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AB Lawyers scoops EEO awards

Policies which respect employees and recognise that they have lives outside their work have given specialist workplace relations firm Australian Business Lawyers two of this year's prestigious Law Society of NSW awards.

ABLawyers won the Society's Equal Employment Opportunity award for medium sized firms for the content and success of its EEO policy and the special award for "work/life" balance.

According to ABLawyers' staff partner Tim Capelin, the work/life balance award recognised the success of the firm's 'flexibility' policy which encompasses part time work, job sharing, working from home, the availability of carers' leave, flexibility to attend activities outside work, career breaks, an insistence on reasonable training and meeting times, and interaction with employees who are on parental leave.

"The flexibility policy we have adopted since our formation is all about helping people to balance their lives and is in keeping with the innovations that we suggest that our clients introduce to their workplaces," Mr Capelin said.

"We knew from personal experience that one of the barriers to equality and balance in law firms is the requirement that people generate very high levels of fee income. Our flexibility policy addresses that by giving people options about how they work and setting each fee earner a reasonable budget so they still have time at the end of the day for outside activities.

"Furthermore, we have found that contrary to popular belief, properly managed workplace flexibility enhances rather than diminishes client service because it enables us to attract and keep better people, while allowing staff to approach their work with greater energy and efficiency," he said.

Mr Capelin said that by combining this with other targeted business processes, the firm had been able to:

• more than double its revenue in its first three years of operation;
• increase substantially the size of its client list and the quality of work it receives;
• reduce staff turnover to less than half the legal profession's norm;
• achieve recognition in the current edition of Australian Legal Profiles as one of Sydney's top five workplace relations firms;
• attract people of the highest calibre; and
• build an exceptionally strong esprit de corps.

Mr Capelin said that the Law Society awards provided independent recognition that the 'employer of choice' policies adopted by the firm were leading the legal profession.

"Until now, we only had internal indicators which suggested that this was so," he said.

ABLawyers is a relative newcomer to the Australian legal scene. It opened for business in Sydney in late 1999 and established a Melbourne office earlier this year. Its clients include many of Australia's major corporations and innovative smaller businesses.

The firm comprises 8 partners (two of whom are women) and 44 other staff including lawyers, advocates, researchers and support staff. Women account for 69 per cent of the positions. Approximately 16% of the firm's employees, including one partner, work part time.

Tim Capelin, Partner
(612) 9458 7497
tim.capelin@ablawyers.com.au