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Kyle Davis, 33, Locke Lord

Office: Dallas.

Practice area: Real estate and finance.

Law school: Wake Forest University School of Law, 2010.

How long have you been at the firm? Nine years.

How long were you an associate at the firm? Eight years.

Were you an associate at another firm before joining your present firm? No.

What year did you make partner at your current firm? Elected 2018; effective Jan. 1, 2019.

What’s the biggest surprise you experienced in becoming partner? Not so much a surprise, but it has been fascinating learning more about law firm economics. As an associate, you aren’t privy to much information about the business side of the firm, but as a partner, you have much more access to the ins and outs of the firm, which I find interesting.

What do you think was the deciding point for the firm in making you partner? I suspect one deciding point was the relationships that I had with existing firm clients. I have worked with many of them since very early in my career here. Clients like consistency in their transactions, and I believe my long-standing relationships with clients were viewed as an asset to the firm.

Describe how you feel now about your career now that you’ve made partner. Content. While making partner has been a career goal of mine since starting law school, I have no intention of slowing down. Now that I have achieved partnership, I am excited to set new goals and take on new challenges. Within the firm, I intend to work closely with my colleagues, partners and associates to make Locke Lord an even better place to practice for the young associates who come up through the ranks after me.

What’s the key to successful business development in your opinion? For me, it is doing great work for your clients. Networking and making new client connections is valuable, but once you get them in the door you have to do top-notch work to keep them. Same with existing clients, you have to be available, responsive, efficient and perform high-quality work so that the next time they have a legal issue they call you again.

What’s been the biggest change, day-to-day, in your routine since becoming partner? My workload has pretty much stayed the same, but as a partner there are more administrative and nonbillable tasks that, at times, take up a significant amount time during the day.

Who had the greatest influence in your career that helped propel you to partner? I’ve learned so much from all of the partners in the real estate and finance group here in the Dallas office of Locke Lord and credit them all with helping me succeed and advance to partnership, but if I have to pick just one, it would be Robb Stewart. He is a partner in our real estate and finance group in Dallas as well. I started working with him as a first-year associate and still work with him now. As a supervising attorney, he was never too busy to answer my questions, but he wouldn’t just answer them so I could finish the project for him, he really took the time to teach me the rationale and intent behind why we do the things we do the way we do them. From the beginning, he always made me feel like we were collaborating and that I was working with him, not for him, which in turn made me much more invested in our transactions.

What’s the best piece of advice you could give an associate who wants to make partner? Take the time to learn your strengths as an attorney (and for business development purposes) and play to those strengths. There is no one way to be successful in this career and figuring out what you do best and how your contribution to your firm is significant and unique is more important than trying to squeeze into a mold that doesn’t fit.