Former Priest and Kramer Levin COO Reflects on Tenure

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel executive director Nicholas Tortorella is capping off an unusual career that began with a priesthood in the Catholic Church, then shifted to Wall Street and finally Big Law.

The New York law firm announced in April that Tortorella would be retiring after nearly two decades.

As its executive director, Tortorella oversees the firm’s daily business operations, implements a variety of policies and procedures and works directly with firm management, partners and staff on its strategic planning and business goals. He announced his departure at the same time as the firm’s managing partner, Paul Pearlman.

“It’s been a terrific run, but we’re both at points in our lives where it’s time to pass the baton to the next generation,” said Tortorella, who will be stepping down on Dec. 31.

Career Path

Tortorella said he felt drawn to the priesthood during his high school and college years, as he grew up with foundational values of spirituality and helping others.

“Ministry was the best job I ever had,” said Tortorella, who graduated from Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, New York, in 1977. “When you’re involved in seminal moments in people’s lives, I don’t think there’s anything better than that or more fulfilling than that.”

He worked as a priest in several parishes of the diocese of Rockville Centre, New York.

Despite his enthusiasm for his work and ministry, Tortorella said he reached a point where he recognized that he wanted to get married and have a family, which are not an option for a Catholic priest.

“Sometimes things you think you can do in your 20s become a little bit more difficult in your 30s,” he said. So, he decided to leave the priesthood and seek out opportunities elsewhere. But since he hadn’t considered other careers at that time, he didn’t know where he wanted to go career wise.

Nicholas Tortorella of Kramer Levin

Kramer Levin

But what he lacked in practical industry knowledge, he made up for in the soft skills that companies sought, which led him to a position at Merrill Lynch on Wall Street in 1985.

In 1988, he joined online broker Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette as its managing director, eventually becoming its chief administrative officer in 1994. But after its acquisition by Credit Suisse in 2000 for $11.5 billion, Tortorella started to look elsewhere for other career opportunities. But because of an enforced noncompete he had to look outside of Wall Street.

As luck would have it, a friend notified him of COO position available at Kramer Levin and in 2001, Tortorella joined the firm, shortly after Pearlman was installed as its managing partner.

While he hadn’t come from Big Law and didn’t know much about the legal community, Tortorella said the firm recognized that the skills that he acquired as a priest and his business acumen could be of substantial use to the firm, which then had close to 285 lawyers and about $133 million in profits, according to American Lawyer figures.

“I do believe that the initial experience of being a priest impacted the core of who I am as a person [and] it helped me develop an understanding and appreciation of people, who they are and what they bring to the table,” said Tortorella, who eventually married and had four children.

“You recognize that people have abilities, people have gifts, people have talents and whether you’re talking in the context of ministry, Wall Street, [or] a law firm, if leadership works hard to develop, to use, to cultivate and to encourage people to share their gifts and their talents, I think it only enhances an organization,” he said.

Diversity of Talent

Over the years, Tortorella has worked to create a culture that recognizes the diversity of the workplace. He’s not simply talking about racial or gender diversity, but rather the diversity of people, talent, and responsibilities that exist in a law firm.

“In order for a firm to work, you have to appreciate everyone who’s here, not just the partners, not just the lawyers, but everyone,” Tortorella said. “I hope that my legacy here will be that I treated everybody the same — partners, attorneys and staff — with respect and with an appreciation that we need everybody here to be successful.”

Over the last 17 years, Kramer Levin has grown to nearly 326 lawyers across three offices, with $387 million in gross revenue and profits per equity partner surpassing $2 million.

But the challenges in the financial and legal worlds paled in comparison to an experience he had as a young priest.

“There was an accident involving some young people and several of them were killed,” he explained. He was called to the emergency room and had to tell their parents that their children were dead.

“It was a very powerful [and] transformational moment,” he said. “So as I look back on my career, have there been challenges? Yes,” he said. “But if you put it in perspective the things that we often get crazy about … most of those aren’t really that important.”

As he prepares to bid the legal world adieu, Tortorella’s advice for the profession is to keep culture front of mind. He said he did this both as a priest, passing on 2,000 years of church history and tradition, and as Kramer Levin’s executive director.

“I believe we built a culture of success here that we’ve enhanced and now passed on to the next generation of leaders,” Tortorella said, who still remains involved with the Church. “So the piece of advice that I would give to anyone in my role or anyone in Big Law is take some time to understand the culture before you come in and try to change it.”