ATLANTA (December 15) – LAWFUEL – Law News, Law Jobs Network – Kilpatrick Stockton announced today that Bill Dorris and Diane Prucino have been selected as the firm’s new Managing Partners. In January, they will succeed Bill Brewster who served as Managing Partner for the past six years.
“Having worked with Bill and Diane for years, I know they will form an outstanding leadership team,” said Bill Brewster, who will resume his intellectual property litigation practice, as well as offer support in specific strategic areas. “I have no doubt a shared managing partner role will be successful. I already have seen that over the past month as Diane, Bill and I work on issues together,” added Brewster.
“When Bill Brewster told our Executive Committee last year that he wanted to devote more time to direct client service we started to methodically consider the best management model for moving forward,” stated Randy Hafer, Chair of Kilpatrick Stockton’s Executive Committee, which sets Firm policy. “And with no set tenure for our managing partner, we could be deliberate in creating a leadership structure that maintains our client focus and provides heightened attention to attract, develop and retain key talent. The collaborative managing partner approach, which is how our Executive Committee and Department Chairs have long functioned, will optimize our ability to achieve these goals.”
Diane Prucino, 49, becomes the first female Managing Partner at a Southeastern-based AmLaw 100 law firm. She will share management of the firm with a focus on attorney development. Prucino has been the chair of the Firm’s Employee Benefit, Labor and Employment Department for six years, and has also served on the firm’s Executive Committee. She has served in a variety of roles related to hiring and training, and most recently has been the partner in charge of the firm’s recruitment of lateral partners. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Duke University, Prucino has been at Kilpatrick Stockton for her entire 25 year legal career. In addition to working with Hands On Atlanta and the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, she recently joined the Board of Central Atlanta Progress.
Prucino has been focused on her practice and the upcoming transition, but admits that the role as the first female managing partner at an AmLaw 100 firm based in the Southeast has caused her to reflect. “Atlanta and the Southeast have a tremendous number of successful female lawyers at law firms and major companies. Although it may take time, I hope to have more company in the managing partner ranks.”
Prucino continued, “As a labor attorney, I have had the fortune of working with some of the best HR departments in the country, and that experience will give me added insight to our own innovative hiring, training and retention programs.” She points to Kilpatrick Stockton’s mentoring program for associates, which is intended to supplement traditional project-based training and mentoring. Kilpatrick Stockton abandoned lock-step treatment of associates years ago. Rather than having a different compensation level or range for every year after law school, noted Prucino, “we adopted a program consisting of five development levels through which an associate progresses from hire date through partnership. Because people progress at different rates, it rewards success and provides an opportunity for individualized assessment.”
Bill Dorris, 51, will share the management reins with a focus on client service and practice management. Dorris will work with the firm’s department chairs and team leaders to continue the growth of the firm’s national and international practice areas and their success at attracting clients as diverse as Google, Fidelity, DaimlerChrysler, and the Big Dig – the nation’s largest public infrastructure project. Over the years, through Kilpatrick Stockton’s Departmental and Team Structure, the firm has consistently achieved high client satisfaction marks.
In addition to being co-counsel in one of the largest class actions in the country (Cobell v. Kempthorne) the past few years, Dorris also has been involved in a range of matters arising from several high profile projects, such as the expansion of Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, the Georgia World Congress Center, the VA’s construction of new hospitals across the country and the government’s clean up of radioactive contamination at its Oak Ridge, Tennessee facilities. Dorris, who attended the University of Kentucky as an undergraduate and for law school, joined Kilpatrick Stockton in 1996. Dorris is involved in an array of community activities.
The fact that the lead management role will be divided is a big plus, added Dorris, because it will allow him to maintain a role in key client relationships and matters. Dorris points to the deep Kilpatrick Stockton litigation bench as one of the reasons that he sees a smooth transition with long-standing clients. “We have one of the most highly-regarded litigation and construction practices in the country, and I have been able to offer clients a service team that can support their needs while I have a greater management role,” notes Dorris.
About Kilpatrick Stockton
Kilpatrick Stockton LLP is a full-service international law firm with more than 500 attorneys in nine offices across the globe: Atlanta and Augusta, GA.; Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, NC.; New York, NY; Washington, D.C.; London, England; and Stockholm, Sweden. Kilpatrick Stockton’s delivery of innovative business solutions provides results-oriented counsel for corporations, from the challenging demands of financial transactions and securities to the disciplines of intellectual property management. Collaboration among Kilpatrick Stockton’s corporate, litigation and intellectual property attorneys provides knowledgeable and proactive guidance for companies at every stage of the business life cycle.
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