An evolved approach to BigLaw – with values, culture, innovation and collaboration at the core with Nick Humphrey, Hamilton Locke (ep 80)

If you have any interest in business leadership or deliberately designing workplace culture, you won’t want to miss this episode! Nick Humphrey is the Managing Partner of Hamilton Locke, a corporate and commercial law firm that is one of Australia’s fastest growing law firms. They focus on aligning the interests of their people with their clients. What does this mean? Well, as you’ll hear in the interview, Hamilton Locke is a people-centric business where the number one priority is to create a vibrant culture. As Nick explains in the interview, he strives to create a work environment focused on learning, teamwork and collaboration because having a strong people experience drives the best possible client experience. I love Nick’s approach to people, culture and leadership and really admire the example he is setting for our industry. Nick and I talk about a lot of my favourite topics – * how to build a deliberate high performing culture,* how to identify a business purpose – and I especially love Nick’s approach to considering the impact a business will have on different stakeholders* process improvement and reducing the grunt work to free up people’s time for more enjoyable and meaningful work. This episode is brought to you by Legally Yours and LawCPD.  About our guest Nick has a distinguished 25-year commercial legal career, advising on hundreds of high-profile transactions, as well as founding Hamilton Locke. After 10 years in senior management and leadership roles, Nick recognised an opportunity to start with a blank piece of paper and build a firm as an evolution of the legal industry. He identified the importance in leadership of mindfulness and positivity, building culture, driving innovation and implementing a value-based model, leading to the ultimate optimisation of the client experience. As one of Australia’s top 50 and fastest growing law firms, Hamilton Locke transforms the traditional approach to corporate legal services, removing bureaucracy and administration, focusing on solving complex client problems. They have built a people-centric business from day one, bringing together top talent from across the globe. They are driven by maximising the ‘people experience’ – PX and creating a vibrant culture. They believe a strong PX drives the best possible ‘client experience’ – CX and therefore strive to create a work environment focused on learning, teamwork and collaboration, underpinned by a values-based leadership model. Visit Hamilton Locke’s website here. Nick Humphrey quotes * “be very deliberate about the culture that you want to have in your firm and make sure that the values are clearly held by everyone. If you don’t do that, what you end up with is either a neutral culture or a culture that is toxic and makes it an unpleasant place to work. What we do is consider can you combine a clear purpose, a set of values, deliberate culture, non-negotiable behaviours and bring all those things together … when it comes together you can create something which supports your purpose?”* “A lot of firms have a set of values which might be a poster on the fridge … but those values aren’t unique to that business, they’re not authentically held by all the partners and staff because they didn’t discover it, they just got told it.”* “If you just get up and speak to everyone and say “hey, these are our values” it will go in one ear and out the other ear.