3 Things Keeping NJ Managing Partners Up At Night In ’22

Sills Cummis Managing Partner Max Crane was interviewed for this article covering some issues law firm managing partners are thinking about as we start a new year, including recruiting and retention, and hybrid work options.

As seen in this article, “Max Crane, managing partner of Newark-based Sills Cummis & Gross P.C., said recruiting and retention will also take precedence at his firm in 2022.

“However, he said he believes Sills Cummis is well-positioned for the coming year because of the efforts the firm made during the pandemic.

“‘Throughout COVID[-19], both at the partner level and associate level — even at the very beginning of COVID, we’ve got people who started in April 2020 — we continued to hire, we continued to look for talent,’ he told Law360 Pulse. ‘We never took a breath at hiring.’

“Sills Cummis brought on attorneys in areas including land use, construction litigation, employment law and white collar crime, according to Crane, who added that at the time of the hires, recruiting was seen as risky due to economic uncertainty.

“‘Sometimes you have to take a few shots and make some investments even when times are not optimal, and in our case we got lucky,’ he said. ‘They universally paid off. And that’s what we’ll continue to do for 2022.’

The article continues, “Crane said Sills Cummis is continuing to offer more flexibility when it comes to working from home.

“‘We have more hybrid options for people, but the work is there, the demand is there,’ he said. ‘And I think this year is starting out just as well as last year.’

“Remote formats also resulted in cost savings for attorneys, he said, adding that ‘we all were surprised by how we could continue to produce a higher level with less costs.’

“Under its hybrid policy, Sills Cummis asks its attorneys to work three days per week in the office with the option of working the rest of the week remotely, depending on client needs. The flexible policy is not something that Crane said the firm is planning to change anytime soon and will continue into 2022.

“‘Anybody who sort of says, ‘Well, the world is changing, let’s go back to the old way,’ I think is being a little silly,’ Crane said.”