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Bonovitz Steps Down as Duane Morris Chairman
Soroko takes over law firm leadership
The Legal Intelligencer
January 04, 2008
After 10 years at the helm of Duane Morris, Sheldon Bonovitz has steppeddown as chairman and handed over the reins to vice chairman andlitigation department head John J. Soroko.
The switch was effective Thursday and will start a new chapter in afirm that has tripled in size since Bonovitz, 70, took over as chairmanin the beginning of 1998.
Duane Morris went from a little more than 200 lawyers then to more than650 now. Soroko, 56, said the firm was well-known in the mid-Atlanticarea in 1998, but now has offices across the country and in London,Singapore and Vietnam. Revenues have increased in the last 10 years from$70 million to $375 million for 2007.
"In the course of all this, Duane Morris has earned a wide reputationfor innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and forward thinking, ineverything from our efficient firm administration and our ancillarybusinesses, to the design of our offices and, yes, our artwork," Sorokosaid Thursday in a response to Bonovitz's e-mail announcement to thefirm that he was stepping down.
The 10-year mark, Soroko said in an interview, was a good breaking pointfor Bonovitz, who plans to stay active in the firm as chairman emeritus.
"My goal is to be helpful to John as he assumes the chairmanship, butcertainly not be intrusive," Bonovitz said in the e-mail to the firmThursday. "My status will be that of chairman emeritus and, as such, Iwill serve on various committees and boards of the firm as well as focuson client development and practice."
Soroko said he has had great training over the past few years atBonovitz's side and doesn't anticipate any major changes in the way thefirm will be run.
He said there are no immediate plans to name a new vice chairman -- aposition that has only sometimes been filled within the firm.
While he will continue to advise clients and argue cases on appeal,Soroko said he doesn't plan on practicing full time. He has served asthe head of the litigation department -- the firm's largest practice -- since 2002 and has passed that title on to Philadelphia-based partnerMatthew A. Taylor.
Bonovitz said in April 2006 that he wanted the firm to hit the1,000-lawyer mark in two to four years. While that hasn't happened yet,Soroko said Bonovitz "accomplished an awful lot" and Soroko will look tocontinue the firm's growth.
He said there is no target number or time frame for that expansion.Soroko said his goal is just to continue to combine the firm's positiveculture with a focus on financial performance and results.
Duane Morris recently moved into new space in New York City and willcontinue to grow that office. He said the firm would also look to expandin Chicago and California -- which houses the second largest group ofDuane Morris attorneys other than Philadelphia.
While litigation is important to the firm, Soroko said Duane Morris'fastest growing areas are in corporate law and intellectual property.
Peggy Dixon of Abelson Legal Search called Bonovitz the "Energizerbunny" who "embraces the legal community, arts and everything he doeswith such enthusiasm." She said Soroko has big shoes to fill but has the experience and shouldmake for a smooth transition.She said the switch would be a change at Duane Morris that is feltacross all of its offices.
One thing to watch, Dixon said, is how the firm will continue to viewmarketing. Duane Morris has long been praised for its marketingdepartment of more than 40 professionals -- one of the largest of theAmLaw 200 in terms of the ratio of marketing professionals to lawyers.Dixon said Bonovitz had a personal interest in growing the marketingdepartment and is a true visionary in a time when many firms still don'tquite accept the importance of marketing.
In 2001, Bonovitz brought on Ed Schechter as the firm's first chiefmarketing officer and had Schechter report directly to him. Dixon saidBonovitz has allowed the firm to dedicate "a very large part" of itsbudget to marketing. She said it would be interesting to see if thatcommitment stays the same.
It's a challenge for the new chairperson and the organization anytimenew leadership steps in after someone like Bonovitz, who had played asignificant role in the firm for 10 years and "radically changed" theorganization, Frank D'Amore of Attorney Career Catalysts said.Soroko is known in the community as a "lawyer's lawyer type of guy"whose legal ability is respected by those who try cases with or againsthim, D'Amore said.While he may be better known for his legal skill than his law firmleadership ability, D'Amore said he has all the tools to be successfulin his new post.
In looking at recent management changes in Philadelphia's largest lawfirms, he pointed to Tad Decker of Cozen O'Connor and Carl M. Buchholzof Blank Rome as examples of how firms are picking leadership.Both Decker and Buchholz had management experience outside of a law firmbefore being brought in to head up their respective firms. Soroko is themore traditional type of succession story in that he was brought upthrough the firm and ascended to chairman, D'Amore said.He said the significance of the more recent style of leadership changesis that law firms are more like a business than ever. He said it is onlya matter of time before law firms start putting nonlawyers in the topleadership positions.
Soroko is the eighth chairman of Duane Morris. He has focused hispractice on securities litigation, financial services, corporategovernance, class action defense and lawyer liability.In 2006, he represented Pennsylvania judges before the state SupremeCourt, where he helped secure a ruling that reinstated pay raises tostate judges.He is the co-founder of the Philadelphia Lawyers chapter of theFederalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and serves as thedirector and treasurer of the Harrisburg-based think tank theCommonwealth Foundation.
