2003 WINNER
Bernie Nelson of Latham & Watkins
Latham & Watkins has built on its
strong West Coast roots into a global
powerhouse with 337 partners, offices in over
20 cities worldwide, billing over US$900 million
in 2002.
The judges were impressed by the efforts the
firm has made to spread its culture, values and
systems. In Frankfurt, for example, the IT team
had new layers billing in the Latham system,
converted their financial data to the new system,
brought the office into the firm’s wide area
network and converted employee workstations
– all within 60 days. The marketing team
conducted business development orientation.
The same theme of integration operates at
management level with Christoph von
Teichman, the former managing partner of the
firm’s German offices, named first European
partner of the firm’s Executive Committee.
In Christoph’s words: “Lathams doesn’t have a
central office. There’s a lot of responsibility to the
local level because people on the ground should
know what works best in their offices.”
RUNNER UP
Over the past year, DLA has embarked on a significant expansion programme in Europe and the Far East. As we learnt a few minutes ago, the launch of their new brand has been highly successful.
In spite of all this activity, DLA continues to demonstrate very sophisticated and comprehensive management processes and systems with a high level of integration of these throughout the firm. They also demonstrate quite forcibly the effectiveness of their management approach across a wide range of measures.
All aspects of the firm are shown to have made significant improvements demonstrating the overall effectiveness of management. In our mind, DLA remains the firm to watch.
3RD PLACE
Five years ago, Watson Burton was a solid, unspectacular Newcastle law firm, struggling to come to terms with a fast changing landscape. Today, the firm has been radically overhauled in a far reaching management restructure, leading it to be seen by other firms as a serious competitor. How has this been achieved?
The firm emphasises five aspects: leadership by its senior partner; efficient accounting, IT and cost management systems; recruiting quality lawyers; creating ‘stars’ for particular specialisations; and using marketing and business development to raise its profile. The financial results are equally impressive, with fees doubling in four years, and average profits per partner reaching £420,000 in 2003, a figure comparable with top London firms.