The I in Team – what it takes to turn a lateral into a star player

Hiring star partners remains the main tactic for firms hoping to move up a division. Legal Business talks to four of the select few who have moved and excelled to find what it takes to drive a new team.

It was just a few disorientating days into his new job at Ashurst Morris Crisp and up-and-coming banking partner Mark Vickers was facing a minor but embarrassing dilemma: with a tight deadline, he had no idea how to order a taxi.

The acquisition finance specialist had missed the induction meeting, having been working on a transaction, and didn’t have any idea what the internal procedures were. If that sounds comical, back in 1999 partner movement between major law firms had only been a semi-regular occurrence since the early 1990s recession shook up an already changing legal profession. And, anyway, successful partners quickly become reliant on law firm infrastructure – the essential but hard-to-achieve mix that supports, fosters and enables rainmakers.

Vickers had been at Dibb Lupton Alsop most of his professional life, having joined in 1980. In that time, he had been successful, helping to build and then lead a much-admired acquisition finance team at the emerging national player. But joining Ashurst – one of the proudest brands in City law – was intimidating.

Vickers’ blushes were saved as those of so many senior lawyers in such situations: his long-time personal assistant Sue Holder had moved with him (one practical tip many transferring partners swear by) and quickly sorted out his transport.

Being the new boy is hard – doubly so when you are the much-touted signing that is supposed to push your new team to fresh heights, even if you don’t yet know where the toilets are.

Much has been written about the phenomenon of the star-system. Whatever the industry, research generally concludes that building success on the basis of recruiting stars is expensive and highly prone to failure. In the extremes of certain labour markets, such as banking and team sports, recruiting institutions often pay such high compensation that they gain no economic value from their mobile prizes. In the legal market, the poor track record of partner recruitment has been similarly well covered and the role of aggressive partner recruitment in last year’s collapse of Dewey & LeBoeuf exhaustively documented.

As such Legal Business decided to talk to a handful of the rare breed of recruits that have inarguably been a major success after switching teams. Alongside Vickers, we interviewed Weil, Gotshal & Manges London head Mike Francies, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) property head Chris de Pury and senior partner of the European finance group of Kirkland & Ellis Stephen Gillespie.

All have different personalities and backgrounds, and the context of the career move they made also varied considerably. The goal was simple: to examine what made them take a life-changing decision and find out what it was about their personal experiences that made them a success. Is there a formula for law firms to know when they need to bring in a high-profile senior recruit and then ensure that they actually deliver?
 

Big decisions

In the spring of 2006, Stephen Gillespie received a call that changed his professional life. He hadn’t thought his career needed changing. As one of the most prominent banking partners at Allen & Overy (A&O), with a substantive role in the City giant’s strategy, he was hardly on the wrong track.

‘I was happily minding my own business, working on a large leveraged buyout (LBO), when one Friday afternoon a head-hunter called me out of the blue on behalf of Kirkland & Ellis,’ recalls Gillespie.

A&O’s practice was heavily focused on advising banks in LBOs and Gillespie was increasingly frustrated with being steered away from the private equity houses that were driving many of the corporate takeovers of the time.

He recalls: ‘It was my perception that lawyers acting for the sponsors did not encounter the same issues and this was confirmed on the few occasions when I was on the sponsor side at A&O and found this work much more enjoyable and fulfilling.’

He also wanted to re-focus on his fee-earning work, which was being squeezed out by the overpowering demands of various managerial roles. ‘This was the classic “producer-manager” dilemma that many lawyers performing management functions in law firms face, but it was becoming a real bugbear for me.’

Kirkland presented the opportunity to assume a client role acting almost entirely for sponsors. Gillespie did his diligence, met a wide range of Kirkland people and travelled to the US. The Chicago-bred firm – a robustly commercial outfit with a strong track record in private equity – was one of the most upwardly-mobile major US practices of recent years and had long been active in the partner market.

Despite Kirkland’s strong pedigree, it took a lot of thinking and discussion with family and friends before he sealed the deal. ‘I had no particular reason to leave A&O and felt a strong sense of loyalty towards a fantastic firm which had given me amazing professional opportunities and had been very good to me on a personal level, so deciding to leave was very difficult and would not have happened if the Kirkland opportunity had not been so attractive,’ he says.
 

As Gillespie geared up to take the plunge, commercial real estate partner Chris de Pury was facing some frustrations of his own. He had been a highly regarded partner at Herbert Smith for ten years and was set to take a sabbatical. Although very attached to Herbert Smith, de Pury had become frustrated that real estate was not a core practice area for the firm. It was only when a client picked up on his aggravation and suggested he move that he realised he needed a new challenge, not a sabbatical.

He says: ‘I view myself as quite a positive person but when you’re going home and looking in the mirror and getting irritated about being irritated, you need a change.’

De Pury briefly considered a career outside of law but thought again after looking at the career of colleagues who had taken other senior roles in the profession. (David Taylor, who had left Herbert Smith to join DLA Piper, and the City firm’s head of real estate finance, Joginder Anand, who now heads real estate strategy at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, were inspirations.)

‘The question at the time was: what do the clients want? The answer was a wider service,’ says de Pury. ‘People like Anand were very commercial and savvy and had got the most out of the industry within major disciplines as they could spot the enormous growth potential and took the risk to play higher. This is what I wanted to do.’

Joining BLP meant moving to one of the top real estate practices in the City, an ambitious firm where the practice would be central. However, the move was not easy for a Herbert Smith man born and bred. He was one of the first full equity partners to quit for a rival law firm, which caused both surprise and anger.

Having quit in March 2007, de Pury went through a much-publicised dispute over exit terms with his former firm, which at one point was threatening to block him from joining BLP for two years. De Pury had to sort this out while he was working on one of the top real estate mandates of the year, acting for Qatari investment group Delta Two on a £12bn bid for Sainsbury’s, which had major property issues. An unusual deal was ultimately reached with Herbert Smith whereby de Pury worked at a client for several months before joining BLP in January 2008.
 

For Mike Francies, in 1998 a corporate partner at Clifford Chance (CC), the equation was very different. He had no issue with how central his practice group was at the firm or – like Vickers – a clear motive to trade up to a stronger platform. CC was the acknowledged European leader in private equity by some distance.

Francies wanted something more straightforward: the chance to build an international private equity practice from scratch. At this time US law firms had only very recently begun making tentative steps into UK law. It speaks volumes about the famously hard-working Francies’ self-belief that this didn’t strike him as much of a career risk.

‘It was a well-respected firm and I wanted a new challenge. I already shared some key clients with Weil and knew a lot of people there, so the move was simple,’ says Francies, though many peers at the time regarded such a step as career suicide.

He was already well acquainted with Weil corporate partners Thomas Roberts and Glenn West, as well as then executive partner Stephen Dannhauser, and knew Maurice Allen, the CC finance partner that Weil had initially recruited to drive its UK law push.

His fellow partner Jacky Kelly – who currently heads Weil’s London finance practice and co-heads the firm’s global structured finance derivatives practice – had also already moved from CC over two years before, which was comforting. However, it was the opportunity to build from scratch that sealed the deal.

‘I wanted to be somewhere smaller and along with this comes responsibility of brand development and being proactive about how to deal with legal services. I had to be a lot more flexible and actively do more than before, which was very good training,’ he explains.

For Vickers the attraction of Ashurst was more subtle. Compared to the individualistic Dibbs, Ashurst’s reputation as one of the more collegiate of the major City firms was a major draw. Vickers says: ‘The team-based culture, atmosphere and reward system encourages you to share relationships and this was one of the cultural differences I noticed here. At [Dibbs], there was an individually-based results culture, which suited that firm – there is no right or wrong – you just adapt to the business model of what works for the firm.’

Money, of course, is always a factor in a career move. BLP had offered an above lock-step deal to de Pury and Kirkland is well known for offering packages in excess of the earnings of senior Magic Circle partners for select hires. While all four were offered a good deal, remuneration in the case of the most motivated partners is usually secondary to opportunity and recognition.

Joining the team

Having made the decision to move, new recruits recall the unnerving introduction to new colleagues as the heralded senior recruit as a shock to the system.

Prior to joining, de Pury attended BLP’s Christmas ball and remembers how bizarre it was to have gone from growing up in Herbert Smith, where he knew everyone, to entering the Grosvenor House hotel and seeing a mass of faces and trying to find anyone who he recognised.
 

Successful transfers have to be astute at reading a new institution’s culture and office politics, quickly working out which partners they can rely on, the key members of the support team to cultivate and how to get access to the best associates and deal support.

Judging from our panel, a sophisticated integration process didn’t figure hugely in the initial phase. At Kirkland, there is no handbook, nor are there ‘buddies’. The firm’s flat management structure means there are no heads of departments or regional managing partners and this was one of the things that attracted Gillespie.

He says his integration process was spontaneous. On day one he was immersed in work. Beyond figuring out how the photocopiers and scanners worked, where the kitchen was and where the best place to grab a sandwich close to the office was, Gillespie integrated well.

Corporate partner Jim Learner, who led the office at the time, was his main point of contact and Learner went out of his way to make the transition as easy as possible. For Gillespie, however, it was the teamwork that flowed through the numerous deals he was thrown into that helped him settle in.

Gillespie says: ‘If they are going to succeed as lateral hires, individuals need to be open-minded and not hold any preconceptions about the place they are about to join. There are no prizes for being a wiseacre, second-guessing or criticising the way the new firm does things.

‘But at the same time, it’s important for the new firm’s leader to ensure they create opportunities so the individual can get involved, such as introducing them to clients and contacts and getting them involved in transactions – this is essential. It would not work if a firm let them sit on their own and expected them to create opportunities themselves.’

However it is achieved, there is agreement that new joiners have to find practical means to build links. BLP has an integration package that entails new partner dinners and various events but what de Pury was particularly impressed with was the firm’s cultural knack for mixing in the new joiners.

At the time of de Pury’s arrival, there was much talk of internal tension among partners concerned at being overlooked in favour of laterals and he was intent on overcoming any resentment. He recalls changing his behaviour after flippant comments were taken literally. An early joke about ‘disgusting coffee’ led to the staffers taking it seriously and changing the brand.

To counter such potential for misunderstanding, he warns it is crucial in quickly securing influence in a new firm to park the ego. ‘I went in and tried to be as humble as possible. When you walk into a new firm, you come with a lot of baggage and a reputation. I had to work very hard to show I’m not an ex-Herbies partner but a BLP partner. You have to be very collegiate,’ he says.
 

Game plans

It sounds obvious, but having a clear idea of how you will build your practice at your new home is acknowledged as a hallmark of successful moves. It helps if the expectations are realistic on both sides given the challenge of getting major clients to move even with a trusted partner.

Vickers said that Ashurst had a clear idea of what it wanted to achieve, and he knew what he wanted to do with his practice to meet these goals. ‘We had done a lot of thinking and ensured our objectives were in line. There was a mutual respect between Geoffrey Green [Ashurst’s then senior partner] and I, and my motivation was to transfer my client base to the firm’s environment and I was confident that rewards would follow.’

The plan was to move Vickers’ key relationships with major financial institutions like The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays Bank and graft them on to Ashurst’s infrastructure to create a stronger banking-led practice. He had considerable success and one key client transfer was RBS, which has now become one of Ashurst’s top clients.

Once he joined, he built occasions to reinforce relationships and widen his team’s contacts. ‘Although the move felt natural, emotionally it was very hard. It was not a decision that I made lightly, it took a lot of time and consideration.’

Even if you have come in with a clear mission to build from a relatively blank page, it still takes adjustment. Francies acknowledges it took some time to adapt and one major change was to start thinking of the firm as a business and devote considerable time to build and market the brand, as well as the team.

De Pury says his strategy was simple: fit in and create. He applied the analogy that teachers use to show they are not biased when teaching a class that includes their own children. He went over the top in getting people involved and making sure he shared as much as possible with his new team to strive to fit in and build trust with colleagues.

Dominique Graham of Graham Gill, one of the most experienced partner recruitment specialists in the City, picks up this point: ‘Laterals need the firm’s co-operation to ensure there is an open space for communication so all objectives are made clear on both sides to prevent any nasty surprises.’

Fortunately for de Pury, three big deals came shortly after he joined and these involved the entire team. This gave him a sense of and access to a wide spectrum of individuals across the firm. One of his major clients – Chancerygate – was also soon using BLP.

He says: ‘This was great as it gave me space to settle down and allowed people to gain confidence in me. I could see people beginning to want to work with me because of the strong deals coming in and this allowed me to build up the team.’

Luckily he had one client who instructed him on his first day at BLP. ‘He called me up and said: “Ha, gotcha! I wanted to be the first one to instruct you so I must get a massive discount forever!” This was nice because you never know which client is actually going to come,’ says de Pury.

But no matter how good your client skills, de Pury warns not to underestimate the challenge of transferring relationships. He comments: ‘When I moved, a lot of [clients] said: “If you can bring us something we will give you something back. We would like to instruct you but we also recognise that your old team at Herbies is a bloody good team and they remain a good team. So with 50 of them there and only one of you moving, why would we move with you unless you give us a good reason?” So I had to give my clients a good excuse and show them the extent of the resources that were available to them. And I had to show them I was loyal to my contacts and was trying to work positions for them.’

Vickers echoes the point, stressing that transferring client relationships takes a huge amount of time and work.

And even if you can count on some very loyal clients, there is a consensus that – one way or another – the first year, being the period in which initial integration happens and the ground work for success is laid, is tough. The rewards – even for the best performers – probably won’t be seen until the second year.

Client mobility in the practice area is obviously a factor in this equation, which varies enormously by sector and practice area. For example, for Francies, the relatively quick transfer of several private equity clients from CC was a substantial boost during the period when he was focused on ‘re-branding’ a firm, previously largely known for banking and insolvency work, as a credible force for City buyout work in the first two years after his arrival. Banks and large bluechips in comparison are notoriously more difficult to shift.

In some cases, of course, partners are brought in to serve existing clients that need a fresh senior resource – meaning that the move isn’t about bringing over clients or market share. This was the case with Gillespie, who was moving to serve a new client base, which allows the transferring partner to focus more quickly on the practice of law.
 

Scoring

So is there a formula for success? Arguably, part of the reason for the general lack of effectiveness of partner recruitment has been the shift in hiring patterns as the industry has changed. For example, Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor William Henderson and Pennsylvania State University professor Christopher Zorn recently looked at research on hiring patterns in the US. They concluded that there has been a shift from the 1990s’ more successful ‘trading-up’ recruitment, when rising stars at mid-tier firms moved to larger firms that presented a stronger platform. In contrast, the last decade has seen a huge boom in sideways moves, with less successful results. Indeed, the term ‘lateral’ hire is a relatively recent phrase that reflects this shift. For obvious reasons, such lateral moves often just represent, well, a lateral move.

Talking to our panel, it is clear that none of them made such a sideways shift. They were all hired for clear reasons, with a clear pitch on both sides as to what they would get out of it.

By the same token, all of them were making a distinct career change in the sense of moving to a very different working context. This – having a clarity about the reasons for a move for both the recruiting firm and transferring partner – appears to be part of the formula for success. It provides clear incentives on both sides.

De Pury comments: ‘It is key to enjoy yourself and be positive and this creates a halo effect. As long as the environment you’re going into doesn’t make you cynical then good energy just flows. And going into a new firm, you are naturally competitive and want to succeed.’

That doesn’t necessarily manifest as obvious self-confidence – though Francies and Gillespie display the self-possession that comes from the combination of a work ethic combined with technical polish. In comparison, de Pury and Vickers seemed more concerned about fitting in, and did not take it for granted that their moves would be a success. But whether motivated by fear of failure, work ethic or sheer self-belief – all four come across as highly driven.

Gillespie describes it: ‘Most lawyers are ambitious and want to succeed but I actually think the key drivers for success are a real passion for the work you are doing in the best possible place, on the best possible platform, for the best possible clients doing the best possible deals.’

A related observation is the four all display an entrepreneurial streak that is still not that common in City law. That quality, a restless hunt for the next opportunity or commercial edge, is as common to the most successful hires as any you could highlight.

There is also widespread agreement that partner recruits at firms with underlying momentum are more successful. There are likely two elements to this: a strong brand and a growing firm make it easier to win clients, galvanise lawyers and secure resources to back investment. And second, there is a selection bias as the most talented candidates are only likely to consider moving to a firm with a strong story to tell.

A final point. Looking at the experience of the four, it is clear the extent to which the team – and effectively working with an immediate team and the wider firm – has been utterly central to success. For all the personal ambition of our panel, they all remain inherently team-orientated.

It’s also striking that most successful transferring stars will move very rarely – they don’t see themselves as hired guns. The most effective partners fully appreciate the necessity of harnessing the institution if they are to compete at the highest level.

Working with the team can mean many things. You can built it to spec as did Francies. You can integrate smoothly, like de Pury. You can even co-opt it to your will. But ultimately real success on the field comes from having a team to support you. That’s the I in team. LB

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk