The Beginning

Video Transcript

Howard: When we first started it was a different practice, you know. At one point we shared an office even. And that was interesting. We had two desks, but it up to each other, two phones, and one of us could talk on the phone at a time.

Michael: When we first met we were in law school, which was 1985 or thereabouts.

Howard: And I think I got him through corporations class, he probably thinks he got me through corporations. I don’t know.

Michael: We completed law school together. Howard went on to work at a small firm for about a year and I joined Kelly Kronenberg right out of law school.

Howard: The firm was…essentially when I started it was two offices when I started with seven lawyers. I remember Michael started six months before I did, or something like that. It was…there’s a lot of opportunity, and I think we both saw the opportunity, and how to capture it, and to go after it.

Michael: So we both came to the firm at a point in time where the people above us were the original founders. Chuck, and Steve, and John were good lawyers. And while they were good lawyers, they led us become good business people. And they realized the value of good business people in a law firm before, I think, a lot of firms came to that conclusion.

Howard: You know, the firm was just a different place, you know, and there was a lot of opportunity in the firm, I think, that was waiting for someone to take it. And Michael and I, being friends, saw that opportunity. And we saw and thought, “Mm-hmm, what could this be?”

Michael: You know, the way you used to get business in a law firm which you did a good job, you didn’t necessarily have to go out and sell the firm, or sell yourself, or what have you. Today, you still have to do a good job, but you’ve got to do a lot of other things that traditional businesses have always done. And I think that’s where the two of us excelled. We came together, not only as friends, but we both had that business acumen that we wanted to pursue. And as Howard said, there were a lot of opportunity because no one was doing it. So we did it, and we obviously, as a result, grew the firm.

Howard: Even with good vision, I don’t think…even Michael, maybe envisioned that 30 years later, we’d be sitting here doing this in a firm, being something that we always wanted it to be. It’s great. It’s been fun.