January 26, 2022
Publication: Law Firm Founder Conversations
From the firm’s goals and unique business model to the firm’s strategy and his end game, Kobre & Kim co-founder Michael Kim shared his experiences in founding and building a law firm from scratch when he sat down with CM Murray Managing Partner Clare Murray on their podcast series, Law Firm Founder Conversations.
“One of the most important issues in my mind about being a law firm founder is having clarity about whether you’re trying to establish and enhance a business that would have value independent of the people in it,” Mr. Kim said, emphasizing the difference between a business centered around specific lawyers and one that has a differentiated value proposition independent of its people. A firm pursuing the latter goal is able to pursue long-term strategies and goals in the firm’s interest, rather than having to satisfy the needs of the important few in the short-term.
A firm with this objective can also last beyond the time a founder is present. The goal is to make himself “irrelevant and superfluous to the business,” Mr. Kim said. The key is to “fill the place with people who are just as or more talented than the founders, and that’s really what we’ve been striving to do.