'One-Firm' Firm
There is a lot of talk about firms having a 'one-firm' culture. Latham actually walks the walk and makes good on its promise of being an integrated global law firm with such a one-firm approach. From the moment I walked in the door and throughout my time in both the New York and London offices, this firm has been all about collaboration amongst offices, collegiality and the sum being much, much greater than any of its many parts.
Here in London, where I've chosen to pursue my career, it continues to amaze me that 85 percent of my transactions involve attorneys from more than one Latham office. This is due partly to the type of work I do—project finance and work in emerging markets is largely made up of cross-border transactions—but it's still a remarkable fact in and of itself. A hallmark of Latham is that we truly do operate as one firm, and it's something I've seen here in London as well as during my stint in our New York office. We don't compete with each other, we collaborate. The right teams are put together for every matter regardless of where any team member resides. With today's technology, it's easy to work seamlessly across multiple offices. And since our offices don't act as separate profit centers, there's no financial disincentive to assembling cross-office teams. To the contrary, cross-office collaboration is a key part of our firm culture. During the course of just one week, for example, I have worked with attorneys from our Hamburg, Doha, Milan, New York, San Francisco and Singapore offices.
This is true on the pro bono side as well. Soon after I started at Latham, I began work on a pro bono matter for an international foundation that focuses on global healthcare initiatives for women and children. This took me on a two-week trip to Cambodia to preview a site with which the Foundation was looking to partner. As the matter included issues involving rural micro-finance, provision of healthcare services, and training and developing a partnership between governments, NGOs, multilateral agencies and companies, I turned to my colleagues across the firm practicing in the areas of healthcare, finance, public international and corporate law—in offices including Singapore, Washington, D.C., New York and London—and relied on their expertise to support our comprehensive work for this client. A defining factor of Latham is how deftly we leverage our global resources, applying expertise from our attorneys sitting all over the world to the issue at hand in any office.
The "one-firm" firm culture extends beyond our practice, influencing how we govern ourselves as well. Our management is decentralized, and those partners and associates who serve on firm-wide management committees are spread across every office. I've experienced this first-hand through my service on the global Recruiting Committee, through which I participated in recruiting matters for the London office as well as larger recruiting issues for the firm in general. Our firm culture really gives everyone a voice at the Latham table.