November 05, 2007
Bruce MacEwen’s Adam Smith, Esq. offers Four Leaders on the State of the Profession — Make That, the “Industry,” a report from a panel discussion entitled Developing the Next Generation of Law Firm Leaders. The four speakers were leaders (firm chair/managing partner level) from O’Melveny & Myers, K&L/Gates, Dechert, and Paul Weiss. Their comments provide an interesting view of the state of the profession, and an intriguing map for those who would like to become leaders.
One of the comments (from Barton Winokur, Chairman and CEO of Dechert) referenced a consulting firm that studied “high- and low-performing ‘leaders’” within the firm and discovered that almost all of those reviewed “ranked in the bottom 5% of the population in terms of sociability.” According to Bruce’s notes:
Nevertheless, Bart reports, one of the more marginal performers, upon discovering these results, immediately realized why they had felt “outside their comfort zone 95% of the time” and was able to adapt and even to capitalize upon that understanding, becoming one of the firm’s star performers subsequently.
This story is a nice illustration of the theory that identifiying a weakness provides clues to the underlying strength. For further discussion of this idea with a variety of interesting and insightful stories, visit Dave Rendall’s The Freak Factor blog. As Dave discusses, building on strengths generates much better results than attempting to repair weaknesses.
Other interesting points:
- From Peter Kalis, Chairman and Global Managing Partner of K&L/Gates: law firm leaders self-identify through a variety of leadership positions that are available to associates as well as partners.
- From A.B. Culvahouse, Jr., Chair of O’Melveny & Myers: Leaders can be made or born; more are made.
The take-home from these comments for those interested in ascending to law firm leadership positions? Start now. Create opportunities, invest in your developing your leadership skills, especially by learning to lead from your strengths. �
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