Bronwyn Pott, CEO of Swaab Attorneys, firmly believes that the quality of Swaab’s relationship with suppliers such as LexisNexis directly supports the quality of the firm’s client relationships.

 

Swaab Attorneys is a leading boutique law firm based in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1981, the 60-person firm serves a range of specialty areas, including commercial, construction, corporate, family law, intellectual property, litigation, and property & finance.

The firm is routinely recognized for client service and professional excellence on the basis of customer feedback. In 2008, Swaab was honored with the BRW Client Choice Award for Exceptional Service and the BRW Client Choice Award for Best Australian Law Firm in the under $20 million turnover category. The awards are open to all professional service firms.

An article in Lawyers Weekly Online notes that “Swaab Attorneys has successfully grown their practice from the small to the mid-tier by focusing on practice areas neglected by large firms and by ensuring they could compete through attracting talented young staff and using new technology to improve their services.”

Another success factor, according to the article, is the firm’s use of information technology to improve productivity and response times. It notes that Swaab has been able to compete successfully against much larger firms by offering more cost effective services. Swaab has attracted a number of high end clients and has been appointed to the legal panels of several large financial services institutions.

Swaab currently uses the flagship Lexis Affinity Practice Management System, a single application for accounting, CRM, workflow and document automation. The firm also outsources system support to LexisNexis through the use of the IntegrITy Server Platform.

Bronwyn Pott, CEO of Swaab Attorneys, participated in the LexisNexis Global Customer Summit in New Orleans in April 2008. She spoke to LexisNexis executives about the needs of law firms in a competitive market. Mike Russell, General Manager, Legal Markets, LexisNexis Australia, was also at the Summit. He says that Pott’s two sessions were well attended and that she was very forthcoming with her experience of LexisNexis’ service.  

“What drives the research services and publications that our practice buys is what our legal professionals say they need to do their job,” Pott told the Summit audience. “We don't have a specific budget that we look to spend, but we query our professionals a couple of times a year to ensure they are actively using the services.”

Pott firmly believes that the quality of Swaab’s relationship with suppliers such as LexisNexis directly supports the quality of the firm’s client relationships.

“We’ve developed our business on the basis of strong business relationships and integrity in our dealings with clients and suppliers,” she said. “We have had our practice management solutions provided by the same supplier since 1985. The software does what it is supposed to do and if we have an issue we can discuss it and it gets fixed.  There is honor in the relationship and we appreciate this.”

Mike Russell said, "The relationship between our team and Swaab Attorneys has been developed over a number of years.  There has always been a free and frank exchange of views between the managing partner, Fred Swaab, Bronwyn Pott and our specialist staff. At times, this has meant that we have had to accept some criticism and act upon it.

"Fortunately, our team has used these 'moments of truth' to identify product and service initiatives that we can implement for Swaab and for other customers. The result is that we develop forward and deliver outcomes that are mutually beneficial."