Firms have extended kitchen hours and brought "wellness" services on site. They are helping with childcare and providing laundry services. There are weekends away and partners have even taken on the role of "shopping concierge".

Richard Harris, a litigation partner at Gilbert + Tobin (Westpac), said he was "very conscious of how hard people are working". Mr Harris added, along with other firms, he was "worried about it and thinking very carefully about how to try to reduce the burden".

He said "four or five law firms have had to materially upsize and you have all the in-house teams for all the banks that have had to upscale as well".

Gilbert + Tobin has two teams of lawyers and Mr Harris said he was "spelling" people after they finished a round of hearings. The teams do not handle consecutive hearings.

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"If you are not running it in split teams, you'd likely be killing people," he said. The work was "very arduous for the whole team, but particularly the more junior lawyers".

'All of us will be getting fat'

"You have to try to look after them. What you don't want is people spending their first couple of years as a lawyer on something relentless and getting burned out of the profession before they see something more sustainable."


Mr Harris admitted that with the long hours "there's a degree of desire for comfort food". "All of us will be getting fat. I think Uber Eats is also doing very well out of the RC."

Andrew Pike, the regional managing partner of Herbert Smith Freehills, said his firm had "dialled up" its usual staff services during the commission as it acted for National Australia Bank.

Berkeley Cox, the chief executive partner of KWM Australia, agreed the deadlines were "fierce" and that the work was "high-pressure stuff". Janie Barrett

"We keep the kitchen open and dinner is served 7.30 every night. It's top-shelf nutritious food...Things have changed: 10 years ago you'd ring up the pizza guy."

Mr Pike said HSF could "follow the sun" because of its Alternative Legal Services business, which has offices in Melbourne and Dublin.

"We have 30 to 40 people sitting in Ireland trawling through Australian bank documents," he said.

"We might clock off here at 8pm and the work gets done over there and we come back at seven in the morning … it's helped quite a lot."

"We have 30 to 40 people sitting in Ireland trawling through Australian bank documents," said HSF's Andrew Pike. Janie Barrett


King & Wood Mallesons was caught up in an early commission firestorm with its work for AMP. Berkeley Cox, the chief executive partner of KWM Australia, agreed the deadlines were "fierce" and that the work was "high-pressure stuff".

"The commission has got a timetable and for the commissioner to meet that timetable – given the terms of reference – there's a lot of work," Mr Cox said.

"It's a difficult task for the commissioner. It's a difficult task for the AGs [the Attorney-General's Department]. It's a difficult task for the clients, so it's a difficult task for us. That's the way it is."

Mr Cox said the firm was rotating staff and that ensuring their wellbeing was "quite challenging". On the upside, there was "very deliberate reward and recognition – financial and soft benefits".

Ross McClymont, the managing partner of Ashurst's Melbourne office, said the firm had brought in lawyers from its Hong Kong, London and Glasgow offices and hired contract lawyers and paralegals to work at its "royal commission hub" for ANZ.

He said they had a "catered meal service to maintain employee health and wellbeing" and offered stress management training to all commission staff.

'We are all in the same boat'

Mr McClymont said one of the firm's finance partners took it upon himself to provide a "shopping concierge" service.


"He provided everyone in the team with a bottle of champagne and heart-shaped chocolates to take back to their loved ones for Valentine's Day, and gourmet hot cross buns at Easter," he said.

"Team members have also been gifted weekends away to places such as Daylesford to recharge and unwind."

Robert Cutler, chief executive partner of Clayton Utz (Commonwealth Bank), said the firm's cafe had been opening on weekends – at no charge to staff – during the commission. During the week dinner is served at 7pm.

"We have brought our wellness support services on site. We have had nutrition consultants, fitness assessments, clinical psychologists, massages, wellbeing coaching," he said.

"Some people are working very long hours so we've provided some concierge services. We help with things like childcare.

"We are not saying we are perfect, but it's very high on our radar – that people support."

Mr Cutler said the commission had "created significant demands for legal services to respond to what is a very tight timetable – and a case-by-case approach".

He said there were intense periods in the lead-up to a hearing: "Our people are also trying to look after the wellbeing of the witnesses that are appearing."

Mr Cutler noted the "going to die" concern about the workload.

"There is significant demand, but at the same time I think everyone's under that pressure, including the commission," he said. "The demands must be really significant on them. So, I think we are all in the same boat."