3 min read October 2023 — In an interview with Invest:, Julia Mann, San Antonio Managing Partner at Jackson Walker, LLP, talked about the firm’s substantial investment in San Antonio, highlighted by a new office in The Pearl and a community-oriented conference center. She emphasizes the firm’s unique position as the largest law firm in Texas with a diverse civil practice base, making them valuable to newcomers in the state.
What has been the overall contribution and impact of Jackson Walker for San Antonio?
We just opened a brand new office here moving out of Downtown to The Pearl in August 2023. We have made a substantial investment in San Antonio by building out new office space that increases our footprint based on square feet. We also devoted a significant amount of office space to a conference center that we hope will be a community gathering space. It was built and designed with that in mind with demountable walls to change the space as needed. We have already begun hosting events for the community, the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and the Federal Bar Association, including an event coming up for the alumni of Leadership San Antonio. We are seeing the investment coming through and we are pleased to be able to share our success with the community.
What is the current state of the legal sector and what opportunities are there for Jackson Walker?
I think there are plenty of businesses coming to Texas and we are uniquely positioned as the largest law firm in Texas and one of the few with a truly diverse civil practice base. We are a full-service firm that knows our state well which is valuable to people coming into Texas for the first time.
What strategies are you implementing to maintain the level of excellence your firm is known for?
We have a couple of different ways that we try to maintain excellence including mentorship and training both on practical skills as well as soft skills such as leadership. For example, in our litigation section, Jackson Walker has its own internal litigation training program with partners certified by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). The litigation training program is an eight-year program that our associates go through culminating in a real trial with real jurors that we do in-house. On a day to day basis, we also continue to challenge each other and collaborate to achieve excellence. For example, in San Antonio we have an effort we refer to as “practice court” so that whenever someone has a big case coming up, we present our arguments to the whole office. The presentation is partner versus associate and we invite the entire office, which provides great feedback. It allows us to be prepared and possibly face the hardest questions internally rather than in court.
How do you balance work culture and things like mentorship with the hybrid work environment that is becoming more popular?
With respect to mentorship, we have a formal program, however, it is the informal mentoring that occurs because our default is to work in the office which naturally creates more opportunities for collaboration and learning from each other. There are of course situations where people work from home both before and after the pandemic. We just ask them to be professional and make the office the default. We manage our work from work philosophy by investing in our office space. One of the decisions we made when considering this move is to have a dedicated office space for every lawyer and every staff member that is modernized with multiple monitors and sit-to-stand desks. We also have an entire studio for litigators so if they have Zoom hearings , depositions or mediations, they can be in a soundproof room with great lighting and audio. We have parking available on site for our entire team. Lastly, we try to create an environment that is fun and functional.
What do you want to preserve about the legal sector?
The camaraderie. I know pretty much everyone I go up against in court both personally and professionally and that is such an asset we have and provide to clients. When you know someone you are going to respect them more and will fight over things less. It decreases the cost of litigation and makes it more comfortable to practice law.
What are you seeing in the realm of cybersecurity?
Obviously, that is very important to every industry so we do internal testing to make sure we are not making ourselves vulnerable and we are constantly doing updates to make sure we are using the latest strategies to protect client data.
What are your outlook and top priorities for the firm?
We are focused on making sure we can provide the full realm of legal services to our clients. I see us continuing to grow and expanding practice groups where we see the need. We are a grow-to-need firm so we will always be adapting to what is needed most by clients and the region. We want to be the lawyers for all businesses here and so if we can facilitate that we should do so.
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