Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly
and Its 111 -Year History

One of these early firms was Lawler and Durment, the seed from which the Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly law firm would grow. Daniel W. Lawler and Edmund S. Durment arrived in St. Paul in 1884 and 1885, respectively. Young, not long out of law school and newly admitted to the Minnesota bar, they wasted little time forming a law practice. Lawler was a Yale graduate admitted to the bar in 1884, who served briefly as an intern in the office of Judge Thomas Dillon O'Brien. Durment had graduated from law school at Columbia University (now George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. 

The railroad industry did more man transport potential lawyers to St. Paul. From the beginning, the railroads and the law firm provided each other with opportunities for business and jobs. Lawler left the firm in 1893 to become general counsel for the Chicago Great Western Railway. From the beginning, the firm's members were involved in political and civic work, Lawler serving as mayor of Paul, and Durment as state senator -1922. The firm became Durment and Moore (Bigelow presumably having departed) when Albert R. Moore joined the firm in 1900, and then Durment Moore and Sanbom when Bruce W. Sanbom joined it. Moore, a University of Minnesota law school graduate, played an important role in the receivership proceedings of the Chicago Great Western Railway.

Although it had been a substantial and expected "silk stocking" law firm for several years, the real beginnings of the law' firm arguably were in 1913, when William H. Oppenheimer joined the partnership. Will Oppenheimer put his imprimatur on the little firm so indelibly that not even incredible growth, major changes in the law, in the firm itself, and in technology have entirely erased it more than eighty years later.

Oppenheimer was born in Texas on November 4, 1883, and brought to Minnesota by his parents when he was six months old. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1904 at the age of twenty, too young to be admitted to the bar. He went to work as an editor for Keefe Davidson Company, a publisher of law books that was founded as a West Publishing Company competitor by John West after a major rupture between family members. (It later went out of business.) Oppenheimer quickly gave promise of his abilities by rewriting a standard treatise on negotiable instruments. He was admitted to the Minnesota bar on November 4, 1904, his twenty first birthday and the day on which Theodore Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. A year later Oppenheimer earned a master of laws degree from the University.

William H. Oppenheimer. Photo from Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly archives.   

In 1906 Oppenheimer opened a solo practice in the Globe building, but in 1913 Moore and Durment invited him to become their law partner. According to Will's son, James, the three men met at Alverde's, a downtown St. Paul restaurant, for lunch to talk over the proposition. Durment wrote on the back of a menu how he thought the net profit percentages should be split and folded. Moore and Oppenheimer did the same. When they unfolded their menus, they were identical. "Dad said that was the biggest argument the three of them ever had," said Jim Oppenheimer.

The Globe Building in downtown St. Paul in 1913. William Oppenheimer opened a law office here in 1906. The building, at the corner of Cedar and East 4th street, was conviently located across the street from the old city hall and courthouse at right. C.P. Gibson photo, Minnesota Historical Society. 

World War I broke out in 1914, and Prohibition took effect in 1920, but major personal changes, not cataclysmic events, threatened the existence of the firm. In 1915 Durment became too ill to practice, and in 1916 he died. In 1917 Haupt was appointed to the Ramsey County bench and Hodgson took a leave to serve with the YMCA in Europe. Moore died suddenly in 1921. Moore and Oppenheimer were extremely close. Jim Oppenheimer remembered that his father awoke one morning and told his wife, "Albert Moore is dead." Later that day, a cable arrived from Paris that told of Moore's death.

Will Oppenheimer, still in his thirties, suddenly found himself almost alone. No matter how energetic and talented, he and Hodgson could not handle the firm's business. The firm needed competent lawyers with "gray hairs," said David C. Donnelly, a former partner; law practices in those days had to have at least some mature partners.

More Lawyers Sign On
Will Oppenheimer persuaded Frederick N. Dickson, judge of the Ramsey County District Court, to join him in 1921, and Edwin B. Baer, the son of the president of the American National Bank, in 1922. Dickson had been a member of the Board of Police Commissioners of St. Paul and had chaired the city's Republican Committee in 1910. Baer, whose college education was interrupted by his service in Naval aviation in World War 1, received his law degree from Harvard, was admitted to the Minnesota bar, and joined the Oppenheimer firm, all in 1922. A year later, Oppenheimer persuaded Montreville J. Brown to join him, and two years after that, won over Stan D. Donnelly.

Montreville J. Brown was a tall, Lincolnesque, "stunning" man, an athlete at the University of Minnesota, and the son of Calvin Brown, then chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. He earned both his academic degree and his law degree in 1909 from the University of Minnesota, pitched varsity baseball for all four years of his undergraduate career, and was captain of the team in 1906. Monte Brown "would come over and try to teach me how to pitch when I was a youngster," Stan D. Donnelly, Jr., son of Stan D. Donnelly, recalls.

After some years in private practice, Brown became Bemidji city attorney, assistant attorney general of Minnesota, and a member of the Minnesota Securities Commission. He helped create, then served as general counsel of, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). He was a big man, and quiet, said Gordon Shepard, a former partner who worked closely with him. "He was a very good lawyer but he didn't have the political connections; he was really his own man."

Stan D. Donnelly

Stan D. Donnelly was a graduate of the St. Paul College of Law (now William Mitchell College of Law), and clerk to Judge Thomas D. O'Brien in 1909 and 19 1 0. He was admitted to the bar in 1910 and achieved a solid reputation as a trial lawyer while practicing law with his father. He briefly formed a partnership with Warren Newcombe, then met Will Oppenheimer while trying the case of United States v. Bigelow. Herbert Bigelow was chief executive officer of Brown and Bigelow, a St. Paul playing card and calendar manufacturer. The 16th Amendment establishing the federal income tax had taken effect in 1914, but Bigelow had not "bought into" the concept of paying taxes, and he ignored the law. The federal government brought suit in the first such case in the country. It was prosecuted in the Old Federal Courts Building in 1924. Bigelow hired Will Oppenheimer as his lawyer. Bigelow's treasurer hired Donnelly to defend him. Bigelow was convicted and sent to Leavenworth Federal Prison. Donnelly's client was acquitted. Oppenheimer argued for clemency for his client, and the judge agreed.

Oppenheimer was concerned for the welfare of his businessman-client in the rough surroundings of Leavenworth. Every prison, he learned, has one prisoner with the power to protect others. At Leavenworth, that was Charlie Ward, who had fought with Pancho Villa on the Mexican border and had been arrested, allegedly for drug smuggling, although Ward claimed someone had planted the drugs. Oppenheimer arranged for Ward and Bigelow to share a cell. After Bigelow was released two or three years later, he hired Ward as his chauffeur. Ward was intelligent and ambitious and worked his way up in Brown and Bigelow. When Bigelow died in a canoe accident in northem Minnesota in September, 1933, questions were raised about the accident. Although the bodies of Bigelow and his female companion were found, the body of the guide hired to lead their little party was never found.

Will Oppenheimer and Richard Lilly, president of the First National Bank of St. Paul, were named executors of Bigelow's estate. They selected Ward to run the company. The company prospered and Ward became a grateful client-so grateful that when Jim Oppenheimer was a $400-a-month associate, Ward made him a Christmas present of $5,000.

In the course of the Bigelow trial, Will Oppenheimer and Stan Donnelly had developed a high regard for each other. Oppenheimer tried to persuade Donnelly to join him in the firm. He had excellent reasons to want Donnelly: Oppenheimer needed a good trial lawyer and Stan Donnelly had a reputation that rivaled that of his father, Stan J., and grandfather, Ignatius, both known as 11 mighty orators." In earlier years, Donnelly had hired out to small-town attorneys who did not like to try cases. He was a tremendously talented trial lawyer, said David Donnelly. Immaculate and elegant in dress and behavior, Donnelly's booming voice and great presence had impressed "Mr. O," who told David Donnelly that his father was "the greatest trial lawyer I ever saw."

Merchants National Bank at Fourth and Robert about 1925. This was the firm's second home. Minnesota Historical Society.  

Oppenheimer also wanted Donnelly because of his prominence among the leaders and politicians of the Irish community (sometimes called the "Irish Mafia"). The firm then was "deliberately ecumenical," David Donnelly said, and partners tended to reflect the varieties of religious experiences in St. Paul: Episcopalian, Jewish, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational.

Stan Donnelly was a Roman Catholic with an occasional cavalier approach to the rules. The partners often gathered at Alverde's for lunch. Alverde's specialty was a hot roast beef sandwich. One Friday, Donnelly went in there with his partners, who all ordered hot roast beef sandwiches. Stan asked the waiter, "Do you have any whale meat?" No. "Do you have any shark meat?" No. "Lord knows, I tried," said Donnelly. "Bring me a roast beef sandwich." 

Donnelly turned down Will Oppenheimer's offer once, but several years later agreed to join the firm only after Oppenheimer had met his list of conditions: Donnelly would be a full partner; he would get the same percentage of the profits as Dickson, Baer, and Brown, and he would take off the entire month of July to spend with his family at their cabin at Lake Bemidji, plus every Wednesday to golf. In addition, he would take off two weeks for serious golfing and, since every summer weekend he drove up to Lake Bemidji (then an eight-hour drive), weekend work was impossible.

Will Oppenheimer, whose firm's restrictive vacation policies reflected his own reluctance to take a vacation, agreed to the terms, bringing about a sea change in the firm's approach to leisure time. After that, said Vicenta Donnelly Scarlett, the oldest child of Stan D. and sister of Stan D. Jr., David, and another daughter, Deborah, Oppenheimer became the law firm to work for.

(Jim Oppenheimer remembered that his family took a trip every August. Planning a European vacation for the summer of 1939 shortly before Hitler invaded Poland, Will Oppenheimer first checked with someone "very high up in the State Department," who asked him where he would be on September 1. Since the Oppenheimers would be back home by then, the official said the trip was safe. The goverment knew there would be a war, but that it would not start until September.)

With the addition of Monte Brown and Stan Donnelly, the firm name became Oppenheimer Dickson Hodgson Brown and Donnelly in 1925-a name the receptionists had to repeat each time the phone rang. As children, Vicenta Scarlett and her friends would dial the firm number just to hear the receptionist say the name. One receptionist, perhaps tiring of the game, would sometimes simply answer "Zoo."

By 1925 Oppenheimer Dickson Hodgson Brown and Donnelly, with its five partners, was the second-largest practice in St. Paul, second only to Doherty Rumble and Butler. Although the numbers have changed drastically, the firm has kept that status; it is now third largest in the state and one of the largest in the nation.

In the early years, it grew slowly. When Benno Wolff graduated from the University of Minnesota law school and passed the bar in 1927, the only place he wanted to work was the Oppenheimer firm "because I thought 'Mr. O' was running a top law firm, and he was a business-oriented lawyer." He applied nowhere else. He claimed he got the job by "camping out on the doorstep." At that time, both Oppenheimer and Doherty Rumble and Butler were located in the old Merchants Bank building. One day, one of the Doherty partners saw Wolff hanging around the door, and asked what he was doing there. "'I'm applying for a position with Oppenheimer.' 'Well, if they don't take you, you'd better come around and see me,"' said the attorney.

The Crash of '29
The stock market crash, however, was a boon to St. Paul in that tumbling prices allowed the community to build the lavish Art Deco courthouse for less than originally estimated. The sixteen years of Prohibition and the bootlegging that resulted were something else again. St. Paul became known as "the nation's poison spot of crime," and the city ran on the O'Connor system, named for chief of police John O'Connor. This permitted big-time crooks, who first "checked in" with the proper authorities on their arrival, to stay in St. Paul unmolested as long as they committed no crimes in the city.

Howard Kahn, editor of the St. Paul Daily News, began a reform campaign by running prominent, larger-type editorials across the top of the newspaper's front page. After one particularly blistering editorial, Mayor William Mahoney summoned Kahn to his office to produce proof that the crooks he had named were being afforded asylum in St. Paul. O'Connor was present, as was Will Oppenheimer, Kahn's lawyer.

"Oppenheimer told the mayor that his client would agree to cooperate in a properly constituted judicial process, but not a one-sided star chamber proceeding," according to a newspaper article by Lawrence Platt. This so incensed the mayor that he ordered O'Connor to arrest Kahn on the spot. O'Connor, apparently swayed by Oppenheimer's rhetoric, declined to do so. Hearings were set, but somehow the mayor's office always delayed them and finally they just drifted away. In 1934 Mahoney was defeated by about 100 votes, perhaps due to Kahn's editorials. -

Benno Wolff also took part in the city's cleanup. He was active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce, which was a force behind the reform movement. As part of his pro bono work, he helped draft the city charter amendment that took the appointment of the chief of police out of politics. It was passed in 1936.

Cases and Clients
In the early years, as a general-practice firm, about the only type of law the Oppenheimer firm didn't practice was criminal law-and even then, there was at least one exception. Will Oppenheimer once defended a real estate man who had passed a bad check. He was acquitted, but told Oppenheimer he couldn't pay him. Oppenheimer realized that the client "had no moral instincts," although the man drew the line at killing someone. "If there was something on my desk he wanted and could steal it, he would take it," the young "Mr. 0" wrote later, chalking up the loss of the fee to experience. Months later, a box came from Los Angeles containing "splendid cigars," and a card on which the client had written, "I have struck it rich." The full amount of the fee plus 6 percent interest was enclosed. An experienced criminal lawyer told Oppenheimer that the man was a professional criminal, because "the professional criminal will always pay his lawyer.... He is establishing his credit."

Oppenheimer once had the unusual task of resurrecting "Christ" from the tomb to sign a contract. Morris Guest came to St. Paul to produce a passion play in the city auditorium. Everyone bad signed the contract except for the man playing the part of Christ. Guest needed the contract; it was I I p.m., and he had to catch an 11:20 train. Although the play was in progress, the curtains were lowered and trumpeters were sent out to blow a fanfare; while they created this diversion, Oppenheimer and Guest dashed in, took "Christ" out of the tomb, unwrapped the sheet, had him sign the contract, wrapped him up, and tucked him back into the tomb. Guest caught his train.

Will Oppenheimer made legal history when he caused the Wisconsin Supreme Court to unanimously reverse an earlier unanimous decision. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company was writing bonds for Wisconsin taverns when the Wisconsin legislature passed a law requiring all liquor establishments to serve Wisconsin cheese. If the taverns did not, the bonds would have to be forfeited. Millions of dollars in fines could have been collected. The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law. After hearing Oppenheimer's argument challenging the law, the Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the law. St. Paul Fire and Marine was so grateful that it sent "Mr. O." a signed blank check and told him to fill in the amount.

Times Change
A support staff always has existed at Oppenheimer. In the early years, it was made up of the partners' secretaries and a bookkeeper. As the business grew more complex, so did the framework on which the legal functions hung, the essential nonlegal work that now ranges from accounting to marketing and information services, but there was always an accountant and a method of keeping time records. Until some twenty years ago, that had changed little. Lawyers sent their hours with a description to a bookkeeper, who transcribed them into a ledger under each client's account and kept track under each attorney's name.

Attorneys would meet to discuss a major bill, and lawyers and clients often would sit down together to discuss a bill, Jim Oppenheimer said. There were no fixed hourly rates. Clients were billed $5 to $15 for abstracts and title opinions, which could take from two to three days of meticulous work to complete. Occasionally, in earlier years, lawyers were paid in land. The big old ledgers with their tidy, old-fashioned double entry method of accounting reflected the painstaking and often cumbersome work of the bookkeeper. If he or she ran out of space, a note directed the reader toward another page at the back of the ledger.

Great progress was made, said Benno Wolff, when the staff developed a time sheet that had glue on the back of it so that the bookkeeper could snip the individual items with a scissors and paste them on a sheet. For many years, every secretary took shorthand. The lawyers either dictated to the secretaries or wrote everything out in longhand and gave it to the secretary to transcribe and produce the draft. "If the secretary was busy, we typed our own letters," said Wolff.

Copies of everything had to be made. Durment and Moore made letterpress copies, Wolff said. The only way to make a copy of an original letter, which was in a blue ink, was to wet or sponge the letter, place it firmly against a sheet of thin tissue paper, and clamp down. This left an impression on the tissue paper. "That's the way we kept all our title records and books." Later advances included using carbon paper to make multiple copies, which entailed careful erasing of each copy before making corrections.

The firm's first wave of high tech probably came about because of First Trust Company's use of the Dictaphone, said Wolff. The Edison "phono-disk" was universally disliked by attorneys and secretaries, who preferred taking dictation by shorthand. Young attorneys were not assigned secretaries, so they used the machines. The Dictaphone had a rubber tube into which one dictated, recording on a quarter-inch hard rubber disk. To erase something, the rubber was shaved off. Although the Dictaphone could be stopped, it couldn't back up to redo something. The first copy machine was a 3M Thermofax. The paper was heat-sensitive, and if laid on a radiator would turn black. The next copier was a Kodak that involved chemicals-"messy but efficient," said Wolff.

The firm had a small library. But "you were on your own," there, he said. There were no trained librarians. "We didn't have paralegals. We did our own research," said Jim Oppenheimer. Obviously, there were no computers to make instant, sweeping searches of entire sets of databases.

Help for Young Firms
The Oppenheimer firm has helped many struggling young companies, often charging modest legal fees or deferring fees until the company reached more solid ground. When the Bronstein brothers started their mattress company on Vandalia Street, their mother sewed mattresses and their father put them on his back and peddled them. Three sons split up the marketing, finance, and, eventually, the manufacturing work. The Oppenheimer firm was general counsel for the company that became U.S. Bedding.

"Which twin has the Toni?" was the well-known slogan of another company the Oppenheimer firm helped launch. The Toni Company was founded in St. Paul in the 1940s as the first home-permanent wave company in the country. The product was developed originally for beauty shops, but a conflict arose when one contingent of the business, whom Wolff represented, began selling it to the home market. After the other side sold out, Toni products were marketed only to homes.

In 1948, Procter & Gamble became interested in buying Toni, and Wolff and another attorney went to Cincinnati to negotiate. "They wanted certain assurances about patents and I didn't know if we had a deal or not," Wolff recalled. On their way back, the two attorneys received a message from the Gillette Company, so they stopped at the Palmer House in Chicago to talk to Gillette representatives. By the time the two left, they had a deal, said Wolff.

"The sale made history for those days, because it involved a cash payment of about $12 million to the family selling it. A contingency was attached providing that if the earnings reached a certain level, Gillette would pay the family another $8 million. "It paid out about $20 million in two years," Wolff said. "It was that good a business." Oppenheimer charged $60,000 in legal fees, and Wolff remembered his bonus was $15,000. He used the bonus to buy his wife, Gertrude, a washing machine, dryer, mangle, dishwasher, and disposal (which also involved upgrading the plumbing in the house). "She was thrilled," said Wolff.

Probably the most significant start-up company in Oppenheimer history was Control Data Corporation. Robert Leach would be chief counsel for the company and lead a group of lawyers in the huge Control Data lawsuit against IBM, as will be described later.

The MAC
In the 1940s, Minneapolis and St. Paul found themselves once again vying for business and political plums, as they had for more than a century. This time it was the spin-offs from the creation of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). One city was to Ret the insurance business and the other The law business. Minneapolis pressed for the insurance business. His father, according to Jim Oppenheimer, "as was his wont, saw down the line much further, and said, we'll take the law business." For many years, every time the airport commission needed to issue bonds to expand or build, they had to get an opinion that the bonds were legal.

Will Oppenheimer wrote the enabling legislation that created the MAC in 1943. Montreville Brown became MAC general counsel and served in that capacity until shortly before his death. He conducted all major litigation, including eight appeals to the Minnesota Supreme Court involving the constitutionality of the MAC law. (Brown conducted eighty-four court appeals in his lifetime, with "69 wins and only 15 losses," which, as a former varsity baseball star, he translated into a batting average of .821). "Monte Brown developed all of the MAC early cases," said Benno Wolff, "and I worked on many of them."

So did Gordon Shepard, who became the firm's tenth lawyer in 1939 after graduation from Yale and admission to the bar. Shepard's career was interrupted when the United States entered World War 11, and the young lawyer found himself in France and then Burma with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). When he returned home in 1945, he began to help Monte Brown with the MAC legal work. "I worked with him until he retired," said Shepard. "From 1950 on, until I retired, I did the legal work for the Airports Commission, with assistance from dozens of Oppenheimer attorneys." The two of them dealt with real estate issues involved in expanding the airport, said Shepard. Much of the MAC work was landlord/tenant activity, with the shops in the airport and the various organizations using it, and, as always, "the problem of noise." Once when a case involving noise at the airport was being argued at the Minnesota Supreme Court, the court retired to discuss the issue among themselves. A few minutes later, a Northwest Airlines plane flew over, and the justices had to call a temporary halt to the discussion.

TCRT Takeover
In the 1950s, Benno Wolff and Monte Brown represented the City of Minneapolis in the takeover of the Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT) Company by a New York stockbroker, Charles Green. The cornpany's severe cutbacks and conversion of all streetcar lines to buses were undertaken "so belligerently and with such a lack of diplomacy that [Green] amazed even his associates, who by now included some notorious Twin City underworld characters," according to a history of the electric railways of Minnesota by Russell L. Olson. The conversion to the buses, he wrote, "was, as it turned out, a pillage of the electric railway system for the purpose of illegal personal profit for [Fred] Osanna [former president and legal counsel of the company] and his associates. Several years later they were indicted, tried in court, found guilty, and sentenced to prison terms. The Green-Osanna group took only five years to reduce to scrap metal what had taken ... over fifty years to build: one of the finest street railway systems in America."

Wolff and Brown, representing the city, "worked on [the rapid transit issues] for years," said Wolff. "Many cases involving street railway evaluations of the property went to the Minnesota Supreme Court." There were other cases. For example, the TCRT Company issued slips of paper to customers to save and turn in for a refund if the fare increase wasn't approved. But "they were printed on tissue paper so nobody could save them."

Other changes were in the wind by 1979 when it was clear that Control Data was lessening its dependence on the Oppenheimer firm. By mid- 1975, CDC had decided to shut down its Brussels operations. Only about four lawyers were left in Brussels, but OW&D decided to maintain that office even though CDC was reducing its economic support.

Years of Growth
The early 1980s were the beginning years of Oppenheimer's rapid growth and transformation from a small law firm to a large international firm. The partners were seeing additional radical changes in the practice of law.

An increasing number of women were graduating from law school and joining law firms. Today, Beth Culp is one of Oppenheimer's most senior women attorneys. The two biggest areas of change Culp has seen since she started at Oppenheimer have been its "studied effort at new growth," and its active recruitment of women as associates. In the early 1980s, approximately 20 percent of the law school graduates were women; in the 1990s the number of women graduating from law school often has exceeded the number of men graduatin- from law school.

Culp, who joined the firm as an associate in 1984, became a partner in 1991. "Women of my generation had no role models," said Culp, who is married and has children. "Today, women may have more role models but many still struggle with the demands of private practice because they are frequently the primary caretakers in the family. As a result, law firms, including our firm, have not always been able to retain these women with multiple responsibilities. Women attorneys at Oppenheimer, however, have been fortunate to have influential male lawyers who mentored women in entrepreneurial skills and in their vision of their practice."

Additional changes included:

• Growing complexity and specialization, with a division of the fields into smaller components;

• The growth of new kinds of practices (such as environmental law);

• Advancing technology that, in the legal world, enables storage, transfer, search, and retrieval of vast amounts of information and communication on an international level, and provides such abilities as the use of a computer to produce a three-dimensional drawing of an engine part for a product liability case;

• Depersonalization within the firm and between firm and client;

• Increasing pressures from clients to cut costs and operate more efficiently.

Particularly pertinent were a dilution of "brand loyalty" to a single firm, as companies began to hire in-house counsel, and an increasingly global economy. Back in the old days, the firm consisted of five partners, six associates, five secretaries, a bookkeeper, a receptionist, and a clerk/messenger. As of 1996, there were ninety-nine partners, more than 100 associates, twenty-three of counsel, forty paralegals, 154 legal secretaries, and more than 100 support staff employees.

Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly today offers an interesting look at how a major law firm is organized in the late twentieth century, as well as the fits-andstarts of how it arrived at that organization during the increasingly complex 1980s and early 1990s. The simple and informal structure that supported the lawyers years ago would have collapsed long ago-taking the firm with it.

"The lack of effective management ... is one of the top three defining characteristics associated with law firms that have disintegrated," said Larry Williams, chief operating officer since 1994. "The marketplace for legal services is changing pretty significantly. We've gone from a setter's market to a buyer's market." Something of an "inversion" has taken place. Historically, "the lawyer would decide the price, the strategy, and define the quality of the work product . . . Increasingly, now, the clients decide what they're willing to pay; they want to weigh in on strategy, and decide what a quality work product is."

These and other changes required a stronger, more complicated support structure. In 1973, when Oppenheimer opened its Minneapolis office, there were no titles and no real delegated management responsibility other than the Executive Committee, the equivalent of a board of directors. The committee managed all aspects of the firm, from deciding on the color of the wallpaper to establishing compensation. In addition, a long-standing relationship was no longer enough to keep a client, and most lawyers in the fin-n were at sea in the arena of marketing and client development. At the same time, there was a dramatic rise in litigation.

"For all intents and purposes," said Stephen (Pete) Peterson, chief financial officer, "a law firm is no different than any other business. We have receivables to collect, inventory to bill to clients, assets to protect, and personnel issues. We have 650-plus employees, so we're a substantial business."

There are, however, differences in management between most corporations and Oppenheimer where the partners are the ultimate authority under a one-partnet, one-vote principle. They elect the Policy Committee (the successor to the Executive Committee) and the chief executive officer. The most junior of partners have an equal say with the senior partners who control the most business and have the highest incomes, said Levenberg. It is unusual, and "has been the hallmark of this firm for a long time." Its democratic nature is the firm's strength, he said. "It leads to a consensus of values, purpose, focus, and inclusiveness. Great law firms are made in part by partners remaining entrepreneurial, feeling and acting like owners."

On the other hand, it does mean a somewhat slower-moving organization. Although the chief executive officer and the Policy Committee can make most of the decisions, when a firm-rattling decision must be made-such as whether to admit a new partner, merge with another firm, or open an office in another part of the world-the issue is placed for a vote by all the partners.

It also needs to be remembered that, "in a business our size, there are many decisions that need to be made" on a day-today basis, said Michael Bleck, chief executive officer. There are fourteen practice groups with a person in charge of managing each one; a lawyer is responsible for managing each of the twelve offices. Although the firm is divided. organizationally, into the legal side and the non-legal or support staff, the framework links the two sides through the Policy Committee, on which the chief operating officer sits-and votes.

Stab at Structure
The initial stab at a structure was made in the late 1960s with the creation of the Executive Committee, It was made up of five partners, voted in for three-year terms that were staggered. The Executive Committee still exists as the Policy Committee, but for a long time it was almost the only concession to a formal management structure at OW&D. Back then, the firm had been experiencing a leadership void. Frank Hodgson had died in 1968, Bob Leach in 1970, John Robertson and Monte Brown in )97), and "Mr. 0" was incapacitated by illness (he died in 1975). The other senior lawyers were interested in practicing law, not managing. Insiders agree that Tom Kane, who was made a partner in 1973, partly on the strength of his handling of several sex discrimination cases, deserves much of the credit for the firm's new direction. "Tom and I served together in the 1980s on what was called the 1990s Committee," said Chuck Levenberg. "He was chair and designed the management structure that still exists. Dick Bisanz also made a major contribution," as did Jean Rusotto of the Brussels office and Craig Gagnon, now in the Minneapolis office.

Strategic Planning Units (SPUS) emerged out of talks that stemmed from a planning conference held in the fall of 1982, as the initial attempt to structure the firm more effectively. OW&D was organized into ten SPUs that included Banking and Financial Institutions, Corporate Finance, Professional Malpractice, and so on. Members of each unit were to meet on a regular basis to develop ways to increase and broaden each group's practice and to complete a planning guide.

Strategic Planning Units were a good beginning, but they were too small to be effective. In 1985, the firm invited several industrial psychologists to its annual fall retreat to direct discussions about where the firm would be in the 1990s. Out of this came a group called the 1990s Committee. The committee proposed a number of changes, including:

• Formation of a Policy Committee, replacing the Executive Committee;

• Creation of a chief executive office, to be held by a partner who would bead the Policy Committee and would run the firm with direction from the Policy Committee;

• Creation of a chief operating office, to be held by a non-lawyer who would "bring some insight from the outside world" and be responsible for all nonlegal aspects of the finu's operations;

• Creation of five departments that consolidated the ten SPUS.

Tom Kane was elected the first chief executive Officer, and he served two three-year terms, Paul Boyke was named the first chief operating officer in early 1986. A certified public accountant with a master's in business administration, he had held financial management posts in the medical industry. The five departments "were designed to respond directly to concerns raised by the 1990s Committee, such as the need for more effective marketing and client development, providing a structure that would allow lawyers to work together, and recruitinnew lawyers," Kane wrote in a 1988 firm newsletter article.

The department concept worked for a while, said Levenberg. "I was the first chair of the largest department, the Corporate Department, but then it became obvious that the departments were too big. At one time, I had seventy timekeepers (partners, associates, and paralegals) reporting to me. It was impossible. The range of what they did was so different. The people who practice in (a particular area) need control ... to manage and plan and budget."

In 1995, the firm evolved into its current practice group structure. Each group has a chair who is responsible for the strategic development of its practice area, and the attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries within the group. Many groups practice in new fields that have developed in response to client needs. As Levenberg pointed out, "Had we not developed environmental expertise and practice, we would have lost all that business when government and social forces began to establish regulations on how to treat the environment." When Levenberg joined the firm, he said, "nobody was giving a thought to it." (Other committees, such as an Ethics Committee, Space Planning Committee, and Pension Committee, provide additional management functions.)

Ateam commitment allows attorneys across the firm to pool their skills and experience in serving specific clients or industries. Oppenheimer lawyers now practice in four industry groups: Health Law, Insurance, Medical Devices, and Transportation, and in ten practice groups: Benefits, ESOPs and Taxes; Business Litigation; Commercial Finance and Real Estate; Commercial Law, Banking and Bankruptcy; Corporate Finance and Transactions; Environmental; Intellectual Property; International; Labor and Employment; and Product Liability.

With the emphasis on cutting costs, it is not surprising that one of the fastestgrowing professions in the 1990s has been that of paralegals or legal assistants, according to the Minnesota Department of Jobs and Training. In a profession that is only some twenty years old, paralegals are becoming increasingly common as law firms, including Oppenheimer, search for ways to be more efficient and keep client costs down.

Today, a number of schools offer paralegal training and a professional society provides information, training, and support. The paralegal industry mirrors the law profession in its expansion and in its increasing complexity and specialization.

Paralegals craft pleadings, help prepare the lawyer, keep track of depositions, and do much of an attomey's administrative work. For some, a paralegal job may be an end in itself; for others a step toward full-fledged status as a lawyer. For a beginner, paralegal work provides first-hand experience, often while attending school. For a law firm, a paralegal provides lower-cost routine legal services.

Since the 1970s when OW&D decided to keep its European presence at the time Control Data shut down its Brussels operations, Oppenheimer has established offices in Paris, Geneva,Washington, D. C., New York, Chicago, and Detroit, in addition to St. Paul and Minneapolis. On January 1, 1997, the firm merged with Poms, Smith, Lande and Rose, a Los Angeles-based intellectual property firm with additional offices in Irvine and Silicon Valley.

"The merger positions Oppenheimer to encompass our clients' growing demand for intellectural property solutions," observed Michael Bleck. Other offices outside the Twin Cities include:

Brussels
Often seen as the unofficial capital of Europe, Brussels is host to most of the European Union's (EU) key institutions. They, in turn, have lured more than 200 of the world's top multinational corporations and more than 150 law firms. The OW&D office has thirteen attorneys, three of counsel lawyers, and five paralegals, supported by eighteen multilingual employees, and focuses on EU law and international corporate transactions, tax law, and environmental issues.

New York
OW&D's New York office was established in late 1986 when six lawyers formerly with New York's Rogers Hoge and Hills joined the Oppenheimer firm. They brought with them established practices in commercial litigation, labor and employment, insurance and government procurement. The office, with seventeen attorneys and three paralegals, also practices in intellectual property, employment law, intemational transactions, securities litigation, insurance and environmental law.

Chicago
David Potter, a partner in the Minneapolis office, opened the Chicago office in 1986 to serve railroad clients, including the Illinois Central Gulf (now Illinois Central) Railroad. The office then began to diversify its clientele and practice, increase its visibility in the city's business and legal communities, market its services, and attract new associates. The office now has thirty full-time attorneys and paralegals practicing in the areas of transportation, insurance, health law, employee benefits, and litigation.

Washington, D.C.
The firm's third office opened in Washington, D. C. in 1983 in shared quarters, then moved into its own offices in January of 1987. Eight lawyers and a paralegal provide legal advice on federal and state regulatory proceedings, litigation, transactional matters, labor and employment issues, and contract drafting and interpretation. Attorneys represent clients in the consumer products, motor vehicle, health care, and transportation industries. This office also has handled management/labor negotiations; civil, criminal and appellate litigation; contested administrative matters; complicated commercial transactions, and legislative lobbying.

Paris
Opened in January, 1988, as a natural outgrowth of the firm's expanding French practice in Brussels, the Paris office now has six attorneys. They practice primarily in French corporate law, technology transfer, intellectual property law, international transaction law, and European Community law.

Detroit
One of Oppenheimer's newest offices, Detroit was opened in 1995 after Chrysler selected the firm as its national discovery counsel for product liability litigation involving passenger cars and minivans. The office will expand the firm's product liability services and its practice in environment, transportation, and insurance law..

Lawyerly functions are supported by myriad staff, the largest number of which are legal secretaries who are critical for the lawyers in working with Oppenheimer's clients.

With about eighteen people, OW&D's Financial Group is its biggest staff function, handling payroll, general ledger, accounts payable, billings, and the firm's retirement plan. Lawyers, as in the old days, still do their own billings but now work through a monthly memo the Accounting Department sends to each lawyer who amends and approves it. Financial statements go to all offices, and converting Belgian and French francs to American dollars adds a challenge unknown fifty years ago.

Before 1979 Oppenheimer simply compiled its financial information and sent it to a third party for processing. Then the firm acquired an IBM 3/34 to process the information directly. A word processing department also was established at about this time, using stand-alone CPTequipment. When Mark Thuston, now head of the Information Services Group was hired in 1981, his job was to assist with an inventory of the paper files, help set up electronic databases, connect them and program the system for searches and sorts of databases. He soon was placed in charge of the financial system.

Meanwhile, the secretaries were slowly advancing from IBM Selectrics to Xerox Memory Writers. When the revolution" set in, Oppenheimer, along with virtually every other business, had to try to hit a moving target, figuring out its Information Systems in the midst of unparalleled technological changes.

Two such changes in 1987 offered an opportunity to explore networks and address cabling. That year the St. Paul office was remodeled and the Minneapolis office was moved from the IDS Tower to the Plaza VII building on Seventh Street between Nicollet and Hennepin.

.'By 1989," Thuston said, "we had 500 PCs, file servers, networks linking Minneapolis and St. Paul, and a wide area network (WAN) from here to Chicago."

Computers were no longer on the periphery but at the very heart of the firm. Most of the lawyers had computers on their desks, although some at first resisted, not seeing themselves as entering data or needing keyboard skills. E-mail drove home the concept of a computer on every desk, Thuston said, "because that meant attorneys communicating with other attorneys. If one of your partners is sending you e-mail, you have to be able to respond." Although some attorneys still had their secretaries send their email, they gradually found that it was easier to get on the computer themselves. By 1990, 80 percent of the people were using the network.

Benno Wolff at his computer as the age of technology catches up with the legal proffesion

Because of computers, the library is quieter these days. Instead of attorneys dictating research into a tape recorder, there is the. clacking of computer keys and the ringing of phones. Instead of attomeys pulling law books off the shelves, they often are squirreled away in their offices, seeking out information on their own PCs.

In earlier years, said Gretchen Haase, who became the firm's librarian in 1977, " there were a lot of bodies in the library because that is where the books were." There was no computerized legal research. Haase had been hired in part because of her experience with computer searches as librarian for a New York advertising agency. At Oppenheimer, the library was second to the Financial Group in acquiring computers. Online legal services such as Lexis and Westlaw and nonlegal services such as Dialog, a general information service, had sprung up in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today the library staff has access to the Internet, library catalogues, InfoTrac (an online magazine index), government bulletin boards, and other commercial databases. One of Haase's favorite historical collections holds old Minnesota laws dating back to territorial times.

Training on a system once required days instead of mere hours, as is usually the case today, and part of Haase'sj'ob involved teaching the attorneys to conduct searches. As PCs became available, Haase's department, working with a committee of computer folks and attorneys, developed a network for the firm. Where once the response to computers mixed awe with discomfort, growing numbers of attorneys with years of familiarity with computers replaced discomfort with casualness.

Let Them Know
"Let one new person a day know you're a lawyer," Will Oppenheimer used to advise young lawyers. Years ago attorneys discreetly touted their services among neighbors, friends, co-religionists, fellow Rotary and Masonic members, and in their day-to-day transactions in the business and professional community. It was then a "very personal business," said Jim Oppenheimer.