Legally Bond
Legally Bond
An Interview with Brian Butler, Management Committee Chair
In this episode of Legally Bond, Kim speaks with Bond's Management Committee Chair and litigation attorney Brian Butler. Brian talks about what his new firm role entails and provides a look into the year ahead at Bond.
Hello and welcome to Legally Bond, a podcast presented by the law firm Bond Shannigan King. I'm your host, kim Wolf Price. So on today's episode we'll be talking with Brian Butler, who is the chair of the management committee at Bond and a member in Bond's litigation department. Hey, brian, thanks for coming back to the podcast. This time is chair of the management committee since your term began January 1 of this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks, kim, I'm really happy to be back.
Speaker 1:It is always kind of funny to record these with someone who sits like an officer to a way and to be like Anzou instead of.
Speaker 2:I can hear you.
Speaker 1:From both directions. So the legal industry is often portrayed as a sector that doesn't change much or change quickly, but in the last few years change has been coming more quickly, I think, to legal practice, and I'm hoping today we can talk about your leadership role at the firm, your thoughts on the year ahead and some of the changes that might be on the horizon for law practices and attorneys. So does that sound like a plan?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd love to do that, kim, thanks.
Speaker 1:Okay, so before we get to that, I hope you'll tell us a bit about yourself. This isn't your first time on the podcast for a full episode, but that was actually potentially almost three years ago, in early 2021, when you were on. So, if you wouldn't mind, tell us a little bit about your background, whatever you want to talk about, where you're from, college, law school, family, whatever you'd like to share.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no thanks, and that three years has gone by very quickly. It's a testament to the success of this podcast, too, that we're still going strong. It's crazy, it's awesome. Yeah, so I'm a Syracuse native. I went to grade school and high school here in Syracuse. I went to Syracuse University for undergrad and then moved to Billy for a couple of years of work and came back to SU for law school and I clicked for a year, worked for a small law firm for a couple of years and ended up at Bond in 1999. And I've been here ever since. Commercial litigation is my practice area, but I've done a lot more at the firm and that's what really led to this current role that I'm in.
Speaker 1:So I mentioned that you're the chair of the management committee, or MC as we call it here. That's the role you're currently in. But this and you just alluded to this this isn't your first leadership role at Bond, so will you talk a little bit about some of the other roles you've held?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, one of the great things about our firm that I think is incredible for the professional development of lawyers is the opportunity that we have to engage in leadership positions from early on in our careers.
Speaker 2:So I started as an associate, as a member of our recruiting committee which is an outward-facing committee when we're out there looking for talent and worked with you, Kim, when you were in that recruiting role. Were you a chair? Yeah, yeah, and it was just that was really the start of my service to the firm and those types of capacities. So, in addition to working as a lawyer, serving the firm in different capacities, like on the recruiting committee, but from early on I was involved in those types of activities and that extended out through my career. Most recently I was the managing member of the Syracuse office and a member of the management committee and now that's rolled into this position as chair of the management committee. So it's been from obviously, that the legal practice is incredibly fulfilling serving clients and great results for them, but serving the firm has been equally as fulfilling to me. So I'm really excited to continue that service.
Speaker 1:And that's great, and I guess maybe we should back up just a little bit, because we're talking about you being chair of the management committee, but maybe our listeners don't know what that means or why that's the phrase we're using. So do you mind telling the listeners a bit about that role?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so our firm is governed by a management committee, so it's a committee of seven people. I'm one of seven and you know I'm the chair of the committee and I really view that role as a facilitator. The committee engages in the day-to-day management of the firm, ensures that, you know, we're operating from a financial perspective in a sound manner. Right Sets our strategic goals and objectives throughout the year and I'm there to assist the committee in facilitating all of those efforts. So you know I really view my role as a collaborative role with other six members of the management committee, rather than at the top of the org chart in our firm. So you know, I think that's another you know great cultural element of our firm that we, you know, operate as a collaborative committee rather than one person to end up the top-down approach. It just it really sets a stage for other firm cultural aspects that I think are really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And it would seem to me then that, having chaired other committees and had other leadership roles, then that's even more helpful for you to have the role as chair of the management committee now, because all of those committees report to the management committee. They're sort of part, they operate on behalf of.
Speaker 2:That's right and you can bring those perspectives to the position as chair. So there's some context right to the decisions that we need to make, whether it's, you know, with respect to hiring, whether it's respect to attorney development, whether it's related to compensation type issues, growth, right office management. So all those things have formed me over the years and have prepared me to start this position as chair of management committee.
Speaker 1:And while you've had those leadership roles throughout, you're always practicing full-time serving clients and doing all of that. So this is a bit of a switch from full-time practice where you are always concerned with other people's businesses, and now your main concern is our business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, and I'm still engaged in litigation with some of our clients and still involved, but the primary focus is going to be on the firm, in the management of the firm and again facilitating the decision-making of the management committee and working with attorneys throughout the firm Not only attorneys and other management or leadership positions, but really working with all the attorneys throughout the firm to make sure that they feel like they're supported and can produce the high-quality legal services that we demand from ourselves and our clients demand from us.
Speaker 1:And so, because I alluded to the fact that we sit near each other, when I see you get ready, working for our clients, I see you like sitting at the side table, reading, going through everything, preparing. I've seen you doing that a lot on behalf of the firm now, and this is in trying to switch and prepare for this role. So what are some of the things you've been doing to get ready for this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not. Far as the preparation is concerned, it's not a lot different than preparing practice law or preparing case for trial or preparing for a client meeting. You apply the same skills to preparing for the activities of this job, so that hasn't been a significant change for me. The subject matter right, but how I go about it is no different than how I went about practicing law, which I think is really important. Right, Because we pride ourselves on educating ourselves. Right, Having a full understanding of whatever topic it is that we're discussing or exploring, pairing to present that topic to a group of people and presenting it in a way that's compelling. Right and informative and open and honest. Right, All those things that we expect ourselves to do when we're practicing law. All that applies to this position as well.
Speaker 1:Which I think is a great approach to it, and I think because I think lawyers often we often forget that while people are practicing law, it's also a business right? It's the business of private practice. So the business side is going to be a big part of your daily life now Client work and that as well, but now the business side steps into a bigger role for you, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. We have administrative leaders that are business people, right. We have a COO that is responsible for the day to day business aspects of our firm. But I have to have a full understanding of the business of bond shenanigans king and how we can most effectively and efficiently serve our clients needs and support our attorneys throughout the firm in that endeavor, right? So that's that's what I have to focus on every day, and running the business is a huge aspect of that, and also motivating people in the right way to do the best work that we possibly can for our clients that's a big part of it as well.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so and from 1999, we weren't, when you started here, we weren't a 300 lawyer firm, so it operates differently than it did then.
Speaker 2:It does. You know, the fundamentals are still there and the cultural aspects of our firm are still there, and as the firm grows, we have to work really hard to maintain that, and so that's so, whether we're a 50 lawyer firm or a 350 lawyer firm, we're going to try to maintain the culture that has made us the firm that we are. That has allowed lawyers in the firm to have lifelong successful careers here and have allowed us to serve clients for many, many, many years. So that's really, really important, and so that doesn't. That doesn't change it's. There are more touchpoints, right, there are more people that we need to talk to to reinforce our culture, and so that takes more time and more effort, but the fundamentals are are still there.
Speaker 1:Well, the effort is worth it to keep that solid foundation that we've had.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and and it's, you know, just in preparing for this role and this is how I'm going to approach it going forward I spent a lot of time talking with lawyers throughout the firm about their practices, about what support they need to be as successful as they can be, what support they need to, you know, serve our clients in the capacity that we demand of ourselves to serve them. I spent a lot of time talking to all of our staff members as well, who are integral members of our team. And so it's not, you know, it's not only I mean, we are a law firm and we focus a lot on the attorneys, but you can never forget that there's a massive support group behind us that allows us to do the things that we do every day. And so, you know, talking to them and understanding what their concerns are and what their goals are and what their professional development aspirations are, is really important.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Absolutely. I think that's a good segue into one of our other topics, the changes to the legal sector, because some of what you're talking about is like how we have to manage that as a law firm but still keep the client service central to everything and manage everything else that's happening in the world and growing teams. So the law and private practice in particular is a large industry and changes are often driven by technology and they're happening faster than ever. So are there a few things that you see on the horizon that you know will be things that you'll be tackling over the next few years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's interesting. You know, in the history of the practice of law, my 27 years in practice isn't that long right, it's like a blip, yeah, and the changes during that period of time have been unreal. From how we, you know, I practiced when I was a first year associate in a small law firm to how we practice now is just it's night and day, literally night and day.
Speaker 1:There weren't even blackberries. There were not blackberries. People don't believe us that there weren't blackberries yet.
Speaker 2:And I think we did word processing on the first series of the IBM yes, not major entrepreneurs. But so in that 27 year period it's just been. It's been a dramatic change in how we deliver services to our clients and, just like everything else, that progress is much more rapid now right.
Speaker 2:Set aside the gender AI, just the tools that we have at our disposal and, frankly, that our clients have at their disposal to help us provide them with effective services. It's tremendous. You add the generative AI to this and you know we really need to explore that in a variety of ways, and probably the most important is can we use that technology to more efficiently and effectively provide services to our clients? And we need to do that kind of exploration with respect to each of our practice groups, and you know some clients may decide that. You know they don't want their law firms to use generative AI. Others will want us to do that. So we need to be prepared to harness this technology for the benefit of our clients, and time is now to do it right. Exactly. We've developed a group that's exploring this and very active in determining, you know, how we can use this to help us provide the best service possible to our clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't imagine how many hours you've spent on it, because I know how many hours I've been in meetings with you about this already, like in how many times. So it's something that, like, we're constantly working on.
Speaker 2:Right, and you know the I think some people think that the change to our industry will be more rapid than others. But even if we're on the back end of those projections, we may be looking at much different ways that we employ to provide services to our clients in three years than we do now. So it's in the near term that these things are changing, so we have to be ready for it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think that the way everyone here is approaching that and collaboratively working on it is going to be a huge asset to our clients.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and, like I said, clients are eventually going to demand it or, at the very least, know that their lawyers can use this and harness it for their benefit. And we all win If we can provide more effective and efficient services. We win because we're delivering a better work product than the clients. Win, too, because they're getting it more efficiently in a cost-effective manner as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I mean people always make fun of lawyers that we're not beginning to change, but I think everybody's been pretty on board with trying to learn this and figure out what we need to do to practice law at the highest level, using the new technology that's out there and figuring out how it fits in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the interesting thing about that which I think is another great aspect of our firm is we do have regular rotation of people and firm leadership, and when that happens, I think people are very open to new ideas and to changes and aren't resistant really at all. So I think this is a perfect time for us to really dive into this, and I think the attorneys and our other team members and staff will do that with open arms for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so too. And besides all of that, there of course are new clients and industries and economic opportunities moving into the many different regions that we serve. One of those is the micron investment in central New York, which you've talked to us about before, and of course the semiconductor corridor in central and western New York, and then in our other regions and our other sectors, higher ed and intellectual property and everything else we do. Things are popping all over the place, but are these changes that you're focusing on both on the practice side and the business side of the firm?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, on the practice side. Well, stepping back the development and manufacturing in upstate New York is something that we haven't seen in decades, and Maybe our lifetime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, and so we're focused on making sure that we are ready as a firm to assist our clients and growing with that growth.
Speaker 2:We're not only focused on the companies that are looking to locate and upstate New York to support this massive growth in advanced manufacturing, but we're also preparing to work with our clients so that they can benefit from this growth as well. So it's a multi-faceted approach that we're taking to prepare ourselves and our clients for this growth. On the business side, I think it also provides us with a lot of opportunity. We have significant community involvement throughout our firm, and the companies that are locating here want to be involved in the communities as well. They want to be valued participants in the work that we're doing, and it's great to be able to partner with them, to develop relationships with them, to share ideas with them, to recruit with them. Exactly, People come into town to work for a new company and have a family member that's a lawyer. They're going to come and talk to us. So there's a lot of benefits to the growth that we're seeing and we are absolutely preparing for that.
Speaker 1:That's great, because we're preparing not only for ourselves, but for our existing clients and then the future clients who will likely come along as well. It's exciting.
Speaker 2:It is exciting.
Speaker 1:There's a lot happening. So you're just a few weeks into your first year as chair of the management committee, so any thoughts you'd like to share on the year ahead?
Speaker 2:I mean really optimistic.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I think people throughout the firm are ready for the change that's ahead of us, not because I've taken over as chair, but because of all the opportunities that we have the way into.
Speaker 2:The things that we've discussed the growing economy in upstate New York, the advances in technology, the efforts that we're undertaking to explore how we're going to use that harness that to benefit us and our clients all of those things people are really excited about. We've been on a pretty steady growth trajectory in the firm over the past few years and we're going to look to continue to do that. We're going to look at each of our markets to determine the practice areas that provide synergies with other practice areas in those markets. What are the needs in a particular market that we need to fill to service our clients and prospective clients? Well, we want to grow in the right way and we've done that a lot of success in the past and bringing lawyers on to share our vision and values and practice law. We have historically practiced law, so we're going to keep true to our fundamentals, culture and values, but we're going to continue on that trajectory that we've been on in the past.
Speaker 1:That's great Sort of true to who Bond is. I've said this for years before and we got here like Bond doesn't grow to grow, it's when it's strategically the right move.
Speaker 2:We used to grow organically right Through somebody who started as a summer associate. They would stay here for the remainder of their career. That type of longevity at a firm is not as prevalent as it used to be. We still continue that, though that's still a tradition at our firm. We are associates that during the summer that we hope will spend their careers with us.
Speaker 1:I think we talked to one of those today.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But the exploring opportunities with more experienced lawyers and law firms is also a great way to grow, as long as we can share ourselves that those synergies are met and that they share our values and vision.
Speaker 1:That's great. Well, thank you, brian, for coming back to the podcast. You should know that now the chair of the management committee, producer Kate, has at least three more episodes in mind that you'll have should be bringing you back far, so get ready for Several episodes. I didn't see that fine print. I don't think so it's always fun.
Speaker 2:It's always fun to talk to you and to do this and great and you and Kate are doing a great job. Thank you. We're having a major myosalence in the past year for the podcast, so it's really great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been good. So thanks again, and I'm really looking forward to the year ahead and the next era of bond. So thanks, brian. So much Thanks again. Thank you for tuning into this episode of legally bond. If you're listening and have any questions for me, I want to hear from someone at the firm. I have a suggestion for a future topic. Please email us at legally bond at BSK comm. Also, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to legally bond wherever podcasts are downloaded. Until our next talk, be well.
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