Managing Law Firm Politics: a Reflection for Newer Lawyers Practicing in Law Firms
| Publication year | 2010 |
| Pages | 0048 |
| Citation | Vol. 51 No. 1 Pg. 0048 |
2010 Summer, Pg. 48. Managing Law Firm Politics: A Reflection for Newer Lawyers Practicing in Law Firms
Volume 51, No. 1
Summer 2010
Much has been written about lawyers' ethical obligations to clients and their professional responsibilities to the court and opposing counsel. But little has been written about navigating the sometimes treacherous waters of law firm politics. Whether the "law firm" is the AG's or Public Defender's office, a large or small private practice, or a public interest non-profit, we all have to "get along" with our colleagues down the hall, sometimes for decades.
After twenty-eight years as a litigator at Sulloway and Hollis, a Concord law firm, I recently returned to my alma mater, Franklin Pierce Law Center, to teach full-time. Observing the students scramble to launch their careers in this economy, I am reminded daily of three thoughts. First, especially now, new lawyers need practical, people-oriented survival skills. Second, I had the good fortune to work at the same firm for almost three decades, which presented many opportunities to sharpen those political navigation skills. Third, as I watch students send out job and bar applications daily, I recall the beginning of my own legal career.
The 40-lawyer firm I joined in 1981 is over 150 years old now. Our senior partner then did not want the firm to have a street-level entrance because that would invite "the riff raff" clients to seek our services, whereas the good (paying) clients would know where to find us on the second and third floors. The senior partner also insisted that all male attorneys be clean-shaven, and he used a buzzer on his desk to summon his secretary. She took formal dictation using a steno pad and made multiple copies with carbon paper. You couldn't get much more traditional than that.
In this environment, I experienced the long, bumpy path from summer clerk to third year intern, to associate, and to partner. Along the way I served as Chair of the Summer Outing Committee (me), the Summer Associates Committee, the Associates Committee, the Hiring Committee, and the Management Committee. From this vantage point, I share with you several voices that informed my views about managing law firm politics.
I heard this first voice when I had been at the firm for five years and was about to become a partner. One of the partners was delivering a eulogy at the memorial service for the senior partner, whose days of insisting on clean-shaven faces had ended, not due to acceptance, but rather death. The speaker said, "Being in a law firm is sometimes like being in an extended...
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