When Richard Hung and Bita Rahebi were third and first-year associates respectively at Morrison & Foerster in 2001, they pulled two all-nighters to put together a summary judgment that culminated in a 10 am breakfast at US diner chain Denny’s.
Over 20 years later, the two are still friends, co-chairs of their firm’s IP litigation group and frequently work together on the same legal matters.
“It’s certainly true that long hours in the trenches reinforce your friendship,” notes Hung.
But these types of friendships can be more than just personal – they can also lead to more business success for partners, who can broaden the perspectives they provide to their clients and even learn more about their clients’ businesses.
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After all, it’s well known that the job of an IP litigator can be quite stressful and challenging. With millions (or sometimes billions) of dollars at stake in damages, unpredictable demands from the other side and urgent requests from clients, the work is not for the faint of heart, and the pressure is on to produce high-quality services.
Compounding these challenges, the industry is extremely competitive – not just between firms but sometimes even within firms where partners want to snag the best cases and clients for themselves.
But many stakeholders (including our own journalists) hope firms and clients can find ways to reduce the gruelling hours that lawyers work and to prevent burnout.
Partners can reduce their stress levels and improve the advice they give to their clients when, rather than compete with their colleagues, they establish close relationships with other partners at their firms – like Hung and Rahebi did.
Partners with such relationships frequently – or almost always – work together on the same disputes, which can be beneficial in many ways. These relationships allow partners to provide better services to clients because they can combine complementary skillsets and take advantage of being in different locations.
Counsel at Paul Hastings, Fish & Richardson, Morrison & Foerster and Snell & Wilmer have all developed these relationships in different ways, but say they’ve generally happened organically or from working on a lot of projects together.
Attorneys who do not already have such relationships, or those who wish to improve them, can do so by being more willing to refer work to one another and being mindful of how to build relationships remotely.
Buddying up
There are several reasons partners should consider developing close relationships with their peers if they haven’t already, say sources. For one thing, they may be able to bring different skillsets to the table – especially if they work in different practice groups.
Jeff Morton and Christopher Bright, partners at Snell & Wilmer in San Diego and Orange County, started working closely together recently because their practices complemented each other’s – Morton focuses on IP transactional work, while Bright is a litigator.
That means Bright can help advise on how parties in transactions can avoid or win disputes, and Morton can bring a transactional perspective to litigations.
Morton notes, for example, that if a transaction is starting to get contentious, he tries to bring Bright or another litigation colleague in quickly to make sure he doesn’t do anything that would cause problems for the clients later on.
“I want to bring him in early so that his case is as strong as possible and make sure I’m not hampering him or his colleagues if this matures to full-blown IP litigation,” he notes.
Even when partners work in the same practice areas, their collaboration can still be valuable to clients if they bring different experiences to the table or are in different offices.
Allan Soobert, partner at Paul Hastings in Washington DC who regularly works with Elizabeth Brann in the firm’s San Diego and Palo Alto offices, says Brann has access to associates in California with relevant technical backgrounds.
He notes that the time difference between DC and the west coast can also be beneficial because Brann can stay up later than him, and he can wake up earlier than her.
Attorneys add that having a partner they can trust to have their backs makes it easier to step away from cases and juggle multiple matters.
Hung at Morrison & Foerster says collaborations like his and Rahebi’s are critical to positive mental health at law firms.
Strong bonds
Partners often develop close relationships with other partners because they’ve worked together closely since the beginning of their careers.
Benjamin Elacqua, principal at Fish & Richardson in Houston who works together frequently with Betty Chen, says he and Chen first met because they both clerked for Judge Ron Clark at the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas: Chen took over from Elacqua after he left.
He notes that the clerkship community is very small, so he and Chen became close friends from that experience. Chen then encouraged Elacqua to join Fish, and the two started to work together on most major cases.
But attorneys can also develop these partnerships later in their careers.
Bright at Snell & Wilmer moved to his firm in 2021, which kick-started his close relationship with Morton. He says that during his career, he has made concerted efforts to develop relationships by reaching out to lawyers in other practice areas whom he might not otherwise work with on a day-to-day basis.
“What I’ve found in doing that is that I get a better understanding of our clients’ businesses and a broader understanding of what they’re doing,” he says.
Firms can also help lawyers develop these types of relationships by making efforts to bring professionals across various practice areas together.
Morton at Snell & Wilmer says the firm gathers attorneys from a variety of practices who work with life sciences companies. This allows these lawyers to have discussions with each other about how they can be helpful to each other.
Lawyers can also strengthen existing relationships if they’re willing to cross-sell or refer clients.
Hung at at Morrison & Foerster says he and Rahebi introduce their clients to one another, which makes it easier to take on work if someone is busy.
“If we treated our relationships as being siloed and didn’t try to support one another, it wouldn’t be to the client’s benefit,” he notes.
Remote era
Partners who want to build these types of relationships may have to think about doing so virtually, especially as remote work becomes more prevalent.
Bright at Snell & Wilmer says that although work at his new firm was not entirely remote, he spent a lot of time getting to know other colleagues through Zoom and this ended up being effective.
He was able to give a remote presentation to employees in the firm’s life sciences group, helping him foster better relationships.
Morton at Snell & Wilmer adds that although he’s met Bright only three or four times in person, they’ve talked on Zoom or Teams calls around 100 times, which has really strengthened their relationship.
Whether through Zoom or in person, partners can bolster collaborations to provide better advice to clients and enjoy their jobs more – whether they’re leading high-stakes disputes or debriefing at diners after a long night’s work.
