A contested
election for managing partner?! If your reaction
is quelle horreur, perhaps you should think of taking
a page from corporate-land and imagining not only that the race
for the top spot might be competitive, but imagining that an outsider
with a track record of performance might be a compelling candidate.
Could we ever envision such a revolution coming to pass?
On
that, I will venture no prognostications, observing only that market
forces can, in the long run, have tectonic power. I will,
however, leave you with this marvelous tale of resistance
to change (for which I must credit the timeless volume, Tournament
of Lawyers, Galanter & Paley, 1991, at pg. 12, fn. 39):
“Clarence Seward, senior partner of the predecessor of
the Cravath firm, not only refused to answer the telephone for
several years after it was installed, but refused to allow typewriters
in the office on grounds that ‘clients would resent the lack of
personal attention to their business implied in sending them machine-made
letters’.”
Other revolutions may yet occur.
