Is Culture Overrated?

• Author: Danielle Braff
• Pages: 33-34

SEPTEMBER 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 33

Business of Law

infusion, Shang says , helps close the

justice gap for small busi nesses.

With a data set of 15 mil lion state

and federal case s, Shang says they have

not engaged with auditors . She says

investors do t heir due diligence when

deciding to invest, w hich includes the

fact that they have not su ered a loss

yet.

Since no one would ask a large in sur-

ance company to open its under writing

models, she arg ues, the auditing is sue

was irreleva nt to Legalist.

While aware of sta rtups in his fi eld

such as Legali st, Lenkner, who main-

tains a senior adv iser role at Burford,

is comfortable w ith the company’s

data and algorith m use. He has an

appetite for more robust ana lytics, he

says, but only when the data is more

tr ust wo rt hy.

“We are stewards of our inve stors’

and our shareholders’ capital , and they

invest with us prec isely because of our

expert ise and judgment and exp erience,

not in spite of it,” Lenkner says. Q

Is Culture Overrated?

Law fi rms place great importance on hiring

lawyers who fi t their culture, but are they merely

perpetuating the status quo?

By Danielle Bra

If you’re a pro-

spective employee at

Culhane Mea dows,

you can expect t o

go on up to nine

interview s before getting an o er.

It takes that many conversat ions

to fi gure out if you’re really, truly a

fi t with the culture there.

“It’s the single most important

factor,” says Grant Walsh, manag ing

partner and nationa l hiring coordi-

nator for the fi rm, which has seven

o ces. “We’ve turned down ca ndi-

dates that might have ver y good books

and very good fi nancial d ata, but

during the interv iew they didn’t talk

about being part of a tea m, and they

always said ‘I, I, I.’ We want them to

be part of a team .”

The idea of “cultural fi t,” which

refers to how well employees’ person-

alities, work style s and values mesh,

has long been an import ant factor

for law fi rms. Indeed, at many fi rms,

it has become more importa nt than

grades, prev ious job records and even

money. Major, Lindsey & A frica found

in 2016 that law fi rm culture was

the primary r eason partners switch

fi rms, and that 62 percent of lateral

partners were att racted by a fi rm’s

Hiring