New Morris Manning MP Plans Aggressive Lateral Recruiting
Atlanta-based Morris, Manning & Martin has elected its first female managing partner.
Louise Wells, a senior real estate partner who has been with the law firm for more than 30 years, will replace Robert Saudek at the end of December, according to a press release. He has been managing partner for 16 years, and will be turning 65 at the end of this year.
The firm’s retirement plan calls for lawyers who turn 65 to start a transition year that ends with their retirement a year later, Saudek said in a conference call. He said his primary emotion is “relief, more than anything else” because of the stress of leading a law firm in these tough economic times.
Saudek said the firm is still in its first generation of leaders, and it’s time to turn over the reins to the second generation. Wells is the only female singly managing an Atlanta law firm.
Eight lawyers formed Morris Manning in 1976 to focus on real estate law. Wells, 56, was the firm’s first associate and first female lawyer, joining the firm in 1978. It now has 154 lawyers, and its primary practice areas are real estate, corporate and litigation.
Wells has a three-year term, and could be elected to a second term under a new structure that includes a three-person executive committee. She will devote about half of her time to managing partner duties.
Wells outlined three goals in her new job: to make sure that the firm’s lawyers have all the tools they need to do their jobs, to let the marketplace know about the firm’s strengths, and to grow the firm with some aggressive lateral recruiting.
She said corporate recruiting will be “a biggie” as well as hiring in emerging areas such as energy.
