Deal Talk, Texas Style
Deal work isn’t just about substance. Style points will help you go far, at least according to Jim Woolery of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. In an interview he gave to the Dallas Morning News (gavel bang: ABA Journal), Woolery explains that his success is due in part to his ability to look like a New Yorker but talk like a Texan:
“They like me in Texas because I’m from this fancy New York law firm, but I talk Texan,” says the 40-year-old partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. “When [Dallas attorney] Phil Smith from McKool Smith tells me, ‘Things are going to get Westerned,’ I know he means things are going to get sideways or upside down.”
My friends, this is why it is important to have diversity in the partnership ranks. Sometimes you need a guy like Woolery to make that special Love Connection.
Just how much has Woolery’s western charm been worth to Cravath?
Interestingly enough, Woolery is able to cowboy up even though he’s not from Texas. He’s from Kentucky and received his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law.
First George W. Bush, now Jim Woolery. Who knew that Texas was so susceptible to cultural carpetbagging?
Woolery’s homespun style has earned Cravath a lot of money:
Woolery gets along in these parts largely because he’s a small-town Kentucky lawyer’s son disguised in designer Manhattan pinstripes.“A lot of the things that I learned from my father you can bring to bear in a big New York firm,” Woolery says. “That’s the real distinction between me and the classic New York lawyer.”
But he gets paid like one.
Cravath gets a percentage of each completed transaction. Although the firm doesn’t disclose numbers, by industry norms Woolery and his M&A group have probably brought in about $100 million in revenue from Texas deals in the last five years.
You work what you have; it’s a good lesson.
N.Y. lawyer swings Texas-size buyouts [Dallas Morning News]
Cravath Lawyer Credits Talking Texan for M&A Successes [ABA Journal]
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Comments
FIRST!
Fersty McFersterson does it again!
- 1
Damn!
- Fursty McFursterson
Kentucky and Texas are not all that different: they both are littered with inbreds, yokels, and undereducated destitutes.
I'm so glad I live in the refined and aristocratic metropolitan that is New York City. Very few other places would enable me to wall myself off from the world's indigent.
FIRSTY McFIRSTERSON IS COMING AFTER ALL Y'ALL
jake has returned to breath life back into these lame comments.
Shoot! Foiled again by Fursty McFursterson.
- Thirdsy McThirdserson
Wasn't this already posted in the morning docket? Seems lazy
Brilliant JaKe.
Who are you people and why is there such a thing as a Mystal?
How did someone from UK Law get to Cravath anyway? Is Cravath doing OCI in Lexington KY to get summer 2Ls to become M&A partners?
If your hours and time tracking are all catty whompus, don't have a conniption, fess up and download Chrometa today. With the Texas-sized hours you'll be billing, you'll be ridin' high. Yee haw. Gosh I love Texas.
http://www.chrometa.com
4 = fail - it's metropolis, not metropolitan.
6 (i.e., 4's sock) = fail - it's breathe, not breath.
That is all.
Sort of Texan, sort of New Yorker. I guess the tiebreaker is - how many square feet is his wife?
"I'm just a cave man. I fell on some ice and was thawed out by some of your scientists. When I hear a cliwnt say things are gonna get "caveman-ized" then I know the guy is all tusk and no dung cake, if you know what I mean."
This post is addressed to Commenter #13:
It is most regrettable that you choose to apply your basic English editing skills to comments made on a website.
-Law review member at a preeminent peer law school.
This post is addressed to Commenter #16 :
You still fail. And so do your sock puppets.
That is all.
Our wives are bigger than your wives.
Texas
JaKe - please stop using my likeness as your photo.
I have a hunch that small-town kentucky lawyer in re: his father is a euphamism for baller plaintiffs' lawyer with legit connections.
It must be frustrating to make partner at a huge NYC firm, but still have the junior associates looking down their noses at you because you went to a TTT like UK Law.
Posts by Jake and his dad are the best reasons to come to ATL. Jake's picture channeling a cross between a small time Eastern European royal with no title/Romanian oligarch poseur cracks me up every time. Keep up the good work!
p.s. The New York I live in is no refined aristocratic metropolis. It is a dirty city filled with vermin both homegrown and from around the world. The rat-traps that are marketed as high end housing are utterly laughable, except if you have the kind of scratch that JE does. PE obviously lives in Greenwich or Armonk or some such place. There is far more ostentatious wealth in Dubai and Hong Kong, along with far more refinement in Munich or Geneva (albeit less fun).
Posts by Jake and his dad are the best reasons to come to ATL. Jake's picture channeling a cross between a small time Eastern European royal with no title/Romanian oligarch poseur cracks me up every time. Keep up the good work!
p.s. The New York I live in is no refined aristocratic metropolis. It is a dirty city filled with vermin both homegrown and from around the world. The rat-traps that are marketed as high end housing are utterly laughable, except if you have the kind of scratch that JE does. PE obviously lives in Greenwich or Armonk or some such place. There is far more ostentatious wealth in Dubai and Hong Kong, along with far more refinement in Munich or Geneva (albeit less fun).
Posts by Jake and his dad are the best reasons to come to ATL. Jake's picture channeling a cross between a small time Eastern European royal with no title/Romanian oligarch poseur cracks me up every time. Keep up the good work!
p.s. The New York I live in is no refined aristocratic metropolis. It is a dirty city filled with vermin both homegrown and from around the world. The rat-traps that are marketed as high end housing are utterly laughable, except if you have the kind of scratch that JE does. PE obviously lives in Greenwich or Armonk or some such place. There is far more ostentatious wealth in Dubai and Hong Kong, along with far more refinement in Munich or Geneva (albeit less fun).
Um, Chuck Woolery is from Ashland, KY -- Jim is one of his relations. Jim's wife is a real-life Sweet Valley Twin (and former cheerleader) who has big time connections to KY's power players.
Is it true that Cravath takes a percentage of transaction value as its fee? I thought only Wachtell did that.
"My friends, this is why it is important to have diversity in the partnership ranks."
I'm sure when firms talk about diversity a white guy from anywhere does not make the cut. The true meaning of the word "diversity" would cover what you're talking about but in the employment context "diversity" only means a person of color or someone's sexual orientation. This wont change until the people that benefit from firms' insistence on diversity until the people that benefit from these hiring practices insist that diversity is viewed in a broader context than just skin color or sexual orientation. I dont see that happening within the next century...
No, as with all things, things will get "Washingtoned" or "DCed" if you prefer.
NY lost. DC bailed them out. DC was and will remain this nation's capital, capitol, and Capitol.
22-24, thanks Jake/PE. Your schtick and feaux commentary bolstering it are patheticly unfunny and boring. I just scroll on past your posts.
JaKe - another one of your socks failed - see posts 22/23/24. Fail.
That is all.
22-24 = JE/PE
And thanks for posting your bs three times
Still zero mention on ATL of Schulte Roth's poaching of three Mayer Brown partners (and two counsel) in DC, including Richard Morvillo, the head of Mayer's Securities Enforcement group:
http://www.srz.com/SRZ-Expands-Practice-with-Addition-of-Prominent-Securities-Litigation-and-Enforcement-Team-10-19-2009/
Jim's family was at one point very well connected to public board rooms. The rest is history.
SMU 3L -- top quarter. Going to Cravath. $0 debt (aggie fror undergrad). Diversity baby!!! All you HLS suckas must be mad. I worked 1/50th of the amount you Ivy League shmucks did and ended up at the same place! But I had more fun in high school and college!
Our wives are blonder and their man-mades are bigger. - Texan
Best way to spot a fake Texan: go to a big city like NYC and find some tool who tells you how Texan he is.
Elie, do something, recycling posts from earlier in the day does not count as actual work.
As for NY City, doesn't it have people from New Jersey there?
This would never happen in TTTexas.
Jim got in because his family sent business to Cravath. SMU 3L - whatcha got aside from a TTT degree from a school with a 95% acceptance rate and a sub-140 lsat score
21,
It must be frustrating to know that you will never make partner and will need to look to your U.S. News book in order to cope with that sad reality.
So ummm cravath's gonna let this guy imply that texans are dumb (they fall for this guy because he talks like a texan?) or that there's something wrong with being a ny lawyer? well done cravaTTTh
His group's take pales in comparison with the Chili Recipe Infringement practice at WILDMAN HARROLD.
40, sadder yet is your lsat score and the ranking of the school you attended
cravaTTTh trolls - what is the mood of the firm now that you can't possibly bill more than 120 hours a monht?
43,
Uhuh. Keep fighting the good fight. You're special and you love yourself. Hopefully all of that makes up for how shitty and insignificant you are at your job if you even have one. Hmmmm.
@45, same to you kid
Guys in my high school used to get Western'd all the time. Sideways and upside down. It was no big deal.
45 is using the syntax of a 3rd grader. Or a KY Law grad.
That's nice. WTFC
Assuming his large stature isn't all fat, I'd hit that Mr. James Woolery pretty dang hard.
Hope he's more exciting than this:
http://revver.com/video/1257131/inside-the-deal-cravaths-jim-woolery-on-the-next-ma-wave/
HAhaha. Petty weasel-ass mofos. Always on message. Never disappoint!
Omelets at my diner used to get Western'd all the time. It was no big deal.
Elie, you ignorant prick, Dubya moved to Texas when he was two.
21,
I'm assuming he's too busy making money to care.
Then he sends the associates an email at 10:30pm and chews them out for not answering it before 8am the next morning, and laughs behind their backs at making T10 lawyer wannabes jump at his beck and call.
21,
What is the point of attending a T14 school? No really - is it for more than the ability to obtain a great job? Hasn't the partner at Cravath from UK "out-smarted" T14 grads and therefore deserves more respect?
-Not a UK grad
C'mon fellow Cravath alumni. sooooo many good Jimbo stories and no one wants to share?
11,
If you read his Cravath Bio it says Order of the Coif and Editor of the Law Journal. The fact that he's a partner at Cravath at 40 says good at practicing law as well as learning it.
All things considered, I would much rather take a top 10%, law review editor type from any T1 school than a bottom 50% or even bottom 2/3ds at a T14 school.
- Biglaw NYC Partner who also happened to be born in the South.
"Look! Here's ONE PERSON from a TTT who made it! This undermines the rankings!"
- TTT grads everytime they're apprised of a story like this
Seriously, he is an M&A partner at Cravath. Woolery is an excellent lawyer, end of story? Have you seen him or Cravath on deals? Top flight partners.
lol 58
not to mention every TTT coming out of the woodwork to gloat about how they "outsmarted" the hys grads
Would this be the same Phil Smith guy who was once rumored to date hookers and escorts even at firm functions back in the 80's? Inquiring minds want to know...LOL
I read this piece and gagged. It speaks to how stupid Texans truly are if some overblown suit from NY can show up and charm them with his ability to speak hick.
I don't know, but it looks to me like this kid from Kentucky is likely to get "western" on some Ivy League law school asses at rival NYC firms...