“Why don’t I start the branch office?”
Phil is a family lawyer with Pearson Emerson. When it came time to move his young family home to Brisbane, he took the firm with him and opened its Brisbane office himself.
His world
Brisbane is home ground for Phil. He came up through family law here, and the lawyers he trained alongside are now partners and barristers across town. Sydney had the firm. Brisbane had everything else, so he took his partners a plan instead of waiting for one.
“I told my partners I was thinking of moving back to Brisbane, why don’t I start the branch office. Six months ago I started the Brisbane office in Clarence.”
Phil Ridgway, Partner, Pearson Emerson Family Law, Brisbane
A branch office of one has no office manager, no IT department and no reception of its own. For the move to work, all of that had to be waiting for him on day one.
Focus on your work
Phil walked into a working office. The infrastructure question that stalls most interstate expansions never came up.
“Everything’s set up, printers, scanners, coffee, mail, the whole lot. It’s not rocket science. The AML compliance is taken care of. This is a dream.”
Phil Ridgway, Partner, Pearson Emerson Family Law, Brisbane
The quiet surprised him too. He describes tucking away and getting through the work in a way an open-plan floor never allowed.
Practise at your best
The network Phil built over a career was the reason Brisbane made sense. Clarence put him back in the middle of it.
“I have established networks with family lawyers up here, my contemporaries are now partners or at the bar, some in this building already referring me work.”
Phil Ridgway, Partner, Pearson Emerson Family Law, Brisbane
Support your clients
Family law clients arrive carrying a lot. Phil’s setup is built around making the hardest days easier for them, and the courts are across the road.
“We’d meet clients before going to court, bring them somewhere they feel at ease, then walk down together and calm their mind. Better than a cafe. I can see the court from my window.”
Phil Ridgway, Partner, Pearson Emerson Family Law, Brisbane
Reception looks after his clients from the moment they step out of the lift. For sensitive matters there are smaller private rooms on his level, and he brings clients in without hesitation.
Save your money
The Brisbane office grows the way Phil wants it to, an office at a time, with no lease signed against a headcount that doesn’t exist yet.
“The natural progression, find another lawyer, get another office, and when we hit a tipping point look at our own offices. For now it’s perfect.”
Phil Ridgway, Partner, Pearson Emerson Family Law, Brisbane
The Brisbane office is open.
The infrastructure behind it is Clarence. The only workspace in Australia created by lawyers, for lawyers.