From time to time, you’ve heard me mention my Valorem partners. I have tried (unsuccessfully, I realize) to keep this blog from being too Valorem-centric. But as my partners and our spouses gather tonight to celebrate our first anniversary, I want to use this space to share with them some things I’ve learned during our year together.
My partners, Nicole Auerbach, Mark Sayre and Hugh Totten, are visionaries and true believers. Each is the kind of person who makes others around them better people and better lawyers. We began with a vision that if we organized a firm from the ground up as a client would, we would come up with something different. More than different, unique. And each has stayed true to that vision.
I believed when we started Valorem that collaboration was the key, that if a group of gifted lawyers worked together, we would achieve more than any of us would on our own. We all felt that our clients deserved that level of commitment. I now know that we were right: we do more and better for our clients by collaborating. And to share an insight into how special my partners are, we have routinely spent lots of time discussing case strategies and tactics, frequently pushing each other, and never once have I believed that one of us was more interested in winning an argument than in finding the best answer for our client. That kind of search for the best answer is something I hope everyone has a chance to experience: it is breathtaking.
When we were putting our web site together, one of my colleagues crystalized another idea that we all shared: we take our work seriously, ourselves not so much. We’ve learned, I think, that laughter can make our work even better.
One of our clients, the visionary Jeff Carr of FMC Technologies, posted this comment in a Legal On Ramp discussion:
Pat — congratulations on the one year mark. You are one of my favorite lawyers, but more importantly, the firm that reflects your vision is one of the "new age" firms that’s going to help change the legal services delivery world. Keep up the good work for us, for all your other customers, and for the profession as a whole. Change is tough, being at the forefront is tougher, and being on the point of the spear is both exhilarating and terrifying!
Your friend and happy customer, Jeff
Let me end with this note to Nicole, Mark and Hugh. It is one of my great honors and pleasures to be your partner, to be sharing this adventure with you. I am tempted to call on Shakespeare and say something maudlin like "We few. We happy few. We band of brothers." But the gender specific reference is incomplete and the gender neutral translation misses something. So instead, let me say this as I raise a glass to my friends and colleagues: "To us and to the tip of the spear. May year two be as fun and exciting as year one. May our adventure continue. And may we remember always that we, acting as we, are always more than but one of us. Thanks my friends."