Law firm leaders discuss the challenges of putting values on their corporate agenda and how to balance purpose with the profit motive
Heads out of the sand
‘Most firms realise the importance of values. I don’t think I’ve spoken to a single managing partner who isn’t doing these things. There are two basic drivers – what are your clients asking of you and what are your people asking of you. Anyone who thinks this isn’t important is burying their head in the sand.’
Ray Berg, UK managing partner, Osborne Clarke
A means to our end
‘As with any policy within a law firm, it is never going to work unless it’s led from the top and you get a trickle-down effect, so we’ll constantly make reference to our values, not just as a topic in itself but as a means to what the firm is trying to do: demonstrating how our business plan reflects our values.’
Colin Passmore, senior partner, Simmons & Simmons
Real world consequences
‘Our clients are very interested in how our values align. They’d often ask about them when we are tendering for work. It’s important for them to work with people who share their values. Behaviour is taken into account in terms of members’ remuneration. If their behaviours are not measuring up to our expectations, it affects their remuneration. We don’t have a traditional lockstep: we look at financial performance, market value, clients, collaboration and behaviour.’
Virginia Clegg, senior partner, DAC Beachcroft
A broader agenda
‘Six, seven years ago, there were a number of things we were focusing on: improving gender diversity in the partnership, LGBT equality, etc. Nowadays the areas on which we have policies are much broader: mental health, for example, has become something we are much more aware of. Sustainability and the environment have become a much bigger issue.’
Farmida Bi, EMEA chair, Norton Rose Fulbright
Cynicism is so 2000s
‘You are never going to take cynicism out of a large group of intelligent people but in the past you would have found more people being more cynical about it. People today are a lot less cynical. Young people come into the City, not just from traditional backgrounds as was the case 30 years ago. They come with a better understanding of how to improve society and community. The firm is committed to allowing and finding opportunities to do that.’
David Patient, managing partner, Travers Smith
Is this job for us?
‘Do we get things wrong? Absolutely. But it’s about getting people to stop and think, “That’s not right. We won’t do it again!” Values aren’t talked about as much as they should be with clients but we are trying to promote that. We are pushing people hard to ask: “What’s on your corporate agenda? How does it play out with values?” You need to ask the question: “Is this the sort of work we should be doing?”
Richard Foley, senior partner, Pinsent Masons
More than money
‘A lot of youngsters now are looking more at this and saying: “We want to be proud of the firm we work for and the values it represents.” We cannot just look at whether we can make a good fee. There is a more meaningful purpose than just making money. People want to know that they are doing something broader. Culture is the DNA that holds people together, it can differentiate you in the eyes of clients, attract people, retain people.’
Charlie Jacobs, senior partner, Linklaters
‘People today are a lot less cynical. Young people come with a better understanding of how to improve society and community.’
David Patient, Travers Smith
Integrity core to strategy
‘In some ways our core values have always been at the heart of the firm. We are a people business: we thrive and succeed on the ability to attract and retain the best talent. When I put the new strategy in place [in 2015] I made it clear that the cultural bedrock of the firm was utterly critical to our future success, critical to promoting our reputation and integrity and being recognised as a global firm for our commitment to promote change with clients and lawmakers.’
Matthew Layton, managing partner, Clifford Chance
Values breathe, good or bad
‘Over the last 18 months the thing I’ve been the most proud of is the work we’ve done on values. We have done a huge amount on what our values are. Firms have values, whether you like them or not. People are living and breathing the values. If you met a DLA partner it wouldn’t be long before they used the words. People have genuinely bought into it in a way I never thought they would.’
Andrew Darwin, senior partner, DLA Piper
For more on corporate values see ‘Our corporate soul – Defining the values of a law firm’.