Justine Fletcher is a successful and dynamic practice manager at JCL Law Partners, where she oversees the firm’s operations to streamline administrative processes and support the legal team.
“The whole idea of my being here is to make the lawyers’ lives easier. So to take away from them everything that is admin related, so that they can focus on their legal work. ”From handling a firm rebrand and office move to implementing new software and systems, Justine is kept on her toes by the diverse nature of her role.
A multifaceted role
Describing her role, it quickly becomes apparent just how integral Justine is to the functioning of the firm. “I look after everything from HR, IT, marketing, the systems, the processes, looking after the staff, the whole range of everything to do with the operations,” she explains. With her broad range of responsibilities, Justine’s primary goal is to ease the administrative burden on the lawyers. This involves continuously reviewing and streamlining systems and procedures, adapting to technological changes to increase efficiency. “It’s extremely diverse, but I like that. Every day can be very different depending on what’s happening. But that’s the beauty of it, though,” she adds. The role requires adaptability and a willingness to tackle new challenges, makingit a dynamic and rewarding position. “It’s forever a learning curve – there are
always things that come up that you’ve never done before.”
Journey to practice management
Justine’s practice management career is an impressive culmination of accolades across business, marketing and HR. Of course, as a child, she had other plans. “At school, I had two goals in life. One of them was to be a hairdresser, because my Mum was, and the other one was to join the army…I did neither of those” she laughs.“I was interested in business and I knew that that would give me the opportunity to do a variety of things” – and it did.
“I went on and did a master’s in marketing; I knew that was the area that I wanted to go into,” she recalls. Upon leaving education, Justine held marketing roles in numerous fields. Her career in law began in the marketing department of a law firm, where she discovered her passion for the field. “The person that interviewed me said to me: ‘You either love this or you hate it. It’s one of those things. There’s really no in between’,” she recalled. “But anyway, that was the start of my loving it.”
Further studies in HR and practice management led her to her current role at JCL Law Partners, which she has now held for over a decade. “This was my first role and my only role as a practice manager,” she
says.“I never really looked back since.” She smiles.
Life in Australia
Originally from the UK, Justine moved to Australia in 2003. Despite her fondness for her home country, the allure of Australia’s sunny climate and vibrant lifestyle made the move an appealing choice. “I love the UK, but I love the lifestyle here. The weather is vastly better too. I do miss the seasons though.”
After arriving down under, she worked for a mid tier firm of around 150 people. This laid a solid foundation for her transition to JCL Law Partners and her continued success at the firm.
Making lawyers’ lives easier
Justine self-describes her role as making the lives of JCL’s lawyers easier. A large part of this is ensuring that the firm utilises new technology and tools to the best of its ability. Understanding the importance of staying ahead of the curve, Justine has been implementing new systems to drive efficiency. “Sometimes you end up doing things the way you do them because that’sthe way you’ve always done them. But times change and technology changes and the tools change to allow you to become more efficient as well. So, we’ve been putting in some new systems.” “It makes the lawyer’s life easier, giving them time back that is more
valuable than our time that we don’t charge for, obviously.”She notes that this streamlining requires constant monitoring. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a long way to go and there’s still a lot of things that we can do – it’s a never ending process.”
Settling into a new office
Justine recently spearheaded both a rebrand and an office move as a part of the firm’s succession planning. Reflecting on the beginning of this new chapter, she says: “It feels like everything’s starting to settle down now, I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief.” The move involved working over weekends and putting other tasks on hold, but she affirms that it was ultimately a success. “It’s been really good. Everybody likes the new office.” she proclaims. Despite the transition going relatively seamlessly, Justine recognises that
doing both a move and a rebrand at once was a mammoth task. “Ideally, if I was to do it again, I’d separate the two..it was a bit of a challenge to do both things at the same time!” she admits.
Involvement in professional networks
Alongside her role at JCL Law Partners, Justine is an active member of the Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA), where she currently serves as the chairperson for Queensland. “It’s a great support system,” she says, emphasising the value of the network for resources and advice. “Anything and everything I have a query about, there’s always somebody there that knows or has done the same
thing or has got some advice.”Justine is also an associate member of the Queensland Law Society (QLS). In her ninth year on the ALPMA committee, where rules stipulate that members can only serve a maximum of ten years, she sees involvement in one of the QLS’ many committees as her next step
over the coming year.“ALPMA and the QLS have a great relationship, so it’s a natural step for
me to try and get involved with them a bit more from next year hopefully.”
Broadening perspectives with IR Global
The IR Global network also provides substantial benefits to Justine and the firm, offering a broader perspective beyond their local network. “Brisbane is quite a small place,” she remarks. “Everybody kind of knows everybody, and that’s nice in a way, but you can forget to look at what’s happening in the rest of the world.” These global insights can bring comfort when the firm faces issues. “That’s what I really find great – talking to other members and them saying: ‘We have this exact same issue’, because then you know it’s not an isolated issue just to our area.”
Furthermore, IR Global is crucial in enabling JCL Law Partners to handle work that exceeds their internal capabilities. “When we get work that we can’t do or where we don’t know what to do, then we know that there are people to turn to,” Justine explains. “We can either refer it to other members, or get their advice to help us to do the work ourselves.” In the same way,the network also generates work for the firm from other members without expertise on the Australian jurisdiction. On a personal level, Justine finds the conferences and content particularly beneficial, especially since joining the practice managers group, of which she is a committee member. “We’ve just had two meetings so far this year, but it is really useful to talk to members about what’s happening in their jurisdictions.”
Achievements & growth
Justine is proud of her ability to juggle career, family, and further education, especially early in her career. “It was the fact that I could actually be going on with a career and have children and carry on studying at the same time,” she reflects. Regarding the last ten years, she feels content with her overall contributions and the positive impact she has made at the firm. “I feel that I’m doing the right things, delivering for the firm while still getting job satisfaction out of being in the same place for that long.” Looking ahead, Justine aims to continue delivering quality work and adapting to industry changes. “I’m going to continue to take everything that it throws at me and just try and do what’s best for the business; adopting whatever we need to be adopting, moving with the times, and setting up this firm for the future.”
Life beyond the office
Away from work, Justine enjoys spending time with her three children and is gearing up for her eldest to leave school this year. She’s also a sports fanatic, enjoying football and cricket even in the middle of the night. “Recently, I’ve been getting up at ungodly hours of the morning to watch the Euros” she laughs, “we get it at rubbish times here in Australia.”
She also hopes to travel more, particularly back to the UK. “Here in Australia, we have this thing called long service leave. When you reach 10 years of service in a firm, they give you some extra holidays. I’m hoping to use those to do a big trip travelling around the UK, seeing the things that I didn’t see when I lived there. You only realise when you leave that you actually didn’t visit a lot of places!”. Overall, Justine feels content and fortunate in her current role and workplace. Reflecting on her life and career, she expresses gratitude for the opportunities she has had: “Everybody says that they work in a great place, but this truly is a great place and I’m very grateful that I do work here, because I know lots of other people in my profession who can’t say that. That’s how fortunate I am.”
