Consistency, not rapid change, has long been the defining characteristic of the conservative business model embraced by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. It is a strict lockstep firm and prefers its partners to be homegrown rather than laterally recruited. In managing partner Mark Walker’s view, such a model is essential to promoting a cooperative rather than competitive approach among partners, as well as avoiding ethical missteps stemming from personal greed. “If you look at firms that have had issues, this is often why,” he says of lateral recruitment of rainmakers. “That would put what we hold most dear at risk.”
Korea seems a total vindication of Cleary’s strategy: a successful practice led by partners who have worked their entire careers at the firm and readily seek assistance from their colleagues in other groups. “At other firms, you get the sense that the Korea practice is sort of off on its own,” says Cleary’s Jinduk Han, “but we’re definitely an integral part of the international practice at Cleary. There are a lot of lawyers besides [the Korean-speaking ones] who work on Korean matters.”
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