Name: Julie Fink

Category: Law Firm: Managing Partner of the Year

Firm/Company: Kaplan Hecker & Fink

Title: Managing Partner

Time in Position: Since 2017

What was your route to the top? 

My legal career began at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a firm I was attracted to for their strong litigation practice and commitment to pro bono work. As an associate, I spent four years working with partner Robbie Kaplan to represent Edith Windsor in the United States v. Windsor, the landmark Supreme Court case that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and helped pave the way to marriage equality. I then served as in-house counsel at Pfizer Inc., where I was the global pro bono lead. These experiences set me up for a unique career merging public interest work and high-stakes commercial litigation. In 2017, I worked alongside Robbie Kaplan to found the firm that is now known as Kaplan Hecker & Fink, becoming one of the youngest managing partners in corporate law. I have been honored to play a leading role in building a new kind of boutique law firm, rooted in the values of fairness, integrity and justice.

What keeps you up at night?

As a small firm, we are always thinking about how we can improve our use of technology to make our work as efficient as possible. For a firm our size, innovative technology solutions present a tremendous opportunity but also come with significant risks if they are not handled properly. I'm sure I speak for any law firm, and really any business, when I say that data security has to be a top priority.

What is the best leadership advice you've given or received, and why do you think it was effective?

The best advice I can give is to actively think about leadership! Too often, lawyers don't consciously focus on how to become the best leader they can be. During my time in-house at Pfizer, I saw firsthand how effectively lawyers can bring teams together to get the best out of every member. Leadership is a set of skills and mindsets, like any other quality. Treating it that way—as something that can be developed through effort—is the best path I know towards growing as a leader.

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you started out in the legal profession?

I wish I had known how important it is to not lawyer in a vacuum. It can be so easy, especially as a young lawyer, to "zoom in" and get mired in the details of the specific work that you are doing. In my experience, the best lawyers are those who are able to take a step back and think more broadly about what's happening in the market and in the world around them, including understanding the way our profession interacts every day with the political, academic and journalistic sectors.

What is the most valuable career advice anyone has ever given you?

The most valuable career advice I've been given is to take chances and to never be afraid of trying something different. There have been various points in my life when I could have easily stayed the course rather than taking the road less traveled, but actively choosing to break off and pursue new adventures—like founding Kaplan Hecker & Fink—has been the most rewarding.