Proskauer Rose LLP

Alan S. Jaffe – Chairman Alan S. Jaffe is the chairman of Proskauer Rose LLP. Prior to assuming this position in January 1999, he served as a member of the firm’s six-person executive committee, which he now heads. Since becoming a partner in Proskauer’s Labor and Employment Law Department in 1973, he has spent most of his time engaged in collective bargaining negotiations and in counsel- ing clients on strategic labor law considerations affecting corporate , reductions in force and redeployment of personnel, as well as generally advising clients on day-to-day labor relations matters.

While Mr. Jaffe counsels clients in a variety of industries, including health care, publishing, manufacturing and human services, a significant portion of his time is concentrated in the entertainment industry, where he represents many of New York’s premiere institutions. Among the clients who rely upon his advice are the League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc., Ballet, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. The entertainment business is one of the nation’s most unionized industries and, as such, these and other clients have often presented him with complex challenging assignments.

Mr. Jaffe is an honors graduate of Cornell University and Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. His undgraduate degree at Cornell came from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “I wasn’t thinking about a legal career when I started,” he recalls, “but by my junior year, I realized that to do anything effective in the field of labor relations, at least from my perspective, I would need a law degree. And that’s when I knew I wanted to go to law school.”

Q&A with Alan S. Jaffe

Do you think law school provides adequate training for a legal career? I think the answer to that is both yes and no. When I went to law school, the courses were truly academic. There were very few seminars and, I believe, no clinics, so you didn’t get a taste of what standing on your own two feet in a case situation would be like. Law schools have changed substantially since then; today there are a great deal of clinics and seminars specializing in certain areas, and that’s a definite improvement. On the other hand, I don’t think law schools teach very much about what it’s like to practice law in a . You may get exposed to a legal aid type of practice, but I don’t know of any seminars dealing with what it’s like to practice as an associate in a medium to large firm in a major legal center. Nor is there much about what’s expected of you as a young associate. So to that extent, legal education could be better.

What personality traits and attributes do you look for in a good ? Determination, a result-oriented focus in a person who’s never satisfied with what’s going on around them. Somebody who is inquisitive. Probably the most important attribute is the ability to listen. A lot of people don’t have it, but as a practicing lawyer, it’s extremely, extremely important.

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What had made practicing law so rewarding for you? Within the firm, I’m dealing with very smart people, and there’s the fun of kicking around ideas and theories about problems with them. Then there’s the thrill of victory, whether it’s in a negotiation or a lawsuit, and making our clients happy. The over- all challenge of the profession – I don’t think there’s anything like it; it’s terrific.

What has surprised you most about the legal industry? I guess it would be law firms becoming businesses over the last twenty years in a way people never thought they would. I think client loyalty to firms is disappearing, and the lateral activity that’s taken place is the biggest surprise for me. Fortunately, we haven’t had much of that experience of people moving from firm to firm, but you pick up the trade press and read about it every day.

Any thoughts about where the industry is headed? One thing’s for sure: there will always be a legal industry. We’re here for good. I think you’ll see more consolidation among law firms. You’ll see a segmenting of the firms into different kinds of groupings; that’s already happening, and there will be more of it.

What advice would you give future worried about balancing work and outside commitments? I don’t think there’s a magic bullet to this problem. It is a difficult balance and it always will be, because the practice of law is very demanding. It’s service-oriented, and client response is critical. The quality and excellence of the practice is a given, so clients expect, indeed demand, responsiveness; that’s the reality, and you can’t sugarcoat it. We try to have flex programs and be sensitive to the needs of our attorneys to take time to be with their families through maternity or paternity leave. We have part-time lawyers. But if a lawyer’s going to be working full-time, it’s a demanding life, and there’s no way to avoid that.

If you couldn’t practice law, what would your dream job be? Over the years, I’ve had many opportunities to do other things-to teach law, to go in-house for clients-and I’ve never done it because I’ve enjoyed the practice of law so much. I wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and can’t wait to go to work, so I’ve always said, “Let’s not try anything else.” But if I had a white piece of paper I could fill in any way I wanted, I’d prob- ably be the CEO of a major company or, if I could afford it, I’d run a major social services organization.

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