Around the water cooler — A pro bono project

Each week I will highlight a different case or legal happening, and solicit your thoughts on the impact of it in the legal community.

The Northwest Side Housing Center’s Affordability Gap Loan program is a loan product that reduces the amount a family owes on their home by up to $50,000. The homeowner can finance out of a loan with predatory characteristics, and into a quality mortgage they can afford for the long term.

Eligible homeowner must live in zip codes 60634, 60707 (Chicago portion), 60639, 60641, 60647, 60651, and 60618; and meet certain income guidelines.

During the 15-year term of the Gap Loan, the homeowner makes no payments on that loan. After 15 years or upon sale of the home or refinance, the borrower is responsible for repaying the amount of the loan plus a percentage of the appreciation.

The housing center will work with qualified applicants to refinance by obtaining quality mortgages more suited to their incomes. The gap loan is used to make up the difference between the loans since the new mortgages tend to be for lesser amounts - based on what the applicant can truly afford as well as the reduced value of most homes.

The program will make more than $500,000 available to homeowners facing foreclosure, and whose original loans had predatory characteristics.

There is also an incentive for paying it off early in the first five years.  Housing counseling is also a key component of the program.

Chapman and Cutler partner John Hitt, who provided legal services on a pro bono basis to the housing center, said he helped structure the program and draft the loan documents.

The legal legwork turned out to be fairly complicated, Hitt said. They tried to find similar programs around the country, but could not find any.

Residents of Chicago’s Northwest Side has been especially hard hit by the housing melt-down, with more than 1,700 home foreclosures started since 2007, an increase by over 500 percent in the past 15 years, according to the law firm’s press release.

The first loan closed about a month ago, and everyone involved hopes the word will get out about the program so that others take advantage of it, and so other financial institutions are encouraged to participate, Hitt said.

“I think it’s particularly gratifying for a couple of reasons,” he said. “We’re trying to use this program to get funds to help keep people in their homes and help stabilize the neighborhood, and that is obviously a good thing.”

For more information about the Gap Loan Program, please contact Liz Caton at (773) 836-1179.

Around the water cooler — Q & A with Gary I. Levenstein

Each week we will pose these three questions to different lawyers in the legal community.

This week we talk with Gary I. Levenstein, senior partner and executive committee member at Ungaretti & Harris. He chairs the corporate, securities, and finance group, and oversees the business practice. He has been practicing since 1976.

– What do you find most interesting about your practice?

I truly enjoy learning about various industries, understanding the business operations of clients, being an instrumental player in a transaction and working with intellectually stimulating clients and attorneys.

However, the most exciting part of the practice is recognizing an opportunity that may be of interest to one of my contacts and playing matchmaker. I spend a great deal of time and have made numerous introductions of buyers and sellers to one another, financing sources and borrowers to one another, investors and companies to one another, and advisors and clients to one another. This is done as a courtesy to our contacts, and results in legal work related to any transaction that may occur. In the event nothing results from the introductions, our contacts feel that we have thought about them, and brought them a viable opportunity. Any time that you can spend with a client and leave a positive impression is beneficial.

A good example of this activity took place last year. We represented a buyer of a casino and time-share project in the Caribbean. The financing was handled by a large investment bank from New York. While that deal was proceeding, another client needed financing to acquire a gaming license and convert a racetrack to a racino (race track/casino facility). We introduced the investment bank to the developer. The introduction resulted in a debt financing of over $500,000,000. Obviously, this was an interesting, fun, exciting, and profitable situation.

– What makes a good lawyer?

I have frequently said that a good lawyer is equal part technician, businessperson, psychologist, and actor.

These qualities apply in all areas of law. Strong skills are the foundation for any lawyer. It is best to combine that ability with business acumen so a client can receive creative, well-rounded consultation. Also, a party on the other side of a deal will realize that you understand the issues from all angles. This should expedite the negotiation, which will inure to the benefit of the client. In order to properly communicate advice or handle negotiations, you should be able to analyze and understand the personality and character of your client or the other party.

All good lawyers have some bravado. The ability to perform from time to time could be very helpful under certain circumstances. A good lawyer does not confuse taking the stage and displaying unbridled ego. A good adage to remember is that many lawyers can deliver the sizzle, many lawyers can deliver the steak, but the most successful lawyers deliver the sizzle with the steak.

– What is the biggest legal news right now and what is its impact?

The news in the legal community is the effect of the economy on the practice of law. The activity of the practice is directly related to the state of the economy.

A strong economy will result in hiring and competition for talented attorneys. A weak economy may cause the elimination of certain positions and restructuring of firms. Firm management must deal with this delicate balance. If management is too quick or too slow to react, a financial issue and a morale problem can occur. A firm does not want to alienate its lawyers or cause alarm.

On the other hand, if things don’t change, then the firm moves backward. There are several keys for law firms to use in order to handle difficult economic times other than attempting to increase revenue and cut expenses. It is important for the leadership to strongly encourage attorneys to push work down to the lowest levels when appropriate and spread it among the lawyers as evenly as possible. This will keep most of the lawyers reasonably active so they do not become dispirited.

Senior people should spend their time marketing, recruiting lateral candidates, giving speeches, writing articles, and training. Firms can use this period to alter their strategy and target industries that remain vibrant and have sustainability during these periods. It is not easy to remain upbeat but the economy will ultimately recover and the firm could emerge in a strong position.

Around the water cooler: Schiff Hardin receives award

 Each week I highlight a different case or legal happening, and solicit your thoughts on the impact of it in the legal community.

Schiff Hardin received the “Lend a Hand” award from the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. on June 11 at the BWLA’s 2008 Board of Directors Installation and Awards Reception.

Schiff Hardin received the award for its support of the BWLA this year. In addition to being the sole platinum sponsor of the BWLA’s 2008 spring luncheon, the firm also provided graphic design support for events and hosted the BWLA’s scholarship board meetings.

Schiff Hardin partner Tracy A. Campbell and Schiff Hardin associate Marla Shade Harris were installed as a board member and recording secretary of the BWLA, respectively, at the installation ceremony. Schiff Hardin partner Patricia Brown Holmes is a past president of the BWLA.

Campbell said Schiff Hardin has always been supportive of the BWLA, and it’s become a natural alliance.

The organization started out as a way to help African-American lawyers connect to discuss issues, and find support professionally and personally, she said. It has evolved to also include a greater outreach, and tries to give back to the Chicago community.

“The larger Chicago community, in general, knows more about the organization and knows more about black lawyers,” she said. “[The organization] works in almost every legal realm, from large firms to small firms to public interest. We are sort of everywhere. While it is important for us to achieve personal success, it is also important to give back to the community.”

Opening Statement: A modern-day passion play

By Julian Frazin
Michael Best & Friedrich • Entertainment Critic

May it please the court…

“The Ballad of Emmett Till,” written by Ifa Bayeza and directed by Oz Scott, made its world premiere recently at the Goodman Theatre. It stars the exceptionally talented Joseph Anthony Byrd in his Goodman debut as the ill-fated, 14-year-old, African-American boy from Chicago who was abducted, tortured, and brutally murdered for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi during the summer of 1955.

Staged simply on a set with few props flanked by huge panels evoking corrugated metal shantytowns, the powerful production is augmented by the dream-like projections of designer John Boesche. The first act is beautifully performed, almost as a poem, depicting the depressing, yet spirited life of black Americans in Chicago, as well as in the South. It ends with Emmett’s abduction and a foreboding, middle-of-the-night phone call to his mother.

The second act may be a little harder to take. It portrays the horrible tortures that the young man endured, turning this work into what I believe to be a modern-day passion play. We see Emmett being brutally beaten. At one point he turns to one of his tormentors and tells him, “I remember you. You gave me water.” At another point, some terrible instrument stabs him, leaving a ghastly wound in his side. And finally, there he stands, atop a raised platform, clothed in a dirty blanket, arms outstretched, pleading for help from his “father,” as he defiantly shouts over and over, “I shall rise again. I shall rise again,” before disappearing from the scene.

Just as the New Testament tells us that Jesus died for all our sins, I have no doubt that playwright Bayeza is telling us that Emmett Till died for our nation’s sins in tolerating the brutality and savagery of racial injustice.

On a lighter note… In 1941, “Tchaikowsky (And Other Russians),” a nonsense patter song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by Kurt Weill, launched the career of Danny Kaye. Featured in the Broadway musical, “Lady in the Dark,” the show-stopping number, which mentions 50 Russian composers, was a masterpiece not only in its construction, but also in its performance - the indefatigable Mr. Kaye managed to get all the names out in rapid succession with hardly a breath in 39 seconds.

Now along comes multi-talented singer/pianist/writer Mark Nadler, who brought his one-man show, “Russian on the Side,” in a pre-Broadway run to the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted St. Nadler tries to “one-up” the original by not only performing “Tchaikowsky,” but also by making it the basis of his 90-minute entertainment. He describes each composer with an interesting biographical anecdote and with a brief piano sample of each person’s work. All this is interspersed with sensitive and clever performances of works by contemporary American songwriters- including Gershwin, Sondheim, and Bernstein.

Now, I knew Danny Kaye. I saw him in movies and on television, where he performed his musical signature “Tchaikowsky,” many times. And I must say - Mark Nadler is no Danny Kaye. He is, however, the perfect Mark Nadler.

Whether he’s bouncing across the stage, cajoling the audience to love him, singing a classic show tune with a powerful stage voice, teasing the audience with a little piano shtick, a la Victor Borge, pounding furiously away like Liberace, or accompanying himself on the keys as he performs a soft-shoe from the bench - Nadler is the consummate entertainer.

Second City, Chicago’s most revered comedy institution, at 1616 N. Wells St., opened it 95th Revue, “No Country For Old White Men.” An obvious twist on this year’s Academy Award winner, it captured the essence of a presidential race in which John McCain is pitted against either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. With a title like that and all the political and social news swirling around us, how could Second City, known for its biting satire, possibly miss in its opening run-up through the November election?

But miss it did! With all that is going on - the campaigns, the war, the economy, the high price of gas, this production chooses to direct its attention to such topics as women being overcharged and bamboozled by a unscrupulous pair of car mechanics; a son confessing to his gay parents that he is Republican; a homeowner threatening to throw his realtor off a bridge because she refuses to take back his overpriced house; and, of course, the annual rant about the Cubs, who haven’t won a World Series in 100 years.

Hopefully, the cast will watch the news over the next few months and use their imaginations and improvisational skills to come up with some much more significant material as we approach what may be the most important election of our lifetimes.

I rest my case.

Verdict:
The Ballad of Emmett Till — 3 gavels
Russian on the Side — 21⁄2 gavels
No Country for Old White Men — 2 gavels

Lawyers take on new roles

By Olivia Clarke

Leslie Minier believes that minority female lawyers will stay at law firms if these firms make a stronger effort to provide better training, and better client interaction.

”You’ve got to give them the best possible opportunities to succeed,” said Minier, Katten Muchin Rosenman’s chief diversity officer. ”My goal is to make sure they have an opportunity.” Lawyers like Minier are taking on new roles in their law firms in an effort to further address, improve, and strengthen their firm’s commitment to such areas as diversity, pro bono, and professional development.

As law firms get bigger, many of them find that they must create these positions because committees just aren’t enough anymore. Instead, lawyers from these firms decide to either put aside their practices to handle these positions full-time, or split their time between practicing and handling their new roles.

Firms are creating these roles because they want someone to take their committees’ work to a new level.

And those who take on these roles have many times come up through the ranks, and understand what needs to be done.

”Historically every law firm in the city created a diversity committee,” Minier said. ”The diversity committee would focus on implementing the firm’s diversity initiatives and focus on recruitment and retention. Now the trend is, law firms are creating an administrative position. They realize it’s relevant and important, and they need to have someone focused on these issues.”

Trends in law firms
These positions are part of the increasing professionalism of firm management, said Bruce MacEwen, founder and publisher of the legal blog, Adam Smith, Esq.

”Basically firms are moving from sort of managing at the kitchen table on weekends to a more corporate style,” MacEwen said. ”If you take professional development, pro bono, and diversity, things like that, you might say they fall outside the four corners of the hard practice of law.”

”If you are serious about such things, they are not going to happen unless you have someone dedicated to being in charge,” he said.

Law firms continue to grow and many handle revenues in the multimillion- or billion-dollar range, he said.

Increased growth and increased complexity of business make it more difficult to manage law firms as they were managed in the past.

”You can’t run that on nights and weekends,” he said. ”My feeling is, it is not that law firms are emulating their clients, it’s just that they are finding that as they grow it’s increasingly difficult for practicing lawyers to run things themselves.”

Firms like putting their own lawyers in these positions because they understand the firm’s goals and culture, MacEwen said.

”I am pleased that it’s happening,” said Chris Percival, senior legal search consultant at Chicago Legal Search, Ltd. ”It is showing more sensitivity and more urgency. A large number of major clients are starting to request it. This is a more proactive way to handle it.”

She said she would rather see people do these jobs full-time because those who split their time may not be as successful.

The creation of these positions is another example of the corporatization of the law firm, said Brian Uzzi, Richard L. Thomas distinguished professor of leadership at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Law firms are creating positions that manage business relationships, as well as internal affairs — a trend that will only grow, Uzzi said. These positions provide greater efficiency, and help with compliance, he said.

The larger that firms become, the more scrutinized they are from within and outside the firm.

”This doesn’t mean that law firms have been doing a bad job managing diversity or they are violating implicit or explicit requirements about diversity,” he said. ”It may well be they are being proactive about doing the very best they can at it.”

Training and development
Charlotte Wager started at Jenner & Block in 1992, and has built her legal career at this firm.

She became director of professional development four years ago, which has become essentially a full-time job. This position includes handling associate development — mentoring programs, career development, and internal training. She works closely with the firm’s diversity and management committees.

She also co-chairs the hiring committee and oversees fall recruitment, year-round relationship building on college campuses with future lawyers, the summer program, and new associate orientation and transition.

”The best resources for associates who are trying to advance, and succeed, and try to be promoted are usually people who have been through that process themselves,” Wager said. ”I started my career here. I know about transition. I’ve been a summer associate, a first-year associate, a pregnant associate, a new-mom associate, a new partner, and a mom partner. The challenges that each one brings are slightly different. Having gone through them, I’m acutely aware and understand them.

”I think having been through it gives me credibility and gives me the communication edge that human relations directors alone do not understand.”

Since Kathy Morris stopped practicing law in 1981, she’s dedicated her career to other areas of the legal profession, such as, creating the director of professional training role in 1989 at Katten, and starting Under Advisement, Ltd., a career counseling service for lawyers, in 1988.

In October she became chief training and development officer at Sidley Austin.

Morris tries to organize, and institutionalize, as well as enhance and expand the firm’s lawyer training programs and career development initiatives.

She meets regularly with partners, committees, and associates, and gathers written information about what the firm has done. She is trying to prioritize the training and professional development initiatives.

Morris said it’s really important for lawyer training to expand beyond the junior level.

The firm, for example, conducted a program in December called, ”The Pocket MBA for Lawyers,” which was a webcast that addressed finance and accounting for lawyers with different levels of experience.

Morris is also organizing a master class program where those Sidley lawyers who present standout programs in one office will present those programs in other firm offices.

And in the Chicago office, the firm is offering 13 programs for credit in May and June to help attorneys meet their Minimum Continuing Legal Education requirements. Most of these programs are also available to clients, alumni, and attorney spouses.

”My vision is that Sidley will take its rightful place as national and international leader in this arena,” Morris said, ”and that the team we are building will contribute and persist into the future. For the field, in general, my hope is that more and more lawyers join the ranks of the many of us who already labor in these fields and that we will continue to share information.”

As the demands of being a lawyer loom larger every year, Lisa A. Brown said it becomes difficult for attorneys to find the time to mentor and train new lawyers.

But Brown said training can be very important to recruitment and retention, and it helped her develop as a lawyer.

She made the decision to pull back from her legal practice to become the partner-in-charge of associate development at Schiff Hardin - a position she took in January.

”I’ve grown up at the firm and so much of my identity is wrapped up in the firm,” Brown said. ”The mentoring and training I’ve gotten from people brought me along. That is what has really grounded me to the firm.”

Brown said she wants associates to feel comfortable talking with her about areas like juggling their workload, meeting future goals, and handling scheduling changes.

Being a successful associate is more challenging than ever because of the work demands, she said. The firm does a good job providing feedback, and associates want more of that.

She also interacts with senior management in implementing ways to improve associate development and retention. Brown may be called upon as a mediator when associates and partners must address potential communication breakdowns.

She also acts as a bridge for communicating and organizing different groups and programming that involve associates.

”In order to have a consistent approach to things like pro bono and diversity, [law firms] need to put people in positions to be an ombudsman or spokesperson,” Brown said. ”Given our level of commitment and investment in the associates of the firm, it is just not realistic for a lawyer practicing full time to be playing these roles.”

Pro bono efforts
Allegra R. Rich was a labor and employment lawyer at Seyfarth Shaw from 1995 to 2005, and then took about a year off.

During that time, she considered other career paths. She kept in contact with her firm’s managing partner and talked about potential career ideas.

The firm identified a need for someone to oversee its pro bono efforts and charitable foundation, and she became pro bono and philanthropy partner in January 2007.

Rich organizes the firm’s pro bono programs in its nine offices throughout the United States, and encourages each lawyer to participate in pro bono and community service. She also brings an overall strategic order to its charitable programs.

Dana Hill started in January as Seyfarth Shaw’s director of pro bono and philanthropy. She works with Rich, and also handles pro bono cases.

”Before we came into these positions, each office did its own thing with respect to pro bono and community service,” Rich said. ”Now people are more aware of pro bono activities; more aware of community service opportunities; and we are more organized in our events.”

Rich said they’ve encouraged each office to adopt one or two flagship charities that the whole office can participate in. They’ve seen a huge increase in pro bono hours, and community service events.

The firm also started a Seyfarth Shaw Community Service Award. In 2007, they received about 40 nomination forms, and about 25 people were nominated. The person who best demonstrated giving back to the community and making a difference received $1,000, an award, and $2,500 to donate to a charity.

”As a practicing attorney, it can be challenging to know who to exactly talk to about a pro bono case you are working on,” Hill said. ”Those associates and other attorneys who want to take on pro bono matters can talk to us.”

David Askew became the firm-wide director of pro bono and community service in April 2007 at Wildman Harrold — the first fully-dedicated attorney to lead the firm’s program.

He is a liaison between the firm’s lawyers and organizations looking for pro bono help. He also helps with the firm’s community service efforts, such as, its sponsorship activities and the legal and non-legal events it puts its name behind.

The firm adopted May Community Academy, a public school on the West Side, and Askew helps coordinate activities that the firm does with the school. For example, about 20 staff members recently volunteered their time during the entire workday, and he assisted in the scheduling of the visit and the assigning of work duties. He also volunteered his time.

Askew also helps connect lawyers interested in sitting on charity and not-for-profit boards and those organizations looking for help. He acts as a sounding board for lawyers who want to figure out how to best use their legal skills to do pro bono work.

”There is a risk, particularly in law firms, that you can be so focused on doing your job and billing your hours and doing things that are client-driven,” he said, ”that you don’t have the time or energy, or are not even thinking about, ‘How can I give back on the other side? How can I do things that kind of save the world?”’

More firms are hiring people for similar roles, he said.

”From an organized perspective,” he said, ”law firms are now saying, ‘Let’s be centralized, and let’s focus our efforts so we have a designated person to farm out the work, designate how it gets assigned, manage it, and be able to nurture these projects.”’

Marc Kadish was a clinical professor for about 20 years before Mayer Brown hired him in June 1999 to handle firm-wide pro bono and litigation training.

As director of pro bono activities, he looks for projects that will help lawyers benefit society. These projects include both litigation and transactional matters, but must combine pro bono work with the training of young lawyers. He also helps coordinate the firm’s financial contributions to legal public-interest groups.

As director of litigation training, Kadish works with the firm’s national litigation training committee, summer associate program, and orientation program for new associates.

For example, he helps organize multi-day interactive programs, like a recent deposition-training program for mostly second-year lawyers who work in the firm’s domestic offices and handle litigation.

Kadish said his job is to find pro bono work that moves lawyers — work they will sacrifice their free time for.

”In some sense I view myself as a salesman selling these projects,” Kadish said. ”When the lawyers are very busy on work, it is sometimes difficult to have them be involved in pro bono work, and, if you do involve them in pro bono work, you have to be careful to find work that really engages them, and is work they want to do.”

Creating inclusion
The Altman Weil Flash Survey on the Diversity Director Position in Large Law Firms, which was released in April, reported that 58 percent of participating law firms designated a diversity manager or director, up 8 percent from 2007.

Minier, from Katten, said she recognizes times in her life when someone laid the groundwork for her to meet her goals.

Without these people, she said, many opportunities would have been unreachable. She said she feels blessed that Katten has given her the chance to help advance others’ careers.

Minier founded Katten’s diversity committee in 2003, and in 2007 formed the Katten Leadership Institute for Women of Color. She was named in May 2007 the firm’s chief diversity officer.

She splits her time between practicing law and strengthening her firm’s commitment to diversity.

”I feel like it’s a natural extension of my responsibilities as a partner at my firm,” Minier said. ”It makes me even more passionate about what I do … I understand the goals and the vision of the firm. I understand how diversity fits with the strategic vision of the firm.”

Her roles include developing and promoting diversity goals and strategies; ensuring that the firm supports minority bar associations and organizations; developing programs that focus on the recruitment, retention and advancement of women and minority lawyers; and evaluating the firm’s policies and practices.

For example, she is looking at work allocation and whether all lawyers receive work that helps them develop their technical skills. She evaluates associate hours firmwide to assess how everyone is doing.

With respect to advancement, she wants to ensure that minority female lawyers receive the necessary skill development to go on client pitches. For example, the firm planned a communication program in May where a consultant would work on client pitch skills with minority female lawyers.

Cynthia Homan has spent her entire career at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, and became its diversity shareholder in January. A member of the firm’s diversity committee, she wanted to get more involved in diversity issues.

She continues to participate in the diversity committee, and works with the committee to make sure diversity and women’s initiatives are carried out. She said her practice, which focuses on brief writing, makes it easier to juggle multiple roles.

Some of the activities she assists with include diversity training within the firm; and reworking the diversity and recruitment component of the firm’s website. She attends focused seminars on diversity issues, and reports back to the firm the information she learned from attending.

”I hope we get to a place where one day having this position or even having a diversity committee seems quaint and unnecessary,” Homan said. ”But more specifically and more today, I would like to help make sure Brinks is a leader in law firm diversity, and known as a place where every attorney that comes through the door is given the tools and guidance and comfort level to reach his or her potential.”

Law firm marketing is more than skin deep

By Maria Kantzavelos

Just as a trial lawyer inside a courtroom becomes immersed in the art of persuasion, working to paint his client in the most positive light for an audience of 12 jurors, the marketing departments of big law firms today make it their mission to project and manage an ideal perception of a firm in the legal marketplace at large.

”Who doesn’t want to have a good public image? Who doesn’t want to have a good public face? said David A. Milberg, an attorney who serves as director of marketing and communications at Schiff Hardin. ”It’s about putting a good face forward and having people think well of you, and it could open a lot of doors.” Milberg, who was an advertising executive in the 1970s for Procter & Gamble’s Cheer Detergent Brand Group, said he applies many of the lessons learned in advertising consumer products to marketing a law firm.

”Most big law firms all do the same things,” Milberg said. ”The key is that any law firm needs to differentiate itself. You do that in any number of ways.”

The tactics of law firm marketing departments and of the outside agencies and consultants they work with to manage a firm’s image run the gamut — from pitching story ideas to reporters that land a law firm lawyer’s quotes in a newspaper article on a legal trend or high-profile case, to helping lawyers prepare sales pitches to potential clients, sponsoring continuing legal education conferences or special events in the community, and launching advertising and branding campaigns that aim to evoke a particular concept or image when someone hears or sees the name of a firm.

”What really works? They all do,” said Jay Jaffe, president of Jaffe Associates and one of the first marketers to work with large law firms. ”You never see McDonald’s just having print advertising. It’s a marketing mix. They have broadcast advertising, they do PR, they have the Ronald McDonald House, they give a lot to charities, they have local promotions around their Happy Meals. Nobody relies on just one thing.”

But compared to their accounting firm counterparts and other entities in the professional services world, big law firms generally have been slow to jump on the ”branding” bandwagon, and into advertising in general — even after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1977, in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, that the First Amendment protects lawyers’ commercial speech.

”It was very slow in coming after that because most large firms perceived it as ambulance chasing or not appropriate for their profession,” said Barbara C. Sessions, marketing partner and director of business development for Winston & Strawn.

Legal marketing pioneers point to a 1991 national print advertising campaign of the Washington, D.C.-based firm then known as Howrey & Simon — which featured the tagline: ”The Human Side of Genius” - as the first such campaign by a large firm. Jaffe, at that time, was working as Howrey’s marketing director.

”As early as 1990 we were talking about branding and positioning, and that was unheard of at that point,” Jaffe said. ”Branding got very popular maybe seven or eight years later.”

Overall firm strategy
On display in a corner of Jenner & Block’s ”marketing resource center” — a room stocked with firm-wide publications and annual reports, reprints of outside magazine and newspaper articles featuring firm lawyers, newsletters, and other promotional materials used in recruiting lawyers or in meetings with potential clients — a poster-sized board lists about 30 words under the title of ”Guidewords and Aesthetic Criteria.”

The words — such as ”compassionate,” ”deep,” ”democratic,” ”fighters,” ”full-service,” ”love of the law,” and ”tenacious” - are used to guide the creation of every marketing communications piece developed by the firm’s 20-person marketing department, said Theresa A. Jaffe, Jenner & Block’s chief marketing officer.

When Jaffe (who is no relation to Jay Jaffe) joined Jenner & Block in 2000 to establish the first marketing department in the firm’s 90-year history, her mission was not to ”create the Jenner & Block brand,” she said.

”The brand of Jenner & Block always existed — the business mix of what we do has been here, and the aspirations of the firm have always been here,” Jaffe said. ”What wasn’t here is a consolidated method of communicating that to the outside. It’s wonderful to have a terrific brand, a reputation, a culture. … But if nobody knows about it in a highly competitive marketplace, you immediately are at a disadvantage.”

Eight years ago, Jaffe said, she and leaders of the firm worked with a branding consultant on a first exercise to ”identify the attributes of the brand,” or, to come up with words to describe the firm — its business mix, its culture, its aspirations, and what it means to the marketplace. The goal, she said, was to come up with answers to questions such as, ”How do we want to be seen? Who are we? What are we about? What are our business aspirations? What are our values?

”We took these words and said, ‘These will guide the development of every single thing we do,”’ Jaffe said. ”What my colleagues and I do then is, we translate. We’re message makers. We translate the brand and we execute it through really smart programs, services, marketing communications.”

Michael R. Ralston, director of marketing and business development at Vedder Price, has been in the business of legal marketing since the early 1980s. Back then, he said, law firm marketing was simply, ”communications — ‘Let’s get out a brochure.”

”There was no thought to strategy: What markets should we be in? What do we do well and how do we capitalize on that?” Ralston said. ”In most of the firms now, marketing is a part of the overall firm strategy. The really good lawyers get it.”

Big law firms today use a range of tactics to project their image to particular markets, whether the goal is to redefine a firm’s identity after a major merger, to raise the profile of a particular practice group, to recruit top-notch talent, or to establish an identity in a new geographic location.

”Certainly, within our industry, there have been wide consolidations. Buyers of legal services can’t necessarily keep track of who we are and what we do,” Winston & Strawn’s Sessions said. ”At the same time you have more firms that are national and international, as opposed to just regional. You have a broader market than ever before — so many companies and people you have to reach.”

At Winston & Strawn, whose chairman, Dan Webb, is one of the most well-known litigators in the country, ”we’re trying to go into new markets,” Sessions said. ”It’s taking some of the best attributes of how you’re known in certain markets and then expanding those into new markets, particularly international markets and our [new] Charlotte, N.C. office.”

”Because we have a fairly targeted audience, reaching out to those people is probably the best way for us to try to get additional legal business,” Sessions said. ”We do client entertainment, seminars, newsletters on topics. In the scheme of things, we spend more time working to help our lawyers develop business and client service than we do, necessarily, building up our image. Not that we don’t do it, it’s just that I think the lawyers largely are folks that are projecting the image.”

Still, Sessions said, ”Public relations is a fact of life. You have to be pro-active about your own image, or the market will make it what it wants.

”Of course you want to try to manage peoples’ perception of who you are, from the standpoint of making it, hopefully, more accurate and positive. There are always negative things that come out about everybody’s law firm. Some of it may not be accurate. You just have to work hard to try to help people understand the things that are accurate and positive.”

Many firms, in developing a strategy to project an image to a particular audience, turn to outside marketing, advertising, and communications consultants for assistance.

”It’s hard for firms to be objective about themselves. They’re too close to it. Typically, it requires some outside assistance to hold the mirror up to them so we can help them see who they really are,” said Ross Fishman of Fishman Marketing Inc. in Highland Park. ”Once they understand that, then we can pull a message out of that. We have to help them see what it is that is unique about them, so we talk to a lot of different lawyers across the firm.”

For instance, said Fishman, during his work on a marketing campaign for mid-size Shefsky & Froelich, he noticed a consistency in the use of the word ”imagination” from the lawyers he interviewed.

”Independently — in describing their practices, the firm, themselves — they kept using the word imagination,” Fishman said. ”They prided themselves on a very creative approach to their representations. … It existed at the firm, they just hadn’t thought about it in those terms, or told people about it.”

In developing the firm’s marketing campaign, ”You can’t say you’re imaginative and creative and have a skyline on the home page of your Web site like they did,” Fishman said.

”There are a dozen obvious literal cliches that lawyers default to if they don’t know any better — gavels, scales of justice, buildings with columns, globes, handshakes, skylines, light bulbs, chess pieces, pictures of books, dart boards [with the tagline] ‘We’re on target,”’ Fishman said. ”You can’t say you’re different, then look like everybody else.”

As another example, Fishman pointed out his work on a marketing campaign for Laner Muchin, Dombrow, Becker, Levin and Tominberg, which features a stopwatch and an invitation to ”Take the Laner Muchin Challenge.”

The campaign asks prospective clients to, ”Call your current lawyer and leave a message to return your call. Wait an hour or two (to give your lawyer a decent head start), then call one of our lawyers and leave the same message. See who calls you back first; we’re betting it’ll be us. If it’s not, we’ll buy you lunch and donate $100 to your favorite charity.”

”While interviewing their lawyers, I found that they call everybody back within two hours,” Fishman said. ”So that’s their message, which allowed us to build a good marketing campaign around that: The frustration of what clients feel when they’re left hanging by their highly skilled lawyer who won’t call them back.”

Media relations
To Schiff Hardin’s Milberg, ”the best advertising is publicity.”

”Credible publications, the mass dailies, if they’re saying nice things about you, that’s like gold,” Milberg said. ”We really emphasize publicity.”

For instance, Milberg put together an 18-page booklet featuring only the highlights of favorable media mentions garnered by managing partner Ronald S. Safer when he led the defense team for Mark S. Kipnis, a co-defendant in the highly publicized trial of media tycoon Conrad Black.

The booklet, Milberg said, is given to clients and prospective clients.

”It’s very impressive. Rather than us saying how great we are, it’s other people saying good things about you,” Milberg said.

Jenner & Block’s Jaffe calls it a ”repurposing of content,” when the firm buys the electronic rights and reprint rights to articles featuring its lawyers, and showcases them on its Web site, in legal recruiting kits, or in packets for existing and prospective clients.

Media mentions and quotes from firm lawyers appearing as experts in a piece can be of significant value to a firm and its lawyers, Jaffe said.

”It’s very important. You then actually get into the Internet stream of commerce,” she said. ”Part of why being quoted as an expert is so helpful is truly because you, as an individual attorney, are shaping your individual identity and your individual reputation. You’re building your own personal brand as an expert.”

Milberg, himself a former news radio executive, shared a few pointers on his approach to media relations.

”I am very knowledgeable about what our attorneys do. When I see something that’s cutting edge or part of a growing trend that hasn’t been covered, or something that has meaningful interest, I’ll talk to a particular editor or reporter,” Milberg said.

When he pitches a story, Milberg said he puts himself in the position of the reporter or the editor.

”When I suggest a story, it’s rarely just a story about Schiff Hardin,” he said. ”It’ll be a story that I’d call a ’survey story’ where, obviously, we hope Schiff Hardin will be portrayed prominently, but there’s room for others to be covered, too.”

Some firms can find a marketing opportunity in high-profile cases where its lawyers are not even part of the representation. Take Perkins Coie, a Seattle-based firm that has been working to raise its profile locally since opening its Chicago office in June 2002.

With a PR goal of improving the firm’s name recognition in the Chicago area, former Perkins Coie partner Hugh Totten and public relations manager Lori Anger set out on a plan to make Totten, a litigator who specializes in complex civil cases, available to follow and comment on the Conrad Black case during the trial at the federal courthouse in Chicago, where hundreds of U.S. and international reporters had gathered for coverage.

”It really was a broad sweep of media circles,” Anger said. ”He actually went into the courthouse and started following the case. As he was sitting in the media room, he casually struck up a conversation with the reporter next to him.”

Since many of the lawyers from other firms couldn’t comment publicly on the case during the trial because they were representing one of the defendants or witnesses in the case, Totten offered legal insights to major media outlets in Chicago, around the nation, in Canada and the United Kingdom, Anger said.

”He was using the skills he already had as a litigator to help the media understand this trial,” Anger said. ”It’s kind of a win-win for lawyers and the media. The attorney gets the recognition as being thought of as an expert in a particular field, and the media gets a more well rounded story to recover that day.

”You can certainly work with the media to be recognized for the expertise you already have and provide your clients. You’re just extending that to the media.”

In a climate where law firms are aggressively competing on expertise and reputation, many firms work with outside public relations agencies to supplement their in-house PR staff.

”Firms are very sophisticated in how they project their expertise through the media,” said John E. Corey, president and founder of Greentarget Global Group, a public relations and communications consulting firm.

Greentarget often uses a research-based approach to market a firm’s expertise in a practice area or industry, Corey said.

For example, if a law firm wants to position itself as a preeminent real estate firm, Greentarget might use a software tool to execute a survey or study through a ”[law] firm-branded e-mail” that gauges the perceptions of real estate executives on a developing trend or issue in the marketplace.

Corey said his group works with the law firm to ”attach the client’s expertise to the study,” and, once the study is implemented, ”we have this report, which is associating that firm’s presence and expertise within a specific industry segment, which then provides a very robust marketing platform.

”You send a firm-branded survey to 3,000 real estate executives — that right there has marketing value. That is a reinforcement that this firm specializes in that area,” Corey said. ”We send the report out to everybody that was sent the survey. Now, this firm that surveyed me is sending the final report. Those are two very potent marketing channels that were just hit.”

Often, Corey said, the survey reports are developed so they can be unveiled at high-profile industry events.

”We will position it with select journalists to get the big media pop the day of the event. We give them an advance look at the report so that they are in a position to have their story run the day before or of the event,” Corey said. ”When that event happens, there’s three to five very in-depth articles on the chair of every attendee.”

What’s in a brand?
With fierce competition among top firms, visibility in the marketplace is crucial, said Joy Long, immediate past president of the Chicago chapter of the Legal Marketing Association.

Long, who is the business development director at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, spearheaded the firm’s updated branding, image, and advertising campaign launched in 2004.

”Because we’re a specialty firm and focus solely on IP, it was important that we be clear about what we do,” Long said. ”We decided to use a call to action of, ‘When you’re serious about IP, use Brinks.’ The campaign was built around the strengths of that call to action.”

When it comes to branding, she offered this rule of thumb.

”Basically, when you develop a brand, that has to carry through to your written materials, your culture, your advertising,” Long said. ”The brand is really developed around the culture of the firm — that’s what makes it successful.”

Branding can be more of a challenge for large, full-service firms, Vedder Price’s Ralston pointed out.

”It is hard to distinguish a whole firm from another whole firm. We all say we’re full-service, we all say we’re high-quality, we’ve got great lawyers. That’s true of Jenner, Winston, Sidley, Vedder Price, Schiff Hardin — you go down the line,” Ralston said. ”When you talk about these big firms that offer a wide range of services to different types of buyers it’s almost impossible to come up with a brand that makes sense to all those different market segments.”

A recent shift in legal marketing, experts said, is the move toward more industry-oriented marketing that aims to build and maintain a reputation as a firm that is knowledgeable about a particular industry.

”The realistic way to look at it is, ‘What market are you in and what’s your image in that specific market?”’ Ralston said. ”That, to me, is more important, and it’s going to have a greater payoff.”

When law firm giant DLA Piper was formed in 2005 by the merger of three regional firms, the newly formed firm that now consists of more than 3,700 lawyers in 25 countries created a global brand as part of its strategic business initiative, said Bill Schroeder, who serves as DLA Piper’s global director of brand management.

”We want to make sure that when you go to DLA Piper in Germany or in San Francisco that there is a common, DLA Piper-ness,” Schroeder said. ”Any global organization has to be sensitive to local cultures, but at the same time there has to be a common and consistent approach within the firm. We all have to be marching to the same drummer.”

For starters, Schroeder said, the firm conducted more than 600 interviews with the law firm’s partners, associates, and staff members in offices around the world to develop a ”brand strategy,” including a positioning statement, a vision for the firm, core values for the firm, and a set of ”personality attributes that reflect what you generally are and what you aspire to be.”

”Our positioning is really about, ‘Looking after the world’s businesses,” Schroeder said. ”We have a brand expression: ‘Everything matters.’ … The focus being on, ‘If it matters to you, it matters to us.”’

Here’s Schroeder’s definition of a brand.

”Our brand is really who we are. When you think of the firm DLA Piper the impression in your mind is the brand. When you think about Apple, or Target, or Wal-Mart there are certain things that come up in your mind. The sum of all those impressions is really the brand,” Schroeder said.

A brand, Schroeder said, takes on more than just the organization or the product.

Take Starbucks, he said, ”There’s a consistency in a Starbucks that comes through in all sorts of sensory levels: a logo, colors. But the entire environment of a Starbucks store not only looks a certain way, but smells a certain way. There’s a consistent music, a consistent way of talking about the product.”

In the end, he said, It’s not the latte that tastes so good, it’s the essence of the Starbucks experience. And that’s what great brands have.”

Another mega firm globalized its brand in 2007, when Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw became known worldwide as Mayer Brown, said Kathleen Reichert, the firm’s chief marketing officer.

With the firm’s acquisition last year of the Hong Kong firm Johnson Stokes & Master, it will maintain the name Mayer Brown JSM in Asia only, until 2012, she said.

The firm’s mix of marketing tools is less likely to include advertising, Reichert said. Rather, she said, the focus is on the use of the media to comment on trends, on the firm’s self-publishing of timely client alerts on issues, newsletters and quarterlies, more effective use of technology, such as extranets that allow for more customized information for clients, and events that allow the firm’s lawyers to speak or ”engage in dialogue with clients in smaller, roundtable forums.”

”Rather than sending out an advertisement saying Mayer Brown is global, you demonstrate your global knowledge by articles on China, being cited on trends in China, sending client alerts that talk about new issues we see. Those things are more powerful ways to communicate the brand of, ‘We know what’s going on there and we have an expertise that is very unique,”’ Reichert said. ”I think law firms are ready for a more sophisticated approach to marketing, which means you really understand your target market and really build a capability and response to what is of high urgency to them.”

For the global firm, Reichert said, one of the more important target markets is major multinationals and major banks.

She said the firm recently completed a ”brand study,” involving interviews with general counsel and other clients of the firm, multinational corporations, and major banks in the U.S. and Europe, asking, ”What is the most important for you to receive as value? How do you see the competitors and their differences? What do you expect to need from law firms? What are the attributes that are most important to you?”

Reichert said the firm plans to use the data from the study to shape its messages going forward.

”You’d be surprised how powerful brands are in creating a perception in the marketplace and motivating attorneys to behave similarly,” Reichert said. ”For firms that have done this well, essentially, it creates their own demand and it becomes part of the fabric of the culture of the company.”

Practical Matters: Time is running out

By David M. Heilmann
Clausen Miller

Tick tock tick tock …

Hear that? It’s the dreaded CLE clock, ticking down faster than the one used for bar exams. The deadline is near for those of you with a last name beginning with A through M. By July 1 you need to have completed 20 hours of continuing legal education credits or …

Do we know what will happen for those who fail? Will they be scolded, disbarred, beaten, or — worse yet — forced to watch old Bears highlights when Bob Thomas was a mere kicker?

Lawyers are terrified. There is a deadline and we don’t have our favorite weapon to use: a motion to continue.

The daily phrases of our practice — ”Move to continue,” ”kick it,” ”ask for more time,” and the always-popular ”get a new date” (formerly reserved for chubby prom guests) — won’t work. Sad, but our favorite motion is unavailable.

Lawyers all over the state are in near panic. The thousands who haven’t even started their CLE work may seek asylum in Canada. Others — the daring ones — may chance it and walk into a courtroom July 1 without having completed their 20 hours. At that point, who knows? It could get bloody.

Let’s review the rules.

Supreme Court Rule 794 (a): 20 hours of CLE during the initial two-year reporting period as determined on the basis of the lawyer’s last name, ending on June 30 of either 2008 or 2009. It goes up to 24 and 30 hours over the subsequent two-year reporting periods.

Rule 794 (d): 4 hours of ”professional responsibility” education, defined as professionalism, diversity, mental illness and addiction, civility, or legal ethics. Social ethics and illegal ethics won’t count.

If your last name begins with the letters A through M, your CLE work must be done by the end of this month.

Daley Center rumors have it that all the N’s are getting together for a party June 29 to laugh at the rest of us.

But not so fast. There is, thankfully, a grace period. Attorneys are supposed to report their compliance on a certification form or online, by July 31. The MCLE certification requires that the attorney state whether she (1) has complied with CLE requirements; (2) has not complied; or (3) is exempt.

But Rule 796(b) has come to the rescue. That allows a grace period, and specifically states that attorneys shall be given 61 additional days from the original certification due date to comply. That means Sept. 30.

Still, not a lot of time. So, for all those last-minute shoppers who haven’t started, what should you do to get the credit and avoid being the laughingstock of your profession?

Here are a few suggestions.

If you belong to a bar association, that’s a good start. The ISBA has a CLE ‘’store.” Isn’t that nice of them to open a store for us? The ISBA offers its members CLE opportunities through FastCLE.com, which ”features instant online access to courses to earn MCLE credit in Illinois.” You can get DVDs, Audio CDs, video CD-ROMs, and online delivery, ‘’so you can earn MCLE credit on your terms.” www.isba.org.

Members of the CBA can opt for CLE Advantage, the $125-per-year program that allows participants to attend most afternoon seminars and the ability to check out CLE DVDs from the CBA Legal Bookstore at no extra charge. The ABA also offers an abundance of CLE courses to its members.

IICLE.com offers live programs via teleconference and also recorded programs online. ”MCLE credits may also be earned by watching IICLE DVDs of programs or listening to IICLE audio CDs.” It also states that when you purchase these DVDs or CDs, IICLE will issue an affidavit of compliance. They obviously know that no one would ever buy it and not watch it.

There are tons of private providers. Law.com and Lawline.com are now offering what they call an ”Illinois CLE Bundle Package” of 20 credits for the low, low price of $199. And if you order now, you’ll also get the Ronco Steamer. But that’s not all, call within 24 hours and they’ll throw in Ann Murray’s Greatest Hits.

You may just kick back and wait for someone to call you.

I received one of those calls last week. ”Hi, Mr. Heilmann, we’re calling about your CLE credits to date.”

That sent a chill down my spine. Who is this? What do they know? I’ve completed my credits. Has there been an audit? Did I take the wrong class? Why did that instructor lie and say he was certified? Oh, the humanity!

The message continued, ”We can help you get these completed by the June 30 deadline.” What? How?

Only then did they identify the company name and say, ‘’so if you have not completed your credits, we can provide this service and are an approved CLE provider.” Whew.

Maybe you’ll get a call. Or perhaps you’ll join a bar association, if you haven’t already. But you do have a grace period that lasts the next few months.

It gives new meaning to ”what I did on my summer vacation.”

Counsel’s Table: Age doesn’t define dining

By Russell B. Selman
Katten Muchin Rosenman • Restaurant Critic

Given that the annual Death Star Cotillion known as the summer associate program is about to begin at most firms, I thought I would help out by offering a few unsolicited thoughts.

First off, youngsters, understand that no one is honestly interested in what you might have to say. Indeed, you send the absolute wrong signal to the senior partners by shifting the focus away from them and how they see the world. Well, here goes. Given that the Baby Boomer cohort now controls law firms, I suggest you learn from their favorite TV show, ”American Idol.” Each of the Idol judges represent a partner archetype that, once understood, is your best guide to a prosperous summer experience.

Typical partners are like Randy. Full of well-worn phrases and wrinkles, the Randy-partners want associates just like themselves. Whenever the Randy-partners get enthusiastic, they do so for practical reasons — so you can make your best impression by simply making it clear that you want to be exactly like them.

Rarer than Randy, but omnipresent in the very large firm, is the Paula-partner. The Paulas are always happy the way a circus clown is delighted by a balloon. Most often, the Paulas run the summer program because no one would allow the Paula to do any work for their clients.

Then, there is the Simon. You probably will not meet the Simon. Some Simons had a Chappaquiddick or two in their early firm years, or worse, actually spoke at a partner’s meeting in mild opposition to whatever bandwagon-with-wheels-falling-off idea was rattling by. Now shunned, the Simon is not at all interested in you, either. Don’t even try to butter up Simon and don’t worry about his view of you since no one cares what he says anyway.

To be honest about it, I suppose it may be an issue of age — perhaps the summer associates remind us all just how we’ve changed. Similar chronologic and transitional thoughts hit me when I dined at OTOM.

OTOM is run by the people who operate Moto, located just next door, on the trendy/ sketchy Fulton Street Market. Both are ”experimental” restaurants. At Moto the experiments are grand-scale, Manhattan Project affairs.

But OTOM is still recognizable as a neighborhood restaurant where they still use food ingredients as the basis for erector-set efforts to prepare a meal.

That OTOM is for the young is immediately apparent. First, the curb-height from Fulton Street is thigh-high — I felt like I was having a post-50-year-old medical procedure just getting up to the front door. Once inside, the lounge and bar take up at least 50 percent of the dining room real estate. Yes, OTOM is set up for the grazing speed-daters.

We were ”Early Bird” early on two occasions. Meaning that before 8 p.m., OTOM is as empty as a firm shared-billing credit meeting. Honestly (oops!), the dining crowd was looking a little ”Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”

How the spry diners even made their way into OTOM, I don’t know. I became a little weepy-eyed thinking about the sacrifices of my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents. All of these earlier generations were in attendance at OTOM, all were eating the same food, and all of them left in time for the CSO.

With the Greatest Generation’s departure, their heirs quickly filled the demi-room. As a ”Tweener” generationist, I went from blogger-young to Porsche middle-aged as the transitional crowd piled in — lots of pretty-people downing the inevitable rainbow-hued drinks and the sound levels pegged up faster than a Robert Altman film.

I expected not too much from the OTOM kitchen. After the high style of the neighborhood and the unlikely pairings of youth/age, I had a hard time actually waiting for the food to arrive before my critique began. The expected dronish march of so-so appetizers-entree-dessert ritual seemed very likely. But I was wrong. OTOM really did well.

A very lovely salmon ceviche served on wonton chips was enlivened with citrus. There was nothing elusive; the flavors were positively bright and elegant. The Lyonnaise salad was unlike any — with a sort of frozen bacony-egg mixed into the escarole. Entrees also won me over by their intensity, bested by the barbeque pork belly, which peeled off porky flavor all over the plate. A real winner.

Very good, too, was the jambalaya, piqued by the andouille sausage into a fragrant and elliptical whole.The summer season is upon us again, youth demands its place, and OTOM is the right table — if only the curb wasn’t so high.

Pleadings:
OTOM
951 W. Fulton St.
(312) 491-5804

Court costs:
Appetizers $8-$12; Entrees $18-$26

Verdict:
3 Gavels

Editor’s Note

I have a couple of friends coming into town next week from the Bay Area. Well, next week will become a couple of weeks ago by the time this issue hits the streets.

They’re stopping by on their way to the Indy 500, which I understand is an automobile race that isn’t NASCAR, so I guess it’s some sort of elite race. What brought this to mind is that (1) I met one of these friends my first week of college — so, we’ve known each other for 45 years, something I still can’t believe, and (2) more to the point, my friends have practiced law together their entire career, through three firms, including one collapse and one merger, which has them now in the San Francisco office of Reed Smith.

They became friends during their first year at Boalt Hall in Berkeley, once known as the law school none of the rest of us could get into, and now known as the law school that provides employment to the odious John Yoo.

In any event, these two guys have been drinking buddies, friends, and law partners over a span of 41 years, which is incredible — even more so in today’s climate. As noted in the introduction to our eighth annual largest law firm survey, Dan Webb, Tom Cole, and Jim Holzhauer have made their very successful careers in one firm, so a hats-off and a couple of beers to my old friends John Siamas and Carl Stoney, and all the rest of you lawyers who have stuck with it through all the ups and downs of a long career. Good on you.

And speaking of hats-off, Chicago Lawyer’s Maria Kantzavelos received the CBA’s Herman Kogan Media Award in the legal trade reporting category on May 8, for her profile of the Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California. Maria spent more than a week walking through the building, sitting in on trials and hearings, and interviewing everyone from Presiding Judge Paul Biebel to the sheriff’s deputies who escort defendants to and from the jail. The story appeared in our November 2007 issue. Congratulations, Maria, for a great story and a terrific award.

As is pretty obvious by now, this is our Largest Law Firm Survey issue and, in addition to the endless charts tracking partners and associates, we have some interesting stories for you. Maria has written a profile of Yvonne Ocrant, a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson who has built her own practice in equine law, based simply on her love for horses and her immersion in the world of competitive riding. The story starts on page 48.

Assistant editor Olivia Clarke brought in firm leaders from Reed Smith, DLA Piper, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, and Drinker Biddle & Reath for a round table discussion on the issues that lead firms to merge and the issues created by the mergers. It starts on page 34 and takes on a myriad of management and practice issues.

Olivia also takes a look at the new positions law firms are creating to bring more focus to their concerns about diversity, pro bono efforts, and professional development, starting on page 56.

Maria closes out the feature well with a story on the marketing of law firms, starting on page 64. There’s a lot more to the whole process of projecting a law firm’s identity, and the thinking behind the process, than most readers (including me) realize.

In our columns this issue, Shermin Kruse, an associate at Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg, returns to write ”Climbing the Ladder,” talking about her fears upon getting the ball tossed to her for the first time — ”figure out how to win this case” — and how to proceed to do just that. Sher’s column is on page 31.

We’ve done one story in the magazine, and a number in the Daily Law Bulletin on the looming crisis in mandatory CLE requirements, and now David Heilmann of Clausen Miller takes his slightly skewed look at the dreaded July deadline. Read what Dave has to say about it all on page 47.

Arin Reeves’ column, ”Diversity in Practice,” takes on the idea of gender-neutral standards, starting with the NBA and moving to the world of law firms. Arin is always challenging us to think in new ways, and this month’s column, which starts on page 16, is no exception.

— Robert Yates

Info Tech Law: E-discovery — business as usual

By Alan S. Wernick
Wernick & Associates

On Dec. 1, 2006, with a change in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, electronic discovery ”officially” moved to the top of the agenda in federal court litigation and in the minds of many in the legal and business communities.

For some, e-discovery was already old news and an integral part of their legal risk management strategy — where an understanding of the technology and proper planning could go a long way in minimizing the costs of discovery and avoiding e-discovery risks. For others, though, it was a day of stark awakening — lawyers and clients now need to be even more aware of all those electronic digits flying about the business community, or resting in the digital archives on backup media. At a seminar I attended in April 2008, the topic turned to e-discovery and the question was asked of more than 100 lawyers in attendance: How many of you have heard of the Zubulake or the Qualcomm cases? Much to my surprise, only a few hands went up in addition to mine.

Whether you are a lawyer in private practice doing litigation or transactional work, or an in-house counsel, you and your clients need to be mindful of e-discovery before litigation demands your attention.

While this article will not make you an expert in e-discovery, it will make you aware of some key issues involving cost-shifting and sanctions.

E-discovery is really not new. Ever since business information was being created and stored electronically, e-discovery has been an issue. Many pre-December 2006 cases addressed e-discovery issues.

One landmark e-discovery case pre-dates the effective date of the change in the FRCP by more than three years. In Zubulake v. UBS Warburg (2003-2004), the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, presented five opinions related to e-discovery, and explored the issue of cost-shifting in discovery.

Underlying Zubulake is a gender discrimination case brought by the plaintiff against her former employer, UBS Warburg. The plaintiff requested the defendant to produce an extensive amount of documents, including many e-mails relevant to the case. Initially, the defendant said it would be too burdensome to produce all the requested e-mails. After the defendant was ordered to produce them, it appeared to the court that not everything was actually produced, which ultimately resulted in sanctions against UBS.

In her May 2003 decision Judge Shira A. Scheindlin framed the issue: ”To what extent is inaccessible electronic data discoverable, and who should pay for its production?” When the defendant tried to shift the burden and expense of this e-discovery to the plaintiff, the court struggled with this issue and presented a new seven-factor cost-shifting test:

The extent to which the request is specifically tailored to discover relevant information;

the availability of such information from other sources;

the total cost of production, compared to the amount in controversy;

the total cost of production, compared to the resources available to each party;

the relative ability of each party to control costs and its incentive to do so;

the importance of the issues at stake in the litigation; and

the relative benefits to the parties of obtaining the information.

”The seven factors should not be weighted equally,” the court said. ”When evaluating cost-shifting, the central question must be, does the request impose an ‘undue burden or expense’ on the responding party?”

The defendant was found to have failed in its duty to preserve some missing backup tapes and was ordered to pay some of the plaintiff’s discovery costs; in addition, the court allowed an adverse inference jury instruction against the defendant.

In a later opinion — Zubulake V (2004) — the court believed that counsel was partly to blame because it failed to locate, preserve, and produce relevant information. Underscoring counsel’s obligation, the court stated, ”Counsel must take affirmative steps to monitor compliance so that all sources of discoverable information are identified and searched.”

Qualcomm Incorporated v. Broadcom Corporation (USDC, CA, 2008), involved another case where electronic information was not produced. This failure to produce resulted in an $8,568,633 sanction against defendant Qualcomm (in addition to other sanctions), plus sanctions against Qualcomm’s outside counsel.

Magistrate Judge Major wrote: ”For the current ‘good faith’ discovery system to function in the electronic age, attorneys and clients must work together to ensure that both understand how and where electronic documents, records and emails are maintained and to determine how best to locate, review, and produce responsive documents. Attorneys must take responsibility for ensuring that their clients conduct a comprehensive and appropriate document search.”

The Zubulake and Qualcomm cases underscore the need for proactively considering e-discovery risk management. Any business using electronic documents needs to proactively consider the legal implications.

© 2008 Alan S. Wernick

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