Legal News

How I Made Partner at . . . Davis Polk: ?Build Your Own Practice?

By Dan Slater

As a 2L confronted with on-campus interviewing, we remember studying our law school’s OCI booklet, which contained about 100 firm profiles, and thinking, man, just getting an offer from one of these places is hard enough, but the chances of making partner look downright dismal. Firms with average incoming classes of, say, 50 associates, might make only two or three partners in any given year.

And then, in time, you begin to see why. The partnership “track” (an interesting metaphor, that) can be quite harrowing. Dodge chair-tossing partners and long doc reviews that threaten to keep you off substantive work. Prove yourself as a negotiator, a problem solver and, when handling clients, a politician. Don’t be a time-optimist! Work on your judgment! Makes us tired just writing about it.

To get a sense of what it takes to go the distance — and to perhaps uncover some inside dope on partnership culture — the Law Blog is going to speak with several newly-made BigLaw partners between now and the end of the year. Since Davis Polk has fared particularly well amid the meltdown, we’re starting there — with 35 year-old Frank Azzopardi, DP’s newest partner from Down Under. Azzopardi (University of Melbourne law) began legal life at Australia-based Allens Arthur Robinson before migrating to Davis Polk in New York in 2001.

Hi Frank. We know you made partner in June, but we’ll say a late congrats anyway.

Not at all. [Laughter.] It feels as fresh as the congratulations I got then.

We’ve heard firms play jokes on newly-made partners.

Yes, that’s true. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of work for a Danish client. Tom Reid, the relationship partner, told me they were in town and wanted us to pitch for a new project. So I prepared the pitch and went down to the conference room. But the client wasn’t there. Instead, I was completely surprised because I found 150 partners there toasting me.

Sounds fun. Let’s step back a little. You went to law school and practiced in your native Australia before coming to New York. Tell us about the journey.

After I finished law school, I backpacked around Europe for seven months. On my first night in Spain I met my wife at a bar called the Black Sheep. She’s from the States, so we had a long distance relationship for two years. She moved to Australia for two years, and then we moved here about seven years ago.

And you decided to stay.

Yeah. We only meant to come here for two years. But I loved the city and I saw an opportunity at Davis Polk, because the firm didn’t have much of an IP practice. Even though I was notionally assigned to the M&A group, I told the firm I’d been doing IP work in Australia. So, over time, I built the practice here.

So it sounds like finding that niche helped your partnership chances.

Yes. There was a point when, rather than farming out work to IP boutiques, the firm started to recognize that IP is too important not to have a meaningful presence. I could tell I was getting put on some high profile matters. A couple of years ago, I worked on a matter for Texas Instruments with complicated IP issues. I worked on the Harvard/Google digitization project, representing Harvard. I also negotiated the rights agreement between the Golf Channel and the PGA Tour. Now I’m acting as a trademark consultant for LVMH in its dispute in France with eBay.

Americans can be suckers for Aussie accents. Did being Australian help you make partner?

I’d like to think it was based on the work I’d done.[Laughter.] But there is one aspect of being Australian that gave me an advantage. Australians are pretty laid back. In an M&A context, you can’t underscore how important that is. Technical skills matter. But the ability to step back, diffuse a situation and talk your client off a ledge is even more important.

Alright, Frank. Thanks for taking the time. And best of luck.

No problem.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).