Three consecutive record-breaking financial years and 19 new members of staff – it’s a splendid way to round off 25 years.
The story of Swinburne Maddison began on 1st August 1998 with the momentous merger of two of Durham’s most distinguished law firms, Swinburne Jackson and Moreland and Wilson Maddison, bringing over 200 years of
legal expertise together under one roof.
What started as four partners and less than 40 employees operating out of 3 and 5 North Bailey, Swinburne Maddison has grown into a formidable team of 80, now headquartered a stone’s throw away from Durham City at Aykley Heads.
What remains unchanged is the team’s drive to deliver an outstanding legal service for each client they meet.
Today, we speak to Jonathan Moreland, managing partner of Swinburne Maddison, who reflects on the past 25 years of business and the legal industry and discusses the firm’s bright future.
Firstly, welcome Jonathan. What’s on your agenda today?
Yesterday was an all-partner quarterly strategic meeting so I will be spending much of today pulling together the strands and action points arising from it. Although this makes for a lengthy to-do list and can initially be daunting, it is also exciting and fills me with enthusiasm seeing what has been done, what is in the process of being implemented and what plans we are carrying out in the near future.
I also have a meeting with our external marketing agency to discuss our business development initiatives and later I am catching up with a partner from a local accountancy firm to explore further how we can collaborate and support each other’s businesses. These meetings are interspersed with numerous conversations with other partners and members of our team.
Finally, and on a personal note, I am then travelling down to London this evening to help my sister celebrate her birthday and see some friends and family.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane. What was your first day like at Swinburne Maddison?
My first day was on the 2nd of September 1991 and on the one hand it can feel like yesterday but, on the other, it seems like a different world. I remember being pretty nervous walking into the world of work properly for the first time – it all seemed a
bit surreal.
The profession and the office environment were very different to the one today. It was of course pre-mobile telephones and the Internet. There was one computer in the office which our bookkeeper used, the telephones still had a bell ring and
all transactions and correspondence were by post. That said, faxes were all the rage and would appear on a very noisy machine which spat out shiny paper, and from memory the printing used to disappear after a couple of weeks. Business moved at a much slower pace than it does today. In those days client lawyer relationships were very different. Clients would often be nervous about going to see their lawyer and, in a way, it was the lawyer doing the client the favour. Matters have moved on and it is very much the lawyer providing a professional service to the client as a consumer.
Another difference was the profession was only recently coming to terms with being able to advertise their services. Advertising or marketing the firm in any way was forbidden by The Law Society and very much frowned upon. Firms were reacting to the lifting of this ban at different paces and in certain quarters, singing your firm’s praises was still almost seen as being rather cheap!
Over the past 25 years the firm has seen some progressive changes, what are the stand-out moments for you?
The major milestones since the merger in 1998 which created Swinburne Maddison from two very long established and well-respected firms, were the-relocation from our Dickensian offices in North Bailey to modern offices in Aykley Heads, and the
later rebrand, expansion and refurbishment.
Other progression has been witnessing young people starting as trainees and now being partners within the business. The firm has always believed in giving more junior colleagues a chance and opportunity at sometimes a young age and this has paid dividends over the years. The firm has also progressed by hiring and developing more non-legal staff to allow the lawyers to do what they do best. The roles and importance of our non-lawyers within the firm cannot be underestimated and this has certainly moved on over the years.
What challenges, if any, has the firm faced?
The relocation in 2006 from the City centre to Aykley Heads has been one of our biggest steps forward but at the time was terrifying. There was no guarantee that moving our office from the centre of Durham would be a success and we did question whether our clients would follow us. That was a real challenge at the time but has worked out very much for the best.
Other obvious challenges are recessions and the pandemic. However, we have always ridden storms and tried to maintain a calm and measured approach throughout. During the previous recession opportunities did arise when clients were more willing to give other firms a chance of their work and realised that they did not have to instruct national firms to obtain an excellent legal service.
During the pandemic we also improved relationships with clients by standing by them and showing that we would provide support
and assistance regardless of what was going on elsewhere.
Growth has accelerated in recent years. Has this impacted the way the firm operates?
It is absolutely essential that however much we grow, and at what pace, we remain true to ourselves and at all times maintain our values. No matter the size we get to, we must always uphold our integrity and trust as people.
The firm has to maintain its personality and culture and not become a faceless organisation that has no care for its people and clients. The quicker we grow, the more adaptable and agile we need to be and, so far, we have been able to do this.
What is also important is that we have one headquarters – all of our people are under one roof – so that we can retain that “one team” mentality rather than being split into many different entities under one banner.
What does Swinburne Maddison look for when recruiting?
It is a cliché but what we look for is “attitude, not aptitude”. Of course, we look for technically excellent lawyers who are well qualified and experienced but, that said, the key is that they fit with us and our current team and are able to live up to our values and culture. We also look for people who are personable and those we can see will deal with our clients in a sensible and practical way and help them resolve whatever issue they bring to us. It is pointless having the best qualified and most technically able lawyers in the country if they are unable to communicate with their colleagues and clients.
In summary, we look for good, solid people with integrity and common sense – and hopefully a sense of humour!
We are approaching the end of 2023. What’s been your top three highlights this year?
The standout highlight for me was being awarded Law Firm of the Year at the Northern Law Awards as this was recognition of the hard and excellent work every single member of the practice has carried out over the last 12 months. It was not an award won
by one individual or one department or even one area of the firm but by everyone regardless of their role and seniority.
The second highlight has not only been our ability to recruit some first-class people but, more importantly, retain our existing excellent people. The recruitment market has been hard and competitive recently and having a stable workforce
of superb lawyers and non-lawyers is a source of pride.
Thirdly, and without going into great detail to breach client confidentiality, there have been some fantastic wins and successful transactions for clients over the last 12 months and this is what makes the job worthwhile – putting in all that hard work to ensure we add value to our clients and their businesses and help them achieve their goals and aims.
The digital transformation is affecting all professions including the legal sector. How is Swinburne Maddison reacting to this?
I must confess that this is not my strongest suit and I am sure my partners would agree! However, we are reacting to digital transformation by attempting to be ahead of the curve. We have a brilliant IT department who not only ensure we can run our
day-to-day business safely and securely but are pro-active and innovative. They are always looking for the next development to help us progress. We have also appointed an AI champion to address what is likely to be one of the biggest issues facing
the profession (and perhaps society) over the coming years.
For our clients, they should receive a better, more efficient and quicker service and this is certainly our aim. We want to use technology to not only help our people work better but most importantly to improve the all-important client experience.
The change in the way we work and our heavy reliance on technology also means that we can cast our net much wider in terms of working for and looking after clients. It now does not matter where they are based in this country or indeed any
country as communication is so easy – geography and location no longer matters as to which solicitor you select to look after you.
What is the long-term vision for the firm and how do you plan to achieve it?
We are in the process of launching our next 3-year plan, having already met the objectives of our previous 3-year plan within 2 years. In essence, we want to continue to build our legal teams to ensure we provide our clients with an excellent service and
experience, ensure those legal teams have good quality work to carry out and to keep them productive, build our non-legal teams to ensure that we are professionally and compliantly run and structured to enable our lawyers to concentrate on what they are good at. Finally to underpin everything we do with sound financial management.
We want to continue our growth but not at any cost – it must be measured and at all times we have to retain our stability. If, for example, the economic climate was to take a turn for the worst we need to be sufficiently agile to ensure we continue to not
only survive, but thrive.
A final thought…
I want to sincerely thank all the people that keep the firm ticking along and progressing the way it does and that is staff, clients, contacts and our friends. We can have the best offices, technology and equipment in the world but without good people looking after great quality clients and adding value to their businesses all this would be pointless. We genuinely care about our staff and
our clients because the moment we stop caring about them, they will certainly stop caring about us!
The other message I would pass on is to perhaps the younger members of our team. It seems like yesterday that I was starting on my first day in 1991 and it does go quickly, so enjoy it as much as you can and work hard to ensure that you are professionally fulfilled. The firm I am in today is so vastly different to the one I joined in 1991 and to the one which was created 25 years ago so although I will not be part of it, it intrigues me as to what the firm and the wider profession will look like in the next 25 years.
When I see younger colleagues joining the team now I do think that they have such an exciting time ahead of them and who knows where they could be within the firm in 2048. I am sure that the firm, the wider profession and the world generally will be
very different to today but I am convinced what will not change is the importance of retaining your personal and professional values and integrity.
This interview was drafted for our December 2023 Prism Magazine which can be viewed online by clicking here.
