"I'll give you an example. The gateway into the lawyer bonus scheme at MinterEllison is billable hours. Billable hours is an input; it doesn't tell you anything about the extent to which you're creating impact with clients ...

“We need to revisit the bonus structure. It's one thing for our lawyers, for our client-facing people, to say 'really is billable hours – as a gateway to a bonus – really driving the sort of behaviours that are congruent with what we want to be renowned for by the external market'?

An eye-opener

“And the answer is 'no, it's not' ... we want to be renowned for working with our clients to create lasting impacts – long-term prosperity and wellbeing.

“Billable hours don't tell you anything about the extent to which somebody is having that impact with the client. There are lots of little things like that we will be looking at."

Ms Kimmitt said her first year had been an eye-opener.

“I think the consulting firms are a number of years ahead [of law firms] in terms of the way they think about how to market the ability to integrate offerings to solve problems, and I think MinterEllison is starting to do that incredibly well.”

The simulcast meetings on October 24 would lay out "our ambition for the culture of the firm in the next six years, what we want to be renowned for," she said.


"We've just spent 11 months running a process to figure that out with real clarity ... we are saying here it is codified."

In the coming weeks, Minters will release its annual report, which features a three-minute video of Ms Kimmitt. In it, she says the firm is "redefining the boundaries of what it means to be a law firm".

"We have noticed increased demand from clients who are asking for innovative, seamlessly integrated capabilities to help them solve their increasingly complex legal and business challenges."

Tight race

Ms Kimmitt said her predecessor, Tony Harrington, who came to Minters via PwC, had put the firm back on a growth path with a 2020 strategy. She was confident the firm would be acknowledged as largest by partner numbers in the next Law Partnership survey in The Australian Financial Review in December. It already has the most fee earners, with more than 1300 bringing in revenue.

The race will be tight. HWL Ebsworth had 265 partners in the July survey; Minters had 256 and says it will have 267 as of November 4.

"The last survey, that was just before we made the next round of partners," Ms Kimmitt said. "We have 268 now. That puts us in front. I'm pleased to announce that."

However, the firm lags behind other top-tier ones regarding female partners (only 28 per cent of the partnership).

Ms Kimmitt said part of the 2025 strategy was to promote gender equality: "It will be minimum 40 per cent female partners, minimum 40 per cent male partners, which give you some leeway either side."