Interview with: Eduardo Leite, chairman of the executive committee Baker & McKenzie
Posté le 25 sept. 2012
Opening our partner meetings to our clients is an added value.
Eduardo Leite. Baker & McKenzie is a firm which counts diversity as one of its core values. When Christine Lagarde was elected chairman in 1999, she was the first woman at the top of an international law firm. At the same time, I was elected as a member of the executive committee (from 1999 to 2003) and was involved in creating Baker & McKenzie’s global strategy. I think I was elected because of my involvement in some key cases for the firm’s future and because of the open-mindedness of the firm’s partners, who had no hesitation in entrusting the task to a partner who came from an emerging nation.
Leaders League. How do you create a shared vision of the future in a structure like Baker & McKenzie?
E. L. We attach a great deal of importance to spreading our culture within the firm. We don’t believe in purely theoretical management training, which sometimes lacks any connection with a real model as an effective way of learning. We have set up standard training programs in areas such as marketing, client relations management (CRM), human resources (HR), management, and communication, and we count on our partners and managers to spread our culture.
Lastly, we bring together talent to provide the best possible expertise. For example, if a practice is very strong in one office and weak in another, we transfer lawyers between the two structures to enhance their activities. It’s another way of transmitting values.
Leaders League. How can you be a global firm yet still retain this independence at local level?
E. L. The key to the success of our model lies partly in the frequency and quality of discussions among partners. Throughout the year, we meet not only at practice level, but also at regional and management level. These face-to-face meetings are the best way of discussing key issues and values, which are then communicated to each of the teams. Our added value also lies in the fact that these meetings are open to our clients. The idea is clearly a success, since many of them respond to our invitation! Their involvement is vital if we are to maintain close links between our lawyers and our clients, but also so that we can hear what they want and what they think of our skills and working methods. We have to listen to our clients, since they’re the ones who enable us to develop.
Another strength of our strategy is the transmission of our values to new partners. As soon as they are appointed or recruited, they go on a week-long program of visits to our offices to meet practice teams and managers and to receive training. The idea is to create strong, long-lasting connections right from the outset.
Leaders League. Although Baker & McKenzie is at the top of the listings, its profit per partner is not as high as that of many of its competitors…
E. L. For some law firms, the pursuit of PPP means they have to take the risky step of cutting both their overheads and their staff numbers, and chase only the most lucrative cases. They have no hesitation in dispensing with partners with the lowest revenues. At Baker & McKenzie, we study these figures closely and improving them is part of our strategy: one of our objectives is to become more profitable and productive. But you have to take account of the fact that there are often significant discrepancies among the PPPs of our 3,800 lawyers in seventy offices. We have to assist our clients in their international development. So we have drawn up plans concerning training, performance, and enhancing activities and results.
On the management side, budgets and projects are examined under a microscope. Lastly, we are using the services of professionals in communications, IT and new technologies to standardize our procedures and make them more efficient.
Leaders League. What compensation system does Baker & McKenzie use for its partners?
E. L. We’ve adopted a balanced compensation system which includes lockstep.
The system compensates partners for their work, development of client relations and seniority. These criteria, which were determined by committee, provide a structure which is both solid and flexible, enabling us to deal with changing economic situations whilst still focusing on performance. This mechanism gives us a degree of flexibility on local markets with competitive levels of remuneration, while also ensuring the integration of teams within the firm. For us, it’s the best way of guaranteeing development in the long term