here. - Roschier

THE ORANGE FIRM
THE STORY OF ROSCHIER
EXTRACT: THE STATE OF THE FIRM TODAY
ROSS COGAN - CHRISTINE ZIEBELL
THE ORANGE FIRM
The state of the firm
today
“If you build that foundation, both the moral
and the ethical foundation, as well as the
business foundation, and the experience
foundation, then the building won’t crumble.”
henry kravis
‘The only permanence is change’
We’re often told these days that businesses need to constantly innovate, constantly evolve,
or die. Consumers need continuous novelty; businesses require ever-improving standards.
You’re only as good as your last job.
But then we can also see around us cases in which change means decay – traditional
craft practices, for example, which have been driven to the wall by more efficient but
lower quality mass produced products.
Roschier’s leaders believe that the future will be marked by constant and unpredictable
change – change in business methods; change in technology; change in society. “My
approach is that this firm has always been, and will always be, in a mode of change. This
has helped the firm develop and become even stronger,” notes Mia Eklundh.
Tomas Lindholm, one of Roschier’s most influential former leaders, used to say, “The
only permanence is change.” It’s a statement that describes the firm well, according to
Mia. She feels that change is not only inevitable, but also necessary.
“The firm will always change and should always change, because the biggest threat is to
stagnate, become too cozy, and lean backwards and think that everything is fantastic and
wonderful. You need to challenge yourself all the time and you need to change while still
being true to your core values. And that is what Roschier is all about.”
Change might be written into Roschier’s DNA, but as Eklundh notes it is also a firm with
deeply held values. Some of these go back to its foundation. They have been passed on to
The state of the firm today
successive generations of lawyers in an implicit way, often by instruction literally at the
partner’s elbow, evolving and developing slowly with time. As such, they are analogous to
the principles and rules of a master craftsman’s trade. Can a firm with such a deep core of
values really thrive in our ‘faster, faster’ culture, where loyalties are transient and service
is everything?
It can. Moreover, it is. And perhaps it is thriving more effectively than firms with shallower
roots. Businesses are often compared to individuals. The analogy can be taken too far –
but there is something to it. Organizations do have something like personalities, and
ways of working that can almost be called habits. They can be efficient or unprofessional,
dynamic or reactive, humble or arrogant, even ethical or unethical.
In everyday life, the people who do best, and get the most from their time, tend to
exhibit an outer surface that is flexible, malleable and open to change and new experiences,
but a core of values that are fixed, or at least change only very slowly. At the day-to-day
level, they learn quickly, develop new skills when they need to – or even just because
they enjoy it – and change their beliefs as they learn more about the world, or when the
world changes and renders their beliefs obsolete. At the same time, there are boundaries
that they won’t cross, an ethical core – sometimes referred to as a ‘moral compass’ – that
guides their actions. This too can change, but only slowly, with much consideration and
perhaps some pain. If the surface behavior is too inflexible, the person is likely to be dull,
‘set in their ways’, and will probably spend much of their life angry at the changing world.
If they lack the core of values, the limits beyond which they won’t go, then eventually no
one will trust them.
It’s the same with businesses. A business has to be constantly changing, evolving and
developing at the ‘surface’ level. It has to be able to offer new services almost before clients
realize that they need them; to predict client demand years ahead of the point where it
becomes urgent; to ‘retool’ swiftly in response to technological changes; and to turn on a
sixpence when the market demands it. At the same time, it must do all this from a clear
ethical position. Clients and potential clients need to know what the organization stands
for, and that has to be something more than ‘making money’.
The only permanence is change, yes. But we need to meet that change from a still center.
What happens when the tide goes out?
Despite several economic downturns, Roschier has continued to thrive. So much so that
recent years have seen the firm achieve its highest turnover figures in history. Year after
year, Managing Partner Rainer Hilli has been pleased to announce that his colleagues
have not only reached their budgets, but also broken internal records – what he describes
as “a great achievement by all of us in these times of uncertainty and ongoing change.”
The context – that is the tough economic climate – is important. Most businesses
can achieve good results in benign conditions, but inevitably the economic cycle turns,
and boom gives way to bust. And it is during these downturns that you discover which
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Rainer Hilli, Roschier’s Managing Partner, in 2014.
Photo: Roschier’s private photograph collection
The state of the firm today
businesses have sustainable models and which do not – or in the great investor Warren
Buffett’s colorful phrase “you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes
out.”
Rainer Hilli has no illusions about the challenges that continue to confront Roschier.
“We see increased competition in the market and financial developments in Europe that
haven’t been too favorable. There has been a lot of uncertainty, and that continues.” His
response to this uncertainty has been to emphasize an ever-greater degree of cooperation
with the firm’s clients. “Our focus has always been the client,” he stresses. “What I want
to see is us becoming even better at serving the client and adding value in such a way that
expertise from across the firm can combine to serve the client in the best manner.”
This requires a commitment from every member of the firm to really listening to what
their clients have to say, and to making the effort to understand their businesses and
needs. As Hilli observes, “different clients have different needs, and we have to adapt to
that all the time. This means that we have to keep our eyes and ears open so that we
develop with the market and ahead of our competition.”
What really sets Roschier apart, and what Hilli believes will ensure its future success,
are its strong values and “one-firm” mindset. These entail that the interests of the firm are
put before those of the individual partners. Roschier’s internal structures and processes,
such as a uniform partner performance review and profit sharing, have been designed to
support this. Another important success factor, Hilli believes, is succession – something
Roschier has been working towards for quite some time. With younger partners taking
over the leadership of many of the firm’s practice groups, the sense of cross-border unity
and teamwork – of groups in different offices pulling together to achieve common goals
– has intensified.
“Giving the younger partners more responsibility has brought on a new wave of energy,
and when it comes to developing client relationships, the teams are ‘thinking as one’ and
working together on a new level,” notes Fredrik Rydin, head of Roschier’s Stockholm
office since June 2015. “It is exciting to see the younger partners excel in their new roles.”
As all this makes plain, Roschier’s focus remains on developing its offices in Helsinki
and Stockholm and deepening the relationship between them. “What’s important is that
we have been able to keep our one-firm approach, even while growing so fast with lateral
hires in Stockholm,” notes Mia Eklundh. “These recruits have been drawn from a range
of major firms with different values and cultures, and yet Roschier’s values have not been
eroded.”
This is remarkable. A decade on from its launch in Sweden’s capital it is easy now to
forget just what a bold and radical departure this was. It took great decisiveness and
courage. Yet, over the following decade, and without fuss, the firm has wrought another
revolution every bit as remarkable but largely invisible.
When Roschier surprised the market by opening its doors in Stockholm, most
commentators would have assumed that this represented the first step in regional
expansion. Where would it open next? Oslo and Copenhagen could be taken for granted
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– of course it would want offices in all the Scandinavian capitals. What about Reykjavik?
Iceland was, after all, booming at that time. Perhaps then Russia would be the next on the
list of acquisitions, and from there offices across Eastern Europe.
What no one expected was that the firm would spend the next decade doggedly building
up its position in Stockholm, and integrating the two offices fully, so that matters are
handled seamlessly and Roschier now stands as a leading firm in both jurisdictions. In
the legal sector at least, this is highly unusual. Yet in its commitment to quality, innovative
nature, and focus on client experience, it is 100% Roschier. And, of course, it’s worked.
After ten years on the Swedish market, Roschier is today a leading Nordic law firm, as
highly regarded in Stockholm as it is in Helsinki. The firm has announced its first “homegrown” Swedish partners, with more to come. And it keeps growing its turnover in a
difficult market. As Hilli says, “something must be right.”
Future values
It’s impossible to say where the market will go and what the future will bring for Roschier.
What is certain, however, is that no lawyer, if they are to succeed, can afford to become
complaisant or lose track of the essential question – namely why would any client,
particularly one at a large corporate, well furnished with business expertise and resources,
turn to an external law firm, let alone your law firm?
As clients continue to give increasing consideration to low cost alternatives for bulk
work, and as offshore providers become more and more reliable, for many law firms, at
least in Western Europe, this will mean a reduction in demand for resources. This, in
turn, is likely to lead to a return to the role of ‘trusted advisor’, which has been the core
responsibility of most law firms for most of their history.
It remains uncertain how the future will play out. However, there is every possibility
that the fundamental law firm model may have to change quite dramatically. The size of
law firms, how they specialize, leverage, and bill, and the fundamental direction that the
careers of lawyers take could all be up for grabs in the coming market. The ‘trusted advisors’
of the future will need to be very different from those of Åke Roschier-Holmberg’s day.
At the same time that they face challenges in the way they relate to clients, law firms
will face challenges in how they relate to their own staff. Young lawyers joining now are
more concerned about work-life balance than at any time in the past.
It’s something that concerns Rainer Hilli. “The development and well being of the
teams within the firm is something I find very important as a way of securing the best
talent,” he states. “However, just as important is an inspiring working environment with
challenging assignments and good teamwork.”
Teamwork – real teamwork, where each member trusts the others implicitly and
watches out for them without being asked and without resentment – is difficult to
achieve. But when it is achieved, it can be a life-enhancing experience. The law firm of
the future could be a more fluid organization, composed of many groups and networks,
The state of the firm today
constantly combining and recombining (perhaps with elements of clients’ businesses as
well as different colleagues) as they seek to solve problems and pursue projects.
Interestingly, a more team-based approach may also offer the key to another major
structural problem facing both the legal sector and society as a whole – how to more
effectively involve and incentivize women in business. According to some research,
traditional male incentives – status and money – appear less enticing to many women. But
women are also widely felt to be better communicators and team workers, who provide
much of the ‘social glue’ keeping groups together. Perhaps the next step in encouraging
more women to seek senior roles is a workplace in which more of the incentives are group
incentives.
This, of course, is all speculation. The future could unfold in a dramatically different
way that no one is anticipating. What it illustrates, though, is that Roschier is still at the
leading edge of developments in the industry. Its members are still thinking laterally, still
speculating about the changes that could occur and what they might mean, still looking at
how to improve services further, develop closer relationships, adopt newest technologies
and add more value.
No guaranteed method exists of future-proofing an organization. The best we can do
is to build strong values and to keep re-emphasizing them for each generation. Roschier’s
values have become part of the fabric of the firm because they work. They have evolved
over time and been put into practice in transaction after transaction, encounter after
encounter, assignment after assignment. They have been developed and refined as society
has changed and, with the passing of years, they have been organized into a system. The
firm’s concentration on the highest quality has won it the respect of clients, while its
commitment to the highest ethical standards has won it their trust. Its international focus
has enabled it to keep abreast of global developments before the competition, while its
dedication to the utmost levels of professionalism has helped it keep up with cutting-edge
developments in technology, business practices and service delivery. An entrepreneurial
mindset means that its lawyers and all of its staff members are constantly looking for
ways of adding greater value. And now the open-minded acceptance of change as part
of business life is ensuring that its lawyers don’t get caught in ruts, and can stay close to
their clients, developing along with them. As has been said, cast iron guarantees of future
success do not exist; but this is as good as they come.
And if the basics are sound, all you can do is try to follow them, enjoy yourself and get
something out of every day.
“Achievements and monuments are, at the end of the day, rather uninteresting,” said
Tomas Lindholm, a man who knew more than most about achievements and monuments.
Lindholm sadly passed away at the beginning of 2014, after a long battle with illness. As
someone who had a great influence, not just on Roschier but also on the practice of law
domestically and internationally, it is fitting that he should have the last word.
“If you think that you are doing the right things and feel that you have a meaningful
existence working for something good, what more can a person expect from his or her
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professional life? The core of being a lawyer is that you live with dilemmas from the
morning until you go to sleep, so much so that you forget that sorting out dilemmas, and
finding the right way to navigate conflicting values, interests, obligations, rights and all
this, is basically what you are doing. Some people thrive on dilemmas, and if you do there
is no better profession.”
Roschier’s history in a snapshot
•Established in Helsinki on 1 January 1936 by Åke Roschier-Holmberg
•Invited to join Lex Mundi as the Finnish member firm in 1987
•London office opened in September 1993 (closed in December 2002)
•Vaasa office opened in September 1994
•Oulu office opened in October 1997 (closed in June 2006)
•Tampere office opened in June 2000 (closed in June 2006)
•Turku office opened in August 2003 (closed in June 2006)
•RoschierRaidla, later RR Alliance, cooperation with three Baltic firms (Raidla &
Partners; Lejiņś, Torgāns & Vonsovićs and Norcous & Partners) established in May
2004 (official alliance dissolved in June 2012)
•Stockholm office opened in September 2005
The state of the firm today
Governance history
Managing partner
Chairman of the Board Senior partner
Other
Rainer Hilli:
October 2011 –
Gunnar Westerlund:
January 2012 –
Axel Calissendorff:
December 2009
(Co-Senior partner as
of February 2009)
Mia Eklundh:
Chief operating officer,
January 2005 –
Ulf-Henrik Kull:
February 2009 –
October 2011
Axel Calissendorff:
January 2010 –
January 2012
Tomas Lindholm:
May 2001 –
November 2009
Lennart Simonsen:
May 2001 –
February 2009
Tomas Lindholm:
May 2001 –
January 2010
Tomas Lindholm:
December 1996 –
May 2001
Tom Schubert:
December 1995 –
May 2001
Risto Ojantakanen:
December 1995 –
December 1996
Robert Liljeström:
May 1994 –
December 1995
From May 1994 backwards Roschier had “Bolagsmän”.
Heads of Offices
Helsinki
Stockholm
Vaasa
Other offices
Jan-Anders Wik:
October 2011 –
Fredrik Rydin:
Stefan Wikman:
June 2015 –
September 1994 –
(Co-Head July 2011 –
May 2015)
London office (1993
– 2002) headed by
Lauri Peltola
Jens Bengtsson:
July 2011 – May 2015
Oulu office (1997
– 2006) headed by
Jan-Anders Wik
Axel Calissendorff:
October 2005 – July
2011
Tampere office (2000
– 2006) headed by
Mika Alanko, Sakari
Aalto and Arto
Lindfors
Turku office (2003 –
2006) headed by Petri
Myllyneva