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GREENSBORO -- For Ed Winslow, managing partner with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP, the key to his firm’s efficiency is simple.

“Our firm is very, very choosy in our hiring,” Winslow said. “It is very hard to get a job here, and we work very hard to get the best people, but people who will be able to work together as a team. And I think we’ve got a great team.

“We’re all clear about what we’re here for, and that is to make our clients happy and to delight them with what we do,” he said.

“You can be efficient if you know why you’re here, and we know why we’re here.”

The firm earned the Doers Award in Top Workplaces 2011, which recognizes it as being efficient and well run.

Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard was founded in 1897 and has about 130 employees in its Raleigh and Greensboro offices. The firm specializes in business law, including corporate and securities; environmental; labor and employment; and banking.

It’s a firm employees don’t see as just a stepping stone, but a place where they can hone their skills and establish themselves.

The firm has little turnover, said Jill Wilson, a partner and chairwoman of the personnel committee.

The newest legal assistant was hired four years ago, Wilson said. Employees acquire more skills and take on more work. The firm leaders’ philosophy for hiring nonattorney staff is that they’d rather have fewer people who are better-trained and better-paid, Wilson said.

Employees are highly trained, given the freedom to do their jobs and are not micromanaged. The firm is “lean and mean” in how it staffs its cases; you won’t see seven lawyers working on one project, Wilson said.

Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard seeks confident, free-thinking self-starters who also know the meaning of teamwork.

“We attract lawyers who are self-sufficient and who are comfortable making decisions themselves,” Wilson said.

Employees said they like working there because of the family environment; caring, loyal and intelligent colleagues; opportunities to grow and develop; and team attitude.
Wilson, who has been with the firm since 1984, echoed that. Employees pitch in and pull for each other, she said.

“I feel very warmly toward my partners and the people I work with, and I think that matters a lot,” Wilson said. “At the end of the day, what holds firms together is the relationship.”

With a talented team in tow, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard is ready to embark on its next initiative: its international practice.

And as Winslow put it, you can’t “play in that arena” without highly motivated and efficient employees.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com