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How Managing Partners Manage to Survive

Being in charge of an office full of lawyers may be about as close to thanklessness as a job gets.

"It's not truly a thankless job, because everybody says, 'Thank God you're doing that,'" Jonathan Hayden, head of Heller Ehrman's San Francisco office, said with a laugh.

But if gratitude is measured in dollars, office managing partners are a bit taken for granted. In an informal Recorder survey of 23 San Francisco Bay Area office managing partners, 70 percent said they work more than when they practiced law exclusively. But only 22 percent said they are earning more than before they took the post.

"It's like a huge pro bono commitment," said Richard Hill, who heads Littler Mendelson's 77-lawyer San Francisco office.

Those who are in it for the power might be disappointed, too. In recent years, firms have shifted their power centers. More substantive decisions regarding billing rates, compensation and advancement now belong to the practice group.

"In terms of having a significant say in the long-term destiny of the law firm, practice group management is more in that position," said Thomas Kellerman, 52, who heads Morgan Lewis' 55-lawyer Palo Alto, Calif., office and co-chairs the firm's emerging business and technology practice.

Office managing partners reported that they spend the most nonpracticing time on business development and marketing, followed closely by strategic planning for the office, recruiting and, trailing distantly, giving input on compensation and advancement. On average, office managing partners say they spend about 25 percent of their time managing and 75 percent practicing law.

So if it's not money and it's not power, why does anyone take the job?

"I hadn't wanted to do it, particularly, and it took a little bit of time to persuade me," said Ken Kuwayti, who heads Morrison & Foerster's Palo Alto office. "You just feel a responsibility to the firm and the office, and that's important to me."

For others, call it taking one for the team.

"[Being at Littler] has been my career," Hill noted. "So it seems fair to put in a few years. But it's definitely not something I would do indefinitely."

For a few, though, it's a new career track. Sonja Weissman, 42, has headed Reed Smith's Oakland, Calif., office for nearly five years and says she wouldn't mind continuing in management.

"Because it's so big, there are lots of different management roles at Reed Smith," she said.

Whether it's guilt, altruism or ambition, for some there may be a surprising upside. While only 15 percent of respondents admitted that the added responsibilities hurt their practices, almost half said the management position actually helps their practices. For one partner, that means extra cachet.

"My practice volume has increased since I took the job as office managing partner," said David Anderson, 45, of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. "In the Pillsbury system, being office managing partner is an indication of the confidence the firm has in a younger leader, and to clients and prospective clients this is someone who has the respect and full command of the resources of the firm."

WHERE'S THE MONEY?

Getting on the management track does not mean you're riding the gravy train. That, one consultant says, may come back to bite firms in the end.

"It's a constant debate," said Wendy Tice-Wallner. "Law firms complain about not having leaders, and at the same time they hesitate in paying for leaders. As a result, you can suppress potential leaders."

Only 26 percent of those surveyed gave an unqualified "yes" when asked whether office management was a plus factor in compensation. Another 26 percent weren't sure or said it was a negligible addition. Seventeen percent said it's not a factor at all, and another 17 percent said that it depends on their performance as a manager (14 percent didn't answer).

Graphic Images We put together a few charts to illustrate key questions from our survey of local office managing partners: -- Generally, how does the change in workload stack up against salary? -- More specifically, how do those factors balance for individuals? -- What does the office managing partner do all day, anyway? -- Does managing the office help or hurt a practice? About the survey: Cal Law sent out informal e-mail surveys to 39 office managing partners in the San Francisco Bay Area at Cal Law 25 and Am Law 100 firms -- all large multioffice firms. Twenty-three returned the surveys, all from offices with more than 25 lawyers. Participating firms: Bingham McCutchen; DLA Piper; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Heller Ehrman; Howrey; Jones Day; Littler Mendelson; Morrison & Foerster; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Nixon Peabody; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; O'Melveny & Myers; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Reed Smith; Shearman & Sterling; Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; WilmerHale; and Winston & Strawn.

"It's a hornets' nest with respect to compensation, so rather than deal with it, a lot of firms say, 'Thank you very much -- we hope you enjoy the prestige and power, but we're going to pay you the same way we compensate other partners,'" Tice-Wallner, a former chairwoman of Littler Mendelson, said.

Littler's Hill noted that, when firms do significantly compensate office management, it can cause bad blood among lawyers in the office.

"I put in a lot of time that's not really compensated by the firm, but on the other hand, you have firms where it's done to an unhealthy degree," he said. "That can breed resentment among lawyers -- we avoid that here."

STAYING THE COURSE

While practice group and firm leaders tend to set the direction and push for growth, managing a single office is more about maintaining stability, says Larry Richard, a leadership-development consultant with Hildebrandt International in Philadelphia.

"If every day I come into the office and I ask, 'How is everything?' and people say, 'Nothing out of the ordinary,' I heave a sigh of relief and say I'm doing my job [as office managing partner] well," Richard said. "Whereas leadership is about change, ferment and uncertainty -- it's not about making the trains run on time."

Heller's Hayden, 53, said he used to oversee associate assignments and reviews. He also used to have the final say over adjusting and reducing bills for clients. Now all that is left to practice group management.

"What's left of the job is being sort of the cultural leader both internally and externally," Hayden said.

Exactly how the office managing partner's role plays out depends on whether that office is new, newly combined or well-established. Kellerman came to Morgan Lewis to build an entirely new office for the firm in Silicon Valley with the pieces of his old firm, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, in 2003. That meant an emphasis on client pitches, recruiting and generally raising the firm's profile in the Valley.

Complain, Complain, Complain With the promise of anonymity, office managing partners listed the things they wish they could get from higher management. "Have more face time in CA from East Coast upper management and practice group leaders. Hard being on the West Coast with [most] other offices ... on the East Coast." "Communicate with me as well as I communicate with the people in my office." "More hours in the day!" "I have seen the administrative load grow over the years. As it grows, I continue to work to share it, but it would help if those pressures diminished." "Eliminate certain red tape in approval processes -- progress has been made to do so, but we could be even more efficient." "Let me quit."

MoFo's Kuwayti, 42, who heads an office that's been around since 1985, described his job, in part, as facilitating the work environment. "Helping people to get what they need for the firm and helping to implement those policies that the firm has," Kuwayti said.

At many firms the role has been curtailed because more focus has been put on practice groups.

"I think that's important," said Paul Glad, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal's longtime San Francisco office managing partner, "but I think that nothing can replace on-site management and being able to act quickly on opportunities."

PAIN, YES. GAIN? MAYBE

In the survey, most office managing partners said they practice about three-quarters of the time and manage for a quarter. Robert Mittelstaedt, who heads Jones Day's San Francisco office, reported the highest percentage of time devoted to practice: 95 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, some who have multiple management roles, on top of heading an office, practice less than half the time.

The tension between managing and lawyering was a common theme among those surveyed, but only 14 percent said it hurt their practices, 38 percent said it didn't affect their practices and 48 percent said it actually helped their practices. Even those who said their practice has suffered weren't necessarily in a panic.

"Sure, it's hurt my practice some," wrote one office managing partner. "I can't bill as much time as I used to, and therefore have a less direct role in litigating matters. It will obviously take some time to reload, but I don't expect a prolonged recovery."

Office managing partners consistently list cutting billable-hours requirements as a huge factor in making the position work.

"It takes some of the pressure off," said Sonnenschein's Glad. The 57-year-old rainmaker said he bills about 1,500 client hours a year -- the partner requirement is 1,950 -- and spends 800 or more hours on management, which includes heading the office and sitting on firmwide policy and planning committee.

And then there are the upsides to running the office.

"It's helped in the sense I see more opportunities because I am a known quantity with the rest of the firm," one new office managing partner said.

"It's definitely helped. Clients know when you run a business, you become more attuned to a business like theirs," said Charles Birenbaum, who heads Winston & Strawn's San Francisco office. And there's the ability to bond over shared miseries.

"My clients sometimes share the pains and challenges of management," he said.

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