By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

Attorney Dan Oliverio says he is keeping his new position in perspective.

Recently named chairman of Hodgson Russ LLP - the area's largest law firm - he says he is excited to take a leadership role at the place where he began his career in 1982. In his mind, however, the most important distinction in the firm is partner, and he says Hodgson Russ is fortunate to have a strong group of partners guiding it.

In a recent interview, Oliverio discussed his new job, the future of the profession and the challenges his firm and others face in a difficult economy. The following is an edited version of that conversation.

BLJ: How is it that you came to be named chairman?

Oliverio: We are very lucky in our firm because the most important title is partner. To me, the title of chair, or board member or president, is secondary to being a partner here. We are a true partnership, and so we select our chair and president by consensus of the partners. We are a true old-fashioned New York partnership, which is pretty unusual these days, so every partner has a say in how we govern ourselves.

BLJ: How do you hope to use your position to better the firm in the years ahead?

Oliverio: I believe the job of the chair ... is to do what the partners want him to do to advance us collectively as a firm. I'm going to look for cues from my partners as to what they view to be important at any particular time. A couple of things I am going to do, though, during my tenure is, No. 1, I want to maintain in the community the high profile Hodgson Russ has always had. That goes not only in the Buffalo community, but in all of the communities where we work and have clients and friends. The firm has always been a leader in the community and I intend to continue that and take it to the next level.

The second focal point for me is that I want to participate in a major way in the recruiting and retention of good, solid new lawyers or lawyers that want to return to Western New York. I think there are a lot of lawyers who moved to bigger cities after law school and after a while they want to come back. On behalf of my firm, I want to encourage those young lawyers to come back to town because I think that is the backbone of a good business community.

BLJ: We've been hearing about the decline in law school applicants at UB in recent years. Do you see your firm taking a bigger role in promoting the profession not only at the college level but by getting into high schools and reaching out to future lawyers?

Oliverio: I think you are right about the numbers, and Hodgson Russ is very active with our partners getting out into the community. For example, we have partners who run some of the Moot Court teams for some of the local high schools. And we see that even at that level, there is an interest in the profession. I think one of the best things we can do is be very active in all aspects of our community and be the best ambassadors we can for the profession. If we do that, not only will we encourage people to become lawyers, but hopefully we will encourage them to become lawyers in Western New York.

BLJ: In recent years, attorneys and the profession as a whole have gotten a bad rap. Whether it's professionals who run afoul of the law or lawyers who advertise, the profession seems to have lost some of its luster. What must be done to restore that?

Oliverio: Well, let me say this first: Each day there are literally thousands and thousands of disputes that are properly, fairly and expeditiously resolved in this country. You never hear about those cases and you won't ever hear about those cases because, frankly, they are boring. What you are going to hear about is the cases where there is controversy, especially with the media attempting to obtain viewers and ratings and attract advertisers. People need to remember that the rule of law is what holds this country together, and without it we would devolve into a third-world country.

As far as I'm concerned, the profession gets criticized by the media and others in little snippets without any regard to what happens every day that goes right. I think you need to think about the 99 percent of cases that go right every day instead of the 1 percent that might end up on the front page of a newspaper.

BLJ: Do you consider part of your role is to serve as a sort of PR voice to promote the good works lawyers do in the community?

Oliverio: I think that is part of the role but I also think that if each of us just do our jobs and if people take a critical look at the rule of law in this country and how the legal profession runs and people try to understand it, then, really, they will see that it works extremely well. Better than any system ever in history.

You are never going to get away from the criticism, but if lawyers just continue to do their jobs every day, that is what matters. And we will just have to suffer the criticism we get.  

BLJ: What are the biggest challenges law firms face these days?

Oliverio: The challenges are certainly substantial in all businesses. There is pressure in the marketplace to be more efficient. Second, the law isn't getting any simpler in the last two years (laughs).

To keep up substantively, the day of the attorney who is able to do everything is long gone. We are becoming more and more specialized, and the challenge there is to keep lawyers interested when they are practicing in an area that might be relatively narrow.

Another challenge that we never had before is that for lawyers, there are alternate career opportunities. We have lawyers leaving the profession to go into politics, to start a business or working in a hospital setting. It used to be that if you became a lawyer, not only was that your career, but you usually stayed with one firm.

That is no longer the case.

BLJ: To that point, do you feel like, as the largest law firm in the region, you have a bit of a target on your back, with other industries luring away your attorneys given, as you said, the other career opportunities that are out there?

Oliverio: We rarely lose attorneys to other firms and I think the reason is this. Hodgson Russ has been extraordinarily progressive. We have a tremendous amount of diversity in the firm. We were probably the first firm ever to have a female partner back in 1963; Diane Bennett was the firm's president, one of the firs female president of a major law firm, 10 or 12 years ago. We have opportunities for sabbaticals for partners and for flex time schedules that accommodate different lifestyles so I think that helps.

BLJ: The ongoing issue of the billable hour, or more accurately, the death of the billable hour, has been interesting to follow. Where do you see things going in the coming years with respect to the billable hour versus alternative billing methods?

Oliverio: That's a great question and we are seeing some requests for alternative billing arrangements and partnering with clients which we have always done. But I will tell you this: A lot of clients, what they want to know is how much is it going to cost? Then if you are going to bill by the hour, or bill a flat fee, but the bottom line is, how much is it going to cost? They want to be able to plan and that's a fair question. We ask it of our plumbers, our car salesman, we want to know so I think what you are going to see is clients wanting to know with more precision, what a particular task is going to cost at the end of the day. I don't think you will see the billable hour go away because it is a very good measure that someone can look at and see what they are getting for their dollars. But you will see more blended rates and what we call alternative fee arrangements.