Leadership
Personnel counsel
How Arthur Culvahouse Jr. gets 2,200 people on the same page at O’Melveny & Myers
By Mike Cottrill
Smart Business Los Angeles | March 2009
Page 1 of 4
Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. is no stranger to handling situations of
international importance. Culvahouse, who served as White
House counsel for President Ronald Reagan from March 1987 to
January 1989, was brought in to that spot by former Tennessee
Sen. Howard Baker. When he first took the post, he had a meeting
with Baker that he never forgot. “I went into the White House at
the same time that Howard Baker did to be chief of staff,”
Culvahouse says. “Senator Baker had recommended me to be
White House counsel. Before we went in, we met at Howard’s
house, and he said we would have three, and only three, priorities,
and everything else could not distract from the priorities.” Those
first three priorities, which included getting Reagan through the
Iran-Contra investigations, negotiating an arms agreement with
the Soviet Union and getting a Republican to succeed President
Reagan, were laid out clearly so that Culvahouse was on the same
page with White House expectations.
So when it comes to his daily work as chairman at O’Melveny &
Myers LLP, the international law firm, Culvahouse still thinks
about that conversation. His firm has more than 2,200 personnel,
including more than 1,000 lawyers, and has offices all over the
globe. It would be easy, then, for any of those offices to take off in
its own direction. But like his initial conversation with Baker,
Culvahouse and the senior leaders at O’Melveny focus on getting
everyone on the same page.
So how do you get 2,200 people working anywhere from
Shanghai to San Francisco on the same page while still finding the
time to conduct your business every day? It’s not easy, but
Culvahouse and O’Melveny have done it by unifying the firm
around its values statement, ramping up communication frequency and channels, and when a solid majority is reached, moving forward without hesitation.
