"We did coding and Andrew built HSF's home page in HTML and CSS (hypertext markup language and cascading style sheets)," Ms Beal said.

"We've gone to a start-up ... and we did a session on blockchain.

"We've done a number of less structured things that have been equally if not more important – things Andrew has had playing on his mind, and I've had playing on my mind."

Mr Pike chimed in: "Things like career aspirations, training, outlook – how we make sure that what we are offering meets the needs of our younger generation."

Senior executives

The pilot program was attached to the firm's future fit program and consisted of six pairings involving the firm's senior executive team.

"The experimental phase definitely had a tech set,'' Ms Beal said. "It still does, but now it's a lot broader than that – there's a lot more [focus] on culture and people."

Mr Pike is convinced of its value, saying it is a key part of his plan to "take the hierarchy out of the organisation".


"Increasingly some of the best and brightest talent – and the best ideas – we have in the business come from our less senior individuals.

"Pairing up people of different generations with different outlooks, with different skills leads to a much better outcome for everybody."

How did he feel about taking instruction from a junior lawyer?

"Very early on I got into a groove where whatever was suggested to me to do I knew would be a good thing.

"I've got a growth mindset and I'm sure Myra sees that – and that there's no threat in the relationship. If there's any idea that gets introduced, there will be a robust discussion around it," he said.

He gave special mention to the start-up visit.

"The market that we're competing for in terms of talent is not just law firms. I need to get exposure to another end of that spectrum, and going to an organisation that's fast-growing and hasn't been in existence that long, and getting access to the CEO of that organisation – and having an open conversation about how you build culture – I found fascinating."

Another pairing was financial services partner Malika Chandrasegaran and her mentor, first-year senior associate Christian Bourke. They were matched about three months ago when the program was rolled out across the firm.


Mr Bourke said their first session was a visit to an artistic hub in the Sydney CBD to "see how other businesses succeed in an increasingly disrupted market".

Matched: Freehills CEO Andrew Pike, partner Malika Chandrasegaran and junior lawyers Myra Beal and Christian Bourke. Peter Braig

Ms Chandrasegaran said the conversation covered workplace culture, innovation, disruption and how to approach clients.

"I'm not super tech-savvy so we talked a little bit about that; we meandered around a few topics, so we'll continue to drill down on each of those."

The algorithm, designed by Ms Beal and other junior lawyers with some outside help, will yield some fascinating human resources data.

It is based on a survey with three core components: culture, innovation (the design-thinking side) and technology. Ms Beal said the questions "really drilled down" into the interests of the applicants in those areas.

"We have these numerical matching scores which no one can see except for the people who run the program,'' she said.

"It will be really exciting to see whether those scores – as to how well someone is matched on those interests – actually correlated to how many sessions they had and how well they received the program.

"That will be really exciting data ... we'll see what that score means."

There is no sign of an end to their mentor-mentee relationship, but Mr Pike said that at some point he and Ms Beal "might need to freshen things up",

"It's all about diverse perspectives,'' he said. "There will probably come a time when both of us would benefit from moving on and working with others. I see that as healthy."