Milan Markovic, legal analyst at Crowe & Dunlevy. Courtesy photo

With an eye on expanding in Dallas, a market teeming with homegrown Texas firms and national firm outposts, midsize Oklahoma-based Crowe & Dunlevy brought on a fresh mind with local connections to lead the charge on client development and strategy.

About six months ago the firm hired Milan Markovic, also a professor at Texas A&M University School of Law, as a legal industry analyst, a part-time role. While he is a lawyer, his job at the firm is not to practice law, but to provide a strategic edge as the firm expands its two-year-old Dallas office.

Markovic said his role involves meeting with clients to develop relationships with them, identifying practice areas that would be a good fit for the Dallas location and finding potential lateral hires in those areas.

“He's connected in that community. He knows a lot of people from his perspective of a law professor. He studies the industry—where client needs are arising, what's trending in terms of where the bulk of legal work is headed,” said Timila Rother, president and CEO of Crowe & Dunlevy.

Rother said Markovic, who started at Crowe & Dunlevy in early 2019, will watch the trends and assist the firm in locating attorneys to fit those niches. Markovic acknowledged that Crowe & Dunlevy is competing for talent in a hot market, and experiencing pressure as higher-paying national firms open offices in Dallas.

In April, the firm hired two bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers as directors (the firm's title for partner) in Dallas—Vickie Driver and Christina “Crissie” Stephenson, both from Husch Blackwell. Rother said the firm used a recruiter, but Markovic helped with the hiring process.

Husch Blackwell declined comment on the departures.

Markovic said he has already met with some Crowe & Dunlevy clients and potential clients to explain what the firm can offer, emphasizing the quality of the lawyers and the firm's competitive rate scale because it is midsize and based in Oklahoma. His goal is to make sure in-house lawyers think about Crowe & Dunlevy when hiring outside counsel.

Lee Allbritton, a recruiter at Amicus Search Group, said Crowe & Dunlevy's plan to hire Markovic makes some sense and could be successful if the partners are behind it and want to pay for it.

Having a lawyer focused on client development is not at all uncommon in the boutique world, particularly at trial-specialty firms, Allbritton said, noting that it is “very logical” for a midsize firm like Crowe & Dunlevy to use that to get traction in a competitive market. After all, he noted, large firms typically hire business school graduates to assist lawyers with research for their client pitches.

Rother said Markovic's employment is an investment in the Dallas office. “It helps us, instead of having the executive committee from Oklahoma City trying to be eyes and ears on talent,” she said.

Randy Block, owner of Performance Legal Placement in Dallas, said he has never before heard of a law professor hired as a legal industry analyst.

“I've heard of marketing people, or former attorneys hired to help develop and figure out which practice areas they should expand and folks they should go about hiring,” Block said.

At Texas A&M School of Law, located in Fort Worth, Markovic is associate dean for assessment, strategic analysis and reporting, and teaches courses on professional responsibility, business associations and international business transactions. Earlier in his career, he was an associate in New York at Baker & Hostetler and Sidley Austin. During the summer break from school, he has more time to devote to his job at the firm, he said.

Crowe & Dunlevy, based in Oklahoma City, opened its Dallas office in 2017. Rother said the firm has five lawyers in Dallas who do intellectual property and bankruptcy work, and is aiming to add lawyers in areas such as real estate and general corporate practice.

Markovic said he also sees opportunity in bankruptcy and tax law. With regard to any practice area the firm offers, he said Crowe & Dunlevy offers a better value than national firms.

Rother echoed that sentiment, noting that Markovic's experience in New York early in his career sets him up well to tout that benefit.

“He has colleagues and friends in a lot of the bigger businesses that are now looking for good-quality counsel at lower hourly rates. That's our value proposition in Dallas, that we can provide at least the same if not higher quality of service … at rates lower than what you see typically in the Dallas market,” Rother said.

Markovic said firms of all sizes, but especially midsize firms, need to be strategic in hiring and in their approach to clients.

“All of the old ways of doing things don't work as well any more,” he said.

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