Every two weeks, a financial statement is prepared for Taylor Duane Barton & Gilman LLP. A copy is shared with the law firm’s partners, executives and entire staff.
“Everyone feels invested,” said partner Francis Connor III. “We want everyone to think of this as their business.”
Connor has been with the firm since its beginning, in 1995. And in those 18 plus years, he said, the values that he learned from his mentors at the firm are still in practice today, even as it has grown.
“We do treat everybody with respect,” he said.
A leading New England civil litigation firm, Taylor Duane Barton & Gilman has offices in Providence and in Boston. The firm has represented large companies and individual professionals and entrepreneurs and handles cases ranging from broker, medical and product liability to education and environmental cases.
For 10 years, Lilian Parra has been with the firm, working her way up from a legal assistant to assistant firm administrator. “I am where I am because we’ve grown and moved people up.”
At the office, she said, “you feel as if [it’s] your home away from home, you’re walking into a place where there are a bunch of friends around you. It’s a very comfortable atmosphere.”
Parra also appreciates the attitudes of the partners at the firm. “They are lawyers, but they are professional,” she said. “They don’t treat us as an assistant or a clerk, they just treat us as co-workers.”
And the firm takes that philosophy of equality further, Connor said, viewing itself as a horizontal business, not a hierarchy.
Even before lawyers make partner, they begin to get a feel for what it will be like. After a few years, bonuses become a significant part of compensation.
“We’re proud of that great way to reward merit,” Connor said. “It’s sort of training to become a partner.”
In the meantime, he said, everyone’s opinion is valued and necessary for the success of Taylor Duane Barton & Gilman.
“There is a ton of interaction. A lot of the brainstorming we do is out in the hallways,” he said. “I may be chatting with a partner, and within a minute or two there are five or six people crowded around,” and it’s not just lawyers. “It usually includes members of the staff.”
The opinions of staff members can be just as helpful as that of the lawyers. “They know our clients,” Connor said. “They talk with them all of the time.”
Knowing that their skills are valued along with those of the lawyers is one of the reasons all employees tend to stay with the firm.
Connor said that there has never been a case where a lawyer has been with the firm for eight or nine years and not made partner, if he or she wanted to stay.
Parra agreed that there’s not much reason for lawyers, administrators or partners to leave the firm.
“There’s not much turnaround here,” she said proudly. •
Correction: An earlier version of this story was unclear as to how long partner Francis Connor III has been with Taylor Duane Barton & Gillman LLP. He has been with the firm since 1995.
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