Q: Do you love your work and your firm?
A: In back-to-back articles the attorneys of Cravath, Swaine & Moore reflect on how culture and doing things differently keeps the firm and its lawyers together.
James B. Stewart writing for the NYTimes, "A Law Firm Where Money Seemed Secondary," reflects on his personal experiences as a new associate at the Manhattan Plaza headquarters of the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Stewart notes with some affection the values that kept the firm together decades ago - and apparently does today. Excerpt.
"Finally it came to me: The one thing nearly all the partners had in common was they loved their work.
This came as a profound revelation. Of course they worked long hours, because it didn’t feel like work to them. They took great satisfaction in the services they rendered their clients."
Eventually Stewart leaves the firm. But he says that by doing so he was paying the firm the highest compliment. Excerpt.
"You couldn’t fake this. The partners seemed to have some sixth sense. I enjoyed my work. But I had to admit I didn’t love it the way they did.
At times I found this mystifying. How could anyone tackle a complex tax problem with such enthusiasm? Or proofread a lengthy indenture agreement? Why couldn’t I love a prestigious, high-paying, secure job like they did?
At the same time, it was liberating. It was obvious to me that someone who loves his or her work, whatever that might be, has a huge competitive advantage, not to mention a satisfying and enjoyable life. Somehow people who love what they do seem to make a living. So I started pondering what I might love as much as some of my Cravath colleagues loved practicing law."
A turn of the page finds yet another article on Cravath. This one by Peter Lattman, "Culture Keeps Firms Together in Trying Times," again reports the similar theme: a way of being among lawyers in a firm that to some may seem trite and out-dated is actually the respectful and business-savvy glue that holds it together. Excerpt.
"“The big question was not whether she [Christime A. Varney] was a good lawyer, but whether she was a Cravath partner,” said Evan Chesler, the firm’s outgoing presiding partner. “Would she be a good fit?”
A few weeks later, the Cravath lawyers assembled and unanimously voted her into the partnership. She received no signing bonus, no guarantee, no special deal. Instead, Cravath is paying her according to the firm’s seniority-based, lock-step system, which sets the spread between the highest- and lowest-paid partners firmly at 3 to 1.
“We’re not going to buy a lawyer with a big guarantee,” Mr. Chesler said. “That’s not how we do things. That’s not the Cravath way.”
The Cravath way? Really? One might dismiss such high-minded rhetoric as idealistic poppycock from a white-shoe lawyer hanging on to antiquated notions about the practice of law.
But the Cravath way, and Mr. Chesler’s impassioned views about law firm partnerships, may be worth paying attention to at a challenging moment for corporate law firms."
As another class of law school graduates readies themselves to take the bar exam and enter the legal profession, they could do a lot worse than looking to align themselves with firms whose culture fits them, that they respect, that they can come to love as much as the work they will be doing over their lifetime.
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