DLA Piper Chief to Associates: Be Curious, Not ‘Overly Partisan’

Junior lawyers can climb the ranks faster than ever before, according to DLA Piper leader Frank Ryan, but they also should think about checking their politics at the door.

Associates “need to be mindful of over rotating into politics,” Ryan, the firm’s global co-chair, said in the latest edition of Bloomberg Law’s On The Merits podcast. “We live in an overly partisan world. Yes, you have strongly held beliefs—and, yes, those are very important—but your job is to serve others. Whether you like that or don’t like that, that is the nature of the profession.”

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Ryan talked with Bloomberg Law editor Jessie Kokrda Kamens about why he thinks younger lawyers can stymie their career advancement by opining publicly on hot button issues. He also explained how his firm is looking to expand “in a much more thoughtful way” after growing to one of the largest in the world.

This conversation is a part of our Leading Law Firms project, in which we score law firms using more than just traditional metrics like a firm’s bottom line. Throughout this month, we’ve been sharing interviews with the leaders of other firms like McDermott Will & Emery and Cahill Gordon & Reindel.

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