Name: Linda T. Coberly

Category: Law Firm: Innovative Leadership

Firm/Company: Winston & Strawn

Title: Managing Partner, Chicago

Time in Position: Since 2015

What was your route to the top? 

I started my career as a general litigator, participating in two trials in my first two years in practice. After my clerkship with Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, I returned to private practice and began to focus more specifically on motions and appeals. I joined Winston & Strawn as a partner in 2004 to start the firm's appellate group, and I have worked hard since then to demonstrate a commitment to the firm as a whole, which led to my roles in firm management.

What keeps you up at night? 

Demand and specialization. Over the last several years, our clients have demanded greater levels of specialization from all of our lawyers—a fair demand in light of our billable rates. From the perspective of developing talent, though, this is a real challenge. Our firm has made its name as a top-flight litigation shop, featuring the best trial lawyers in the business, for any kind of case. With the pressure to specialize, we've had to be creative about ways to ensure that each litigator—regardless of specialization—has meaningful trial experience. And we've also had to be creative in helping lawyers to pivot to something else if the demand in their particular specialization decreases. In my own practice, for example, I spent many years representing auditors in securities and aiding/abetting cases, which are very motion-intensive. But after we in the defense bar developed some strong new precedents that made it more difficult to sue auditors, the demand for this specialty has decreased. Although my firm is fortunate to be among the few that still have significant auditor liability work in large alleged "Ponzi scheme" cases, we have also had to pivot toward issuer-side securities cases and others as the litigation landscape has evolved.

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

People need to feel that they have been heard and taken seriously. Virtually every organizational problem can be traced back to this phenomenon. This is often difficult, particularly if stakeholders in the organization disagree. This problem can be healed by making sure that each individual community member feels heard.

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

Treat every matter as if it were the most important thing on your docket. Our clients need to know that we are putting their problems first—that we regard their problems as our own.