Davis Polk Chair and Managing Partner Neil Barr was featured on The Deal’s Drinks with The Deal podcast discussing his career trajectory, what he enjoys about law firm management and the issues he is focused on in that role, and the main issues he believes law firms will contend with in the coming years.

Speaking about how he originally became a tax lawyer, Neil said, “In law school, I had this perspective that my undergraduate Bachelor of Science in finance would resonate well in a tax practice, but it was certainly just an instinct. In my second year of law school, I took ‘Individual Income Tax’ and ‘Corporate Income Tax’ with Marty Ginsberg [husband of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg] … and I just absolutely fell in love with [tax] as a discipline. I liked it because it was business, it was case law, it was regulatory, it was statutory, and so the depth of what you got in a tax practice and the cross-disciplinary nature of it was tremendously appealing to me.” 

Discussing his role as the firm’s Managing Partner, he said, “I very much enjoy engaging with people. … I have a lot of fun professionally helping people achieve their goals, motivate them, think about their careers in a way that might be a little bit different, going out and talking to clients. I just really love the people aspect of this business.” 

When asked about what he learned during his first year as Managing Partner, Neil answered, “While a law firm leader is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the organization, in the context of a human capital business, consensus building is an exceedingly important part of the job.”

Speaking about issues he faces as a law firm leader in today’s environment, Neil noted, “How partners are compensated is a very important part of the job, it’s a very important part of the competitive dynamic at the moment, and it feeds into a second issue, which is the importance in this environment of retaining the best talent and recruiting the best talent…[Also,] making sure that our practices are appropriately sized for the right market opportunities, so making sure the scale and positioning of a particular practice is sensible in relation to the market opportunity.”

He also highlighted the importance of culture, noting, “We pride ourselves on being a team-oriented, firm-first, client-outcomes-are-most-important type of law firm. We think our brand is very much enhanced by the fact that we have absolutely exceptional lawyers here who consistently deliver great outcomes for our clients, and making sure that the client being first and the clients’ outcome being first is not lost in this increasingly competitive shuffle that is the law firm business is an important part of that. And part of making sure that the client outcome is the best possible client outcome is creating an internal culture that gets the best team focused on the client’s issues with the least friction possible.”

Touching on the most critical issues facing the industry over the next five years, Neil points to three buckets: 1) those inherent to the legal industry, including “lateral partners, the concept of the ‘nonequity’ tier of partners, how big law firms need to be to remain competitive;” 2) issues related to the macroeconomic environment; and 3) issues around technological innovation, including generative AI.

“Drinks With The Deal: Davis Polk’s Barr Discusses Compensation, Comcast,” Drinks with The Deal (January 30, 2025)

Copy link to share post