In February, after 26 years with Jackson Walker, Mike Taten was promoted to managing partner of the Dallas office – then COVID-19 hit.
While 2020 brought challenges, Taten said the firm is ending the year in a strong position for 2021.
The Dallas Business Journal spoke with Taten about how the firm fared in 2020 and what he thinks 2021 has to bring.
What was 2020 like for the firm, and how did you all navigate it?
It started gangbusters. We were having a very busy year, and most of our clients were thriving in early 2020. Then as COVID-19 came, it was just a gigantic pivot. The first thing we did was figure out how to pivot our workforce to work remotely … so that they could continue to work and serve our clients.
We got that set up so our people could stay healthy, feel safe and have the resources they needed to work with our clients. Some of our clients, even the ones that held up well during 2020, still had the challenges, whether it was employment issues, remote work, returned to work, or changes in their real estate needs.
We had other clients who struggled in 2020, especially those in travel-related, hospitality and entertainment businesses. It was a challenging year for our clients. We feel very blessed and grateful that we were in a position to help them and as a result, we ended up having a strong year in 2020.
Beyond that transition for the workforce, were there any other challenges?
I would say two challenges. First of all, we’re a very sociable law firm. Being remote and not being together has been in some ways harder on us than other law firms, but it’s worked out. Second, clients were confronted with completely novel legal issues – they needed advice on all sorts of insurance, real estate and Paycheck Protection Program issues. Clients also needed to know whether they could re-open offices and their places of business. There was a tremendous amount of learning that we had to do and then pass that learning along to clients fast. That was probably the biggest challenge in 2020.
What is your forecast as we get closer to 2021?
I’m cautiously optimistic for 2021. We are preparing for the worst but hoping and pretty optimistic for the best. The areas that have been especially strong for us in 2020 — which would include our bankruptcy, trial, health care and especially our labor and employment practices — I think are all going to be just as busy or busier in 2021.
The areas that I think held up better than expected, but clearly, were not firing on all cylinders like our transactional, real estate and mergers and acquisition practices seem to be ramping up here in the fourth quarter. I’m hopeful that it means good things for 2021.
With the vaccine coming, people hopefully feel, not that we’ll be out of the pandemic and everything will be perfect, but that they will feel more certainty and know better about what to expect. That will help them make decisions about deploying capital and other decisions that they might be holding off on right now. That’ll be good for the economy in North Texas and then, of course, good for us and other lawyers who serve them.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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