When Craig Sanford established Sierra Legal in March 2010, what he had in mind was something very different to the traditional “ivory tower” law firms in the industry.  He created a boutique firm that provides high quality and commercially focused legal services to its clients, using a close-knit team of friendly and highly experienced lawyers who enjoy a technology savvy and truly flexible working environment.  For a boutique firm, Sierra Legal has some great clients, including Medibank, Bingo Industries, BP, Hisense, Chubb Insurance, Simoco Wireless Solutions and World Vision Australia.

To help Craig reflect on the last 10 years since starting Sierra Legal, he recently sat down with one of his colleagues, young gun Troy Mossley, and responded to a number of wide ranging questions.  Here is the interview …

Why did you decide to start Sierra Legal 10 years ago? 

After finishing my law and science degrees at Monash Uni in the early 90s, I went straight into a large Australian law firm called Middletons, now known as K&L Gates.

I worked extremely hard at Middletons, and made it to partnership by the time I was 30.  I learned a lot and had a fantastic experience, and had the privilege of working with some great partners, including John Mann, Warwick Isherwood, Andrew Chambers, Robert Desmond, John Kelly and Robert Springall (some of whom are still at the firm!).

However, after 19 years at Middletons, my wife, Katie, and I decided that it was time for a change - I wasn’t seeing a lot of my family, the 12+ hours a week of commuting to and from work was starting to wear a bit thin, and I thought that if I didn’t try something else after such a long time at Middletons, I never would! 

I wasn’t really excited about the idea of jumping into another large law firm or changing to a different profession, so I decided to “give it a crack” and start a new law firm from scratch in March 2010!

Sierra Legal initially ran alongside a separate corporate advisory business (Hawksburn Capital) founded by Mark Thexton and James Chisholm.  While Sierra Legal now operates independently (focusing purely on legal matters), Mark and James were certainly instrumental to the initial growth and success of Sierra Legal and I am grateful for their support. 

Did you ever see yourself as an entrepreneur?

I never really saw myself as an entrepreneur.  In fact, if you were to ask my colleagues and friends at the time I left Middletons, I’m sure most of them would have said that I was the last person they would have expected to jump out on my own.

I suppose I first had a taste of being an entrepreneur in my teenage years by doing a few little things to earn some money.  I remember buying a couple of cheap second-hand bikes, doing them up and then selling them for a profit.  I also did a letterbox drop in the neighbourhood offering to mow people’s lawns, do some landscaping and other odd jobs, and some people took me up on it.  There were little things like that, but nothing in a big way.  It wasn't really until 2009/2010 when I suddenly had that big entrepreneurial urge to quit a perfectly stable and well-paying job, and start a new business from scratch!

How did you initially find the jump from a big firm to a start-up?

It was a big shock to the system.  The first 6 months were very hard.  I probably underestimated how difficult it is to start up and run a new business.

Back when I was a partner at Middletons, I had a full-time secretary, a dedicated team of lawyers and infrastructure to back me up.  But I had to leave all that behind when starting Sierra Legal.  

Cash flow was a real concern in the beginning.  Coming from a regular good-paying job, I had to invest in the new business and make lots of sacrifices along the way.  I didn't earn anything for the first 6 months or so, and had 2 kids in a private school.  Plus, Katie and I foolishly started a home renovation at about the same time as starting the business.  There was a lot more money going out than coming in!

Katie and I had to put in place a strict budget for the family in the early days, making sure we didn’t spend beyond our means.  When we went to the supermarket, we had to stick to our budget.  Unlike when I was a partner in a big law firm, we couldn’t just buy something because we wanted to.  Fortunately, we had some savings, so we had a bit of a buffer to get us through those early days.  I was also very lucky to have a wife and family who were supportive of me taking the big jump.

Do you have any regrets in starting Sierra Legal?

Absolutely not. 

I have some great memories from my time at Middletons/K&L Gates, and I think it was and still is a great law firm.  However, Sierra Legal has been a fantastic journey.  I am really proud and grateful in terms of what we (being me and the rest of the Sierra Legal team) have been able to create and achieve at Sierra Legal over the last 10 years.  Most importantly, I genuinely enjoy getting up in the morning (or at least most mornings!) to do my job … for me, that is the key measure of success from a work and business perspective.

The flexibility associated with running my own business has also been great.  Over the last 10 years since starting Sierra Legal, I’ve been able to be a much bigger part of the lives of my wife and kids than might have otherwise been the case if I’d kept working in a big city law firm.  It has also enabled me to take up 2 other passions, being athletics and share trading.  In terms of athletics, I have been able to juggle the demands of the business with a proper athletics training schedule, and have been fortunate to win medals on the National and World stage at various masters athletics championships - a couple of highlights have been a silver medal in the 800m at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Perth in 2016 and a gold medal (and Australian record) in the 4 x 400m relay at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Spain in 2018.

When did you hire your first employee?

Sierra Legal hired its first employee in early 2011, about a year after starting the business.  Mike Jeffery came across to Sierra Legal as a Senior Associate from a large firm in Brisbane called McCullough Robertson. 

Mike is now a Director of Sierra Legal - he has been with the business so long that I pretty much regard him as a co-founder of the business, and he has certainly been a massive part of our success and growth over the years.

Since employing Mike in 2011, we have slowly built the team to the point where we now have a fantastic team of dedicated, loyal and highly experienced lawyers.  It’s by far the best team I’ve ever had in my 29 years of being in the legal profession.

As a relatively small firm, have you had any trouble retaining staff?

We have had an amazingly good staff retention rate.  In 10 years, we have only lost one lawyer from the business.  Interestingly, that person left the firm a few years ago to take on an in-house legal role at Medibank, which is now one of our largest clients.

What is Sierra Legal’s secret in having this high staff retention rate?

I think it’s been a combination of factors.  At Sierra Legal, we offer something totally different to traditional law firms:

• We have a genuinely flexible working environment.  I think a lot of firms say that they have flexible work practices, but they don’t really.  In our case, we have offices in Melbourne and Brisbane where staff can sit and work if they really want to, but for most of the time when not out on the road, all of us work predominantly from home offices.  Everyone is encouraged to prioritise family activities, whether that be school pickups and drop-offs, family holidays or just having dinner with the family, and we fit in work around that.  Don’t get me wrong, all of our lawyers work extremely hard, but everyone knows that they have total flexibility to enable them to fit everything they want to into their lives.
• As well as having great clients, we tend to do a lot of interesting and high-value work, which obviously helps in keeping everyone happily engaged in their work.
• We don’t have personal fee budgets.  Instead, we set and monitor team goals and work collectively towards achieving them.  I think it’s fair to say that personal fee budgets are hated by most lawyers working in traditional law firms!  At Sierra Legal, we really are focused on working as a team and doing the best possible job for the client - if we do that, then our view is that the fees will look after themselves.
• All team members share in the profits of the firm, and everyone has visibility over the financial performance of the firm - by this I mean profit, as well as revenue.
• We have zero office politics.  This might be a product of our flexible working environment, as well as having people in the team that are closely aligned in terms of their business, family and personal goals.  Everyone just gets along well with each other!
• All team members are given the opportunity to understand and share in the strategy and direction of the firm.  As an example, a year or so ago we were approached by a large law firm that was keen to acquire Sierra Legal - before making a decision, I discussed this fully with the team and soon discovered that they weren’t interested, so we didn’t do the deal!

Overall, I think the secret to retaining staff is just to treat everyone equally and with respect.  Some of the things that I have just mentioned are pretty unique for a law firm, and probably result in less dollars in my pocket as a business owner.  But again, if we can have a business where everyone enjoys getting up in the morning to come to work, that’s what makes me happy!

With everyone doing a lot of work from home offices, do you find it difficult to maintain a strong team culture?

Since we have only lost one lawyer from the business in 10 years, I think we are doing something right in terms of maintaining a good culture.  With the team spread over Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, we regularly communicate with each other on Zoom - so it just means that we see a lot of each other in 2D rather than 3D! 

I sometimes look back at when I was a partner at Middletons, and can honestly say that I spend a lot more time communicating with staff now at Sierra Legal compared to when I was at Middletons, mainly because of the admin and other responsibilities associated with being a partner in a big law firm that would often soak up a lot of my day.

Given my experiences with Sierra Legal in terms of staff working remotely, I get a little frustrated with some people’s view that it is difficult to maintain a strong team culture if you aren’t all physically in the same office.  At Sierra Legal, I think we have clearly proven otherwise!  I also often wonder what our world would be like if other professional services firms (and possibly other types of businesses) could see the light and have their staff working predominantly from home offices - for a start, I think it would solve our massive traffic problems overnight and enable governments to divert the billions of dollars they are wasting on road infrastructure to more important things like hospitals and schools …

What are some of the key attributes to being a successful entrepreneur? 

For me, some of the key attributes would be hard work, self-discipline, positive attitude and humility.

I also think that one of the problems with some entrepreneurs is that they can be focused too much on the “big picture” and aggressively growing their business.  They sometimes lose sight of the detail and doing the best possible job for clients.  I think it’s important to still get that balance right between growing the business and looking ahead, while at the same time having a level of focus on the detail and service delivery to your clients so that the clients keep coming back to you.

The ability to build strong relationships with people, particularly customers and staff, is also crucial for a successful entrepreneur.

What is your biggest weakness in business and how do you overcome it? 

Attention to detail and being too hands on in the business.  While it is obviously important for a lawyer to have good attention to detail, I sometimes find myself spending too much time working in the business, rather than on it.  I have overcome this to some degree by building a fantastic team of senior lawyers that I can trust and rely on, enabling me to spend more time on strategic activities and new opportunities for the business. 

The other difficulty I have, which I’m sure is shared by a number of business owners, is finding the right work-life balance.  I think I still work too hard!  I often find myself online late at night doing work or looking for the next deal - but that’s because I enjoy what I am doing, and no longer think of it as work.  Having said that, I also recognise the importance of getting that work-life balance right …

What is the biggest challenge you have faced? 

In terms of Sierra Legal, the biggest challenge early on was enticing good people to join the business from larger firms when we didn’t have a long history.  It’s a lot easier now that we have been around for 10 years and have a great team.  

What was the best advice you were ever given?  What advice would you give someone starting a business? 

The best advice I was given was to just give it (Sierra Legal) a go, with my “security blanket” being my skills as a lawyer that I had developed over 19 years at Middletons – that is, if Sierra Legal didn’t work out, I could always just get a job with another law firm, so starting up my own business wasn’t overly risky after all!

The advice I would give to someone starting a business is lots of planning, start small, keep a close eye on your financials and work hard.

Before starting an entrepreneurial journey, I’d also encourage you to get out there and join the workforce or work with bigger teams of people to get some experience in a similar field to your proposed new business.  In those early years, I think you gain valuable experience by being around different people in a typical work environment.  To get some grounding in a traditional kind of job is important, maybe not for 19 years like me, but for at least a few years before you jump out on your own.

What was the biggest risk you ever took?  Would you do it again and why?  

The biggest risk I took at Sierra Legal was probably hiring our first employee 9 years ago - as I mentioned,  Mike is still with the business now, and is a Director of Sierra Legal.  At the time, it was a massive step up in terms of expenses, as well as the commitment and responsibility that comes with having an employee.  I would make the same decision again, as this was the starting point for us in terms of building a great team at Sierra Legal.   

What is your favourite quote on business, leadership or life and why? 

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is king.  A lot of people seem to judge the success of a business on its size, including revenue and employee numbers, but as a business owner it soon became clear to me that profit and, more importantly, cash flow are the key measures for business success.

What next for Sierra Legal?

I’d like to keep the business going in its current direction, working with an awesome team and continuing to act for great clients doing high-quality, rewarding and profitable work.

I’m also really excited by the opportunities involved with our new automation service offering, Arreis Automation.  I can see this side of the business growing considerably over the next few years.

On a personal level, I would still like to be involved in the day-to-day work at Sierra Legal.  But maybe over time, I will transition to a more strategic, higher level role in the business.  It would be great to see all of the team that we have now, continuing to progress through the business and getting to Director level as well.  

In terms of the future size of the business, I can see us adding more great people to the team over time, but I certainly don't see Sierra Legal becoming another ivory tower law firm.  I still want to maintain that boutique firm environment at Sierra Legal, with genuinely flexible work practices and all the other attributes I’ve mentioned that set us apart from our competitors. 

At the end of the day, our focus will always be on providing top quality service to our clients and retaining great staff, and I’m sure the business will continue to go from strength to strength.