Trust has always been integral to legal practice, and in our modern world full of new technologies and fast-evolving challenges, building strong and trusted relationships will continue to set good lawyers apart, say Safiyya Patel and Gareth Driver.
“AI will change the way we work, but it will never replace that trusted attorney-client relationship,” says Patel, a leading commercial, M&A, and BEE lawyer and new Managing Partner of Webber Wentzel. “Anticipating client needs, providing counsel that isn’t just about the legal answer, being strategic, and how you relate to clients and deliver advice.”
Patel and Driver are excited and humbled to take the leadership batons from prior Managing Partner Sally Hutton and Senior Partner Christo Els, respectively, and share a ‘big, hairy, audacious’ vision for Webber Wentzel to become Africa's leading and most trusted law firm.
“We believe we’ve been recognised as that from time to time, but it’s something that requires constant work and giving more exposure to what we do across the entire continent, a big part of our practice nowadays,” says Driver. “We also have very important objectives in South Africa, including to continue to transform the firm to be more representative.”
Over the past decade under the stewardship of Els and Hutton, the first female Managing Partner of a major South African firm, Webber Wentzel led the way for large firms in Africa for improving gender equality; women now make up nearly half of the firm’s partnership.
Webber Wentzel’s mentorship and transformation sponsorship programmes, and its gender strategy working group all contribute to their drive to be at the forefront for creating an equal opportunity environment now and for coming generations, say Patel and Driver.
Patel is conscious of the groundbreaking nature of her appointment as Managing Partner, becoming the first woman of colour to lead a large South African firm, and joining a small group of pioneering female leaders of large full-service firms across Africa. “For me it’s extremely monumental, but also feels like an extreme privilege,” she says. “It’s taken a long time to get here, but it’s certainly a moment we should be treasuring in South Africa.”
Patel says she’s learned a lot from Hutton – an “amazing, goal-oriented leader who drove efficiencies like no-one else” – and will look to build on Webber Wentzel’s growth, while leading in her own people-focused style. “Somebody said ‘you've got big shoes to fill’, and I absolutely agree, but I also love shoes, so I'm very happy to buy a new pair of shoes as well.”
People are at the heart of Patel and Driver’s leadership styles, with both saying it will be other people’s success – clients and colleagues – that matters most in their new roles.
“For me, leadership is about engaging with people inside and outside your organisation,” says Driver, who was inspired to study law after visiting Webber Wentzel as a school pupil in the 1980s, then joined the firm a decade ago, after twenty-one years of practice. “Being a leader is not about me – it’s about enabling other people to achieve what they can achieve.”
A secret to Webber Wentzel’s success is the hard work put in, among various challenges, to nurture “the lifeblood of the firm” in terms of the next generation of legal talent.
“We are custodians,” says Patel. “The next generation is absolutely crucial to the legacy of others who’ve gone before. We’re looking after this firm and taking it to the next level so we can hand over to the next generation a firm that’s better than the one we have today.”