Annual Report 2017

Our annual report for the 2017 financial year showcases how we've evolved as a firm, and what makes us distinctive.

MinterEllison has thrived in a business environment which continues to be characterised by rapid change and disruption. The Firm has delivered the strongest financial performance in its history and has invested to ensure the sustainability of that performance.

The collaboration amongst our partnership is strong, with the ability and energy to respond quickly to market developments. Our work has been recognised by a number of awards this year which we are proud of, such as the Business Excellence Award for Professional Services at the AustCham Westpac Australia-China Business Awards 2017, and the Financial Times Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers 2017, where we were winners in a number of categories.

Our Firm continues to lead the market by working with our clients to develop new offerings. We have met the challenge of market disruption by introducing a new agile business model under which we have established a suite of consulting services complementary to the legal services which underpin our reputation. Our clients have strongly supported our new approach and in the year ahead we will continue to engage our people to think creatively and look for opportunities to expand our consulting footprint.

MinterEllison's diversity is a critical enabler of our ability to grow and evolve as a leading professional services firm. Ensuring that MinterEllison is a truly inclusive work environment continues to be a strategic priority. We have actively progressed a number of significant gender initiatives - once again achieving a WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality Award. We have adopted the Male Champions of Change Panel Pledge and the Law Council of Australia's National Equitable Briefing Policy. This year MinterEllison women were represented in over 50% of the firm's senior appointments. Our partner appointment outcomes are particularly pleasing with 42% female appointments over the last 3 years.

I am most particularly proud of our PRIME Committee, established last year to support the LGBTI community. I know that they are warmly supported and respected for the contribution they make to the life of the Firm and am delighted that the Firm has been recognised with a Bronze Employer Award for LGBTI inclusion by the Australian Workplace Equality Index.

MinterEllison's contribution to the Community is core to the values we share across the Firm. This year's Annual Report includes many examples of the positive impact our Firm has made through our Pro Bono program and numerous charitable activities to improve the lives of fellow Australians.

It is a privilege to continue in my role as Chairman and I am immensely proud of MinterEllison's achievements this year. We are a strong independent Australian law firm and I take this opportunity to thank our Firm's clients, people and my fellow Partners for their continued energy and support.

Welcome to our 2017 Annual Report. 2017 was yet another exciting year of change and significant achievement for us.

Our growth story is based on our aspiration to be 'our clients' best partner'. As a consequence, 2017 was yet another record revenue year and it is pleasing to see our strong growth momentum continue into 2018 with YOY revenue growth to November of 13%.

Our 2020 strategic aspiration of becoming the No. 1 firm by capability, service and revenue in the Australian market is well within reach. Our achievements in recent years are a direct consequence of our culture to collaborate and innovate and focus on providing solutions that inspire our clients every day. I therefore want to thank the hardworking teams of talented people, across the firm, who live our culture and bring our growth story to life.

We also welcomed 14 talented partners and 108 senior appointments across our four Lines of Business during the year. I'm very pleased that more than half of these appointments were female, demonstrating our continued commitment to diversity.

High Performance Culture

Central to each of our achievements is our high performance culture, which is critical to the ability of our firm to continually evolve and meet the challenges of an uncertain market and the alternate service providers that are trying to disrupt the professional services industry. The roll-out of Empower, our cultural change and client experience program, is now in its second year. Our Empower survey results tell us it is having a very positive impact on the engagement of our people because it focuses on redesigning the way we work to ensure that we deliver a distinctive client and people experience.

Innovation – A Driving Force

We have recognised the importance of business acumen and client solutions by embedding them in an innovative way at the core of the firm's DNA.

During the year we have broadened our service offering to clients with the successful integration of the ITNewcom team into MinterEllison Consulting Solutions, our fastest growing line of business, focused on the disruptive change facing our clients in technology, people and tax.

We have also continued the development of our Artificial Intelligence tools, with applications that will help our clients with their business strategy:

• Neota Logic is being used to develop a suite of apps addressing issues faced by our clients;
• we're simplifying the way we approach complex interrelated suites of documents used by our banking & finance team through automated contract generation;
• as part of our focus on machine learning, we're using AI to reduce the time it takes to review contracts on M&A deals; and
• we're also reinvesting in best of breed document automation, building a new platform to provide clients with direct access to developing legal documents online via a suite of digital tools.

2017 has been an extraordinary and exciting year for MinterEllison. I hope you enjoy reading about our progress as we strive to be our clients' best partner.