How we work
Keypoint lawyers enjoy a uniquely empowering working environment—one that combines complete professional freedom with the reassurance of exceptional operational support. Behind the scenes, a highly experienced management team ensures that every lawyer has the tools, guidance and infrastructure they need to deliver outstanding client service. It’s a model designed around the realities of modern legal practice: agile, collaborative and meticulously supported.
Warren Kalinko, CEO of Keypoint Law.
Warren Kalinko
Chief Executive Officer
Our Formula
Law Firm + Freedom + 70%
Premises. Meeting rooms. Back-office systems and processes. IT infrastructure. Junior lawyer, paralegal and secretarial support. Professional indemnity insurance. A Trust account. Not to mention outstanding colleagues, access to a wealth of legal experience and disciplines. Plus referred work, of course. Now think about the sacrifices you often make in an established practice.
Little decision-making power. Micro-management. Endless bureaucracy. Form filling. Timesheets. A work/life balance that’s out of balance. What if you could have the best of both worlds? The support you need. The freedom you want.
Freedom
That’s what we offer at Keypoint Law. Like any large law firm, we provide the resources and infrastructure you need. Everything from research tools, finance and marketing, to colleagues and referred work (with 30% of the firm’s revenue generated from referred work in FY22!). Unlike them, we offer you unparalleled autonomy and control. You chose who to work with, what to charge, and who you need to bring in on projects. When to take a holiday. No billable hour or revenue targets. No micromanagement. No distractions from what you do best. We support you in your ability, and right, as a senior lawyer to run your clients and practice how you want. More than that, we encourage you.
70%
And, yes: the lion’s share of what you bill is yours^. The firm pays 70% of a lawyer’s personal billings on clients they have brought to the firm (and 60% of personal billings on work referred to them). Our remuneration structure is 100% performance based, transparent and gender neutral. It does away with the traditional distinction between “salaried” and “equity” partner, and applies to every senior lawyer regardless of experience, terms of service or fee generation.
Location
Keypoint is a law firm without boundaries.
Powered by sophisticated cloud-based technology, our lawyers have the freedom to choose where they work.
That may be:
- in Keypoint’s Central Offices in the CBDs of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide, just like a traditional law firm; or
- from a home office, or
- a combination of the two, using the home office as a base and the firm’s Central Offices for hot-desking.
Our firm’s Central Offices also have a range of meeting room facilities for client and team meetings.
No matter how our lawyers choose to work, they enjoy the full support of our service‑orientated Central Office team, who handle the firm’s administration, compliance, invoicing, banking and marketing – helping to provide a strong cohesion to the firm’s operations.
Our office locations:
Our international office locations:
Lawyer support
Our lawyers benefit from all the facilities of a conventional law firm, paired with the exceptional support of an experienced operational team that truly understands the needs and demands of lawyers in today’s world. Our Central Office team handles the firm’s facilities, services, finances, compliance, and marketing, providing cohesion to the firm’s operations, whilst setting our lawyers free to focus on the practise of Law.
Technology
Technology is at the heart of Keypoint.
Through continuous investment in our industry-leading intranet platform, Keyed-In, we ensure that lawyers can work efficiently and effectively from any location at any time. From keeping track of matters and finances, to accessing firm templates and marketing materials at a moment’s notice, Keyed-In acts as a central hub that enables our lawyers to get things done with the agility required in today’s modern business environment.
Culture
Keypoint offers a social, happy and collegiate environment with a distinct absence of internal competition and politics.
The result is an open and transparent workplace which is non-hierarchical and inclusive.
From inception, it has been our goal to build a strong culture that values teamwork, collaboration, and meaningful relationships. We achieve this by providing centralised offices where our lawyers are either based, or at which they hot-desk or visit for meetings, by regularly bringing our team together for monthly drinks and lunch events, CPD days, winter and summer parties, regular practice group meetings, business development workshops and more.
Although all our events, meetings and initiatives are voluntary – we are a firm that is focused on freeing lawyers after all – we enjoy high levels of engagement from our team of like-minded lawyers.
Teamwork
We understand that when it comes to meeting our clients’ needs, a cohesive full service offering is essential.
Our firm offers services across 25 practice areas, and our lawyers regularly work together to fulfil client needs.
The firm actively supports and facilitates a culture of team work, and sharing of work, so that we are able to provide the highest quality of service to our clients.
Training & CPD
We understand that continuing professional development forms an essential part of all lawyers’ careers. However, we’d like to think that our sessions are a little different, and we’re even bold enough to say that they’re even fun.
We ensure that all training sessions are highly focused and tailored to the needs of our lawyers. As a result, they enjoy very high attendance – with high levels of engagement.
We view our CPD and training sessions as another valuable opportunity to bring our team together to deepen our bonds, discuss new ideas, uncover opportunities for collaboration and to enjoy a social experience in a relaxed setting.
Charge out rates
Our lawyers are free to set the firm’s fee structure for their clients, without red tape. That may be hourly rate billing, fixed fee, retainer or as otherwise permitted by law. In the event of hourly billing, a lawyer’s hourly rate is decided by them. Lawyers are also free to discount or increase their normal rate (subject to the terms of any existing engagement letter) or to write off WIP at their discretion. The firm’s decentralised approach to pricing enables our lawyers to flexibly tailor the firm’s offering to the client and matter at hand, which ensures we remain agile and competitive.
The firm has no time sheets or billable hour targets. Our lawyers are free to work closely with clients without having to justify their time, or the investment which they choose to make in a client, to the firm.
The absence of billing targets changes the client from being a “KPI of the firm” – against which lawyers are under relentless pressure to bill, to a situation where our lawyers are free to work with clients as they think appropriate. This takes significant pressure out of the client relationship and enables deeper and more meaningful relationships with clients to be formed.
