Proudly independent, Globally connected

TRANSCRIPT

So being an independent firm offers two themes of benefit for us.  Obviously there's a benefit of great incoming offshore international instructions but it also offers people the outgoing benefit if you're keen to connect with offshore firms, if you're keen to travel, if you're keen to work offshore then we've got a range of very, very good international law firm friends that gives you that optionality of picking and choosing where you might want to go.

A friendly firm, other than the fact that there are generally really amazing people there, are firms that have international presences but don't actually have offices in Australia and we work alongside them.

So we have great work referred by Japanese law firms and we are increasing a quality work from Japan because we are independent.

So I really wanted to travel and live overseas in another major city and I mentioned this to one of the partners who is a mentor who had worked in London.  She got me in touch with BLP and I was very fortunate in that Clayton Utz offered me a leave of absence which meant that I could go overseas, explore that opportunity but also have the safety of being able to come back here and re-join my team.

Working on international transactions is really interesting for a number of reasons.  One of those reasons is that you get to understand the drivers of clients from different markets and in most cases larger markets and also for me personally I really enjoy working on international transactions because you work with people from different cultures.

Being independent gives us great credit because Japanese law firms, top tier, big five law firms, are all independent and Japanese law firms think that being independent is a true evidence of the top tier and equality.

Interesting fact, I previously worked for an international firm and I find that at Clayton Utz I work on more international deals.  By working overseas I was able to work on a number of different matters, see different contracting styles and models and also just see how different clients worked.  Those experiences I've been able to bring back home and use in my team in Clayton Utz.

So being independent gives us opportunities.  It allows us to reach out to all sorts of international firms and be their choice for execution of work in Australia both for them and for their clients.  It means the world is bigger for us as an independent firm.