Our Approach
At Watsons Lawyers we appreciate the importance of strategic commercial advice without losing the legal perspective. We look for and deliver legally sound practical solutions to our clients’ problems.
We aim to provide a more relevant and practical service than is commonly provided by major firms throughout Australia. The senior in-house counsel experience of our partners coupled with secondments of our lawyers into client organisations gives us a better understanding of what clients really need from their legal service provider. This requires:
- working in close partnership with our clients, hence our motto "Partners in your Business";
- understanding the client's business and resultant needs;
- providing relevant and commercial advice and assistance; and
- above all, making sure that the advice we give and assistance we provide is practical and capable of being readily applied by our clients to secure the solutions they need.
We offer our services to local, interstate and overseas clients. Being based in Adelaide, our overheads are lower than in other Australian mainland capitals. Consequently our rates for equivalent high level work are usually lower than firms in other states. Yet our clients have the benefit of a legal firm with equivalent experience and expertise in commercial and corporate matters to Australia's leading law firms.
In order to truly partner with our clients we take the following steps:
- we find out all we can about our client’s business.
- we talk with our client to find out their real needs.
- we work to satisfy those needs in a way which is relevant, commercial and effective and provides real solutions.
Our advice is not just legal, it is also commercial. We do not stop at the point of delivering correct legal advice. We make sure the advice is fully understood and will partner our clients in applying that advice to their real world situation and needs.
Although many other firms will say similar things about their approach, our own experience, in being on the receiving end of the services of many of them, tells us that the words and the reality do not often match. Most law firms are very good at giving excellent legal advice. They present that advice in a most professional way. But on the whole, they stop short of making sure that the advice is understood and relevant, rarely offer views on commercial matters and mostly fail to partner their client through to delivering effective solutions. In our case, the words and the reality will match - or we die trying.