Main a legislation agency throughout a time of speedy technological change and heightened political and cultural rigidity requires balancing innovation with stability, and progress with precept. Managing companions should modernize their corporations whereas on the identical time navigating a polarized social local weather that impacts shoppers, staff, and the general public at giant. Choices are now not nearly enterprise technique, however about values, ethics, and sustaining belief in an period the place missteps can shortly change into headlines.
How can a managing associate steadiness the demand for innovation with the necessity to protect conventional authorized values? How can a managing associate information their agency’s public stance on social points to keep up morale and a way of function amongst attorneys and workers? Who higher to ask than the chief of a distinguished legislation agency?
I not too long ago had the pleasure of chatting with Jaime Drozd, managing associate of Davis Wright Tremaine, to get her ideas on the matter. Simply final 12 months, Drozd was unanimously chosen to function the primary girl to ever lead the agency. Along with her steering, the agency has not solely remained on the chopping fringe of AI adoption, however has additionally continued to champion variety and progressive values. Here’s a (calmly edited and condensed) write-up of our full of life dialog on legislation agency management throughout a time marked by transformative technological shifts and societal flux.
Staci Zaretsky (SZ): As co-founder of the Girls’s Affinity Group and now the agency’s first feminine managing associate, how do you proceed to foster a tradition of inclusion and supply management improvement for ladies and underrepresented attorneys — particularly at a time when DEI is dealing with exterior pushback?
Jaime Drozd (JD): Davis Wright Tremaine has an extended historical past of empowering ladies leaders. Two of our 4 govt committee chairs over the previous 15 years have been ladies, as are lots of our apply group and workplace leaders. I’m proud to construct on that basis because the agency’s first feminine managing associate and proud to be a part of a rising group of ladies main Am Regulation 100 corporations. I hope that others who won’t have seen the probabilities for themselves — particularly those that’ve felt underrepresented — can see a path to legislation agency management of their future.
Though variety, fairness and inclusion are beneath assault at this time, our agency stays dedicated to the tradition that now we have very deliberately established right here. For wonderful attorneys who need to construct profitable practices serving shoppers on our platform, now we have created an environment of openness, acceptance, and assist. Our tradition and values lengthy predate the time period “DEI,” and they aren’t going to alter. We are going to proceed to spend money on growing our folks, which incorporates applications centered on each analytical and gentle abilities which can be important for profitable attorneys.
SZ: You’ve built-in AI into the agency’s apply by De Novo, your lean expertise innovation group, at a pivotal second for authorized expertise. What have been the most important challenges and alternatives in integrating new expertise like AI, and the way are you getting ready attorneys to make use of it responsibly?
JD: We launched De Novo in 2014 to mix lean administration rules with inventive fascinated about expertise, and it has positioned us effectively for this second of AI transformation. De Novo is driving innovation on two completely different fronts — constructing proprietary instruments that remedy consumer issues, and in addition main modifications in the best way we use expertise at DWT. Throughout the agency, we’ve arrived at an actual candy spot through which we’re introducing homegrown improvements in addition to utilizing current expertise available on the market that is smart for us.
The largest space of problem and alternative for our agency (and others) could also be one and the identical: figuring out one of the best factors in our workflow to combine AI in service of our shoppers. We’re approaching that partially by formal coaching, which, along with educating our attorneys easy methods to use AI responsibly, addresses client-facing use instances. Equally necessary is what I name “disruptive studying,” the place we encourage peer-to-peer sharing and real-time experimentation. A few of our Most worthy progress has come from tapping the expertise of lawyer leaders and power-users of AI to find and drive the adoption of beneficial makes use of of AI.
I’m particularly enthusiastic about AI’s potential to counterpoint junior-lawyer improvement. For too lengthy, gifted younger attorneys have spent their early years on repetitive work. AI may also help shift that mannequin, giving junior attorneys earlier publicity to higher-value, judgment-based duties — a win for each shoppers and the subsequent technology of authorized expertise.
SZ: With so many forces reshaping the authorized business — regulatory, geopolitical, technological, even cultural — what’s your imaginative and prescient for steering the agency ahead over the subsequent 5 to 10 years?
JD: DWT has at all times been a spot the place distinctive attorneys come to construct lasting careers — and the place shoppers carry their most complicated, high-value issues. We’re doubling down on six key industries — expertise, healthcare, monetary companies, vitality, media and leisure, and meals and beverage — and our stronghold within the Pacific Northwest. On the identical time, we’re increasing alongside the Northeast–Mid-Atlantic hall and in California to raised serve shoppers nationwide.
My imaginative and prescient builds on what has at all times distinguished us: our folks and our tradition. We’re a values-driven agency the place colleagues carry their entire selves to the workplace and are absolutely dedicated to serving our shoppers’ wants. We appeal to attorneys and enterprise professionals who try for excellence, who’re collaborative, and who’ve an entrepreneurial spark. Our folks have a mixture of open-mindedness and hustle, each of which hold us nimble — a trait that’s important in navigating the pervasive uncertainty within the business.
Over the subsequent decade, our purpose is to remain true to that tradition whereas persevering with to evolve to satisfy the challenges and alternatives of the altering panorama. As we’ve finished traditionally, we need to assist shoppers thrive in occasions of change and create an surroundings the place our personal folks can develop and do their finest work.
SZ: Trying forward, what excites you most about the way forward for the agency and the career, and what do you hope your legacy will probably be as managing associate?
JD: What excites me is the tempo of change — each within the legislation and on the planet that our shoppers are navigating. The legislation by no means stands nonetheless, and neither can we. Each the problem and the privilege of this career lie in anticipating what’s subsequent and shaping the long run, versus reacting to it.
Know-how performs a giant position in that, now greater than ever. AI and different improvements are reworking not simply how we work however how attorneys ship environment friendly, beneficial service. I’m excited by the potential to make use of instruments in a approach that strengthens — not replaces — the judgment, creativity, and belief that outline nice lawyering.
As for my legacy at DWT, I goal to depart the agency stronger in each dimension: financially resilient, strategically centered, and much more widely known for our excellence and integrity. On the identical time, I would like this to stay a spot of alternative — a agency the place gifted folks can see a future for themselves and construct fulfilling, balanced lives. If I is usually a good steward of that tradition and open doorways for the subsequent technology, then I’ll have succeeded.
On behalf of everybody right here at Above the Regulation, we’d prefer to thank Jaime Drozd of Davis Wright Tremaine for taking the time to assist reply some urgent questions on main a legislation agency by an unprecedented period of innovation and social change.
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Regulation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be happy to email her with any ideas, questions, feedback, or critiques. You’ll be able to comply with her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or join together with her on LinkedIn.
