“I got an offer on this space this morning,” says Ralph Baxter as he strides through the glass-walled conference rooms that make up the top floor of the ten-story Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe building in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. It’s just one of many times in conversation, this morning in early March, when Baxter makes no distinction between the law firm and himself.

But the seamlessness between Baxter and Orrick, which he has led for more than 22 years, isn’t limited to issues of grammar. Baxter is perhaps more intertwined with the institution than any other nonfounder head of an Am Law 200 firm. Thanks in large part to his risk-taking, ambition, and innovation, Orrick has gone from a 254-attorney regional firm to an international concern with more than 1,000 lawyers and revenues of $846 million last year. But to simply describe Baxter as Orrick’s chairman and CEO, his official titles, does not fully capture his ubiquity within the firm. Baxter is Orrick’s mascot (bobble heads of Baxter were auctioned to raise money for charity), punching bag (jokes about his hair have been a firm staple), and even its anchorman of sorts.