Headquartered at Exchange Flags in Liverpool city centre, Jackson Lees employs 280 people across six North West offices, including Wirral and Manchester. In March 2020 the practice was acquired in an MBO by MAPD Ventures, led by current chief executive and chief operating officer, Brian Cullen and Joanna Kingston-Davies.
Click here for Joanna's profile and here for Brian's profile on the Jackson Lees website.
- Can you tell us a bit about your background, and your roles at Jackson Lees?
At Jackson Lees, as CEO and COO, our roles are to break down barriers, empower people, look ahead and focus on growth.
- What has been the most memorable piece of work you have been involved in?
We did the MBO of Jackson Lees on 10th March and that was an incredibly special moment for both of us – we love everything about the Jackson Lees business and the core value of Making a Positive Difference (#MAPD) that runs through everything we do and through all of our people. That aside, the stories we hear from our people every quarter when we do open forums about how they have made a positive difference, to the lives of their clients and to each other, are both humbling and memorable.
- How’s business at the moment?
We had a fantastic April and we’re definitely seeing the benefit of being a multi-disciplinary business; whilst some lines of work dried up almost overnight, others are incredibly busy, so our mix of work stands us in really good stead. Like many law firms, we had to make use of the furlough scheme to protect the business and our people for the medium and long term, and we’re confident and optimistic about the future.
- In the Covid19 era, what are the main challenges you face?
Not being able to see people face to face! We have a really powerful culture and whilst we’re immensely proud of how positively it has manifested itself throughout lockdown, it’s still no replacement for being able to see people in person.
- What opportunities can you see?
We are making sure that we “burn boats” by using the silver linings of lockdown to push forward projects that until now have had limited success. It’s very hard to break cycles and patterns that are heavily embedded until something like lockdown completely forces us to work differently, so our “new normal” includes a roadmap for much more agile and flexible working, less paper and more tech with more access channels and greater availability for our clients.
- How have you found lockdown?
Personally, we’d be lying if either of us said we hadn’t found it tough and highly frustrating!! Emotions are amplified for everyone when we’re all effectively imprisoned within four walls. We both have young children and have definitely felt the working parent guilt on the home schooling front, too. We are passionate about vulnerable and authentic leadership; if we have a bad day, we talk about it openly because it’s important that all of our people know that it’s ok to not be ok. Our culture is very much about empowering people to be themselves, which in turn encourages them to do their best work.
- How have you kept in touch with colleagues?
Clear, transparent and regular communications from us to the whole business are very much part of our “business as usual” but we’ve doubled down on our efforts during the lockdown period and will continue to do so even more afterwards, because we’ve really seen the benefits in the reactions from our people, which have inspired us to keep going. We strongly believe that people have very different preferences with communication, so we’ve tried to reach everyone through a variety of different channels. We’ve done personal calls to as many people as possible just to check in to see how they’re doing. We use Workplace, our social media/intranet platform constantly and there has been so much activity on there, ranging from tik toks to blogs, quizzes and formal announcements. We send out an email from the Board every day and we run regular open forums by Zoom for everyone within the business to keep them in the loop and listen to feedback. We have run regular virtual coffee morning for our furlees, and we have lots of different whatsapp groups on the go! We’ve also managed to keep our training academy on the go, providing courses for both furloughed and maintained staff via Zoom.
- What about clients?
Again, we have lots of different channels of communication going on to suit individual client needs and have found that clients have adapted really well to the lack of face to face contact.
- What do you think the biggest change will be post lockdown?
People understanding the value of toilet paper!!!!! But (possibly) even more importantly, we hope a society where we take less for granted and have a universal appreciation of the simple and important things in life – our health, the availability of food and basic essentials, the privilege of being able to physically see family, friends and colleagues, the positive ethos of community spirit and protecting the environment that we have seen throughout lockdown. Immediately post lockdown, our key focus will be on the opportunities we talked out above and on making sure our people are ok. Coming out of lockdown is likely to be as psychologically tough on people as going into lockdown. We’ve heard it said that we’re all in the same storm but in very different boats. That’s so true and it’s crucial that we help people to adapt to the new normal on the other side of all of this.
- What’s the first thing you’ll do when lockdown is lifted?
Dance!! Although dancing alone isn’t our forte! We think it’s apparent that lifting lockdown will be a very slow and gradual process, so we know the reality of an immediate celebration is not going to happen. That being said we will quietly celebrate each positive step – and when the time comes, we and the rest of the business will PARTY HARD!!!!
- What restaurant you will visit?
Too many good restaurants to choose from! In Liverpool…Fazenda, One Fine Day, Castle Street Townhouse and The Alchemist. In Hoylake, the Quadrant (best steak sandwiches ever!)
