For Bradley Postma, who was once sacked for clashing with his superiors, and is now a partner at Cullens, an Australian IP law firm, it led him to the conclusion that he should mind his own business.
“I had too much to say on decisions that were not mine to make,” he recounts. “I realised I wasn’t playing the game.”
And playing the game, he insists, is necessary to navigate your way through the marshy terrain of Australian IP firms, which he describes as “autocratic environments full of megalomaniacs and psychopaths and bullies”.
“Partners are fickle,” he says. “Even when they ask for it, they don’t want criticism.”
After taking some time to reflect on his termination, Postma decided he should henceforth just keep his head down and concentrate on his work, a decision he credits for his rise to salary partnership six years later. He’s since distilled his experiences into a book, Junior to Partner in Under 5 Years, which he wrote as a guide to young lawyers.
“Don’t speak out,” he advises. “There’s a great power disparity between a partner and a junior, so there’s no point taking them on.”
Instead, he counsels letting your results speak for you, as the most important thing – and the determining factor for promotion – is how much money you can bring to your firm.
But doing your work well is in itself insufficient for becoming partner in today’s competitive environment, Postma cautions.
“You need to be able to find new work when times are tough,” he says. In order to do this, Postma stresses the importance of marketing – writing articles, attending functions, giving presentations, even just calling clients to ask how they’re doing to find new work opportunities.
IP practitioners should have plenty of time to do this, he says, as long as they don’t waste it trying to train their juniors.
“Minding other people takes away time from minding yourself. You don’t have a stake in the business until you’re partner, so it’s not your responsibility.”
Agree with him or not, IP practitioners will find much of interest in the light Postma sheds on the tribulations of the legal profession, and on the characters in it.
The book is available to buy in paperback on amazon.com.
