep level of technical capability while also being a relatively young and highly collaborative partnership. 

Our client has a strategic plan of expanding further with the appointment of an additional Partner in their Dispute Resolution Team. Depending on the individual's profile in the corporate community, this appointment may accommodate a talented Special Counsel looking to advance to partnership.  
 
THE ROLE
   
The firm is seeking an additional senior lawyer with strong technical skills to join their highly-regarded dispute resolution practice. You will work closely with 3 other Partners in this department while also collaborating with a number of other Partners from other corporate, resources and projects teams. 

You will have a skillset in one of the following key areas:
  • construction and engineering disputes - preferably on major infrastructure projects, or in the energy and resources sector where you may have acted for principals, contractors, and engineers in disputes relating to the construction of mines, oil and gas pipelines, highways, rail, ports, or tunnels. 
  • commercial dispute resolution - advising on claim resolution throughout the life cycle of a project, or acting in complex international and Australian arbitrations, adjudications and litigation. 
WHAT YOU NEED

The expectations are genuinely for 10-20 years post-admission experience, in one of these service lines. A fair portion of that experience must have been recently obtained within large national practice.

Indicative of your skillset in servicing these demographic clients, you will have existing relationships and a modest yet quantifiable practice at various levels within the commercial arena. 
 
In addition, you will have well-developed team management skills and a high level of commercial acumen and a strong client focus.

WHAT YOU GET
   
This is a lateral appointment into Partnership. Equity Partners earnings are well in excess of industry benchmarks.
  
While other firms are cost-shedding to maintain their profit pool, this firm maintains an extensive office infrastructure that underpins the very success of each partner. 

OUR EXPERIENCE
 
In challenging times, there has been the need for law firms to recalibrate in order to maintain a competitive advantage and a sustainable profit pool for its partners. Those that have managed this have emerged as magnets to other partners looking to transition their clients to a more innovative and profitable platform.

With 30 years as specialist consultants to the legal profession, Law Staff has an impressive history of facilitating discreet moves for partners (and whole teams) to specialist, mid or top tier practices, all while providing critical intelligence on:
  • Individual profitability of the relevant firms;
  • Partnership structures and equity distribution;
  • Strategic growth plans;
  • Intra/Cross practice compatibility;
  • Historical transitions;
  • Performance expectations; as well as
  • Partnership culture and idiosyncrasies (trust us when we say that no one firm is perfect).
In addition, our Senior Client Advisors have assisted hundreds of partners in writing detailed business plans that identify only relevant information including key practice components as well as transitioning requirements, and less of the white noise. We advise you when the appropriate time is to table this information to ensure your commercial interests are preserved. Most importantly, we will only ever confer with the relevant Managing Partner after you have done your research and at a time when you have expressed in writing that you are ready to take that cautious next step. Absolutely everything stays in the vault until that time. A list of Partner referees able to comment on our performance at this level can be made available at your request.

THE NEXT STEPS

We offer a relaxed yet confidential discussion in a lounge room setting over coffee/tea, or a Teams meeting, allowing you to comfortably provide us with an understanding of your considerations in that next move. 

For a uncompromisingly confidential discussion, please quote REF: DRP011124 and contact either:

  • Craig Ashton-Sward (Director & Senior Client Advisor) 
  • craig@lawstaff.com.au
  • 0413 743 838 (8:00 am to 8:00 pm 7 days)
Feel free to maintain your anonymity in the first instance if you choose.
LawStaff | Level 22 HSBC Building | 300 Queen Street | Brisbane