New Member: Mills Oakley

The Property Council welcomes new member Mills Oakley. We sat down with Partner, Patrick Thaung to discuss the company’s reason for joining the Property Council.

How long has your company been operating in Perth/WA?

Since 1 July 2015

What’s your core focus?

Property, corporate, litigation, insurance and workplace relations.

How many people are employed by your organisation?

There is a total of 616 people employed by Mills Oakley.

How did the name of your company come about?

The name of our firm acknowledges our rich history and key people that have played a pivotal role in Mills Oakley’s evolution. It began in 1864 when an Irish solicitor, John Scott Mills opened his practice. Benjamin Mills, John’s son, joined the practice causing the firm to be renamed Mills & Son. In 1894, Herbert Hill Oakley took over Mills & Son renaming the firm Mills, Son and Oakley. In 1925, William Houghton’s practice merged with Mills & Oakley. In 1996, Mills & Oakley changed their name to Mills Oakley Lawyers and 20 years later, in early 2016, we have arrived at our current name of Mills Oakley.

Does your organisation have a workforce diversity policy? Would you like to showcase an initiative?

Mills Oakley has a tailored governance framework for the handling of gender equality and diversity matters and over the past 12 months has conducted a comprehensive overhaul of our policies relating to these issues.

Key outcomes include:

• Establishment of a Gender Diversity Sub Committee, constituted by a majority membership of senior (equity) partners. The Committee reports directly to the Mills Oakley board and CEO. In the interests of transparency, the Committee also reports to our key clients and we have undertaken to continue external reporting on a quarterly basis.
• In FY2016, the Committee ran a series of focus group sessions and engaged the services of external experts as part of a comprehensive review of our diversity policies which has led to the following initiatives have been implemented:
  • A substantial upgrade of our Parental Leave Policy which includes a paid parental leave component available to staff with tenure of more than 12 months. Leave is payable on a sliding scale of up to 14 weeks, and is available in addition to any Government entitlements.
  • A Flexible Working Policy which formalises our commitment to a work/ home life balance for employees wherever such a need may arise – parental/ carer commitments, transition to retirement employees and any other situation where flexibility is required.
  • We also have in place an Equitable Briefing Policy which tracks the firm’s briefing behaviour with external counsel and encourages the use of female counsel in the interests of promoting a more diverse Bar. The firm’s progress in this regard will be shared with key clients.

We believe that improvement in diversity should be a continuing process, rather than a suite of “one off” reforms. To this end, we are particularly assisted by the formation of an active group of diversity champions from the firm’s senior echelons, serving on the Gender Diversity Sub Committee and ensuring that diversity remains on the agenda in the long term.

External reporting to our key clients is also a key part of our strategy. One client, an ASX-20 listed company, has invested time in reviewing our latest diversity initiatives and provided positive feedback, indicating that they are looking forward to receiving the next update. This continuous process of disclosure can only benefit our mission to improve organisational diversity.

What’s something most people probably don’t realise about your company?

Mills Oakley has been voted the fastest growing law firm in Australia for the last three years. The firm attributes its successful growth rate to “demonstrating consistent value to clients as a platform for long-term relationships; our work with clients grows over the years as their businesses grow.” We also actively acquire partner talent who bring to the firm new clients and capabilities. Mills Oakley’s growth has been compared to that of a start-up while being a mature firm.

Company contact details;

Patrick Thaung, Mills Oakley, level 2, 225 St Georges Tce, Perth WA  6000