Legal News

Does Holland & Hart Offer a BigLaw Rocky Mountain High?

By Ashby Jones

Lawyers at Denver’s Holland & Hart can’t be happy all the time. They lose cases, work weekends and engage in mind-numbingly awful discovery disputes, just like lawyers at other firms.

That said, we nearly signed up to take the Colorado bar exam after reading Susan Beck’s piece in the June issue of the American Lawyer. Near the end of an eloquent but scathing screed against the law firms she covers — the 200 largest in the country — she switches gears, and heaps a whole lotta love on Holland & Hart. A zillion ads in AmLaw couldn’t have created the goodwill likely to flow from this:

Of the law firms I’ve covered, the one that has struck me as having the happiest, most well-rounded lawyers and has been consistently delightful to deal with, is Holland & Hart. They’re a blip on The Am Law 200­–a 385-lawyer firm with revenue of $180 million that operates in flyover territory: Denver, Aspen, Jackson Hole, Boise, Salt Lake City, and the like. A New York partner might mistake their profits per partner, $385,000, for the cost of redecorating her East Hampton summer cottage. Holland & Hart lawyers put in an honest day’s work, but leave time to ski, and hike, and fish, and enjoy life outside their offices. And they genuinely seem to like each other. They’ve never demoted a partner to nonequity status, never merged with a big firm to improve their “platform,” never boosted their partner-associate ratio beyond 1:1, and never laid off associates for economic reasons.

Huh. Sounds pretty good? Anyone wanna let us know if Beck is onto something here? Has H&H found the winning forumula?

In any event, if Holland & Hart sticks out in Beck’s mind, it might be because she has so few nice things to say about the rest of the industry. To wit:

The Am Law 200 has its own sustainability problem. Paying first-year associates $160,000 a year is not sustainable. Inflating profits through high associate-partner ratios is not sustainable. Double-digit growth in profits per partner is not sustainable. Relying on bank borrowings that force firms to walk a tightrope of punitive covenants is not sustainable. Expecting lawyers to devote every ounce of their energy to their firm and its ­clients is not sustainable.

. . .

As someone who has worked as an associate at a law firm and covered firms for more than 20 years, I’ve seen many sides of the profession. It’s filled with bright, likable people, but too many seem unhappy, or unfulfilled, or so stressed that they’re miserable. I’ve noticed that successful lawyers often seem overwhelmed and anxious. . . . I’ve noticed that having more money doesn’t make people happier, and a blink­ered pursuit of money will turn into a sad journey.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 29, 2009 (boomark / email).