Juan Picón is the global co-chair of DLA Piper, one of the largest international law firms. He grew up in Madrid and was influenced by his father, a small-firm lawyer, to pursue a career in law. After working for other international firms for over 20 years, Picón helped move Squire Sanders' entire Spanish office to DLA Piper 11 years ago. Though the job requires significant travel, taking 220 days outside of Spain last year, Picón believes in a work-life balance and encourages younger lawyers to prioritize their personal lives as well. He is passionate about building relationships and sees the firm's diversity and emphasis on local connections as strengths that have contributed to its success.

1. 20 Legal Business July/August 2017
lifeduringlaw
I come from a big family. The only male. I have four sisters and was
exposed to the talent and influence of women very early on.
My father’s influence led me into law. He had a very small law firm,
just himself and another partner. And he was obsessed with me as
his successor to get into law but in a different way from him. He was
visionary enough to see that the law was going to change and it was
better for me to do something different.
I was born in Madrid. I worked for ten years at Clifford Chance.
Then I opened the office of Squire Sanders & Dempsey in Spain as
local managing partner. I was with them for ten more years then
moved the whole office of Squire Sanders to DLA Piper 11 years ago.
I spent time working in a company in the US, in Cleveland, Ohio
of all places, straight after university, where I had studied law and
economics. This was a large engineering company and my dad was
their lawyer in Spain. I was working in
this firm in the legal department and
there was a programme at the university
in Cleveland in marketing so I also did a
year of marketing. I lived with a US family
so I had the full exposure to a mid-west
US company and US family. I then went
back and did my LLM in Brussels in EU law. It gave me good exposure
to Brussels, the EU and also French, which is my third language.
I have two boys. One is doing exactly the same – law and economics
– but is going into investment banking. He is smarter than I am. Juan,
the oldest, is 22 and Carlos is 18. He will do economics as well. My
wife is a lawyer but quit and looked after the boys for a long time.
Last year I spent 220 days outside Spain. Not a lot of time with
the family. I am old enough now to know that I would do things
differently if I started again and I try to convey that to the younger
generation. You can be a successful lawyer and organise yourself in
a different way.
I am passionate about the things I believe in. Building good
personal relationships and empathy with people is important.
Although this is a very large firm, if you are able to start building
good relationships, it is going to make a big difference. Over the
past year I have had one-on-one meetings with close to 200 partners,
which has been super rewarding.
This firm is very diverse. The thing that attracted me was that from
the first minute I was talking to Nigel Knowles, who interviewed
me – instead of telling me what the plan was imposed by London or
New York – he asked me what I wanted to do in Spain. For the first
time I felt that this was a firm that, irrespective of your nationality or
your location, they just trusted the individual. We are trying to be the
leading global business law firm but that wouldn’t be possible if we
didn’t allow people to have a strong local connection.
At the time I spoke to Nigel I had offers from two other firms,
which were more glamorous at the time than DLA. This firm
was probably my last choice. But Nigel won me over immediately
because I strongly believe is that you cannot lead or manage a
business without respecting others. Trust and respect are essential.
If there is not enough of an emotional culture that you build with
your people, something beyond pure economics, it is going to be
difficult to keep the firm together.
Everything that I have received from DLA has exceeded my
expectations by a mile.
Simon [Levine, DLA’s co-chief
executive] and I have been friends for
almost 11 years. My wife, Maria, and
Simon’s wife, Jane, are also very close. If
you are able to expand the relationship
beyond the work it makes life more enjoyable. It also sends a strong
message. Sometimes you do not have the same level of relationship
and it reflects on the way the firm is managed.
Simon and I are aware of the things he is better at and the other
way around. My inclination is in terms of dealing with partner
issues, people issues and the culture and values of the firm. Simon
has a very good command of the branding of the business in terms of
implementation, operations and financials.
Becoming the senior partner and co-chair of the firm was a
personal highlight. I wish my father had still been with us. For him
everything that was happening throughout my career was a mystery.
When I was telling him stories about the firm, he thought that it was
science fiction but he was very proud.
A lot of people in this profession, they think this is something that
is super-genius. It is intellectually challenging but this is not brain
surgery. My father said: ‘Juan, there are always going to be partners
or lawyers in firms that are smarter than you. But people who will
work harder than you – there will only be as many as you want.’
I take this job very seriously, sometimes too much.
Juan Picón
Words: Kathryn McCann; Portrait: Juan Trujillo
I am old enough now to
know that I would do things
differently if I started again.
Juan Picón is global co-chair of DLA Piper and senior partner of the international LLP