Legal

Robert J. Bell

By Mark Scott

Print This Page

Send this page to a friend

Many CEOs have uttered the words, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” But in order for that growth to be healthy, it must fit in with the company’s vision, says Robert J. Bell. In nearly 140 years, Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP has established a legal presence in California whose growth has always been controlled. Grow too fast, and some of that control might be lost. The key, says Bell, the firm’s managing partner, is to know what it is that you do, and always remain true to that. The law firm had $104 million in revenue in 2006 with about 450 employees.

Smart Business spoke with Bell about building a healthy culture.

Be out front as the leader. It’s very important to have leadership that everybody both respects and trusts. Trust is key. You make a lot of decisions that people rely on you for, and they need to have confidence in your ability to do things that are fair and do things that hopefully benefit the firm.

Be effective in your communication and really work at communicating with people. Let them know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Be able to communicate the vision that you’ve got for the business. Get people to buy in to that and work toward that vision.

You’re the spokesperson for the firm. You have to be sure the community sees the firm as a great one, as well, and you’ve got to be out being able to sell that.

It helps to have someone who is creative and flexible and can change quickly with the marketplace. Be willing to try new things, take reasoned risks for growth, hire the right people and keep the reputation up.

Practice, practice, practice. Continually try to sharpen your management skills. I go to seminars and meetings about leadership skills whenever I can. I do all kinds of reading on those things.

Listen to others who have been through problems before and tell you how to approach them. I’m a big advocate of continual learning. From a management standpoint, it’s important to try to stay up on that.

Always consider culture when hiring. We want to find people that are very compatible with our culture. You have the no-jerks rule that you try to keep in force.

Bringing in someone that may be a big producer but is not a very friendly person can have more negative impacts than positive impacts. You’ve just got to get a feel for the people by spending some time with them.

The most interesting questions I ask are what they want to know about the firm, what they key in on and what their concerns might be. I try to get a feel for them when they are talking to me about what they see as their role in the firm, what their concerns are about the firm. I think that explains a lot about a person as far as what they put at the top of their list.

What are their priorities? What are they looking for? What are their major concerns? Are they money-oriented? Are they people-oriented? Are they concerned with factors other than business? Are they client-oriented?

Make time to talk. Finding the time to have the opportunity to really sit down and talk (with employees) about their concerns and get their needs met is time-consuming. Everybody is very busy these days. You have to do the best you can. Everybody has got a lot going on, and you have to find the time with lunches or breakfast or walking the halls and seeing if people are available.

Personal communication is the best, phone is next best, and e-mail is probably lowest on my list.

I don’t like communicating by e-mail as much as in person or on the phone. I think e-mailed communications are overused and sometimes misconstrued, especially when you get discussions of five or six people going on e-mail. They can waste a lot of time, where a phone call or a walk down the hall would be a lot better way to communicate.

Tell your story. Let the community and your clients and everybody else know how well you’re doing. Take opportunities to get the word out.

It’s important that you are perceived correctly, especially when you are a large institution and one that has been around a long time. We not only want our clients and the community to know how well we’re doing, we also want our legal colleagues to know as well because we’re not only in the marketplace for good clients but also for good attorneys.

There are just a lot of sources of information out there like Web sites that people can put things on. You get challenges because of that. There will be misinformation. You’ve got to be sure you get the correct information out.

We try to track, especially in the press, what’s said about the firm. We have a marketing group that looks for information that may come up. We try to be sure to regularly get our message out, as well. We know the importance of the marketing and PR side.

Don’t let failures get you down. My belief is that there is usually a reason for the way things turn out, even if it’s not the way you expected or wanted it to turn out. In the long run, things do work out for a purpose.

Sometimes when you look back, you can see why something you thought was a failure at the time turned out to be not such a problem, or turned out to be a positive.

When we lost a group of attorneys, it was probably good for their practice and for our firm, as well. There was an incompatibility in the practice mix. It’s hard at the time, when you go through something, when you have your mind and heart set on a certain goal, and it doesn’t work out.

But there is a reason and a purpose for it, and you go on. If you’re going to pray for potatoes, you’ve got to pick up a hoe.

HOW TO REACH: Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP, (619) 236-1414 or www.luce.com