By: Bill Myers

July 18, 2005, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin

When he recruits lawyers for his firm, Bryan I. Schwartz follows a simple rule. Revised to make it printable: "No jerks."

"We have the profits. We're not going to sacrifice our culture," said Schwartz, 44, managing partner of Levenfeld, Pearlstein LLC.

Levenfeld is not the only firm focused on its culture. Many mid-sized firms are trying to lure top lawyers from big firms by emphasizing their cozier atmospheres.

"As law firms go, we're a pretty collegial and congenial place and we've really built the business on the assumption that what's good for the firm is good for the lawyers in it," said Jerry H. Biederman, the managing partner of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP.

In a one-year that lapped over from 2002 to 2003, Chicago law firms were projected to have made more than 3,300 lateral hires, according to statistics kept by the National Association of Law Placement.

There are no specific figures for how many of those hires were going from big firms to mid-sized firms, but Brian Uzzi, a Northwestern University business and sociology professor who studies the legal profession, said that mid-sized firms are aggressive lateral recruiters.

Levenfeld has more than doubled its staff in the last six years, Schwartz said.

Neal, Gerber has increased its staff six-fold, to 190 lawyers, since the mid-1980s, Biederman said.

At Arnstein & Lehr LLP, 20 of the firm's 31 equity partners came over as lateral hires, said Raymond J. Werner, chair of Arnstein's executive committee.

Arnstein is something of an exception to the rule, in that it doesn't target lawyers at mega-firms, Werner said. Instead, Arnstein looks to lawyers whose mid-sized firms have been swallowed up in mergers.

The pitch is similar, though, Werner said: "It's not really money. Lawyers are finding in one way or another an inhibition in the way they practice law. I think it's just the culture of the firm that they've been merged into is not what they're comfortable with."

By focusing on niche practices and stressing their intimacy, mid-sized firms can attract top talent, Uzzi said. And by attracting top talent, they can build their business.

"Size is what attracts the eye. But as they start to get big, law firms are going to become more generic. What that leaves is a niche strategy for more mid-sized firms," Uzzi said.

What applies to clients applies to lawyers, Schwartz and others say.

"A lot of top lawyers feel lost in big firms," Schwartz said.

Mid-sized firms can exploit that, without forcing the lawyer to sacrifice the large practice "platform" offered by the mega-firms, Schwartz said.

In a recent letter to a lateral recruit, Schwartz said that working in a big firm was like living in a zombie movie that never ends.

"You have already succeeded in the large firm. That's a big accomplishment but now it is time for you to move on. Factories stink," Schwartz wrote, adding that a lot of lawyers at big firms are "just sheep lining up for slaughter."

Levenfeld, on the other hand, offers an environment in which collegiality is a virtue, according to Schwartz, and is so serious about teamwork that it pays for it.

Every lawyer in the firm is rated for teamwork by every other member of the staff, from paralegals on up to equity partners, Schwartz said.

The results of the surveys are factored into compensation, Schwartz said. Those who get positive reviews from their colleagues are paid more.

Those who "don't work and play well with others" are given special mentoring or are "shown the door," Schwartz said.

Through the surveys, Levenfeld hopes to show its lawyers that they "have ownership" in the firm, Schwartz said.

This helps Levenfeld to recruit lawyers -- and to keep them, he said.

At other firms, "once somebody's an equity partner, they're an equity partner for life. That's a problem. The very mentors that taught you how to be a lawyer are part of that cement ceiling," Schwartz said.

"You see a lot of young, successful lawyers say, 'I can't break through. I've got to go somewhere else,' " he added.

Schwartz' approach worked with Peter F. Donati.

In April, Donati, 38, left Winston & Strawn LLP, after 13 years, to join Levenfeld.

"They gave me a chance to step out front-and-center as the face of the firm for employment law matters. Instead of being one of 25 lawyers in Chicago for Winston & Strawn, I'm the main practice area head," Donati said.

Donati said he was happy at Winston, but Levenfeld's culture had too strong an appeal.

"It's easier for us to know each other and to help each other with what we're doing. That's something that you lose after you get to a certain size," he said.

If mid-sized firms are to be succesful at their niche business/recruiting, though, they have to remain disciplined and not let success spoil them, Uzzi said.

Neal, Gerber's Biederman agrees.

"We've turned down people with big books of business" because they wouldn't have fit in with the firm's culture, Biederman said.

That doesn't mean that mid-sized firms can't grow, Biederman said. Twenty years ago, Neal, Gerber had 34 lawyers.