Legal News

How I Made Partner at . . . Skadden: ?Make Yourself Heard?

By Dan Slater

With layoffs left and right, it’s easy to get down on BigLaw. When so many associates are finding themselves out of a job, who can think about making partner at a time like this?

Sheepishly, we admit we still think about it. Last week, Davis Polk’s newest New York partner, Aussie Frank Azzopardi, spoke to us about the importance of building your own practice. This week, we jump to Skadden’s Los Angeles office, where Peter Morrison, 34, who started at the firm in 2000 and joined the partnership this spring, tells us how to make partner at the firm that topped the 2007 money charts with $2.02 billion in gross revenue and $2.28 million in profits-per-partner.

Hi Peter. Congrats on making partner at Skadden.

Thanks.

Did you do anything between college and law school or did you go straight through?

Straight through — UPenn to NYU law.

Then straight to Skadden?

No, after law school I clerked for William Chandler on the Delaware Court of Chancery, doing mergers and acquisitions litigation.

We’ve always been impressed by Chancellor Chandler’s ability to slip pop culture references into opinions and juice up legal material that, well, might not otherwise have such a broad appeal. Do his clerks help him with that?

He has kids, so he probably picks things up.

Did you slip in any of those pop culture references?

No, that was that was not my role.

We digress. So what was the trick to making partner at Skadden Arps?

When you’re more junior it’s tough to know what lies at the end of the road. But there’s got to be a pride factor; you’ve got to really want to practice your craft well. For me, I was really lucky when I started at Skadden. I had great mentors at the beginning. For instance, I worked with Jay Kasner on a securities case for Abercrombie & Fitch. I also worked with George Zimmerman. They taught me how to practice law the right way.

What’s the right way?

You need to love this job. At the end of the day, we’re about servicing our clients. If you have that attitude, people will notice. That’s the baseline. As an associate coming up, you need to not be afraid to make a mistake. You need to have an opinion. Make yourself known and heard. Because once you have the ‘hard work’ aspect of this job down, it’s about judgment. Do we file a motion? Who’s most equipped to do the argument? You develop that sense of judgment by weighing in and not being afraid to make a mistake.

We understand your wife is also a litigator. Do things ever get competitive?

Yeah, my wife is an associate at Simpson Thacher. But there’s no competition at all. It’s actually a nice thing to be married to someone who understands what it’s like to practice law and what it takes to practice it well. It makes it so much easier when the person you’re married to understands what your day looks like.

But the hours for both of you must be crazy, right?

Our second child was born three months ago, so she’s been working part time. We see each other all the time.

OK, Peter. Congrats again, and thanks for speaking with us.

Sure. Thanks.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).