2020: Issue No. 5
Insight into leading legal talent and issues affecting the legal market
David Djaha
Managing Partner, Ropes & Gray Keeping Calm and Carrying On Tradition
M OME N T U M Career Insights From Legal Mavericks
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From the Ground Up: Building a Law Firm
5 T HIN G S YO U D ID N’T K N OW Blake Bilstad Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, dosist
ADVIC E TO YOU N G LAW Y E R S TO LE A D
John Cashman President
TOC
04 Major, Lindsey & Africa is the world’s leading legal search firm. The firm, founded in 1982, offers a range of specialized legal recruiting and advisory services to meet the ever-changing needs of law firms and legal departments and to support the career aspirations of talented lawyers and legal and compliance professionals. With more than 25 offices and 200-plus search consultants around the world, Major, Lindsey & Africa uses its market knowledge and experience to partner with organizations to fulfill their legal talent needs and provide solutions to increase team efficiency and effectiveness. Major, Lindsey & Africa is an Allegis Group company, the global leader in talent solutions.
Cover Story 04 David Djaha Managing Partner, Ropes & Gray
To learn more about Major, Lindsey & Africa, visit www.mlaglobal.com.
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WI NT E R / S P R I NG 2020
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From the Ground Up: Building a Law Firm
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The Legal Navigator
Blake Bilstad Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, dosist
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COV E R STO RY Joining Ropes & Gray 10 years ago as a lateral partner, David quickly embraced the culture, the friendships and the values of the firm, which align perfectly with his own. Now he is continuing the traditions of the firm and leading it into the next decade with passion and purpose. How did your childhood shape the person you are today? My upbringing played a very big role in shaping my interest in real estate and also instilled in me a strong work ethic. My father’s parents were immigrants to the U.S. from Syria, and my father was one of six children, none of whom went to college. They understood the value of education, but it wasn’t really an option for them. They needed to work, so each one of them built a business. It was a very different way to grow up. I gained an understanding of business because my father was a businessman, and I was exposed to real estate early in my life because my grandfather bought two small buildings in Brooklyn after coming to the United States. There were always conversations about real estate around the table. It was interesting to me, but I admit I never envisioned working in real estate or, quite frankly, heading to law school.
W I N TE RV IE W WITH
DAVID DJAHA Managing Partner, Ropes & Gray
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hen you meet David Djaha, it does not take long to discover how passionate he is—about his family, his friends, the theater, New York City and, of course, Ropes & Gray. The new managing partner of Ropes & Gray is quick to share a story about his sons’ career goals or to reminisce about growing up with his immigrant grandparents. His relationships are the cornerstone of his life and career—which truly go hand in hand with each other.
What did you want to be when you grew up? What led you to becoming a lawyer? In high school, I became interested in commercial art. I wanted to work in advertising and be one of the “Mad Men.” So I decided to study communication design and graphic art in college. When my friends were graduating from my program and getting jobs at advertising agencies, they were making $12,000 a year. While I wasn’t primarily motivated by money, I did know that $12,000 a year would not allow me to live in New York City, and that was my passion. It was where I wanted to be. Knowing I loved school, my parents suggested I go to law school. I thought this was the best idea I’d ever heard because it meant I could kick the career decision down the road for three more years. I wish my career planning was more measured and strategic, but it really just fell into place. >>>
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That’s how I became a lawyer. When I went to law school, I knew that if I was going to practice, it was going to be as a real estate lawyer, because real estate was something that was familiar to me. Commercial art is a long way from being a lawyer. Do you employ your artistry in your role? What I loved about graphic art was that it was so intensive. You did everything hand to paper with protractors, rulers and inkwells. I loved it. It might sound surprising, but the creativity translated well into being a lawyer. In advertising, you need to get your client’s message out through design—but how do you do that? It’s about solving a problem. That’s what we do as lawyers—we solve problems. So I get to use that same creative side of my brain here. Also, I do a lot of work with our marketing team. We just designed the logo for our 10-year anniversary in London. So it’s full circle for me, and I love it.
Once I got to my first firm, I knew I wanted to be a law firm partner. I realize that being a lawyer, and especially a lawyer at a big firm, is not for everyone. But I liked practicing law. I liked my clients and the community. The one thing I didn’t think I could do was business development because I wasn’t a salesy kind of person. If I knew coming out of college that I would be a salesperson, I probably wouldn’t have gone into law. But I’ve learned to do it through the years because you have to. And you become more confident if you’re selling a good product. The firms I’ve worked at have been really good firms, so I have been confident in what I’m selling, and I always market in a style that is true to myself. What impressed you about Ropes & Gray and convinced you to move, especially during an economic downturn? The economic downturn was an interesting and precarious time for real estate and for real estate lawyers. I took a meeting with Ropes & Gray’s then head of the real estate group, Walter McCabe, on a lark. It was supposed to be 45 minutes, and it lasted two and a half hours. By the time I left the meeting, I thought, “I can’t believe I don’t work at that firm.”
In advertising, you need to get your client’s message out through design—but how do you do that? It’s about solving a problem. That’s what we do as lawyers—we solve problems. When you graduated from Brooklyn Law School, what was your first job? What was the most important lesson you learned? I got an early offer at a big firm and decided to give it a try. It was definitely eye-opening and intense in a way that I had not anticipated. I never thought I would like big firm life, but once I got into it, I loved the community aspect of it. And to this day, I love the teamwork and community aspects of being at a large firm. I also loved the luxury of being able to focus on just real estate. If I had a tax problem, I could call one of the best tax lawyers in the world and get an answer. The interdisciplinary construct of a law firm really appealed to me. And it motivated me. I rolled up my sleeves and became a solid member of that firm and the firm community. I served on committees and involved myself in the life of the firm because I loved the experience. I got married two weeks before I started working, so I was a young married guy and I wanted to make sure I had a good work-life balance. I pulled all-nighters every Thursday so that I would have more free time on the weekends. That was my routine. I was focused on working hard, but I also wanted to be present for my family. 6
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What struck me about Ropes & Gray was the confidence management had in the stability of the firm. We built so much of the firm during and after the recession. It was a smart approach. Ropes & Gray is 155 years old; we knew that one recession was not going to put us out of business, and that confidence came across in the first meeting. When you look at the firm’s growth and the laterals we brought over during the recession, that was a monumental development for this firm. A lot of other firms lost out during that time. Many of them were in hunker-down mode, but we were in growth mode, and it was the right thing to do. It was smart to invest. Ropes & Gray has a special culture. As an example, we have this wonderful tradition, which I thought was quite corny when I first got here: Every December, the entire partnership gets together for a holiday lunch and a miniretreat, or what we call the State of the Firm. My first December, I didn’t want to go—it’s the busiest time for real estate. One of my friends at the firm said, “No, come; you will never regret it.” And she was right, because culturally, it is an amazing event. Partners from all 11 offices gather together in one place. All of our retiring partners give these wonderful speeches. We honor our new partner classes. It is a tradition that says a lot about the firm’s values.
During that first State of the Firm, it really hit home that Ropes & Gray was the right firm for me when the chair put up a slide about the recession. It showed how organizations were panicking and cutting back while we continued to invest. It was business; we invested in ourselves. It was calm, confident and forward-looking. And I was impressed by that because it is the way I think. You’re either in it for the long term or you’re not in it at all. As a lateral partner, you came into Ropes & Gray with your own style and way of doing things. Were your new partners receptive to your ideas, right off the bat? If not, how did you overcome challenges and align their vision with yours? I had come from a firm where business development was something we focused on from day one of our careers. You woke up in the morning and you thought about business development, whether you were a partner or an associate. That was not as imperative at Ropes & Gray. The quality of our work and the results we were getting for our clients were exceptional. We just weren’t as focused on business development in a programmatic way. So I spent a lot of time with my partners, as well as with our marketing and practice development teams, sharing my thoughts on business development. I remember putting together a slide show for my practice group, and one of the slides was about the need to think about business development every day. Someone in marketing said to me, “You can’t put that slide up because some partners will feel intimidated.” Fastforward just two years and it was night and day. Today we think about our clients, their businesses and their industries—and how we can help them—all the time. It’s now a natural part of our culture. Our lawyers combine intellectual capital with business savvy. I think that’s what is exciting about Ropes & Gray because we’re very fluid in our thinking, and we’re able to be nimble in the face of rapidly changing markets. How would you describe your leadership style? I manage by consensus. I’ve been really lucky to build brilliant teams around me who are smart, hardworking, dedicated and committed. I value our people, so I want to hear from them. I tell our teams, “We have no secrets other than
partner compensation, so ask COV E R STO RY me what you want to know. I’m asking you to think like a business owner; you need to know the business.” Top-down is not what Ropes & Gray does. Someone ultimately has to make a decision, so I’m always prepared to make the decision, but I would much rather bring the team to consensus than say, “This is the idea. You all figure out why it’s the right one.” You had almost two years to prepare to take over as managing partner. What steps did you take to prepare for this role? Leadership roles at Ropes & Gray hadn’t changed in a long time; the vast majority of our partners had only known being a partner, being a lawyer, under the leadership of Brad Malt and David Chapin. It was important that we transitioned the chair and managing partner roles slowly and thoughtfully. During the transition, Julie Jones (chair) and I met with Brad and David once a week for two hours and went through everything. We talked about real-time >>>
issues, discussing how each of us would analyze something and looking at how decisions were made in the past. This was a very thoughtful process. The other reason why it was very important to have a thorough transition process was that Julie and I both had pretty big practices that we had to transition, and that could not have happened overnight. We are the only two partners without active client practices at the firm, but we’re very client-facing. I maintain my client relationships and I still pitch business, but I don’t read the loan documents or do that type of work anymore because I’m traveling so much on firm business. I’m glad we had that time. It was necessary so that when January 1, 2020, arrived, I wasn’t even conscious of the formal transition because I’d been doing this for so long. Now that you are managing partner, what is the strategy ahead? What does the future hold for Ropes & Gray? We’ve had an amazing trajectory over the past 10 years. We have grown headcount and revenue every single year, including during the recession years. Julie and I are fortunate to have inherited a firm that’s in great shape, so there are no monumental changes we need to make. We have a great strategy in place that involves staying focused on our clients’ most complex needs, understanding the market and continuing to build our world-class team of lawyers. It’s an interesting time right now for a global firm. We’re in the U.K., so we’re managing through Brexit; and we’re in Asia, so we’re managing around Covid-19, protests and tariffs. We’re in the U.S. and managing around an election year. That’s tough in and of itself. But I go back to the confidence thing. We make smart, thoughtful decisions, and we don’t change course because there are going to be recessions, unforeseen challenges and elections. We don’t think we are smarter than the markets, but we have values that we live by, and that’s how we run the firm. Pro bono work has always been an important part of your career and Ropes & Gray’s values. What motivates you to get involved in the community in such a way? I’ve done pro bono work since I was an associate, and I have learned a lot of different skills by doing it. My first pro bono client, when I was a first-year associate, was Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. I’m passionate about the theater—not performing, but attending—and I was helping these notfor-profit theater groups set up their organizational charters and drafting their bylaws. I was learning and getting involved with these groups that needed help. And I was contributing to an industry that was a passion. 8
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I strongly believe you have to pay it forward in that way; it’s the right thing to do. Especially if you have the kind of platform we do at Ropes & Gray. It’s one of our highest priorities to actively contribute to our communities and our profession—or, as we call it, to “practice with purpose.” In the middle of our busiest month last year, I was negotiating a lease for a women’s shelter in Queens for victims of violence from Southeast Asia. It’s important and it helps me train. I worked with an associate who had never negotiated a lease before; at the end of it, she told me how valuable it was. The client was also grateful. Pro bono work is embedded in our culture. And it’s one of a number of business priorities that we have to be thinking about every day: We need to be thinking about our clients. We need to be thinking about working hard. We need to be thinking about diversity and inclusion. And we need to be thinking about how we can give back to the community. We are lucky to work at Ropes & Gray, and we can’t forget that. You mentioned that diversity is something you should be thinking about every day. Why is diversity and inclusion important to you? What are your priorities? I started my practice in 1988. By 1990, I was already on the diversity committee because I have always been passionate about human rights and equality. The issues we are talking about now are not that different than the issues we were talking about then. At Ropes & Gray, we have a pretty vibrant, diverse population. It’s nowhere near where it needs to be, but we’re making some progress and are focused on doing better and doing more. We’re thinking creatively. We have a firstyear summer program that gives diverse law students an opportunity to work here as summer associates. We hope they’ll come back as second-year summer associates. In another program, graduating college students come to work with us before they go to law school to get mentorship. On gender diversity, we’re also advancing. Our new class of partners this year was 60% women, and across the firm, our partnership is 31% women. We still have work to do, but we’re moving in the right direction. We’ve expanded our diversity and inclusion support team to help us strategize and implement initiatives that will advance racial diversity, gender diversity and sexual diversity. We have committees and attorney resource groups around the firm that are focused on this.
So much of diversity is about retention. Supporting and mentoring lawyers, making sure they have opportunities to grow professionally and advance in their careers. It’s something we’re very, very focused on—and we have been for a long time. When you are recruiting new members to your team, what are you looking for? This is going to sound like a catchphrase, but we look for the best in the market. If we’re hiring laterally, your track record and your work ethic are top of mind to us. We have market-leading training programs focused on developing Ropes & Gray lawyers—which, in our minds, means lawyers who are the best in the world at what they do and who embody our standards of excellence, mutual respect and collaboration. We’re looking for hardworking, smart people who think beyond just their legal books. We train our associates to develop relationships. We model that behavior for them. That’s really important here.
and who I know will do well on COV E R STO RY our platform because of their expertise. I look at their clients; there has to be an alignment. If you’re representing clients similar to ours, it shows me where you position yourself in the market. I think that helps laterals be successful here. Also, we hire people who think collaboratively. We have a black box compensation system, which isn’t for everybody, but it is for people who are collaborative thinkers and who trust that they will be treated fairly. One of the real drivers of this firm is our collaboration. Fitting into this culture is at the top of our checklist. How have you approached retention? Our lawyers like to be busy and to be working on the most complex matters in the market. That helps to keep them here. We have a great firm culture; we keep people here by empowering them, by supporting them and by making sure that they are networked. Every six months, I meet with the lateral associates who joined during the prior six months. I think it’s really important for them to get to know and have open communication with management.
So much of diversity is about retention. Supporting and mentoring lawyers, making sure they have opportunities to grow professionally and advance in their careers. Smart lawyers are a dime a dozen. What’s your value proposition? You have to show me more than confidence and motivation. This is a hard job. Anybody who comes into it and thinks it’s not a hard job shouldn’t be doing it. For lateral partners, we don’t buy books of business. I look for people who have market recognition
We do small group meetings with lateral partners so that we can share ideas. If I have all of these interesting, smart, accomplished lawyers coming to our firm, it would be a wasted opportunity not to learn from them. So we’re constantly trying to learn from our laterals. It makes sense because everybody brings something with them. That’s the point. We want them to feel like they have a say here. It’s empowerment that is really important to me, and it’s only through communication and recognition that you can really inspire people. We have smart, motivated people. We’re doing the best work in the world, and we happen to do it in an atmosphere that people want to be in. We wouldn’t be keeping our people if our firm wasn’t doing well—and we’re doing exceedingly well. What advice do you have for aspiring leaders? My advice to aspiring leaders comes straight out of Hamilton: talk less, smile more. You have to inspire people through your actions. When I was first appointed managing partner-elect, I spent that year having lunch or dinner with every partner in the firm. I wanted to know what was on their minds and I wanted to start a conversation about what’s important to them. Listen to the people you have to inspire. Just because you set a goal doesn’t make it their goal. The Legal Navigator
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MOMENTUM
Career insights from legal mavericks
MOMENTUM
G L E N N MC K E OW N
General Counsel, Argonne National Laboratory I had contemplated becoming a lawyer as far back as junior high school. There were no family members or friends who were lawyers, so I really did not have a true understanding of what it meant to be an attorney apart from what I saw on television or read about in books. What was conveyed in these mediums, and what was appealing to me at the time, was that the work seemed really interesting, the skills one develops as an attorney seemed transferable to other fields like business and politics, and legal practitioners were well respected. I started college on the classic pre-law track as a political science major with the expectation of applying to law school. As my college career progressed, I became interested in government policy and began looking at—and ultimately applied to—schools offering joint degree programs in law and public administration. I wound up graduating with a JD and a master’s in public administration (MPA).
A M BER HAREZLAK Associate, Morrison Foerster
I always had a wide variety of interests as a kid, but in high school, I decided that I wanted to be a genetic counselor. I was really interested in DNA and genetics and just how all of that worked. The University of California Davis, where I went to undergrad, had one of the few genetic counseling programs at that time. I came across the bioengineering program while applying, and I knew that it would be harder to get into the bioengineering program, so it seemed like it was smarter to start with that and then switch later. So that’s what I did, and I guess the rest is history.
As an undergraduate, I was involved in a lot of research, and many of my professors said, “You just have to go to graduate school.” Honestly, I didn’t have a better plan at that time and I wanted to pursue my interests in gene therapy, so I decided it would be a good idea to follow my professors’ advice. Overall, it was a THE EXPERIENCE OF EARNING A PHD REALLY TEACHES YOU TO THINK CRITICALLY, great decision. Even though I realized WHICH IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT SKILL TO HAVE AS A LAWYER AS WELL. early on while earning my PhD that I didn’t want to go into academia, I gained so much from the work I did as a graduate student. I also had this opportunity being at Penn, where there are so many different graduate schools, to get to know people who were doing all kinds of different things and learn about all of it.
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As a result, I decided I wanted to go to law school while I was in the midst of working on my PhD. But I didn’t actually do that until seven or eight years later, after graduating and starting down a different career path in medical education. But I’m really happy that I did finally take that plunge. The experience of earning a PhD really teaches you to think critically, which is such an important skill to have as a lawyer as well. And at MoFo, I’m lucky to be part of a firm that has a really strong life sciences practice. So, I also get to be involved in work for clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device and other healthrelated technology fields. Having a background in and understanding the science as a result of years in the laboratory, and some of the business goals of my clients based on my past work experience, both help me to more quickly pick up on those clients’ businesses and products. I think in some ways this gives me a little bit more credibility with those clients. In the end, being a technology transactions lawyer turned out to be a great fit for me because I have the opportunity to be constantly involved with clients working on bringing many different cutting-edge technologies to the market.
[MY MPA] PROVIDED ME WITH A REAL APPRECIATION OF HOW LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS ARE CRAFTED AND IMPLEMENTED.
After law school, I took a corporate in-house role instead of going to a law firm because I felt that being dedicated to a particular organization, getting involved and understanding the business intimately would be something I’d enjoy much more. Working for one company, and also knowing that I’d have a much broader scope of work, greater responsibility and more client interaction than as a law firm associate, was appealing. I certainly don’t regret my decision.
What I learned through the MPA program has proved invaluable during the course of my legal career, particularly now that I work for a government contractor. I think the degree provided me with a real appreciation of how legislation and regulations are crafted and implemented. I have been able to use what I learned to anticipate the direction of governmental policy initiatives and to advise clients on navigating regulatory processes.
BOB WEBBER Partner, Dorsey & White I started my solo practice in 2004. I had the entrepreneurial bug and wanted to build something on my own. I was nervous about it, but when you are an associate, you can’t identify your own book of business initially, so I thought I’d run my own firm for a couple years, show that I had a defined practice and then go somewhere else. But it went so well that I ran my own firm for 15 years. I liked the idea of trying to build something and being nimble and client-focused. But as the firm grew, I ended up spending more time focusing on HR and being an IT manager and that wasn’t what I signed up for, so moving to Dorsey made sense because I really wanted to focus on practice, not management. Moving from a boutique firm where I was king of a small kingdom to a big place with a national practice was scary. But there was a strong business case for the move. The firm had a small immigration practice, so there has been lots of opportunity for growth.
THERE ARE LOTS OF FUNKY AND OBSCURE THINGS IN IMMIGRATION LAW, WHICH MAKE IT INTERESTING.
I fell into immigration randomly when I was looking for a job as an 1L. I have always been interested in policy and politics. I thought I’d major in business or economics, but then I realized I was more interested in something political/policy related. There was a small firm with a law clerk opening in immigration law. Several of my family members are immigrants from Korea, including my mom, so I was familiar with matters around integration into the U.S. I honestly didn’t know that was a job until I saw that posting. I realized quickly it was a good fit for me as it had a lot of policy and politics and a lot of good idiosyncrasy. There are lots of funky and obscure things in immigration law, which make it interesting. I also liked the small matters that got feedback sooner, and I had more interaction with the clients even as a junior attorney.
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TAKA M IK I NISHIKAWA
KI M U P S H AW
C H R I S PA R S O N S
Head of Legal, Japan & Korea, ByteDance
Vice President & Chief Compliance, Privacy and Internal Audit Officer, Drexel University
Partner & Chairman of the India Practice, Herbert Smith Freehills
I began my career as an asset manager. That lasted six months, as I realized I did not like numbers. I liked the idea of becoming a lawyer because it is a professional qualification that would afford a certain sense of job security. Also, because it is somewhat academic. You are constantly looking things up in books of reference, precedents, etc., and then applying what you learn directly in your everyday job is rewarding.
I came out of college thinking I was going to go into marketing and be a fashion buyer for a big New York department store, which doesn’t exist anymore—so I’m glad I didn’t go. Instead I ended up working as a claims adjuster. And while I was doing that, I was negotiating settlements quite a bit with attorneys. It was at that point I realized that if they can do this and I can negotiate with them, maybe I should go to law school. So, I did.
So I took the Japanese Bar Exam—and passed on my third attempt—and then joined a boutique law firm doing tech work during the dotcom bubble. After that burst in 2002, I joined a big law firm called Anderson Mori and stayed for eight years doing the full round of responsibilities. Back then Japanese law firms still had the luxury of allowing you to be a generalist—as is the case still compared with foreign law firms, but much more so then.
I didn’t know about compliance or privacy when I went to law school, as privacy was very new then. I knew I wasn’t going to practice per se, though, when I went to law school. There was a book that had come out at the time called something like 101 Jobs You Can Do With the Law Degree. I read that and thought, “Yeah, I don’t really see anything here.”
Then I moved in-house and TO BE spent a year and a half at SUCCESSFUL, Ralph Lauren Japan before YOU NEED TO moving to Fox Networks BE ABLE TO SIFT Group Japan. I stayed there THE IMPORTANT for almost seven years and FROM THE NOT ended up with a dual role SO IMPORTANT. as the sole legal counsel and in management as a representative director. In September 2019, I made the move to ByteDance K.K., serving as the Head of Legal, Japan and Korea. I have learned a lot from all the positions I have been fortunate to fill. Being a lawyer is hard work. To be successful, you need to be able to sift the important from the not so important. For in-house roles, in particular, interpersonal skills are a must, whereas in a law firm, this quality does not command such a premium. Unless you are willing to do all the work—and many lawyers can be very tight about this—people management skills are also a must. At the end of the day, it is not worth fussing about every little detail; not much is that critically important.
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After law school, I went back into insurance. I had to complete CLEs for my licensing, so I attended a CLE on the HIPAA privacy rule as it was just being introduced. I saw a connection with what I was doing at the time as a risk management consultant. I was helping doctors understand confidentiality and release of medical records and the medical records release laws.
MOMENTUM
As a result of a difficult relationship with my dad and other troubling issues with my mom, I grew up believing the world was a dangerous, uncertain place and took that view to university and work. At 18, I discovered alcohol could medicate my stress and anxiety, and I began a long-term passionate affair with alcohol. Today, I’m an alcoholic in remission and a very happy member of AA. While I could do my job as a lawyer—I made it through to equity partner in 1996—once I achieved what I was trying to achieve, I wasn’t any happier. I had tests run only to discover nothing was physically wrong with me; it was a mental health issue. It wasn’t until about two years ago that I decided to go public with my story because I wanted to help people avoid the struggles I went through. I feel like helping change the awareness and stigma of mental health—and how it’s addressed—is the reason I’m on this planet. I talk to people now about leading a balanced life instead of focusing on work/life balance. I encourage people to think about the things they are really passionate about and find ways to interweave that into their work. So the mental health advocacy allows me to talk to people in and outside the firm—it’s clearly a passion. Another aspect I love is teaching, and I have an opportunity I ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO THINK to do that in India. As head of our India practice, I spend ABOUT THE THINGS THEY ARE REALLY most of my time in India developing relationships and PASSIONATE ABOUT AND FIND WAYS TO getting ingrained in the culture, religions, food, etc. It has INTERWEAVE THAT INTO THEIR WORK. become my second home, and it has become important to me that we not only seek to do work for our clients but also do a number of different things, mainly with the law schools—including moot court competition in Kolkata, an international competition in Delhi and a week-long teaching program with Oxford each year to encourage students and to mentor and help underprivileged students. So think about what things you can try to combine rather than get stuck on the notion that work is evil. I’m fortunate that I currently love my job and am no longer trying to run away from the world. Imagine if we could all get to a place where we really love what we do!
So, when I heard about the privacy rule, I was intrigued and thought no one could ever understand all of this. It was just so much. When the rule was finalized, I read it three times. I really just fell in love with the concept of privacy and protecting personal information. And so that’s how it started. My career has just kind of EVERY DAY evolved. It went through all I’M LEARNING kinds of twists and turns, and SOMETHING NEW, I ended up in compliance WHICH IS WHAT and privacy—and this is I LOVE ABOUT exactly where I should COMPLIANCE be. Every day I’m learning AND PRIVACY. something new, which is what I love about compliance and privacy. And I love being in higher education. There are so many brilliant people around here and there are the challenges of the size of the university, the complexity of all of the different schools and just trying to learn what all we do. You’re always learning something, and to be learning in a college environment, it’s just mind-blowing. The Legal Navigator
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360
Jonathan and James: How did you meet and start working together?
From the Ground Up: Building a Law Firm When you have a vision of a better way to do business, with the right support, you can make that vision a reality.
J O NATH A N BLO O M Chairman and CEO, Avonhurst
J AME S H ACKI NG Chief Operational Officer, Avonhurst; Partner, Kindleworth
S UZ Y O ’ KE E FE Managing Director, Major, Lindsey & Africa
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That’s exactly what Jonathan Bloom, an experienced City finance lawyer whose illustrious career includes opening the London office of Ropes & Gray, did last year when he launched a new advisory firm called Avonhurst. Providing political, legal and capital services, Avonhurst is the new kid on the block shaking up the BigLaw firms with its unique model and approach. Thanks in part to its refreshing way of working, from its no-billable hours to its flat structure and collegiate culture, it has an appeal that transcends the impressive array of sophisticated clients for whom it acts, and it has certainly had no problem attracting some of the best lawyers in the market since its launch. Jonathan took the first step to realize his vision when, through the recommendation of a former recruiter at Major, Lindsey & Africa, he met with James Hacking, a partner at Kindleworth, to discuss his ideas for a new firm. Kindleworth is the go-to partner behind the market’s best new boutique law firms, offering strategy, finance, HR, technology and compliance support. With James providing ongoing operational and strategic support in his role as COO of Avonhurst, and with the recruitment assistance of a couple of trusted consultants on the partner and associate sides, Avonhurst’s charismatic founder has found the recipe for success. We spoke to Jonathan, James and one of Avonhurst’s recruitment consultants, Suzy O’Keefe at Major, Lindsey & Africa, about their experiences working together and what it looks like to build a new law firm from the ground up.
JONATHAN: Two years ago, a former Major, Lindsey & Africa recruiter told me about Kindleworth and encouraged me to have a conversation with them. It was on the back of that conversation that I met with James and first presented him with my idea for a new model law firm. For years there have been boutiques dedicated to representing private equity in the U.K., but there’s never been a boutique law firm dedicated to representing what I call “sophisticated capital.” I just thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could bring together a group of people in this space who covered the core areas of practice that those clients need—bank, bond, restructuring, corporate, real estate, regulatory and tax?” Then we could outsource the non-core work—employment, intellectual property and litigation. We could start looking at technology and using AI—not to be the leading players from a technological perspective but to be efficient and thoughtful for our clients. We would do away with the concept of a billable hour completely, and we would lower the leverage model from the traditional 4/5:1 to more like 2/2.5:1—with the half being our outsourcing model. I also considered the fact that in today’s geopolitical climate, our clients don’t just have legal risk, they’re also exposed to political risk. I thought that an advisor with an understanding of the direction of various legislative agendas, who has access to policymakers and decision-makers, and has a team that can analyze political risk and macroeconomic issues, would be hugely valuable to our clients who are looking to deploy capital. By taking this more holistic approach to representing these clients, I felt we’d be adding something quite special to the market. JAMES: There was some serendipity in the timing of our meeting. What we
offer at Kindleworth is unique; there isn’t anyone else doing it. A couple of years ago we had started to think that although the word of mouth and the referral network we had generated were fantastic and we had some great clients, we also wanted to be more forward thinking about reaching out into the marketplace to find others who might be interested in the alternative platform we offer. As with any new client relationship, Jonathan and I started by spending a bit of time together; I listened to Jonathan’s vision and asked lots of questions around that, from “How would you like to build?” to “What do you think the right office environment might be?” and then we thought through the financial plan. We did a bit of work together over the course of a couple of months to really flesh that out. What is fascinating for us in the work we do is that we typically work with people who have a blank sheet of paper in front of them. It’s a hugely fulfilling exercise to be able to map out that vision and then work on how we are going to execute it together.
is to work 360 flexibly and thoughtfully together to anticipate where the business needs to go next.
Suzy: How and when did you begin working with Avonhurst and Kindleworth? SUZY: I began working with Kindleworth in 2014 on an exclusive associate search for the newly launched international arbitration law firm Three Crowns. That was an exciting opportunity for us because the firm was such a unique proposition, and it allowed us to work across London, Paris and the U.S.
When I heard that Jonathan had set up a new firm, I was immediately intrigued. I knew of Jonathan and his excellent reputation. Shortly after Avonhurst’s launch, I was fortunate to get the opportunity to meet with Jonathan and Kindleworth to discuss their associate recruitment needs. Hearing from Jonathan, firsthand, the story behind Avonhurst was a real privilege, and it was clear that this firm was the real deal. I immediately bought into the model and Jonathan’s vision. – JAMES HACKING The response in the market has been overwhelmingly positive; Once Jonathan had committed we have helped them recruit some to it, we then began the heavy fantastic associates. The firm has lifting: working through the various great energy and positivity. They insurance and other regulatory have been very conscious of hiring considerations, determining people who not only are brilliant the corporate structure and lawyers with great credentials and governance, exploring the banking relationships, but also fit in well with relationships, introducing branding the culture. Jonathan looks at the consultants and recruitment potential in every associate he meets consultants, discussing where and cares about their development. offices might be, and considering what technology solutions exist.
If you don’t have somebody with the right vision and the right energy behind it, it’s futile.
It’s been symbiotic. If you don’t have somebody with the right vision and the right energy behind it, it’s futile. Together, we can react to the needs of Avonhurst as they evolve. The key
All: What have you discovered are some of the unexpected benefits of working together? JONATHAN: When we started the business, I knew Kindleworth could
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It’s time that a client service business focuses on the needs and demands of the clients. [...] So, I can look at clients and say, “We built this for you,” and I think they appreciate that. – JONATHAN BLOOM help me work out all the issues around starting a firm, but I never really appreciated the depth of the capabilities they have across the business. It’s not one person who understands compliance and one person who deals with HR; it’s teams. There’s real value in that. The fact that there are Kindleworth people who sit in our offices every day during the course of a week and that I still have calls, emails and face-to-face time every week with James and one of his partners was a really pleasant surprise. Kindleworth provides all of these services and I don’t have to worry about finding anyone else to support them.
build brand-new economic models and work out pricing structures that we’ve never had to really consider before. It’s a really deep and mutually satisfying relationship.
I think we’re helping the market to better service corporate clients in particular, and I also think that consequently we’re helping talented lawyers operate the best that they can.
There’s a whole raft of unexpected benefits, and I think there’ll be more to come, but they all stem from the fundamental context of the relationship. For example, the legal marketplace is small; people know each other whether or not you’d ever think that they might have overlapped at previous firms or at organizations. There has been a sort of halo effect of being in the world that Jon inhabits every single day.
SUZY: Kindleworth is a wellorganized, slick organization, and they are expert at what they do. Because they have such a deep understanding of their clients and because they are readily available, informed and communicative, the recruitment process is seamless and feels like a genuine collaboration. Reaching out to lawyers to discuss opportunities at Avonhurst has been a positive experience because it is such a different proposition, and lawyers generally like hearing about something different, especially when they get called a lot about the same law firms.
All: How are these unique business models disrupting the legal industry?
JONATHAN: Are we disrupting BigLaw? I don’t know. Are we incrementally moving the model into the modern era? I definitely hope so. It’s time that a client service business focuses on the needs and demands of the clients. In this model, we thought we would ask them and then build something fit to purpose—and this is what they all said they wanted. So, I can look at clients and say, “We built this for you,” and I think they appreciate that.
JAMES: We’re probably the only party that might have more expectations as to what would follow in terms of how the relationships might move around and what would come from that. But certainly, I think Avonhurst has challenged us. We’ve had to 16
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JAMES: I believe there are law firms that exist today that wouldn’t if we weren’t around, and there’ll be ones that exist in the future that wouldn’t without our help. The concept of trying to launch a practice without our kind of support is daunting, but I’d like to think we’ve been making it easier for firms to do that. The creation of these new firms is important because they are answering fundamentally the needs of two communities. One is the lawyers themselves—how they want to work, how they want to be remunerated, how they want to engage with each other. And the second is the ultimate clients who I think continue to be frustrated by the relative rigidity of BigLaw.
SUZY: From conversations I have with lawyers in the market, I think there is an increasing appeal for firms that are breaking the BigLaw mold— firms that offer bespoke and highly commercial services to clients who value the relationships with individual lawyers, not just the law firm.
All: What advice do you have for lawyers considering branching out on their own?
stages of their thinking. We’ve met people who have only had the vague notion that there must be another way, and we’ve met other people who’ve been further along in that thinking. Wherever you are, you’ve got to be able to accept that it won’t go exactly as you expect. It will become its own living project. You need to have resilience, patience and determination. What you don’t need is a fully formed answer in your own head. You have to have a sense of what you want to achieve, and you have to believe that that is exciting and possible for you. There are other people who can help you, and there are a range of options around that. So, I think it’s more about just having a good visual feel in your own mind that you think you can stand behind and be excited by. JONATHAN: Setting up a new firm is like setting up any other business; you go from being a legal advisor who analyzes risk to an entrepreneur who’s willing to accept risk. In making that transition into being more of an entrepreneur, you have to have a completely clear vision of what you want to create and a true belief in the ultimate success of that vision. You have to see it clearly, and then you have to chase it until it becomes real. But you also have to have patience, commitment, drive, ambition and hunger. And if you have all of those things, then all you have to do is call Kindleworth!
SUZY: Well, I don’t think it is for the fainthearted or something to be undertaken lightly. I imagine it is a huge investment of time, energy, financials and risk. You need a very clear vision and business case and solid client relationships, and ultimately you need to know how to build and run a business.
I think there is an increasing appeal for firms that are breaking the BigLaw mold.
JAMES: We meet people in all different
– SUZY O’KEEFE
Meet Kindleworth https://www.kindleworth.com/ James Hacking, COO Kindleworth, the go-to partner behind the market’s best new law firms, helps lawyers looking to create something new build their platform using their experience in law firm operations. Four former law firm colleagues, including Avonhurst COO James Hacking, joined together to create a new kind of consulting firm—one that was run by nonlawyers who had extensive experience and deep understanding of how law firms functioned and who could help partners build new law firms within the U.K. legal marketplace. Kindleworth works closely with their clients to help them turn their visions into reality, providing an operational perspective and support necessary for success.
Meet Avonhurst https://www.avonhurst.com/ Jonathan Bloom, CEO Avonhurst considers itself more than a law firm; it’s an advisory firm providing political, legal and capital services to its clients. Jonathan Bloom, a former law firm partner, spent a significant part of his legal career immersing himself in the funds and investment community. He believed that there was a way to be more thoughtful and creative around fee structures and the building of client relationships. His desire to create something different drove him to start Avonhurst, which was founded for three key reasons: • To provide clients with a holistic suite of services that could deliver legislative and political risk analysis in addition to legal and capital services. • To address the disconnect between traditional law firm charging models and the value delivered to clients by eliminating the billable hours and providing a more creative, meaningful and relevant approach to billing. • To eliminate the needless waste and inefficiency created by the traditional approach taken to staffing, work allocation, transaction management and technology deployment.
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YOU DIDN’T KNOW 1
Blake considers himself a professional disruptor.
“If you’re trying to find the common link between mp3.com, ProFlowers, WWE and dosist, they are all techfocused, high-growth businesses that disrupted their respective industries (i.e., music, floral, sports entertainment and health), and offered incredibly diversified and challenging roles. I’m always drawn to entrepreneurial pursuits that are poised for massive growth and that are daring to change something dramatic in their industry.” Blake never saw himself working in the cannabis industry but is now a convert.
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“I was completely unaware of the breadth of therapeutic benefits that cannabis offers when I first encountered dosist. Yet the industry has only just begun to scratch the surface of understanding these benefits, at least from a scientific perspective. dosist takes the simple concept of using targeted formulas and precision dose control to help people naturally manage their health and happiness through cannabis. We have some great proprietary tech and formulations, and our dose pen even won a Time magazine award for being one of the ‘25 Best Inventions of 2016.’ Fast Company named us one of the top-ten ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies 2018’ in the ‘Health’ sector (not just for cannabis). The product looks and works amazing and is changing lives.” dosist is led by a powerhouse team of executives from top well-known brands.
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“I had no idea what I was becoming a part of until I started to meet some folks and realize who they had assembled. 18
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Blake Bilstad
Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, dosist Blake Bilstad joined dosist in 2018 as its CLO. In this role, he has taken on unexpected challenges leading legal for a health and wellness company focused on delivering the therapeutic power of cannabis to the world. Here are five things you may not know about Blake, dosist and what it’s like being a lawyer in the cannabis industry. For example, the chief marketing officer was previously the CMO for Burton, the winter sports company that completely dominates its category, and our COO was a high-ranking ops leader from the dairy industry who had thousands of people reporting in to her organization at Land O’ Lakes. Our CEO, Gunner Winston, who was an investment professional managing assets in multibillion-dollar funds, started investing in cannabis and then took a deep look at this company and became completely inspired. In turn, the board got very inspired by him and recruited him to be CEO. Gunner has been the driver of this great talent acquisition that we’ve been able to enjoy. We’ve landed a number of top folks from Apple, Starbucks, Pepsi and Tesla. I was able to recruit my top two legal lieutenants from senior roles in global pharma and the other from Toyota and United. LinkedIn also just named us #2 on its list of ‘Top Startups 2019 – The World’s Hottest Companies to Work for Now.’”
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This is the most challenging legal job Blake has ever had.
“I’ve had some doozies at mp3. com and WWE. The reason it’s so challenging at dosist is the moving landscape of law and regulations that we have to navigate. We’re starting with a product that is illegal under U.S. federal law. Cannabis is a Schedule 1 controlled substance under the Controlled Substance Act and that makes the basis of everything you do from a legal perspective challenging because you’ve got federal illegality that underscores all U.S. operations, even though it’s legal in California and 32 other states. Then you have to deal with not only all of the state laws and regulations, but the laws of the localities, too. Same goes for global
Advice to Young Lawyers Our legal mavericks featured throughout this magazine share advice that they either found beneficial as a young lawyer or wish they had known back then. B L A K E B I L STA D Never be too proud to take on any project that comes your way. Every project is a learning opportunity, so make sure you are devouring everything because everything you learn is another tool in your toolbox.
operations, as we are in Canada and its various governing provinces. All said, the legal obstacles to cannabis have made it hard for me to use resources that I typically rely on, and the simple things are no longer easy. Negotiating a lease is incredibly difficult. We can’t use traditional banking. Law firms that I’ve used my entire career won’t take me on as a client now because they have a rule that says they can’t work with a cannabis company.”
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Blake drives a VW camper van and collects 8-track tapes.
“I’m a tech attorney, also a pioneering digital music lawyer, and here I am collecting 8-tracks. I’ve always been an enthusiastic vinyl record collector, and in the past six years, I decided to embrace a completely out-of-date music format. In particular, I collect quadraphonic 8-track tapes, which is a precursor to surround sound. My goal is to get my VW camper van fully functional with a quadraphonic 8-track player and design the ultimate home media system where I can showcase all kinds of historical music formats.”
Trust is the most important trait that you can establish with your clients. I do that by trying to be the most approachable attorney possible. People want someone who they feel they can approach with anything—even their secrets. So I do a lot of little things to make sure my colleagues and clients know me as a person and I know them as people. You have to remove all the pretension and all of the things that turn people off of attorneys, and build the walls of trust and connections so that you can be effective.
DAVI D D JA H A I got this advice on my first day of work: Make yourself indispensable. If your job is to lay the folders out on the closing table, make sure there is not another person at this firm who could lay the folders out for that closing better than you. Whatever your job is, you have to be indispensable.
A M B E R H A R E ZL A K Find mentors and advocates early and often because no matter what you decide to do, it’s just absolutely critical that you have those people on your side. If you want to go inhouse or follow a different career path, it’s important to have people who can help you think those things through and understand the implications. I think that’s really key. Be reliable and always come with your best effort. It’s hard to get people to want to work with you or be on your side if you’re not reliable. And as a young associate, you don’t know a lot, so it’s even more important to show that you’re really doing the best you can with every single task that you’re given.
G L E N N M C K E OW N As a lawyer you should never forgo an opportunity to expand your base of knowledge and have new experiences. If you have a chance to delve into a new area of law, don’t ever view it as an impediment to the advancement of your
career. Relish the opportunity. You never know whether it will be something that furthers your personal as well as professional development and expands your job prospects in the future. Also, don’t be afraid to consider opportunities that differ from the paths taken by your peers. Make an honest assessment of your interests and goals and remain true to them. There are lots of really interesting opportunities out there. Don’t close yourself off from them.
TA KA M I K I N I S H I KAWA Don’t be shy and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Except a few items, such as dates, identities and money, there are hardly any items in a contract that cannot be corrected at a later date, so it is not worthwhile to worry too much about the details.
C H R I S PA R S O N S Assess fairly early on what you are doing and whether this is definitely what you want. Do what you are passionate about. I think too many of us fall into a career because it’s the thing our parents point us toward or we thought it would be impressive. We’re all living older and can carry on working for longer, so reflect at a stage where you have a good sense of the role and decide if it’s actually the right thing for you to be doing. Step back and decide what you are really passionate about.
K I M U P S H AW Learn and absorb as much as you can—even the stuff that feels like totally useless information. You never know what you are going to need in the future. When I was a claims adjuster, I worked on claims for a tour line that we insured. While adjusting a vehicle accident involving the tour line, I had to learn how to rebuild cars. Years later, when I was working on a case, the gentlemen in the room were talking about building cars. When I started chiming in, they heard me as an equal in the room and that helped build our relationships. Therefore, I’d advise any young lawyer to take those jobs where the skills do not feel like they are ones you want to have. You never know how it’s going to work out in your career.
BOB WEBBER Everybody wants something different out of their career. You have to figure out what you want and then pursue it actively. Be proactive. If you are not sure what you want early in your career, just work hard and pay off all your debts because then you will have the flexibility to figure it out. The Legal Navigator
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TO L E AD
I suspect most of us hope to leave the world a little better than we found it. That can feel unrealistic when we are overwhelmed with billable hours, navigating regulatory changes or aspiring to be more present at home. But given how many hours we work, the office should be a place where we have a chance to have a positive impact beyond crossing items off a to-do list.
Business leaders are fortunate to have a chance to leave a lasting impact through their organizations. Legacy can take many forms, but one way for any business leader to leave a lasting impact is to create an environment where our people grow, thrive and stay for the long haul. Where our people believe their impact is more than simply improving the bottom line.
How does a leader start (or sustain) that process? I believe it starts with having an achievable vision for your organization— one that is aspirational, but achievable— that helps explain how the organization’s work impacts the community (however defined) for the better. This vision is most likely to resonate when backed by consistent core principles—a set of rules that is used to help make decisions and is lived by leadership each day. The goal should be that everything a leader does is consistent with those principles and moves the organization closer to achieving that vision. At Major, Lindsey & Africa, our vision is that we change lives in the legal industry. One of our core principles in fulfilling that vision is maintaining a spirit of constant improvement. Research consistently demonstrates that the most successful people seek to constantly grow and improve and refuse to rest on the past. Our leadership team is consistently looking for ways to drive our company forward to make sure we do everything we can to be the best in legal and executive search, which
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requires innovation and growth. And our leaders expect their teams to do the same. Consistently looking for ways to improve is a key attribute for teams and individuals that thrive. David Djaha, managing partner of Ropes & Gray, speaks to this in his cover interview. Ropes has core values by which everyone lives and operates. These values affect hiring, impact partnering choices and guide daily decisions. Of course, realizing your vision also depends on the people you hire, the systems you create and the tools you give your team to succeed. But if your people do not believe in the value of the work your organization does, and if the culture is not consistent with the spirit of that work, your people will not be committed for the long term—and the organization will not have a legacy beyond mere survival. David believes that, and MLA does, too. Leading authentically and consistent with your vision is not easy. It requires acknowledging your own deficiencies and celebrating your people’s accomplishments, challenges and opportunities, individually and collectively. Only through seeing you model the vision will people make your organization’s aspirational legacy real. Put differently, only when we are transparent, authentic and accessible as leaders will our people feel free to be the same. We believe the difference between good and great organizations is this ability to give meaning and purpose to what our people do every day and to live that purpose at every level of the company.
By John Cashman President, Major, Lindsey & Africa
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