With inflationary pressures waning, businesses have more money to spend on outside counsel, which is creating possibilities for law firms in a wide variety of practice areas. Stewart Levitt, founder of Sydney-based law firm Levitt Robinson, weighs in on how his firm has survived variable market conditions, financial crises and even recessions, and where the opportunity lies for the second half of 2024.
With inflationary pressures lessening in the second half of 2023 and early 2024, demand for external legal support is experiencing growth across all practice areas, but particularly in dispute resolution, and commercial and corporate litigation, which have grown by 9.5% and 7.5% respectively.
People power
Prosperity brings its own challenges, with law firms of all sizes looking to recruit lawyers to manage the peak in demand, amid industry-wide growth. Law firms compete for talent, and the flight risk for standout lawyers in Australia poses a looming threat to the talent retention strategies of Australian law firms going forward.
Indeed, Thomson Reuters’ latest industry report, ‘2023: State of the Legal Market Report’, supports Levitt’s contention that “lawyers are always in demand, particularly in times of grave financial and geopolitical uncertainty… a firm’s capacity to withstand market forces depends upon their profitability and dependent upon the investment in human capital, rather than extraneous bells and whistles.” He goes on to say, “when times are tough, clients want good lawyers, not fancy offices.”
Levitt Robinson’s reputation is built on its success in bringing complicated cases against powerful adversaries, “making the ideal candidate a lawyer who is willing and able to ‘think outside the box’ and provide creative legal solutions to clients…. ‘Garden variety’ lawyers, need not apply.”
Low-cost base
Levitt Robinson’s longevity may well be attributable to its low-cost base, which has helped it to withstand market fluctuations and global recessions, by insulating it from market-based pressures such as fixed cost-base inflation.
By keeping fixed costs to a minimum, Levitt Robinson provides quality legal advice without passing on the cost of unnecessary ‘bells and whistles’ to its clients. According to Stewart Levitt, investment in human capital is the most important investment of all, as “you cannot deliver creative solutions to complex legal problems, without good lawyers on your team.”
Levitt Robinson’s diverse client base is the product of decades of success across many practice areas, and a steady flow of instructions on ‘new matters’ from new and existing clients: “many client have been with the firm for decades… while our ‘new’ clients often come to us because they are disappointed, and even disillusioned by the advice they have received, from lawyers who are either unwilling or unable to provide them with a satisfactory outcome, let alone, a ‘win’.”
Levitt Robinson has proved that it is both willing and able to ensure that both public and private actors behave in a way that is compatible with the law, and with the public interest. According to Levitt, the real power of litigation lies in its capacity to close legal loopholes and to bolster protections through regulatory, policy, and law reforms – “in the short term, of course, our focus is on advancing our client’s case… but in the longer term, it’s about ensuring that no corporation, institution or government is allowed to go beyond what the law permits.”