For an experienced practitioner, making the decision to leave his or her current law firm is challenging. The actual and/or perceived potential for disruption in client relationships, financial well-being, and personal relationships, not to mention the pure discomfort of it all, leads most to consider such a move only after long and thoughtful consideration.

Once the decision to leave has been made, however, finding the right opportunity with the right firm for the practitioner can be equally challenging. Each practitioner’s needs are different, the capabilities and opportunities offered by each firm vary (even among firms considered to be peers), and it is often difficult to get the true measure of a firm until you are really “living” there.

BWM&S recognizes the challenge of changing firms for experienced, capable, and economically productive practitioners. We’ve become a home for a number of experienced lawyers over the past 10 years who have consistently found our business model and culture to provide them with great client service at appropriate hourly rates, a comfortable and flexible service culture, and enhanced financial opportunities. And our sensitive and individualized approach to the issues that invariably arise has resulted in a consistent track record of successful transitions for experienced lawyers.

When our experienced lateral transfers talk about what they found at BWM&S, here are the key points they make:

• Serving the middle market. While BWM&S is proud to represent some of the Chicago area’s most significant business and not-for –profit institutions, we embrace representation of entrepreneurs and their businesses and families. Our flexible service delivery and practice group model, our hourly rates and staffing, and our focus on the Chicago market make BWM&S uniquely able and willing to serve the needs of entrepreneurial organizations and the middle market.
• Breadth of services and support. Consistent with our focus on entrepreneurial and middle market organizations, BWM&S maintains uniquely broad capability to serve the increasingly complex legal needs of our clients. Additionally, the firm’s investment in recruiting and developing legal (and paralegal) talent, and in acquiring and utilizing industry leading technology, ensures that the firm maintains the supporting infrastructure required to comprehensively serve entrepreneurial and middle market organizations.
• Profitability. BWM&S has consistently out-performed its peer group in per partner profitability. The firm’s successful economic model includes prudent, hands-on cost management, an increasing emphasis on, and support for, marketing by both partners and associates, excellent realization rates, and an expectation that all lawyers maintain appropriate billable hours.
• Inclusive culture. It’s often difficult (and misleading) for participants to describe their own organization’s culture. What our lateral transfers tell us, however, is that BWM&S is an easy place in which to integrate both work and social interaction; and that the firm’s balance between supporting individual achievement and promoting collective well-being is particularly well suited to long term, sustainable success.
• Stability. In an increasingly transient business environment, the firm has maintained unusual stability among its lawyers at all levels. Consistent with this overall experience, and undoubtedly as a result of all of the other factors discussed above, BWM&S has established an unusually successful track record of recruiting and (more importantly) retaining experienced lawyers.

BWM&S is not the right firm for every experienced, productive lawyer looking for a new home. For those looking to maintain and build an entrepreneurial and middle market practice, however, the firm offers an unusually desirable opportunity. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your practice and ours in much more detail. If you believe our firm might be the right opportunity for you, please contact Jeff Warren at (312) 840-7020 or jwarren@burkelaw.com.