McDermott Elects Dual Leaders: Will Friendship Survive and Egos Subside?
Two lawyers who campaigned as playing to each other’s strengths have been elected co-chairs of McDermott Will & Emery.
Litigators Jeffrey Stone and Peter Sacripanti, both former prosecutors, were elected by the law firm’s management committee Friday, the Am Law Daily reports.
Sacripanti, who is based in New York, told the publication he has been a friend and partner of Stone’s for 15 years. The Chicago-based Stone emphasized in interviews with the Am Law Daily and the Chicago Tribune that the two of them together will be stronger than a single leader.
“We thought that the two of us working together could achieve more and give us a greater capacity to navigate through these difficult times,” Stone told the Tribune. “We also believed that our complementary skills made both of us stronger than either of us would be individually,” he told the Am Law Daily.
Stone will chair the firm’s management committee and Sacripanti the executive committee, the Chicago Tribune reports. It poses this question: “Can two rainmaking trial lawyers with Fortune 500 clients set aside their egos to run a top law firm together?”
