From a New York-based Latham & Watkins partner whom I consider a
friend comes word for those of you who may have missed it that Clint
Stevenson, the firm’s Managing Partner from 1967 through 1989,
died on March 31, 2006 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82.
It is my loss that I never met Clint, and at this point the best
all of us can do is to pause a moment and consider his legacy. As
the Latham memorial puts it:
"Clint was long recognized within the profession as one
of the great law firm leaders. He was at the forefront of the movement
that transformed firms such as ours from local firms into major national
and international institutions. Equally important to the Latham family,
Clint was instrumental in creating and nurturing the internal management
systems and firm culture that have made Latham & Watkins unique among
law firms. He also was a great lawyer, a trusted advisor to clients,
and a true gentleman. Clint retired from the partnership in December
1993, leaving a tremendous legacy to all of us."
Clint joined Latham out of Harvard Law School in 1950, and during
his 22-year tenure as Managing Partner (1967—1989), the firm grew
from 34 lawyers in LA to 360 lawyers in LA, Orange County, Washington,
DC, San Diego, Chicago, and New York.
That achievement might be enough for most mortals, but Clint’s legacy
cannot be quantitatively grasped. Key to his vision was a leadership
style that was both strikingly inclusive—imagine putting associates
on the committee that recommends associates for admission to partnership!—and
radical among other elite law firm leaders. Not the finger-in-the-air
conformist: “I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to do in the
firm — some of them different from what law firms were doing as
far as I could see,” Clint told The American Lawyer in
1986.
Those of you who’ve followed "Adam Smith, Esq." for any period of
time know that I’m a staunch advocate of "individuals make the times,
the times don’t make individuals" (e.g., "The
Power of One," and "Who
Will Be Your Successor?"). So to my mind the
Clint Stevenson story is worth studying.
Essential to his vision, drawing from his undergraduate sports experience,
was instilling the notion and the practice of teamwork across
the firm. That, and a sense of ownership of the firm shared
by everyone from senior partners to newly-arrived associates, propelled
Latham to where it is today.
My friend reports: "I
remember in the 80’s (Clint and I overlapped only by a few years),
even a lateral associate hire in NY required an interview in
LA."
Clint was a nonconformist in other ways (which, by the way, won
Latham accolades from authorities such as the [MIT] Sloan Management
Review as "best managed law firm"). For a not-trivial
example, he instituted 15-year strategic plans. His from 1986
projected 1,035 lawyers in the firm in 2001—which was off by
about 10.
Again, from my friend’s perspective, who saw it from the inside,
you gain an inkling of the indelible mark Clint left:
"What
drew me to Latham was its clear vision of what it wanted to be
and where it wanted to go. Very few firms have that. In
addition, Latham had a clear plan. Not only did management
have at that time rolling 5 year plan and a 15 year projection,
but it shared those plans with every partner and every associate. These
were detailed, numerical projections on the number of lawyers,
recruitment class sizes, number of partners, etc. At our
annual firm business meeting, these plans would be discussed
and actively debated by associates as well as the partners. Clint
created a tradition where associates are involved in every major
committee that runs this firm other than the executive committee."How many firms have a detailed 15 year projection? How
many firms checked to see how they did after 15 years? Finally,
how many of those projections turned out to be right? Last
year, AmLaw wrote an article about our NY office’s success. It
came out with four reasons for that success. Personally,
I disagree. There was one reason, and one reason only
– Latham had a strategic vision and a plan and we were competing
against firms that did not."
If your firm is in the "not" camp, it still may not be too late. But
Clint was there 40 years ago.
