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.”