RORY CLARK: I think this emphasis on relationship and our ability to really listen to clients and focus on their objectives is rooted in the same thing that makes us leaders in our community, whether that's my service with the Loudoun County Board of Zoning Appeals or our service on nonprofit boards or the leadership positions we've held in our churches and community organizations or even teaching other professionals. We're engaged contributors, not one-dimensional worker bees with a limited focus that doesn't extend beyond the timesheet. What I observed about the practice of law in the large firms is that the model really has changed from a focus on committed service to the clients to more of a frankly a business model, where the object is to add more and more associates and to generate a staggering number of billable hours, providing what really just happens to be legal service. During that same period, America's seen and explosion in the creation and growth of entrepreneurial businesses. And these businesses, whether they're small, medium, or large, are really the engine of a modern economy. They want effective, responsive lawyers, who add value to their businesses, not establishment firms with big names, whose focus frankly is on how the client can help the firm as opposed to how the firm can help the client.
[GRAPHIC: Clark & Associates, ATTORNEYS AT LAW, Offices In Leesburg and Tysons Corner, Virginia, 703-443-0001, www.candalaw.com]
