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500Lawdragon Q & A with:Mel Immergut“Legend” gets tossed around quite a bit thesedays in the legal field, however, it’s the rare attorneywho actually measures up. Mel Immergut is one ofthose who does: He’s been the chairman of Milbank foran unprecedented 18 years, building the firm into aninternational powerhouse while maintaining his statureas a top dealmaker and quiet powerbroker.There’s much to discuss with Immergut – he’s ViceChair of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum andactive in the U.S. Military; represents Anheuser Busch,NASCAR, MasterCard and many others; has seen thelaw and his firm transform from a far different time;serves on the board of and teaches at Columbia LawSchool; recently received the Servant of Justice Awardfrom the Legal Aid Society; and created a visionaryeducation program for his firm’s associates at Harvard.LAWDRAGon: You’ve accomplished so much and rightlybeen recognized for all you’ve done. If you had to pickone accomplishment of the past year of which you’remost proud, what would it be?MEL IMMERGut: That’s easy. We’re most proud of ourMilbank at Harvard program. This is a concept where weare sending about 400 of our associates, the vastmajority of them, to Harvard for one week a year for fouryears in succession. We’re bringing everyone in from allover the world, so, for example, all of our Singaporeassociates will do this. It’s a course that was in equalmeasures come up with by us, Harvard Business Schooland Harvard Law School. And it emphasizes businessconcepts more than legal concepts.LD: That’s fascinating. Can you tell me more about it?MI: It took about a year of hard work between Milbank,HLS and HBS, led by Professor Ashish Nanda atHarvard, to do the design work. We’ve had threegroups - about 120 associates - go through so far andit’s gotten the best reviews of any project vis-a-visassociates that I’ve seen ever at the firm.LD: What do they say? Also can you explain a bit aboutthe purpose of the program?MI: Well, they all come back saying it’s amazing andthe best learning experience they’ve ever had.The purposes of it are first, greater retention; we hopeassociates will be so enthusiastic about this it will be afactor in determining how long they stay with us. Second,better recruiting. And it certainly has gotten a lot of buzzin the law schools. Third, it’s better for our clientsbecause it’s turning out better associates, better trainedpeople. And also better for the firm as a whole for thosebY Katrina Deweythree reasons but also because it’s being talked about somuch in the legal and business community.LD: Are you looking for this to change the model ofbringing in associates, winnowing them out and onlyadmitting a very few to partnership?MI: This is an investment we’re making. We know thatstill only a relatively small percentage of people thatstart out with us are going to make partners and thatmost of them will not stay the full term to see if theydo or not. But our feeling is that the benefits we willget with better-trained lawyers, lawyers that will staywith us longer, attracting better lawyers and just havingbetter morale and having this as something we canoffer is worth the considerable investment in both outof-pocketexpense and, more importantly, taking aweek out of everyone’s busy schedule. We also havepartners that attend this as, I would say, minor presenters,because most of the work is done by the professors.LD: I’m also curious where you learned the leadershipabilities for which you’re so well known. Who do youconsider your mentor or role model in the practice?MI: Interesting question. Certainly not a law firm chair.I have learned over the years that there is nothingrarer in the legal profession than someone who caneffectively lead a law firm. I generally say that a lawfirm is blessed if it has one person who can be thechairman and another person who is ready to assumethat job when he or she retires. Having done this jobfor 18 years as chairman of Milbank, I’ve gotten toknow the managing partners of many law firms, andthere are some very good ones out there, but I thinkit’s a fairly rare commodity at law firms.So in thinking about who I would put forth as a rolemodel, I think I would pick my very close fishingfriend Don Tyson who was the chairman and CEO ofTyson Foods, the largest protein producer in theworld. I had the privilege of working with Don andbeing his friend for the better part of 30 years, watchinghim both running his very large company and fishingwith him all over the world. He taught me manylessons about managing an operation that haveworked well for me and also make me what I think isa person who has maintained a reasonable balancebetween work, which I think about 24 hours a day,but also other things in life, which I can do whilealmost always thinking about work.See the full Q&A at www.lawdragon.com/lawyer-limelights/mel-immergut.L A W D R A G O N 136 I s s u e 13Photo by: Greg Endries