‘National powerhouse’

From 2017 to 2022, McGuireWoods, with offices in 21 cities, added 36.6% in revenue, and still the state’s largest law firm is pushing for yet more growth. 

With roughly 1,000 lawyers, 300 of whom are based in Virginia, the Richmond-based firm — the nation’s 50th largest firm by number of attorneys — works hard to maintain a local, community-oriented feel.

“McGuire doesn’t feel massive,” says Mike Herring, managing partner of the firm’s headquarters office. “There’s definitely a sense of community, notwithstanding the size.”

In 2022, McGuireWoods yielded $977.4 million in annual revenue, up from $715.4 million in 2017. For Chairman Jon Harmon, this kind of consistent growth is key to McGuireWoods’ survival and success. Since taking over as chairman at the end of 2017, Harmon has helped the firm build its revenue, expand its departments and gain major awards like being named as one of the Financial Times’ most innovative law firms in 2018 and 2019.

“I believe the legal industry is consolidating and that, over time, there’s going to be haves and have nots,” says Harmon.

Harmon came into the leadership role on the heels of some of McGuireWoods’ largest mergers and acquisitions, which helped the firm grow in scale and profits. Now, he is working to continue that national and international expansion, while maintaining what makes the firm unique, he says: its inclusive culture.

Building a giant

Founded in 1834 by President James Monroe’s private secretary, Egbert Watson, McGuireWoods is a full-service law firm with corporate, individual and nonprofit clients. It is the 64th largest law firm in the world by revenue, and ranks 52nd among U.S. law firms, according to Law.com.

Some of the firm’s biggest victories have included winning a $501 million judgment against North Korea in the 2017 torture death of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier. McGuireWoods also represented Arlington County-based Boeing in settling a class action suit that would have encompassed 200 million class members.

Additionally, the firm represented Dominion Energy in its $13.5 billion acquisition of South Carolina-based SCANA, and again represented the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility in 2020 in the $8 billion sale of Dominion’s natural gas transmission and storage business to Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

McGuireWoods’ scale and capabilities have increased in the past two decades, in large part due to two major mergers, resulting in the addition of major offices in Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The first was McGuireWoods’ 2003 acquisition of Chicago-based Ross and Hardies, establishing McGuireWoods’ health care practice, which has become one its “marquee practices,” according to Harmon. Three years later, McGuireWoods also merged with Gordon & Glickson, another Chicago company, cementing McGuireWoods’ presence in the Windy City.

McGuireWoods’ 2008 acquisition of Helms Mulliss & Wicker, one of North Carolina’s largest law firms with 160 lawyers at the time, established a third major office for the firm in Charlotte. That firm did a lot of work for banking clients, so the merger allowed McGuireWoods to increase its work with financial institutions and alternative lenders, Harmon says.

Harmon has said publicly he is seeking opportunities for more firm mergers, but nothing has been announced yet.

Apart from mergers, Harmon says his growth plan for McGuireWoods involves deepening investment in five practice areas he believes will yield the highest return on investment: health care, financial institutions, private equity, energy, high-stakes investigations and litigation.

High-stakes investigations is the area of expertise of Casey Lucier, a partner at the firm who specializes in antitrust and government investigations. During her roughly 10 years at McGuireWoods, Lucier says she has seen significant investment in both of her areas of specialization.

“I think the way that both groups have grown has really been attracting and retaining superior talent,” she says. “The special thing about McGuireWoods is that … our lawyers can be big parts of their communities and have a livable family life, and yet they’ll be able to practice at a high level.”

Designing for retention

McGuireWoods’ growth into a national firm has helped draw increasingly high-level clients, which in turn has helped attract talent like Lucier, who says she was drawn by the firm’s national and international scale. What’s really helped retain employees, though, she says, is maintaining a culture of encouraging work-life balance and individualized support.

“The firm just puts a high priority on making sure that people have a livable life while still practicing law at the highest level, and that we all work together,” she says. “Really, that’s how we deliver the best results for our clients.”

This is important for Harmon, who says hiring and retention can be the biggest challenge for a firm of McGuireWoods’ size. In 2021, the legal industry experienced its highest-ever turnover rate among associates, according to a Thomson Reuters study.

“Continuing to retain your talent is certainly one of the challenges in a very competitive legal market,” Harmon says. “Other firms take note, and they try to poach your talent.”

For Lucier, her ability to juggle family life while still practicing law with major national clients first attracted her to the firm, as she was moving from Washington, D.C., with her family. She built on this by creating the Family Leave Liaison program, which designates an attorney in each office who acts as a point person for attorneys who are expecting or just welcomed a baby.

Harmon and Herring have had to adapt to build the right culture, they say; younger lawyers are looking for very different things than firm leaders were when they started their careers more than 20 years ago.

“The practice of law has changed a lot for guys like me and Jon who’ve been at it for decades,” Herring says. “I think we are continuing to be really attentive to the preferences and needs of our younger lawyers.”

From culture to practice

This focus on younger lawyers’ needs has led the firm to further uplift its pro bono practice — as well as nonlegal community work — which has long been a staple of McGuireWoods’ work but has increased in recent years, partly due to demand from new lawyers, Herring says.

“It’s funny, during interviews, [pro bono work] is one of the things that I find myself getting grilled on,” he says. “There’s an intimacy to it that I think we don’t enjoy sometimes with our other transactional work.”

One of the firm’s most notable pro bono cases was an $8 million settlement in 2018 for human trafficking survivor Kendra Ross, which was the largest civil single-plaintiff human trafficking award in U.S. history, according to McGuireWoods’ website.

Some of the firm’s other pro bono cases have included work on landlord-tenant disputes and aid for immigrants and refugees. For example, Lucier successfully represented an immigrant mother in a custody battle, and, years later, her team helped the mother and daughter both gain U.S. citizenship.

Incorporating innovative technology and prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion are other significant aspects of McGuireWoods’ culture, both of which are also becoming bigger parts of its legal practice.

“One of the things that I think is really impacting all of us is AI and how that’s going to shake out,” says Harmon.

In August, McGuireWoods hired a new chief innovation and artificial intelligence officer, Peter Geovanes. Based in Chicago, Geovanes will lead development and implementation of AI-enhanced tools to improve service to clients as well as firm operations.

And in mid-September, McGuireWoods launched its DEI practice team, which was created to address some of the legal complications emerging from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision rolling back affirmative action in higher education. The practice team will help clients navigate potential legal issues related to DEI programs and comprises lawyers from firm teams specializing in topics ranging from labor and employment, education, corporate governance and government contracting.

Along with committees dedicated to attracting and hiring diverse candidates and holding leadership accountable for promotion and development of diverse employees, McGuireWoods is seeking to “intensify” its DEI efforts by bolstering recruitment programs and networking groups for minority associates, Harmon says.

“It’s important to us and our clients,” Harmon says of his firm’s diversity initiatives. “It all stems from our strategic plan, which is to become a national powerhouse.”

Check out the rest of the 2023 Legal Elite.