In an effort to better understand the busy mind of a law firm leader, The American Lawyer has asked managing partners and chairs around the Am Law 200 to discuss their goals and governance, their competition and concerns. In the first of a series of question-and-answer features, Sandy Thomas, the global managing partner and executive committee chair of 1,500-lawyer Reed Smith, opens up about the firm's transition to an alternative business structure in the U.K., the Big Four, talent management and more. Responses have been lightly edited.

If your firm's leader would like to participate in a future edition of Leading Questions, contact Ben Seal at [email protected].

What is your firm's governance structure?

We elect our leadership at Reed Smith. The partnership elects the global managing partner (GMP), who also serves as chair of the firm's executive committee (EC) for a four-year term. The EC is elected by partners, except for three at-large seats appointed by the EC to address imbalances in its composition, such as diversity and/or gender balance. The EC also serves as the firm's compensation committee.

The EC elects, subject to partner ratification, a lead nonmanagement EC member who coordinates with the GMP on EC subcommittee assignments and agenda setting. The firm's senior management team (SMT) is comprised of seven members, including the GMP, five partners appointed by the GMP (subject to partner ratification) and the chief operating officer. Except for the GMP, the SMT members serve as nonvoting members of the EC. The GMP also appoints leaders of our firmwide industry groups, practice groups and offices.

What are your core areas of strength, either by practice area or industry?

Reed Smith's core strength is collaborating to achieve our clients' business objectives and achieving those objectives through superior, efficient and cost-effective client service. We operate as a single global partnership serving clients on a global basis.

We have deep skills, experience and proficiency in five specific industries that provide a vertical framework for our practices: life sciences and health, financial services, energy and natural resources, transportation and media and entertainment. We serve all of these industries and clients in other sectors through a range of practice groups most relevant to their sophisticated legal needs.

What do you view as the biggest opportunities for your firm, and what are the biggest threats in the coming year or so?

Clients expect their law firms to maximize efficiency in the delivery of excellent legal service. Reed Smith's biggest opportunity is to do that through a combination of Reed Smith Global Solutions (RSGS) and our client value team, both of which drive efficiency and legal project management practices firmwide and integrate innovation and technology to reach the best solutions for clients.

The Global Solutions Center is the core business services function for the entire firm and also provides some legal services such as e-discovery. RSGS also includes associates and paralegals in some of our industry and practice groups. Business services functions comprise financial accounting and reporting, human resources, information technology, secretarial, practice innovation, business intake and conflict analysis, and central docketing. With the addition of our global solutions location in Leeds, England, in 2018 to provide dedicated support across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, we have continued to meet clients' expectations.

Second, our client value team is made up of more than two dozen highly skilled technology and project management experts who provide value-added services and play a key role in our responsiveness to opportunities. By focusing on increasing operational efficiency, this team helps lawyers reduce the cost of delivering legal services, while simultaneously improving the quality of the services delivered.

Still a third major opportunity flows from the personal relationships within our single global partnership and throughout our expansive geographic footprint. We recognize that our lawyers and our staff drive the quality of our client relationships and consider ourselves a team of 3,000 people dedicated to the best outcomes for our clients. The depth of our relationships across our 29 offices in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia makes the potential for client growth almost limitless.

With respect to potential threats, although we are purposely diverse and well-balanced to withstand external threats, a global recession of any significant duration could impact the positive trajectory of our growth and ultimately our financial performance.

How have you altered your business model or firm structure, if at all, to compete in a changing legal landscape?

Reed Smith is the first large law firm to become regulated as an alternative business structure (ABS) in the U.K. Becoming an ABS permits us to provide services beyond traditional legal advice and to bring individuals who are not legally trained into our ownership structure. We are actively evaluating our options as an ABS and consider ourselves well positioned to take advantage of such opportunities as they arise. We are incredibly proud to be at the forefront of the modernization of big law with this move. As the first international law firm to convert to an ABS, we are ready for the future and have the agility to immediately seize new opportunities to help us drive clients' businesses forward.

Additionally, we have developed several proprietary technologies to help us deliver service more efficiently. For example, in 2018 we created a subsidiary, Gravity Stack, offering these technologies to clients either in conjunction with our services or as standalone products. Gravity Stack's mission is to provide legal data solutions through the use of technology, process design and data analytics that augment the delivery of legal services.

Who do you see as your chief competition, including any type of service provider?

We compete every day with other Big Law firms for clients' sophisticated legal work and for the limited high-quality talent pool and emerging talent from law schools.

In addition, the encroachment from the Big Four is real, especially as it relates to the firm's tax practice. Reed Smith has the largest and leading state and local tax practice in the U.S., and we are keenly aware that major accounting firms compete with us for talent and, at times, we with them.

We are also mindful of the growth of alternative legal service providers, which has the potential to introduce competition beyond the traditional legal services model; however, we are confident that the ingenuity, experience and persistence that have made us a successful law firm since 1877 will help us thrive in future competitive landscapes.

In looking ahead at the next 12 months, share with us your plans around the following topics at your firm:

• Growth (or retrenchment) by practice area, industry, geography: We will focus on integration efforts for our new Dallas office. We customarily invest considerable time, energy and resources—human, technology and otherwise—in launching new offices and integrating them into the Reed Smith culture and business ethic. We continue to evaluate new markets for Reed Smith, some prospects for which are particularly ripe. We also anticipate continued investment in developing our deep bench strength in our five industry sectors and in the practices most relevant to our clients in these industries.
• Talent management (including hiring practices, diversity, retention, benefits, mental health): We are dedicated to expanding our focus on and investments in our Wellness Works and Associate Life initiatives, which we are continually evaluating and expanding, along with our summer technology associate program, given the growing significance of technology to legal practice. We have a cutting-edge diversity and inclusion program that has resulted in diverse promotion classes at all levels and innovative programs such as reverse mentoring.
• Technology or back-office operations investment/adoption and pricing/AFAs: Our plans revolve around increasing our investments in Reed Smith Global Solutions, our client value team and Gravity Stack. Global Solutions in both Leeds and Pittsburgh will continue networking as they move toward global integration of their functions. Each of these is focused on enabling our people to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and value that they deliver to clients across our global platform.

What high-level professional roles (C-suite or equivalent) does your firm have, and which ones are client facing?

We operate as a firmwide team of some 3,000 individuals all dedicated to doing great work for clients. Many of our people hold high-level professional roles. Those which are client-facing include Nick Bagiatis, our chief operating officer (and member of the senior management team); Suzanne Hawkins, our global senior director of client value, a pioneer in the legal operations space; Steve Agnoli, our chief information officer who has comprehensive knowledge in IT and business transformation; Lucy Dillon, our chief knowledge officer, leader of our innovation hub and a recognized thought leader in the profession; and Sadie Baron, our chief marketing officer. As with our entire team, each of these professionals is focused on client service and satisfaction.

What is the most innovative thing your firm has done recently?

Wellness Works helps our workforce manage stress, achieve work-life balance, develop healthy habits, and attain health mindfulness. In addition, it addresses mental health and substance use issues with training and information while promoting a healthy, supportive work culture.

Associate Life 2.0 is a multifaceted initiative to prepare the firm's early career lawyers for advancement, leadership roles and long-term professional success. Its key elements include a mobile app for securing real-time feedback from senior lawyers; an enhanced billable-hours credit policy for learning, development, pro bono and innovation projects; a ramp-up/ramp-down policy (with no reduction in pay) following leaves of absence; secondment opportunities; and reverse mentoring between junior and senior attorneys.

Gravity Stack provides leading-edge data management and analysis technologies to clients either in conjunction with our legal services or as standalone products. Our alternative business structure provides us flexible options for pursuing the future growth and development of our firm. And the legal technology summer associate program provides the opportunity for young lawyers with an interest in technology and law to work in both areas during their 1L and 2L summers and allows us to develop and fill a pipeline with talent to meet our future workforce needs in this specialized sector.

What are clients asking for lately that feels new or evolving?

Clients have always asked for efficiency and lower costs; however, clients increasingly want transparency with respect to budgeting and fees. Clients expect technology to drive greater efficiency and lower cost—or are open to it.

What keeps you up at night?

In a firm of our size, reputational risk associated with either a plain and simple mistake or through conduct inconsistent with our expectations and core values is regularly on my mind.