Legal
Gary L. Sasso
President and CEO, Carlton Fields PA
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Tampa Bay | June 2007
No interview with a job candidate is foolproof. But Gary Sasso says he can get a sense of whom he’s talking to based on his own
experience and judgment. Sasso, president and CEO of the 538-employee law firm Carlton Fields PA, asks questions of job
candidates that will help him understand the person’s commitment to decency, honesty and teamwork. For example, he may ask
an attorney seeking employment what he or she enjoyed from a previous work experience. If that person didn’t like an
environment where it was everyone out for themselves, or he or she was distrustful of colleagues, that tells him it is important
for the employee to be in an environment where that individual can trust colleagues. Smart Business spoke with Sasso about
how to get employees to buy in through dialogue and how to develop a vision.
Develop a vision. That’s a process of talking
to people inside and outside the firm and
drawing on your own experiences — being
involved in the business, talking to people
in the firm, gathering facts about the industry, giving a great deal of thought to where
the firm is positioned in the industry and
where and what competitors are doing.
Assessing the strengths of the business, putting that all together, and using
your own instincts and judgments to
develop a sense of where we should be
going, then talking to others in the
organization to get feedback on that to
adapt and change it.
But once you have gone through the
process of gathering information and
thinking about direction, then you need to
develop a good, clear sense of direction
that can be articulated inside the firm.
What we do is prepare a strategic plan that
does communicate our vision to the people
inside the firm.
I have frequent discussions within the
firm with groups to talk about our vision
and our strategic direction to have a dialogue about it, and also frequent communication by e-mail and otherwise within the
firm to discuss what we are doing to execute on that strategic vision.
Get buy-in by participation. I spend a significant amount of time talking to people in
the firm, sometimes one on one or sometimes in groups. It is very much a dialogue.
I learn as much as I communicate. I
learn what people like, what they don’t
like. I get a lot of good ideas that way. It
helps shape my views about our
strengths and where we need to go as a
firm. At the same time, I try to communicate to others what is on my mind, what
our challenges are, what the competitive
environment is and ideas about where
we are to go as a firm.
Then, I get a reaction to that. That does
create buy-in because, ultimately, where
we are going is a place where people
understand we need to go and have
often suggested where we need to go.
Get help with decisions. Whenever we are
called on to make a decision, I try to get the
lay of the land, which often involves talking
to other people in the firm, sometimes talking to people outside the firm, gathering up
whatever facts we can gather, maybe doing
some reading or research.
Then I’ll start to form an idea of how we
should address the issue and then I’ll test
that with people, maybe key members of
our leadership team who are particularly
involved in that issue, and then I will chart
out a plan for execution and I’ll test that
with people. Ultimately, I want to make
sure we have something that makes sense
and wasn’t just a brainstorm I had late at
night.
Be involved in the community. It’s very difficult. In some extent, it’s taking turns.
This year, we may be very active in one
cause and another year, another cause.
To some extent, it is up to the individual choice of our professionals and employees. Everyone has his or her own
cause. As a firm, we do support a number of causes.
We do get requests for support for a
number of different events. I will typically channel those to the managing shareholders of the office where the event
may be held. That person will make a
judgment on whether they have the
budget to support that, or whether, given
the priorities this particular year, should
we be emphasizing this cause or some
other cause?
If we are committed fully with respect
to our budget in one year, we will keep in
mind that cause for the following year.
Develop a good sense of what is taking place in
your profession. I try to understand our
competitive place in this market and
profession, understand what other law
firms are doing and how they are grappling with these issues.
I try to bring that information to our firm
so they all can understand what we are
dealing with and chart a strategy that
enables us to progress and to succeed as a
business while keeping our values intact.
Sometimes we are able to learn what
other firms have done, but every firm
has a different personality and history,
so you can’t just take what some other
firm has done or is doing and apply it to
our firm. We have to do what makes
sense for us and deal with our own
strengths and minimize our own weaknesses.
Never breech the trust that the organization has
given you. I presume that we all try to start
with honesty. But, there is a question of
being committed to the firm and putting
the interest of the firm first and putting
your interests somewhere behind that.
We have to earn the trust and loyalty of
our attorneys and other employees at the
firm by being as open, honest and direct as
we can be with all our employees.
HOW TO REACH: Carlton Fields PA, (888) 223-9191 or
www.carltonfields.com
