The business model that professional services firms have run for decades is being rewritten. Generative artificial intelligence is compressing the pyramid of junior work that leverage economics depend on, while external capital is moving into a sector that was, until recently, almost entirely owned by its partners: over half of the largest accounting firms in the United States have now taken private equity investment or are in talks to do so, and the same forces are reaching Australian consulting, advisory and engineering firms, and their counterparts across Asia Pacific. For the Managing Partners and boards running these businesses, the leadership questions have changed. The firms that hold their talent, their margins and their client relationships through this shift will be the ones that appoint leaders who can redesign the commercial model rather than defend the old one, and getting that appointment right, at Partner, Managing Director or Chief Executive level, is now among the most consequential decisions a firm will make.

Hiring into a partnership is not the same as hiring into a company, and most search firms treat it as though it were. Equity, admission, profit-sharing, the portability of a client book and the consensus that governs how Partners actually make decisions all shape who will succeed in a firm and who will not. Omera Partners' professional services practice starts from that understanding, and it changes how every brief is run.

The practice is led by our Partner, Richard Sowter, who has more than 15 years in the sector, has appointed more than 100 Partners across all levels and has facilitated multiple team moves and  an acquisition across the Big Four, global management and technology consultancies, strategy houses and boutique consulting and advisory firms. Our work covers management and technology consulting, strategy consulting, advisory and accounting, and engineering and technical consulting, with Australia as our primary market and a remit that reaches across Asia Pacific. In each we appoint Partners, Managing Directors, practice and sector leaders, and the Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers and Chief Financial Officers who run the firms themselves. Because we understand how a partnership is owned, paid and governed, we can assess a candidate against the reality of the firm they are joining, including the growing number now operating with external capital alongside the partnership.

When Omera Partners takes an executive search brief in this sector, the first task is to understand what the firm is actually solving for. A firm absorbing private equity investment needs leaders who can hold partner culture and institutional-capital discipline at the same time. A consulting firm moving from billable hours toward productised or outcome-based work needs leaders who can rebuild the commercial model without losing the people who carry the client relationships. An engineering consultancy competing for scarce technical talent in the middle of a record infrastructure pipeline needs leaders who can win work and build a bench that does not yet exist. These are different briefs with different answers, and the mistake we see most often is a firm appointing a proven rainmaker when what it needs is someone who can change how the firm makes money. Our network spans the Partners, Managing Directors and firm leaders across these segments in Australia and the wider region, along with the investors and acquirers increasingly active around them.

Market perspective

Three forces are converging on professional services at once, and each of them lands on the leadership team. The first is the compression of the leverage model. Artificial intelligence is absorbing the research, drafting and analysis that junior staff have always done, the layer that partnership economics are built on, yet partner compensation and revenue targets are still largely tied to billing human hours. Even at the firms furthest ahead on artificial intelligence, only a small share of fees are genuinely linked to outcomes, and the firms that move first to productised and outcome-based models will reset pricing for everyone else. The second force is ownership. Private equity has moved from the largest accounting firms into the mid-market, consolidation has accelerated sharply, and Australian firms across accounting and engineering are now being bought, backed or rolled up. That reshapes the capital structure, the governance and the kind of leader a firm needs.

The third force is talent and succession. The junior pipeline that produced tomorrow's Partners is thinning at the same time as artificial intelligence is removing the work that used to train them, and retiring Partners are looking to realise the value of their equity. In engineering the shortage is structural, with Infrastructure Australia projecting a shortfall of engineers, architects and scientists that peaks near 126,000 at the end of 2026. A firm that appoints for the model it ran five years ago, rather than the one it will run in three, will feel all three of these pressures through the same leadership team.

‍Questions Boards and Managing Partners should ask before appointing a professional services leader

1.     Is this leader capable of redesigning how the firm makes money, or only of selling more of what it already does?

2.     Do they understand how a partnership is genuinely owned and governed, and can they lead through the tension between partner autonomy and the discipline that external capital brings?

3.     If artificial intelligence is removing the junior work that developed our future Partners, does this leader have a credible plan for how the next generation is trained and retained?

4.     Can this leader hold the client relationships and the culture together through a change in commercial model or ownership, rather than losing people at the moment of transition?

5.     Are we appointing for the firm we are today, or for the one we will need to be once artificial intelligence, new ownership and talent scarcity have fully reshaped it?

Working with Omera Partners

Omera Partners advises Boards, Managing Partners and Chief Executives on senior leadership appointments across professional services, from management, technology and strategy consultancies to advisory, accounting and engineering firms, and the investors and acquirers increasingly active around them. When a single appointment can determine whether a firm rebuilds its commercial model or has it rebuilt for it, the search deserves a firm that understands how a partnership is owned, paid and governed. That is the standard Omera Partners brings to every Professional Services appointment.

With our innovative and rigorous analytical approach, we uncover leaders who possess both commercial acumen and creative thinking across a range of professional service disciplines:

• Accounting 
• Engineering 
• ESG consulting
• Legal consulting
• Operational consulting
• Professional services
• Risk consulting
• Strategy and management consulting
• Technology consulting

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Our Business and Professional Services Practice is supported by our functional partners:

Board and Leadership Advisory

Chief Executive Officer

Chief Financial Officer and Finance Leadership

Executive Risk Leadership

General Counsel and Company Secretary

Interim Management

Marketing, Communications, Digital and Corporate Affairs

People and Culture

Technology