In an interview with Lawyers Weekly Australia she revealed her concern over the way the business was run and what they are doing to help employees,
She told Lawyers Weekly….
“The reaction here was one of incredible disappointment. I can’t say it more strongly than that really. There was also an element of shock and it certainly reverberated through the business.
“When you reflect on our business here and the China business as well, they’re businesses that are well run and well capitalised. We’ve got strong financial management here and broader management as well, and partners here understand what the running of the partnership is and the commitments that are required, so when you contrast the differences, there was a lot of disappointment and shock about that.”
Ms Kench noted that the Europe business was more than capable of success in multiple practice areas but did not display the commitment needed to achieve this success, which is what ultimately let it down.
“They, or people, could say ‘They weren’t strong in X’ or ‘They weren’t strong in Y’, but what fundamentally let them down is that they weren’t prepared to commit to a business and take it where it needed to go,” she said.
“The problem wasn’t that they weren’t committed to any particular practice areas, the problem was that they weren’t committed full-stop.
“You need to be committed, you need to get money into the business to provide working capital to keep it going, but then you need more money in the business to say ‘Alright, well, here’s an area we do, let’s think about investing in here’.”
Ms Kench said that in the lead-up to and the time since KWM Europe’s dissolution, the firm’s Australian arm has effectively responded to any concerns raised by secondees in Europe and those completing secondments here.
“Right from the start we were speaking to both the people from Europe who were on secondment here, saying ‘Don’t worry, we’ll look after you’. We’re also talking to our secondees, because that’s in some ways worse – those from here who were over there – and managing the distress,” she explained.
