Ep 8 | A champion of change, a devotee of diversity, Peter Smith

Peter Smith spent almost half his career denying himself the chance to share who he really was at work, unaware that the truth would not only set him free, but lead the charge that was slowly taking over the corporate world.

“You felt like you were living a lie everyday of the week .. it’s quite exhausting.”

“Later when everything had changed, I remember a client for the first time ever said, ‘So what’s your partner Gregory doing?’”

In 2020, Peter was named Queensland’s Lawyer of the Year for Insolvency and Reorganisation by Best Lawyers.

As a champion of change, Peter speaks candidly to Alex Correa about the real leadership required to achieve Diversity and Inclusion.

His career also chronicles the trend away from litigation, so how does this litigator-at-heart find joy in his work?

Topics

Diversity and inclusion in the law
Career paths beyond partnership
Health and wellbeing
Alternative firms to big law

“In my day if you picked up a CV and someone had moved three times you would not have looked at the person .. now it’s actually a blemish on a CV if you haven’t done a number of things.”

“We want really diverse teams because all the empirical evidence proves that if you’ve got a diverse team they do better than a homogenous team .. you can see the penny dropping when you see the proof of this.”

“Because I was openly out at work, it was no big deal so a number of us led that and that was just so successful across the firm and changed the way people were at work .. within a year or so everyone just walked the talk.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there're a whole lot of women in a similar situation finding it really tough at home, particularly with a lot of littlies, but then having to come to work as if there’s nothing wrong.”