35 Years of Leadership: Ian Davis, MinterEllison, former WLG President
Ian Davis OAM
Partner at MinterEllison and former WLG President
How did you first get involved with WLG, and what led you to take on a leadership position?
I first got involved with WLG purely by chance. In 1992, I was in Taipei, Taiwan delivering a paper when I met WLG Founding Father King Berlew and his partner, Trevor Nagle, of Palmer and Dodge in the hotel in which we were staying. King and Trevor were aware of our firm and gave me the background on the establishment of World Law Group and was very keen to engage and ascertain whether we would be interested in becoming the exclusive Australian member of World Law Group. MinterEllison was not a member of any other global network and the partners embraced the idea. We were an observer firm in Tokyo and joined World Law Group in 1993. Having been involved in leadership positions for many years at MinterEllison, I was motivated to take on a leadership position within World Law Group as I saw it has an opportunity to help shape the direction of the organisation and to continue the advancement of WLG. By getting involved it enabled me to build deeper relationships with members around the world, assisted with my own professional development and enhanced the firm's visibility within World Law Group.
How did your leadership roles in WLG help build your global network and impact your practice?
A little over a decade ago, there was a period of profound change in the legal profession in Australia and elsewhere. It was a fast changing and internationally consolidating legal market. A range of law firms were actively considering the depth and breadth of their international practices driven by their perception of their need to service their major clients wherever they operated. As major corporate and financial institutions expanded into new markets, the law firms were anxious to remain relevant to their clients and prevent other international firms gaining a significant market share of their clients legal spend and potentially also building relationships in their own markets. MinterEllison went through a very extensive process to determine whether we should investigate the option for a merger with leading global firms. Ultimately, the firm decided that we should remain independent and maintain control over our destiny and avoid a loss of autonomy. This strategy obviously depended on us maintaining and becoming the best friend of other global and regional non-aligned firms. In particular, the strength of our relationships within World Law Group was pivotal to this decision. By remaining independent, the close relationships forged with World Law Group member firms became a most important part of the firms international strategy.
How did your leadership roles influence your firm's collaborations with other network members?
During the period that I was playing a leadership role with World Law Group, Leigh Brown, Michael Whalley and I became the key points of contact which were well known both within the firm and by other members. Personal relationships forged over many years gave great comfort to other partners within the firm when referrals were made within World Law Group jurisdictions.
What WLG programs do you find to be of particular value to MinterEllison?
The WLG | exchange program and WLG | regional conferences, both for younger lawyers, benefit our firm and participating individuals. It requires consistent involvement in these programs to see the results and the young lawyers really appreciate the opportunity to participate. Programs such as these help encourage young people to stay in the law. WLG is able to provide a little X factor for young lawyers to maintain their place in their own profession in their own jurisdiction, and that is very important.
As we reflect upon our growth during our 35th anniversary, tell us about the changes you've seen in the network during the years you have been involved.
There is no doubt that WLG has grown and strengthened in a way that has greatly supported the members with seamless legal solutions across major jurisdictions to enable the member firms to compete effectively with the major US- and UK-based international firms. Such things as improvement in tracking and communication of referrals, harnessing the resources of member firm marketing and business development functions, and use of IT tools to facilitate member firm referral communication and collaboration have been critical. The professional administration on WLG is dynamic, innovative, keeping up with change, assisting firms in global practice, which we couldn't achieve individually. The raising of the World Law Group network profile through our investment in the website and media has helped greatly in WLG member firms competing more successfully against global law firms and other networks. Ultimately, the quality of the referrals has continued to blossom, both inbound and outbound. In the case of MinterEllison, clients referred to our firm from the network are now counted in our top 20 clients nationally. As a result, WLG is now embedded in our DNA and is an important part of our global strategies moving forward.