A lifestyle is all about how someone chooses to live their life. A “lifestyle” firm is all about a place where the lawyers have a life to live. And that may not be a good thing, as one firm is finding out.
For years Arent Fox embraced its image as a “lifestyle” firm. But recently the Washington, D.C., shop has reversed course. At the firm’s partnership retreat last month, firm Chairman Marc Fleischaker issued a directive to partners to stop referring to Arent Fox as a “lifestyle” firm. The problem, Fleischaker says, is one of perception: “The implication is that you don’t have to work hard. We do work hard and we make a lot of money, so I don’t want people to misconstrue who we are.”
