I was admitted to practice over 15 years ago.
I noticed early on in my law career that the focus of many firms was always on getting matters in and out as quickly as possible.
There was very little regard for the employee working for the practice. Perhaps, this was the pressure of suburban law firms?
I hated this sort of a model. It created overcaffeinated, burnt-out employees with prosaic personalities. This business model was unsustainable and thereby created average (not exceptional) outcomes for the clients.
Keeping the above “traditional” private practice model in mind, I thought it would be a great idea to create a global Australian immigration law firm (as you do) that had all the right corporate values but focussed on creating a community.
Mixing community and private law firm may sound like an oxymoron – but let me explain. I recall my mentor continually saying, “Farhan! You are such a lawyer!” over and over in our monthly catch ups.
I honestly did not understand what he meant – but I continued to think about it and, over time, it made more and more sense.
The lawyers guild/fraternity produces structured and precise thinkers with good reason. You need to be precise as a lawyer in language and you need structure to achieve outcomes – I do not deny the importance of this, but I plead guilty to the personality that followed this way of life.
Continued precision, structure, precision, structure will create a certain type of personality – usually no personality at all. After years of being a lawyer, I realised I was wearing “two masks”. I was always the funny dude (my Wife doesn’t think so), who had stuff to say, was versatile and loved business. But that personality was for certain friends and some family and the other mask would be worn for business. I didn’t even realise this until my mentor pointed it out – I was Stanley Ipkiss in the Mask!
All jokes aside, let’s bring it back to community. The above journey made me realise what I wanted to see at the Rehman Sheriff Group and that is a creation of a community that drives the ecosystem of the Firm.
The focus is not on hammering out ROI’s, numbers, billables, briefs and exhausted employees. Rather, it is to create an environment where your team is listened to and trusted, allowing them to be creative, engaged and confident in the work they do. Ultimately, I believe this kind of environment is better for all stakeholders, and that has certainly been my experience.
I hope this can inspire other leaders to adopt a similar approach and treat their people, like people.
Remove the mask, be you.
Thank you for reading.
