Kevin and Denis succession 2

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Febr uary 14, 2011 How Firms Transfer
Power From One
Leader to the Next
by BRENDA SAPINO JEFFREYS
A
number of Texas firms got new
leaders over the past year, and
while the firms seek a seamless
transition of power and responsibility, they follow different
routes to move from one managing
partner to the next.
There is little consistency in how
long it takes Texas firms to prepare for a
change in leadership, but that’s not to say
one template is better than the next.
Firm consultant William C. Cobb of
Houston says he advises firms to spend
two to three years selecting a new managing partner, but he notes that even if a
firm takes less time on the task, it’s vital
to ensure the new leader has credibility.
“If they don’t take the time to reaffirm the culture and the core values and
reaffirm what the vision of the firm is .
. . it’s highly likely that whoever gets in
or moves into that position is not going
to have the credibility to make the tough
decisions,” Cobb says. It’s also helpful
for the new firm leader to have previous
experience in a management role at the
firm.
Cobb says he wouldn’t be surprised
to hear of a lot of managing partner
turnover at Texas firms this year. “This
is going to be a transition year for a lot
of firms. Most of them had their heads
buried in the sand for 2009 and 2010 .
. . [but] there’s a little more optimism.
This might be a good year to make a
transition,” he says.
The transition periods at firms Texas
Lawyer talked to range from a few hours
at McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore to
three years at BoyarMiller. What is clear
from interviews with nine former and
current managing partners at Texas
vol. 26 • No. 46
c
Succession
Plan
Winstead chairman and CEO
Kevin Sullivan (right) and his
predecessor Denis Braham.
firms is that each one has its own way
of handling succession that reflects its
culture and organization.
McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore
Transition = Five Hours
After Pat Lochridge decided in
2010 to step down from the manage-
ment role, the partners elected Doug
Dodds as managing partner on Sept.
22, 2010.
Dodds says several of the firm’s
partners convinced him to take on
the managing partner job and he was
the only partner to seek the position.
Lochridge says the firm elects partners
Reprinted with permission from the February 14, 2011, edition of Texas Lawyer. © 2011 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
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to the management committee once
a year, and Dodds’ managing partner
election occurred then.
Lochridge, who had been McGinnis,
Lochridge’s managing partner for 10
years, says Dodds was a clear choice
for the position. “He got nominated,
and everybody said, ‘That looks good
to me.’ ”
Dodds says Lochridge told him they
would work out a transition period during
which Lochridge would help him get his
feet on the ground, but that transition
ended up being shorter than Dodds
expected. He says he was elected at 5:30
p.m., and by 10 p.m. that night, Lochridge
sent him an e-mail that said, “That’s long
enough for the transition.”
Lochridge says the e-mail has become
a standing joke at the firm, but he sent
it because he knew he was heading out
of town for about three months due to a
busy trial schedule.
Lochridge says he was able to maintain his trial practice during the 10
years he served as managing partner,
because partner Tim George served as
administrative partner and did much of
the day-to-day administrative work.
“I was there sort of for the big-picture
direction and buck-stops-here,” he says.
Despite the e-mail, Dodds says
Lochridge has been a reliable resource.
“We’ve had lots of conversations. He’s
been very supportive of me, very helpful. He’s not a second-guesser. He will
tell you what he thinks and support
you in whatever you do,” Dodds says of
Lochridge.
Thompson & Knight
Transition = One Month
In some circumstances, a firm isn’t
able to give a new managing partner the
luxury of a long preparation. That was the
case at Dallas’ Thompson & Knight, when
Jeffrey Zlotky became the firm’s managing
partner on July 1, 2009, because longtime
managing partner Pete Riley had to step
down due to illness.
Zlotky says he expected to have the
managing partner job only a couple of
years, until Riley regained his health, but
it didn’t work out that way. Riley died on
Aug. 1, 2009, of complications related to
cancer.
Zlotky says the transition was as
smooth as could be expected under the
circumstances.
“When I say smooth, it was just the
Advice and Counsel
Texas Lawyer asked several firm
leaders for the best piece of advice they
received from their predecessors. Here’s
what they said.
“He advised me to . . . physically
get to all of the offices. We have
eight offices, and I’ve made an effort
to go round and hit them all.”
— Winstead CEO Kevin
Sullivan discussing advice from
predecessor Denis Braham
“One of the things he did tell me
was, ‘We’ve got a good group. Listen
to and trust your partners. They are
going to help you out.’ ”
— McGinnis, Lochridge &
Kilgore managing partner Douglas
Dodds discussing advice from predecessor Pat Lochridge
“I try to remind myself of how
thoughtful he was in every circumstance about the feelings of our
colleagues, and how sensitive he was
and everything he did about how it
would be received by either partners
or staff or associates. I try to always
keep in mind that sensitivity.”
— Jackson Walker managing
partner Wade Cooper discussing
advice from predecessor Mike Wilson
“The best advice was: ‘You cannot
over-communicate’ ”
— Thompson & Knight
managing partner Jeffrey Zlotky
discussing advice from
predecessor Pete Riley
“I have learned so much about
leadership from Bill it would be difficult to select a single thing. But if
I had to pick just one I would say to
be an effective leader you can’t ask
people to do something you aren’t
prepared to do yourself.”
— BoyarMiller chairman
Chris Hanslik discussing advice
from predecessor Bill Boyar
— BRENDA SAPINO JEFFREYS
graciousness and openness and cooperation that I received from absolutely all of
our partners,” he says.
“There wasn’t conflict here internally
about it. There weren’t people jockeying
for position or people politicking to be
it. Everyone was willing to volunteer, to
take over the mantle until Pete’s health
improved,” Zlotky says.
Zlotky notes that he was re-elected to
the position in February 2010, and expects
to be re-elected again this month.
Winstead
Transition = Three Months
Kevin Sullivan won a contested election
in September 2010 to become chairman
and chief executive officer of Winstead
as of New Year’s Day. Sullivan challenged
Denis Braham, Winstead’s chairman from
2007 through 2010, who sought re-election
to a second, four-year term.
In 2006, Braham beat out four other
shareholders and was elected CEO after
former managing partner Mike Baggett,
a shareholder in Dallas who had led the
firm since 1991, decided he would step
down after 15 years in the job. [See “After
15 Years, Winstead Elects New CEO to Take
Over in 2007,” Texas Lawyer, March 6,
2006, page 9.]
Sullivan says the candidates for CEO
don’t really campaign at Winstead, but
he and Braham did appear at questionand-answer sessions at the firm’s Dallas,
Houston and Austin offices prior to the
September 2010 election.
“All of our shareholders have an opportunity to ask questions and compare the
candidates,” he says.
Braham says the transition has been
seamless, even though Sullivan had only
three months to prepare to lead the firm.
To pave the way for the transition,
Sullivan, who had been in charge of lateral
hiring at the firm, began to attend management committee meetings, and he traveled
to each of the firm’s eight offices to meet
with lawyers and staff. By December 2010,
Braham and Sullivan co-led the firm’s
annual shareholder meeting.
Braham, now chairman emeritus and
a shareholder in Houston, has returned
full-time to his sports and public-venue
practice. Sullivan says he hopes to maintain
his practice, but it’s a difficult balance with
his managing partner duties.
Sullivan says he “felt like we had a
really terrific opportunity in these next
few years as a firm, and I was anxious to
take the reins and have a go at contributing
with that.”
He says he and Braham want the same
thing for the firm, so the transition has
been easy. “Both Denis and I, and in fact
the vast majority of the shareholders, are of
the same mind-set objective to be the best
regional, super-regional firm,” he says.
Jackson Walker
Transition = Two Years
Wade Cooper, the new managing partner at Dallas-based Jackson Walker who
formerly had managed the Austin office,
also had a long time to prepare for the job
he assumed on Feb. 15, 2010.
Cooper says predecessor Mike Wilson
started thinking about transition a few
years ago.
“My message . . . was basically this
has been a great ride, but I won’t be here
forever, and it’s better to do this transition
in an orderly way rather than waiting for a
crisis,” says Wilson, who had managed the
firm since 1992.
Wilson says the firm’s management
committee nominated Cooper for the job in
2007, and the committee’s members began
a many-month process of meeting with
partners in all offices to ensure there was
widespread support. “We as a firm were
very, very fortunate, because Wade was a
clear choice,” Wilson says.
By 2008, the management committee
announced that Cooper would succeed
Wilson, and he had two years to prepare,
Wilson says. Wilson, who gave up his practice to serve the firm as managing partner,
says he now is managing partner emeritus
and he has kept many of the administrative
responsibilities. That gives Cooper an
opportunity to continue to practice law
while working as the firm’s “commander-inchief,” handling strategic planning, meeting
with clients and working with the managing
partner of the offices and the practice
group leaders to chart tactical and strategic
objectives, Wilson says.
BoyarMiller
Transition = Three Years
The leadership transition at 25-lawyer
BoyarMiller was a three-year process
McGinnis Lochridge managing partner
Doug Dodds says several of the firm’s
partners convinced him to take on the
managing partner job and he was the
only partner to seek the position.
that began in 2008.
Bill Boyar, who prior to 2011 had
been the firm’s only chairman in its
20-year history, says he decided in 2006,
when he was 55, that the firm would have
a “generational shift in power” before
he turned 60. That happened on Jan. 1,
when Chris Hanslik became chairman.
Beginning in 2008, Boyar says, the
firm “began a process of self-selection”
and Hanslik and two other shareholders
who said they might want to lead the firm
someday began a leadership training
process with Boyar.
“After a full year, I went to my fellow
shareholders, and I said, “Chris Hanslik’s
the guy” primarily because of his leadership skills. Boyar says he had earlier
asked the other two shareholders to take
on different responsibilities at the firm.
Boyar says an important component
of leadership is humility, and Hanslik has
“really gotten it” and showed him that
he’s willing to take criticism.
The firm made Hanslik vice chairman
in 2009, and he spent two years working
with Boyar to train for the chairman job.
BoyarMiller made Chris Hanslik (above)
vice chairman in 2009, and he spent
two years working with Bill Boyar to
train for the chairman job.
During that two-year period, Boyar
says Hanslik took over responsibility for
some areas in the firm, such as finance
and recruiting, so Hanslik was wellprepared.
“Over the last two years, we’ve been
really a real partnership to the point that
when Jan. 1 came this year, it was pretty
seamless. He had 100 percent support of
everybody here,” Boyar says, noting that
the partners spent a lot of time discussing what the leadership transition meant
to the firm’s direction.
Boyar says a firm’s chairman has
two main responsibilities — to sustain
culture and to set and execute strategy
— and Hanslik is prepared to do so.
Hanslik says serving clients is the route
to success for the firm, and he intends
to follow the lead Boyar set over the past
two decades.
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys’ e-mail
address is bjeffreys@alm.com.
She is on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/BrendaSJeffreys.