Natasha Harrison has set up a new legal boutique firm in London that intends changing the way younger lawyers can play a role in building their careers away from the stuffy humbug of many Big Law practices.
Harrison, who resigned from the leading litigation boutique Boies Schiller last year has opened the doors on her firm Pallas Partners, which intends becoming a major player in the international disputes and litigation field.
Harrison is intent upon creating a law firm that is inclusive and permits lawyers from backgrounds that might not get them into a traditional, white-shoe law firm. People who faced the issues she says she faced when starting her legal career.
She firmly believes that the advantages of hybrid legal work and its flexibility is something that needs to be developed so that lawyers can enjoy their home life along with their work life in accordance with clearly defined expectations of lawyers in today’s world.
The COVID Law Workplace Change
Natasha Harrison believes she was herself part of ‘the Great Resignation’ – having left her top spot at top firm.
She wants to give lawyers some power back, she told the FT.
“. . [most associates] love the law and want to do good work and get good experience, but they want more than that. but they want more than that. And I think tackling the issues of their generation is one of those things. And that gives them some power back.”
The Associates will still be paid on the Cravath scale, getting up to half a million dollars a year after their eighth year, but with the pro bono requirements (where the firm is devoting five per cent of its resources until 2025 with reduced hours for staff to meet the target), flexibility in work hours and ‘blinded’ recruitment to employ the best, regardless of their school and background.
Key Lessons In Law Career Success
She says that a major leadership lesson she learnt was having a diverse team and “not hiring in the mirror”.
” I made that mistake at the beginning of my career and we ended up with a team purely of feisty young women — not particularly inclusive! That taught me early on how important diversity is and the value of different viewpoints.”