State: Candidate's credo sketched in law firm's culture

He boasts the credentials of a freewheeling Republican businessman, a banking expert who turned a provincial Florida business into a national powerhouse by gobbling up lesser rivals and raiding his top competitors.

He helped guide conservative pro-business groups, including the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Council of 100, and parlayed his success into a big house on 30 acres east of Tampa with plenty of room for a tennis court.

Yet Bill McBride is the darling of labor unions, teachers, gay-rights activists and other liberal groups that see him as the Democrat most likely to unseat Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

Their enthusiasm is not based on McBride's poll numbers; he badly trails former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno in the race for the Democratic nomination. It's not political experience; he has never held public office.

Instead, he and his supporters point to his leadership of Holland & Knight, Florida's largest law firm, where he compiled a record of financial success and liberal social policies, including a $12-an-hour "living wage" for the lowest-paid employees, spousal benefits for the domestic partners of gay employees, and a team of lawyers that takes high-profile civil rights cases for free.

McBride calls it doing well by doing good.

Whatever political skills he has were developed during almost nine years as Holland & Knight's managing partner. Former colleagues, including those who chafed at his liberal policies, describe McBride as a visionary who sought consensus but never let dissent block his goals.

A large, imposing ex-Marine, McBride was energetic but not bombastic. He delegated well and did not micromanage, and liked to say it's wise to hire people smarter than he.

McBride was based in Tampa but frequently visited the firm's other offices to get to know people. He often ended meetings by asking his attorneys what he could do to help them reach their goals.

"He understands power better than anybody I've ever known in public life or private life," said Stephen F. Hanlon, a Holland & Knight partner in Tallahassee who oversees the firm's pro bono work. "He understands its uses, its limits, its diffuseness.

"Lawyers are not shy people," Hanlon added. "And I think it takes an enormous amount of skill to develop that kind of concentrated growth."

Some partners complain that McBride's emphasis on breakneck growth, corporate generosity and free legal work left the firm in a precarious financial position when the economy cooled. Less than a year after he left, the firm has stopped expanding and is re-evaluating its growth strategy.

Salaries have stalled or dropped, and pro bono work has decreased. The living wage is out for new hires.

McBride and his friends at the firm blame the recession, which has cost bonuses and jobs at many major law firms. McBride says he left Holland & Knight healthy, and its attorneys well off.

"The firm always decided that it was important to be really good community citizens and worry about other things than just profits," he said. "Whatever decisions they make, they may be different than the decisions I make. But I know the core values of the firm won't change."

McBride and his supporters say his track record at the firm is a good model for managing Florida: a balance of financial and social concerns.

His campaign hopes that blend will help him beat Reno and win over enough moderates to defeat Bush in November.

Under McBride's leadership, Holland & Knight attorneys were encouraged to donate their time to working with underprivileged children.

Holland was one of the nation's most generous donors to the United Way in 1999 and 2000. McBride set up the firm's Holocaust Remembrance Project, a national essay contest for high school students that provides $5,000 college scholarships to winners, and authorized a $100,000 scholarship fund at the fledgling law school at Florida A&M University, the state's largest historically black college.

He also helped develop Hanlon's Community Services Team, which won compensation from the state for families of black victims of the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Levy County. Last year, the team forced the state to provide mental health services to 45,000 foster children and juvenile inmates.

In October 2000, McBride instituted the "living wage" for the lowest-paid workers, a decision that cost the firm's partners about $1-million. The Florida AFL-CIO has endorsed McBride, and union leaders often cite that policy as proof of his commitment to working people.

Neither that, nor the policy that gave health insurance and other benefits to the partners of gay employees, was popular among conservative members of the firm. But that was okay with McBride.

"I think Bill just decided there were critical social issues that needed to be addressed, and he moved them along," said Gregg Thomas, a McBride supporter in the Tampa office.

McBride, an expert in banking law, had immense authority as managing partner, including power to set each partner's compensation. He is elected by the partners and must answer to a 24-member board of directors.

McBride ran for the job in 1992, ultimately winning in a runoff against Stephen B. Moss, a partner in Fort Lauderdale. Moss wanted moderate growth. McBride pledged aggressive growth.

At the time, the firm had 284 lawyers and one out-of-state office, in Washington, D.C. When McBride left in June, the firm had 1,250 attorneys in 26 domestic and seven foreign offices.

McBride's strategy: Find firms in lucrative markets and ask them to join the party. It was the trend among major firms, and he worried that Holland & Knight wasn't growing fast enough.

"He always had big ideas, and he was able to articulate them . . . and get people to go along," said James H. Shimberg, a McBride supporter who heads the firm's Tampa office.

State Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a former Holland & Knight attorney who has not yet chosen between McBride and Reno, said McBride ruled by force of personality. "I always marveled at Bill's ability to navigate the egos and desires of hundreds of partners across the country," he said.

The firm's revenues grew dramatically under McBride. Profits per partner, the 380-odd attorneys with a stake in the firm, did not.

That has led to post-McBride criticism by partners who say he pushed the firm too far, too fast. In the 1990s, revenues grew faster than all but one of the top 100 firms, but its profits per partner ranked 81st during 1999, at $395,000, according to American Lawyer.

In 2000, Holland & Knight's revenues jumped by a whopping 22 percent, to $363.5-million. Its profits per partner, however, remained flat, reflecting the national trend.

The living wage program has been suspended for new hires. Corporate giving is down. The average amount of pro bono work dropped from 45 hours per lawyer in 1999 to 36 hours last year, to compensate for the drop in profits, Hanlon said.

Associate attorneys, the junior worker bees, received one-third of promised bonuses last year, while partners saw a 10 percent to 12 percent pay cut, attorneys said.

The Miami Daily Business Journal, a sister publication of American Lawyer, reported on a recent memo from a partner in Virginia to new managing partner Robert R. Feagin III warning of a mass exodus unless profits improve.

Martin Jaron suggested closing offices, firing 200 attorneys and drastically cutting pro bono work, the Journal reported.

Jaron did not return calls for comment. In a letter to the Journal, he retracted some of his memo and said he believes Holland "has a strong plan in place for continued success," the paper reported.

Feagin said in a prepared statement that McBride "contributed enormously" to the firm's success. In the year since he left, "many changes have occurred in the economy and in the legal marketplace -- many of which we could not have anticipated and did not anticipate," Feagin wrote.

The New York office was near the World Trade Center, and the Sept. 11 attacks cost the firm $7.5-million after insurance.

Partner Curt Kiser, a Bush supporter and former Pinellas Republican state senator, tells people not to discount McBride.

"I'll be the first to tell you, he will be a major factor in this thing before it's over," Kiser said. "He's goal-oriented . . . energetic, aggressive, knows a lot of business people. He will be organized. And he really has the fire in the belly to go for this thing."

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk