View from the Top

Outgoing MinterEllison CEO Tony Harrington stops to reflect

How do you define good leadership?

A lot of it comes down to being prepared to challenge the status quo. The ability to communicate that is another piece of the puzzle. And the courage to actually get stuff done. I call it the three Cs.

How much of leadership can be attributed to your own personal charisma?

That’s never been me, really. I was born in Ireland. My family came out here in 1960 – my father was a shipwright who worked on the Sydney Opera House for 10 years – and I grew up in the Western Suburbs. My whole career has just been a wonderful ride.

When you joined MinterEllison in 2014, did you have a clear strategy from the outset?

To join a partnership like this, I needed a 90 per cent partner vote. To get that – and they didn’t know me at all – involved me seeing all 200-odd partners. My key message to them was, “Look, if you want the status quo, I’m not your guy. If you’re up for change in the context of adapting to what the market – your clients and your people – is requiring of you, then I’m the guy.” So the message out of that was fairly direct. Six months after I joined, I launched a 2020 game plan.

When you’re facing disruption, do you need to be that swift?

You do. You’ve got to do it at a pace that enables a level of focus but also generates momentum. The interesting observation – seeing as I’m not a lawyer and I was coming into the legal profession – is that lawyers are fundamentally risk-averse. It’s very easy to find a reason to do nothing.

So how did you encourage people and promote change?

Simplicity and consistency are very important. Coming out with a clear message about being “our client’s best partner” created the framework in which we would operate. It’s not about being a lawyer who spends 90 per cent of the time in the office. If you’re going to partner with somebody, it’s a contact sport; you have to actually get out of the place. When you do that – surprise, surprise – people are very keen that you’ve shown an interest.

What’s your strategy on future-proofing the profession?

The critical piece is you have to give people a context. We’re really fortunate – the average age here, outside of the partners, is late 20s. We hire these exceptionally

talented people but you have to create an environment in which they can develop and grow.

How do you do that?

We fundamentally changed our capability framework. If you picture a dinner plate, at the centre of the plate we put business acumen, which shouldn’t be legal skills – that’s a given, people come to us because we have legal capability and they expect that to be best in class. Personal leadership needs to surround that; don’t manage, lead. Then you have to relate to your clients effectively – you need to be able to focus on solutions. That new framework goes deep into the organisation, from the graduates right through to the power.

Your chair, Bruce Cowley, has pointed to your relationships with clients as being one of your key successes. How do you tell a client when they’ve got it wrong? Or don’t you?

You have to let them know. Obviously, you need to be sensitive but you’ve got to be true to the advice and yourself. When someone’s paying for your counsel, it’s all in the quality of your judgement so you have to tell a client if they’re going down the wrong path. You’ve got to call a spade a spade at times.

And how do you deliver that news, if it is bad?

As gently but as directly as you can. You’re rarely in a confrontational scenario because if you’ve got out of the office, spent time with the client and built a level of connectivity, you understand all the issues. It’s a preparedness to have a view, to say, “You know, if I was you, I’d actually do this…” or “I wouldn’t do that.”

You created a 2020 strategy yet you’re leaving in 2018. Is it hard to walk away when you haven’t seen it through?

No. This is a change-agent role. We will virtually tick off all of the metrics we set ourselves for 2020 this year. We’ve restructured, we’ve focused on the clients, we’ve shifted the culture, built a leadership team and built the skills. And when you do these types of roles, you’ve got to know when it’s right to move on.

I suspect a lot of CEOs struggle with when to move on.

You have to be comfortable in your own skin. This was a passion play for me – can I move into another sphere of professional services and take some of the things I’ve learnt over time and apply them in a different organisation and see whether they work? Your first 12 or 18 months, you sit with white knuckles, wondering whether it’s going to work, but we can sit back now and be pretty pleased.

Did you have a lot of sleepless nights?

Fortunately, I don’t have trouble sleeping. You can worry yourself to death if you let these sorts of roles get to you but you’ve just got to make a call. I always like to surround myself with people who are far brighter than me. I get a lot of comfort out of that.

More than a third of the partners at MinterEllison are female. How will you get to 50:50?

This year, we’re aiming for more women than men to be appointed to senior positions at the firm. This will also boost our female partner numbers. The beauty of firms like this is that the old, crusty, grey-haired guys like me are retiring and the maths looks after itself. Having more female partners fundamentally changes the dynamic and creates role models across the rest of the firm. I’m very proud of it.

Has the life of a partner changed? Is it still being on call 24/7?

Clients are always demanding, as they should be. But what we try to develop in our people is the sense that it’s about the team. It’s a four-eyes-type policy. Don’t go it alone on something – you’ve got other partners to share the load with.

If you were halfway through your career now, would you be excited by artificial intelligence?

The short answer is absolutely. It’d be a boring place if you woke up every day and nothing changed. That’s the beauty of being in business – it’s competitive.

What advice would you give your successor?

Leadership isn’t about taking people where they want to go; it’s about taking people where they need to go. And there’s a big difference.

What’s next for you?

You have to know when it’s time to take on the next challenge. When I left PwC [where he was CEO and senior partner for eight years], the best piece of advice that I received was from David Gonski: “Don’t rush things, just take a little bit of time.” I’ll do that over the next few months and see what unfolds.

“LEADERSHIP ISN’T ABOUT TAKING PEOPLE WHERE THEY WANT TO GO; IT’S ABOUT TAKING PEOPLE WHERE THEY NEED TO GO. AND THERE’S A BIG DIFFERENCE.”