Last October, Linklaters’ Charlie Jacobs took over as senior partner amid high hopes that the rainmaker would bring flair and dynamism to leadership at a City giant that looked in danger of losing its way. One year on, Legal Business sat down with Jacobs to discuss progress made.
On taking the senior partner role:
‘When I stood for senior partner, I had a lot of questions: “Why are you doing this? Why don’t you wait a few years?” I wanted to set the tone. There is a lot going on in our industry and we could do with someone dynamic and at a young age.
I stood on a manifesto based on the three Cs. That’s clients – to spend a lot of time pitching for work and developing the relationships; culture – what makes the firm fun to work at and keeps it together when things aren’t going well; and confidence – this is an amazing firm, and as a non-Brit I know you have to remind the Brits just how good things are around here and we need to celebrate what we are good at. It is much easier for me to expect more from the firm if I am leading from the top.’
On managing:
‘I don’t do internal meetings between 11am and 3pm, or I do internal Monday and Friday but not the other days. If you let the internal diary take over you never get things done. One year down the line I hope people are saying: “We have a high-energy senior partner who is doing what he said he would and is getting out and about a lot.” I am not a London-centric senior partner and that’s an advantage in a post-Brexit world.
I am really enjoying it. Being a senior partner is no different from being a deal lawyer: you have a whole bunch of stuff going on – you prioritise and make it work.’
On working with managing partner Gideon Moore:
‘Gideon and I meet every Monday morning, he tells me what he is up to that week, what issues he is facing, and I share my views. Unlike some of my predecessors I don’t sit on ExComm: someone needs to do it, I don’t. I think it undermines Gideon if I turn up as people don’t know if they are talking to the managing partner or the senior partner.
We have offices next door to each other, get on very well, we have our WhatsApp chat, email chat, SMS chat. I am a little instinctive and often think I know what to do and Gideon is great at thinking we need to consult the partnership, not look top-down. Look at what he did consulting on our remuneration structure.’
On achievements:
‘The tone is much more upbeat now, much happier this year. We de-emphasised individual metrics to drive the strategy: firm first, practice second, individual third. The biggest pain in any law firm is how you measure performance.
If four of us go to a pitch and get the job, in most law firms whoever opens the file gets the billing, so there is a race in the cab. Four files are opened and conflicts calls up. Complete waste of time!
‘The tone is more upbeat now, much happier this year.’
Charlie Jacobs, Linklaters
We took the numbers away. As much as they say: “We don’t want numbers,” take them away and it’s like taking heroin from a drug addict. It’s what people are used to. How do we measure partners? I ask them four questions:
1. Who are your clients?
2. What did you work on in the previous year?
3. What’s your reputation externally?
4. What’s your reputation internally – not just from people more senior than you?
There’s nowhere to hide from those four questions. But with numbers people can mess around.’
On practice goals:
‘We took a conscious decision to do more in dispute resolution and that’s been growing well. Finance, including funds, is remarkably resilient. We see corporate as really good and London is formidable. Looking at the next generation, we feel very comfortable there. A lot of completely unsung heroes who make a lot of money.’
On international prospects:
‘In Germany we are very strong. Germany will become more important in the post-Brexit world. France is coming back. Continental Europe is very strong. Asia is important, the challenge is how you make a return on equity. We are about the right shape and size in Asia. I am happy keeping the size we are at in New York, I like what we are doing in growing Washington.’
On the profession:
‘We are in a world where we will lose some people, because if they are driven by money they will always go – although I hope less so than in the past. But it is still easy for me to find very good people. I have no intention of looking at the pay structure again for the rest of my term.’
On managing older talent:
‘We all live longer and you’re not going to work here until you are 100 years old. There are amazing things people can do after Linklaters. Life doesn’t stop at 55-60. A lot of partners when they leave can still do things for us. In the past we had this amazing talent leave and haven’t used them anymore.’
On tapering pay for older partners:
‘At the end of the equity there is a conversation we can have, so that you don’t just have to say: “I am 55 and I don’t really feel I can justify what I’m getting paid.” We can say: “You are a great partner, you’ve got some great relationships. How about we pay you a little bit less, you work a little less hard.” The taper enables us to have that conversation.’
marco.cillario@legalease.co.uk
alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk
For last year’s analysis of Linklaters, see Rain men – goodbye Harvard Kool-Aid, hello plain speaking at Linklaters’ c-suite