Stephen E. Lewis was recently named the managing partner of Troutman Sanders LLP, a law firm with more than 650 lawyers across 16 offices worldwide. He is the third managing partner since the early 1970s when former Gov. Carl Sanders, now 85, merged his firm with the Troutman law firm.
Lewis has served as the head of Troutman Sanders’ corporate section since 2006, managing more than 150 attorneys in the firm’s seven corporate practice areas. His clients include Cousins Properties Inc., PRGX Global Inc., PGA Tour Inc., Allied Systems Holdings Inc., LexisNexis Group, Novare Group Holdings, and Rheem Manufacturing Co.
He spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about balancing his new job with practicing law and what firms should do when business slows down.
Q: Why did you want to be the managing partner?
A: I came here in ’91 and thought I’d be a tax lawyer and became a mergers and acquisition attorney. Over the past 10 years I’ve become interested in the administrative side. It’s a great challenge and, with my accounting background, I’ve always liked the numbers side. I am also interested in the strategic piece of moving the firm forward. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Q: You are only the firm’s third managing partner. Isn’t that unusual?
A: Bob Webb was the managing partner for 17 years and he is now the firm’s chairman. He’ll help me with the transition so I can learn the job under him. That’s what Gov. Sanders did with him. This transition involves more than me. We are spreading the leadership so that more partners will be involved in key positions.
Q: How will this affect your practice?
A: We’ll see. Right now the M&A business is down but it is starting to pick up. I’ve talked to all of my clients. I had some interesting discussions with several of them. They wanted to make sure I would still practice and we came to a happy resolution. I will continue to practice and am, like a lot of people, working out the balance.
Q: You’re an M&A attorney in a down cycle. What do M&A attorneys do when there are no mergers or acquisitions?
A: I think corporate America needs to ramp the deals back up, and they are. It’s slowly starting again. But as an M&A attorney, you have to re-invent yourself. You become maybe a workout attorney and help corporations work through their debt. You focus on clients and help them with their other needs. It makes life tough. Firms react in different ways. The most extreme way is to get rid of M&A attorneys. But I think a firm must recognize what’s going on and weather the storm.
Q: What are your challenges?
A: From a financial standpoint, we are like other firms, in that we need to figure out and adapt to the new economic pressures facing law firms as the economy comes back. It’s unlikely to come back to 2005 or even the early 90s. Just what that means will be worked out.
Technology will continue to improve almost daily and many of our clients are advocates of that. I think video conferences will be the norm as oppose to the exception. We will be more global in focus and it won’t matter if the attorney is working for a client in the U.S., Southeast or wherever. We will marry all the talents and have the attorneys working together.
Q: You talked about balancing your life, do other attorneys have the luxury?
A: Our job is to provide the best service to our clients. If we don’t do that, someone else will. It is important to be focused on that. Having said that, if all you do is work, you burn out. And, if you lose your focus on your job, you struggle professionally. The key is to find a good balance. I’m the son of a Presbyterian minister and I grew up watching him sacrificing for his work and congregation.
Q: What are Troutman Sanders’ strengths?
A: We have about 50 specialties. There is nothing that we don’t do, but perhaps we are best known for our energy regulation practice and our high-end insurance work. Those are our highest profile specialties.
Q: Troutman Sanders completed a merger with Ross Dixon & Bell in 2009. Will we see more of those?
A: You can’t be taken over if you don’t want to, but we are constantly looking at different expansion opportunities. Bob Webb’s focus was on new locations and existing markets for growth. That merger was important because it established us in California and doubled our Washington, D.C., presence.
Q: Troutman Sanders has a quiet marketing presence. Is that by design?
A: The marketing of law firms has entirely changed. Some law firms are marketing themselves in ways that were unfathomable 25 years ago. I think clients are looking for a firm that is committed to clients and that is what we are. We are hooked up on all the social networks, Facebook, Twitter – that’s a big change. We want our attorneys to be out in the community with organizations and causes they are passionate about.
Q: Is it difficult overseeing global offices?
A: There are differences in the offices, but no one likes to be tightly managed, especially lawyers. You manage with the same basic approach – you listen, and you have to empower people to do their jobs and make the decisions locally. You must make sure that their overriding message is consistent with the firm’s and you praise and reward. When someone is off-message, they must be held accountable.
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