Lawyer and accountant Michael Roberts, one of the partners of Robert McGivney Zagotta, works in Chicago. He tells us all about his life experience.
Can you tell us about your lawfirm?
We are a boutique lawfirm, founded by my partner and myself a decade ago. We both worked in very large, international lawfirms, and we decided to establish a smaller one instead.
We work mostly on corporate law and transactions. Our focus is definitely on corporate, and in my case on mergers & acquisitions, private equities, real estate transactions...
Why did you go from big to boutique?
Because larger firms are getting larger and larger and they neglect the middle market.
There is a void for clients who are mid-sized. They do not have a place to go. So we wanted to fill that gap: our lawfirm works primarily with medium-sized clients like us.
Do they have specific expectations?
Medium-sized businesses will be involved in international deals a significant number of times. They often do business abroad. But then they may face much bigger companies, who will challenge them in cases managed by big international lawfirms.
How do you match these big lawfirms?
My partner and I have been doing corporate law for more than twenty years; we have just as much experience as lawyers from big lawfirms. Besides, we worked for them in the past so we know how they work.
Bigger lawfirms can put more lawyers on a deal, up to seven lawyers, whereas we would be perhaps two lawyers working on a case. They put more people on but I am not sure it is always a benefit for their clients. We tend to be more effective in terms of cost and time. We have the same experience, less people, lower hours and thus a lower cost.
We also use Eurojuris sometimes to find attorneys in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, for example. Some members have also sent me work, typically European lawyers needing advice on how to work in the USA. The network has been terrific for me.
What are your views on specialisation?
It is critical, I do not believe you can be a generalist anymore. I've never been in court, I never did anything else than what I do! You need specialised knowledge. It is absolutely necessary to give your client the service they expect, and this is how you do it.
What would be your best advice to a young lawyer?
Spend your early years getting the most sophisticated and detailed experience you can get. If that means working for a very large firm for long hours, do it. I would not be able to do what I do now with my own firm if I hadn't been through that experience. You need to get there and to get a lot of work done in the field.
