I come from a big family. The only male. I have four sisters and was exposed to the talent and influence of women very early on.
My father’s influence led me into law. He had a very small law firm, just himself and another partner. And he was obsessed with me as his successor to get into law but in a different way from him. He was visionary enough to see that the law was going to change and it was better for me to do something different.
I was born in Madrid. I worked for ten years at Clifford Chance. Then I opened the office of Squire Sanders & Dempsey in Spain as local managing partner. I was with them for ten more years then moved the whole office of Squire Sanders to DLA Piper 11 years ago.
I spent time working in a company in the US, in Cleveland, Ohio of all places, straight after university, where I had studied law and economics. This was a large engineering company and my dad was their lawyer in Spain. I was working in this firm in the legal department and there was a programme at the university in Cleveland in marketing so I also did a year of marketing. I lived with a US family so I had the full exposure to a mid-west US company and US family. I then went back and did my LLM in Brussels in EU law. It gave me good exposure to Brussels, the EU and also French, which is my third language.
I have two boys. One is doing exactly the same – law and economics – but is going into investment banking. He is smarter than I am. Juan, the oldest, is 22 and Carlos is 18. He will do economics as well. My wife is a lawyer but quit and looked after the boys for a long time.
Last year I spent 220 days outside Spain. Not a lot of time with the family. I am old enough now to know that I would do things differently if I started again and I try to convey that to the younger generation. You can be a successful lawyer and organise yourself in a different way.
I am passionate about the things I believe in. Building good personal relationships and empathy with people is important. Although this is a very large firm, if you are able to start building good relationships, it is going to make a big difference. Over the past year I have had one-on-one meetings with close to 200 partners, which has been super rewarding.
This firm is very diverse. The thing that attracted me was that from the first minute I was talking to Nigel Knowles, who interviewed me – instead of telling me what the plan was imposed by London or New York – he asked me what I wanted to do in Spain. For the first time I felt that this was a firm that, irrespective of your nationality or your location, they just trusted the individual. We are trying to be the leading global business law firm but that wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t allow people to have a strong local connection.
I am old enough now to know that I would do things differently if I started again.
At the time I spoke to Nigel I had offers from two other firms, which were more glamorous at the time than DLA. This firm was probably my last choice. But Nigel won me over immediately because I strongly believe is that you cannot lead or manage a business without respecting others. Trust and respect are essential. If there is not enough of an emotional culture that you build with your people, something beyond pure economics, it is going to be difficult to keep the firm together.
Everything that I have received from DLA has exceeded my expectations by a mile.
Simon [Levine, DLA’s co-chief executive] and I have been friends for almost 11 years. My wife, Maria, and Simon’s wife, Jane, are also very close. If you are able to expand the relationship beyond the work it makes life more enjoyable. It also sends a strong message. Sometimes you do not have the same level of relationship and it reflects on the way the firm is managed.
Simon and I are aware of the things he is better at and the other way around. My inclination is in terms of dealing with partner issues, people issues and the culture and values of the firm. Simon has a very good command of the branding of the business in terms of implementation, operations and financials.
Becoming the senior partner and co-chair of the firm was a personal highlight. I wish my father had still been with us. For him everything that was happening throughout my career was a mystery. When I was telling him stories about the firm, he thought that it was science fiction but he was very proud.
A lot of people in this profession, they think this is something that is super-genius. It is intellectually challenging but this is not brain surgery. My father said: ‘Juan, there are always going to be partners or lawyers in firms that are smarter than you. But people who will work harder than you – there will only be as many as you want.’
I take this job very seriously, sometimes too much.
Juan Picón is global co-chair of DLA Piper and senior partner of the international LLP
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk