This Biglaw Chair Leads His Firm With Old-Fashioned Flair

// In a world with so many texts and emails, putting the thought onto the written page feels meaningful.

— Mayer Brown chair Jon Van Gorp, explaining to Jenna Greene of Reuters why he uses handwritten, mailed letters to praise the people he works with at the firm. Given “how much emotion and passion and a piece of themselves that people put into their work,” Gorp said in his interview with Greene, “[w]e’re trying to make the place more personable.” As noted by Reuters, Gorp gave a keynote address at Fordham last month where he said he wanted attorneys and staff at the firm to “feel like they’re part of a community of support” and to “feel proud when they mention to their friends ‘I work for this law firm.’”

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Biglaw, Biglaw Culture, Partner Issues, Quote of the Day