Flom-O-Rama! Skadden

[WSJ_law_blog]

Thirteen years ago, this newspaper asked “did success spoil Skadden Arps?”

The article (link not available) questioned the firm’s evolution from an M&A shop to a full-service firm, with multiple practice areas and offices far beyond New York. As the firm increased its overhead, conflicts and the number of lower-margin practice areas, it took a slide down the American Lawyer profits-per partner ranking. “What the hell’s wrong with us?” the article quoted an M&A lawyer as asking.

The same question wouldn’t be posed today. Skadden topped the 2007 AmLaw survey of U.S. firms, as measured by gross revenues. With the M&A market now struggling, diversification is a good thing. Their profits, by the way, weren’t too shabby either.

The broadening strategy into numerous practice groups was largely the vision of Joe Flom, 84, the only living name partner at Skadden and the only living person who’s worked at the firm since it started, 60 years ago this month.

We had the chance to sit down with Flom recently in his midtown office and asked him to share some tips for success.

• Recognize you’re in a service business: Return all calls “hopefully in an hour but no longer than one day.”
• Focus on what the client is trying to accomplish: “It’s not can I do this, it’s how do I get from here to there.”
• Recognize that you have some significant ethical responsibilities: Ask the client “How would you like to read this on the front page of the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.”
• Offer specialty practices: General counsel offices, larger these days than in the past, look for lawyers with particular areas of expertise depending on the matter. Cater to that.
• Help employees feel part of a family: Try to ensure that “the person who’s number 2000 or 1900 feels like he’s part of the institution.” Close coherence within practice groups is a good way to foster “peer growth and peer review.”
• Cultivate good relationships with firm alumni: “They’re your best ambassador of goodwill.”

And how about the economic outlook? It will pick up when liquidity is restored, “and it will be,” says Flom. “The consequences [otherwise] are just too horrible from a societal standpoint.” The only question, he says, is “how fast.”

As for the impact on Skadden, he notes that restructuring and litigation are very busy, transactions less so. The economy means lawyers have to “be a little bit more disciplined on your expenditures,” he says. “Businesses need to go through hard times every once in a while, otherwise you get fat and happy. You stop and think ‘do you need two secretaries, or one.’ ”