Around the water cooler — Q & A with Steve McCormick
May 19, 2008
Each week we will pose these three questions to different lawyers in the legal community.
This week we talk with Steve McCormick, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. He has been with his firm for 37 years, and is a commercial trial lawyer.
– What do you find most interesting about your practice?
Without a doubt, the courtroom is the most interesting and challenging part of my job — the be-all-and-end-all of my professional life. Everything I do is in preparation to stand up in some courtroom somewhere as the champion of my client.
– What makes a good lawyer?
Beyond the most obvious, there are two related things that stand out in my mind.
First, the best lawyers are those who are willing to drill down to bedrock — to the nth degree, where it’s called for — in order to produce the best work product in support of the client’s case that can possibly be produced. This means making a lot of sacrifices. If you read about the lives of the great trial lawyers throughout the ages, you always see this willingness to drain yourself dry when it’s necessary. (Obviously, not every situation calls for this, and not every client can afford it, but where it matters most, the best lawyers put aside whatever they have to put aside to get the job done.)
Second, the best lawyers are those with the best imaginations. Out of a thousand lawyers who will produce a decent piece of work product — whether it’s a brief or a closing argument — there will be one who will take the same facts and the same law and figure out a way to present it that really sparkles and catches everyone’s attention. This is related to the first point, because sometimes a lot of imagination is the result of a lot of perspiration.
– What is the biggest legal news right now, and what is its impact?
I don’t know if it’s exactly a “right now” thing, but the globalization of business presents dramatically new challenges to the trial lawyer. So many disputes now involve multinational, multicultural issues that we all have to struggle to keep up.
As I would expect from Steve, right on the money, especially on what separates the really good-great trial lawyers from the tens of thousands of self-described “litigators” After leaving Kirkland, I was fortunate to help effectuate major changes in Illinois law and procedure. I successfully argued the first intrastate forum non conveniens transfer in Illinois legal history, and the first discretionary consideration of a dispositive motion overriding voluntary dismissal. Also tried the first case where comparative fault was factored as a percentage reduction of a damage award in product liability. Not the result of genius, or even law review excellence, but my roots at Kirkland where in addition to hard work, creativity and innovation meant the difference between a Kirkland work product and that generated in offices and courtrooms elsewhere. You can make a difference, and I am grateful to the Steve McCormicks who helped me learn this lesson at the start of my career. Don Hoppe.