Norton Rose Australia managing partner Wayne Spanner is determined to foster a culture of unity –but he’s staying mum on the issue of financial integration. Renu Prasad reports.

Law firms are well known for having a choice slogan or two to sum up the firm ethos and to rally the troops. Over at Norton Rose, it is clear that “one firm” is the phrase du jour, especially when managing partner Wayne Spanner is around. He uses the phrase a lot. “We have adopted a one firm strategy and I can’t emphasise that enough,” he says.  “We really do have one management structure – one management structure which has transformed the way we do business in Australia in the sense that we were looking to global practice group leaders, global industry sector leaders, looking to global CEOs; so we started to operate our business on day one in a global framework.”

Norton Rose may be one firm, but behind the scenes there are four partnerships – the original Norton Rose LLP, Norton Rose South Africa, Norton Rose Canada and Norton Rose Australia, which for some reason also includes the firm’s Indonesia and Vietnam operations. Former Deacons chief Don Boyd has been quoted as describing the financial integration of these partnerships as being of “absolute importance” and, back in early 2011, foreshadowed a full merger “within the next 18 months.”  But when asked for an update on this integration process, Spanner embarks upon a somewhat circumlocutory response: “I think [financial integration] is something that always needs to be considered,” he says.  “In terms of our current structure, it works very well for us in the current context and how we manage ourselves. We have transformed how we do our business in terms of the ability to share intellectual capital and move people. We are not beholden to any particular country, place or philosophy – it is about one firm and one culture.”

What does all this mean? Is it fair to say that financial integration is no longer on the list of immediate priorities for Norton Rose?  “No I don’t think that’s fair,” says Spanner. “Integration and looking at how we integrate more and more is constantly on the agenda.”  So has the firm set a date for financial integration?  “I don’t think that setting dates is completely important in the overall scheme of things,” Spanner responds.  “Full integration is very important but I suspect tying yourself to particular dates as I think some firms have sought to do raises all sorts of problems in their own way. What is important is how you integrate and how you operate as one firm. When I look in the market place and I look at the experience we have had, we are operating as one firm.”

In an interview with Legal Week last year, Norton Rose Group CEO Peter Martyr described criticism of his firm over the lack of financial integration as “old fashioned” and “rubbish”. Legal Week went on to quote anonymous Norton Rose sources who said that Australian partners had been pushing hard for full integration and had met with resistance from the London partners because of concerns about a disparity in profitability.

Clearly there is more to this saga than what Spanner is prepared to say on the record. However, there is something to be said for the argument that financial integration is no longer the sine qua non of a modern law firm merger.  While the recent King & Wood Mallesons merger attracted some degree of market scepticism, surprisingly little of this was directed at the use of the Swiss Verein structure.  Similarly, the market – at least in Australia – seems to be prepared to accept Norton Rose on face value as a single firm.

“Financial structures are important and I don’t downplay that by any stretch,” says Spanner. “But what is important and what we’ve been able to achieve is one firm behaviour ... I think there are different models which [firms] might choose to operate, but we operate a model which delivers on one firm behaviour and clients don’t distinguish [between the partnerships] –  they see one firm.”

The market has readily accepted the Norton Rose brand. “The Deacons name fell away very quickly,” observes Spanner.  “In my own experience [Deacons] is hardly ever referred to internally and hardly ever referred to externally. We are seen as completely integrated with Norton Rose.” Maybe Don Boyd’s now famous billboards at airports around the country did the trick. 

It is also equally important to note that Norton Rose was already a familiar name locally prior to 2009. “Anecdotally we would see a number of GCs would have spent time in London where it’s a very well known brand, as it is across Europe and Asia,” says Spanner. “The branding exercise I might add is now seen in the market place as one of the leading ways to change your brand. It had a remarkable impact on clients and people. People saw it as a leading brand which was one they culturally understood and one which provided a level of focus in our business.”

Evidence of the firm’s cohesiveness can be seen in the movement of personnel around the world. “We’ve moved in the order of seven partners offshore from Australia to various parts of the network – Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Paris and likewise we’ve had partners from other parts of the global network in Australia,” says Spanner.  “We’ve had the global head of climate change, Anthony Hobley, in Australia for the last two years which has been hugely successful for us in terms of showing that intellectual capital and bringing that expertise and experience from other parts of the world and having it resident in Australia when we are going through one of the most significant developments around climate change and introduction of a carbon tax. Likewise, our graduate programme – we send about 14 of our graduates into the Asian offices to spend a couple of months in rotation in an Asian office. It’s about giving them experience and the ability to learn about the network to meet clients and be able to bring that back.

Norton Rose has been active in the lateral recruitment market and the firm’s marketing material regularly promotes the fact that there have been 22 lateral partner hires in the past 22 months. This figure should not be confused with actual growth in partner headcount, which has remained flat. In addition to the partners who have moved offshore, the firm has also had some notable departures including former private equity head Nick Humphrey and OH&S specialist Bill Kritharas, who departed not long after being promoted to the partnership. Both Humphrey and Kritharas headed to Sparke Helmore and Humphrey has been quoted as expressing an interest in “mid-market M&A” which may partly explain the impetus for the move.

However, there is no doubt that Norton Rose has made some good gains, including resources specialist Robert Milbourne, formerly GC of Vale Australia, who is credited with enhancing the Norton Rose relationship with Vale worldwide.“We’ve been incredibly blessed with these [hires]” says Spanner. “You’ve got serious practitioners around town that are looking within their own firm and don’t see significant opportunities necessarily in their own firm, but they see them here.”