LAW FIRM PROFILE: The New Philadelphia Lawyer

LAW FIRM PROFILE: The New Philadelphia LawyerAuthor(s): GARY SOULSMANSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 73, No. 3 (MARCH 1, 1987), pp. 80-84Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20759191 .

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LAW FIRM PROFILE

The

New Philadelphia

Lawyer BY GARY SOULSMAN At the breakfast table, the hus

band announced the divorce and his plans to clean out the

checking account. She panicked. Not knowing her rights, she called one of the best known family-law practition ers in Philadelphia.

When Lynne Z. Gold-Bikin picked up the phone, she had no reason to recognize the woman's name. But the desperation was familiar. Members of the firm are used to hearing?and seeing?clients who feel shattered.

"I got on the phone and the woman was crying," says the 48-year old Gold-Bikin. "And I told her, This is not legal advice, but, if I were you, I'd write a check for $1,100, throw a coat over my nightgown and get down to that bank and clean out the ac count myself.'"

Two hours later, Gold-Bikin's re ceptionist took a second call and handed the lawyer a note. It said, "The woman you spoke with this morning has the money from the checking ac count. Now what? What happens if she leaves the house?"

Desperate calls are not unusual in the offices of Gold-Bikin, Devlin &

Associates, a five-lawyer firm located in Norristown, Pa., a suburb of Phila delphia. Gold-Bikin receives 20 to 30 calls a week to handle a divorce, dis tribution of property or custody dis pute. She takes on about 20 new cli ents a month.

For a client to even raise her

Gary Soulsman is a feature re porter with the Wilmington, Del, News-Journal. He has previously contributed to the ABA Journal.

80 ABA JOURNAL / MARCH 1, 1987

$5,000 retainer, marital assets must be considerable. She often represents spouses earning $250,000 to $500,000 a year. A client may have assets of $5 million to $10 million.

Though she can't handle all of the calls she receives, Gold-Bikin, who was amicably divorced twice, under stands the desperation that causes so

many to phone. That's why she has a policy of not sending away callers without some type of assistance? either a meeting with a lawyer in her office or the names of other, less ex pensive lawyers.

A HIGH PROFILE There are many ways the caller

could have heard of Gold-Bikin, a member of the ABA since 1976. Perhaps she attended a local meeting of the Junior League and heard the lawyer advising women to take an interest in a husband's financial mat ters because today divorce can hap pen to anyone.

Maybe the wife tuned in one of Gold-Bikin's verbal wrestling matches with radio talk show hosts in which she is apt to suggest that older women who've been housewives and mothers may well deserve alimony for life in the event of divorce. The woman could have seen Gold-Bikin's picture and profile in USA Today when Presi dent Reagan signed the Child Support Enforcement Act of 1984.

It's just as likely the wife saw the omnipresent Gulph Mills resident's article in the Philadelphia Daily

News on the need for friental health professionals to mediate child cus tody settlements.

"I attract publicity," says Gold

Bikin. In fact she hired a public rela tions firm to make sure editors in a va riety of media know she's available to write and comment on social concerns.

"I would never go on a billboard and say, 'Come to me,'

" she says. "But

I'm really good at radio and TV. You may have noticed I have an opinion on everything."

She's done more, of course, than give her opinions. She has organized programs on domestic violence for the ABA and for the Pennsylvania Bar As sociation's Family Law Section. It's an issue she says lawyers need to be

more aware of in order to aid battered spouses.

She is a member of the ABA Fam ily Law Section and Economics of Law Practice Section. She's lobbied for tougher legislation to recover child support payments. When this money is not funneled to children, the fabric of society is undermined, she says.

Her commitment to improve the law was the reason she was a spokes

woman for the 1980 Pennsylvania Di vorce Code.

"What I want to see on my tomb stone is that Gold-Bikin helped bring a family court to Pennsylvania," she says. She's critical of the present court of common pleas because judges tend to stay in the court's family division for only a year and then rotate to criminal and civil courts. They seldom become experts in family law, and they rarely try divorce and custody cases on consecutive days, which means that proceedings drag on for months longer than they should, ac cording to Gold-Bikin.

Being so outspoken makes Gold



^^^^^^^^^^^ ABA JOURNAL / MARCH 1, 1987 81



LAW FIRM PROFILE

Bikin one of the most visible lawyers in the state; it also makes her some times unpopular. On occasion, when her reputation precedes her, opposing lawyers come at her in court with the attitude, "I have to beat Lynne Gold Bikin," says junior partner Diane Devlin.

It's an example of the gunslinger code of career advancement. One woman is so bitter about her son's loss of custody of his children to his for mer wife, a Gold-Bikin client, that she pickets the lawyer and follows her into court.

Gold-Bikin can be charming, but she can also be caustic and tough. She delights in telling the story of a cli ent's husband who asked his wife, "How did you get that bitch who rips our skin off?" One minute she is deadly serious, the next she is sprin kling her rapid conversation with a touch of bawdiness.

Probably what's most surprising about Gold-Bikin is that she had her first "real" job at age 38. "It's hard to believe that 10 years ago I was a little Jewish housewife. I lucked into a pro fession for which I am eminently qual ified. I have a mouth. What's better than being able to use it to talk your way out of anything?"

Whether she knew it or not, the groundwork was being laid years ago. She grew up on Manhattan's West 78th Street. She fell in love at 17, mar ried a year later and dropped out of college each time she became preg nant. She had four children by the time she was 25.

But the energy was there and she dabbled in the League of Women Vot ers, the American Field Service, per formed musical comedy, had her own cable television talk show in Reading, Pa., and once was a four-day winner on the game show Concentration.

"Three years in the League of Women Voters convinced me you had to be in government to do something," she says. "I never do anything halfway. I decided I had to go to college and get a law degree to become a legislator."

At 30, she enrolled at nearby Albright College. She graduated as valedictorian and then went on to Villanova Law School where she was the first and only female president of the Law Student Division of the ABA. During this period her interest shifted from politics to law.

"I liked the deductive reasoning


4M

A From left to right: Susan Sussman, Stuart Lev, Daniel Clifford, Diane Devlin and Lynne Gold-Bikin

4i i

i

A

of law, the puzzle solving and creative ness," she says. Her interests, upon

graduation in 1976, were labor and family law. But the male-dominated labor-law practice was reluctant to admit a woman. She settled on family law, in which she felt she could make a difference in people's lives.

THE FIRST JOB At 38, she was hired by a large

Philadelphia-based firm, Pechner, Dorfman, Wolffe, Rounick & Cabot, and joined its Norristown office, which had only three lawyers. She learned the basics from Jack Rounick, a senior partner. She describes the training as unusual and superb.

"Jack used to make me sit in his office for hours listening to him talk on the phone," she says. "You've seen

enough of me to know that to sit still for five minutes was like going crazy. But by listening to him I learned how to deal with clients. I learned the lan guage. I learned negotiation and how to handle interviews.

"Also, whenever I wrote anything he wouldn't just redo it. He'd call me down and have me stand over his shoulder and show me what I'd done wrong. That's the way to teach."

When he went on vacation, he gave her an increasing number of his cases. "Believe me, I screwed up," she

says. "But the percentage of mistakes would get smaller and people then began sending me clients."

In her first year, she says, she brought in $10,000 of business. The ? *

second year it was $25,000 and "by ^ _ the time I left I had 200 active files."

Public speaking and volunteer ^^^^^ work also played a part in her ability HfjHB to make new contacts. "I think the Hjj^H best way to get involved is to pick HhH| something that you like to do," she ex- H^Bl plained. "I volunteered a half hour of

free legal service to any woman who ^^^^H came to the local women's center?if

^^ B

the woman had been physically Hff^H abused. Some women I could help. HHH| Some I couldn't. Some turned into HHH| cases. Some turned into long-term HH

debt." HB? For Gold-Bikin, the work also HHHB turned into offers for public speaking. HflH| That led to a job teaching at the Insti-

H^^| tute for Paralegal Training in Phila- fl^^B delphia in 1977. From there she ||?HjH moved on to teach at Temple Univer- Sn^^H sity Law School and other law schools |?BHN in the Philadelphia area. mj^^H In the meantime, she put to- jrajjHB gether local and national programs on jnjj^^H domestic violence for the ABA and wHHI

testified on spousal abuse before the ISgHg Civil Rights Commission. In 1980, ?H9?^1 when Pennsylvania lawmakers began BImm

to revamp the state's divorce code, HHHp she spoke on television and radio in

BB^BW favor of change. Hl All the while her salary steadily GBflHl increased. Just out of law school she ^h^^h earned $12,000. After passing the bar HH^h exam, it was raised to $15,000. The H^^^H following year, she was making |^^HH



y

'f

I I

$18,000 with a little bonus. As she planned to leave in 1981, she was

earning $30,000, plus a $10,000 bonus. She also had a promise of being made the first female partner someday.

"But I realized I didn't want to be someplace where I was told how I should dress," she says. "Nor did I like the fact that in September two things happened: Birds flew south and the partners decided which associates weren't going to get raises."

Still it never occurred to her to start her own firm. "I didn't know my

marketability. I was scared and grabbed the first thing that came up?an offer to open the Norristown office for three guys from West Ches ter."

Olin, Neil & Frock paid Gold Bikin $45,000 plus a percentage of the profits to open the branch office. She was to continue her work in family law as the junior partner.

T Diane Devlin: We deal with peo ple in emotionally charged situa tions.

"They thought they'd be able to generate tremendous negligence busi ness from my client base

" she says.

"But we soon realized that domestic relations clients do not generate neg ligence business, although they do throw off tax and estate business."

In 1982, a year after joining the firm, Gold-Bikin opened her own firm. Buying out the Norristown branch of Olin, Neil, Frock & Gold-Bikin cost $50,000. To raise the money, she took a second mortgage on her house?"$50,000! I'd never heard of so much money." Fortunately, cash flow was good and she paid herself $52,000 that first year.

Since then, the firm has grown from three lawyers, including Gold Bikin, and billings of $250,000 to five lawyers and billings of $1.8 million this year. Gold-Bikin?who puts in a

long day, working from 7:45 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.?bills at $185 to $200 an hour, and for fiscal year 1985 billed about $500,000 on her own. She pays herself $100,000 a year salary, plus a two-third share of partner earnings.

Diane Devlin, her partner, bills at $130 an hour. She earns $50,000 and receives a one-third share of partner earnings. That share is $25,000. "Un like the big firms, in this one Diane did not have to buy in," Gold-Bikin says. "That's why she's sharing in profits in proportion of one to two."

The three associates earn be tween $25,000 and $37,000 (plus bo nuses) depending on tenure and ex

perience. They bill between $100 and $120 an hour.

The four secretaries, receptionist and office manager earn between $300 a week and $400 a week, working from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Two secretaries are training to be paralegals.) The office staff receives medical benefits and shares in profit and pension plans. Gold-Bikin says 10 percent of em ployee earnings are put into the pen sion plan and up to 15 percent is put into profit-sharing.

"There's not been a year that we haven't put the full 25 percent in," she says, adding that all professional fees,

memberships and seminars are paid by the firm. "Another advantage of working for me is that if you get preg nant and need time off, you take time."

Major expenses are the office it self, which rents for $3,000 a month, as well as payroll, taxes, insurance,

pension and profit-sharing plans. For the 1985 fiscal year, expenses amount ed to $450,000.

THE KEY TO SUCCESS Negotiation is the key to her

practice. "I probably have 300 clients at any one time," she says. "If I had to litigate every one of those I wouldn't have time to play with my orchids, which is my hobby. Also, the more cases you litigate the worse your re cord becomes, because no matter how good you are, you have to lose now and then."

In her view, negotiation skills should be stressed more in law school. "The best negotiators are the ones

who focus on what both sides can agree on," she explained. "They take an impasse and find a way in.

"Ten years ago I'd walk into a ne

gotiation and embarrass the other lawyer. I don't do that now. I say,

What can we do to work this out? This is what we're prepared to do, what are you prepared to do? Let's make some accommodation here.'

"

Gold-Bikin adds that negotiation and mediation are better for clients than fighting in court. "Why should they allow their lives to be deter mined by someone they've never met before?"

While Lynne Gold-Bikin awards herself a good deal of credit for the firm's success?"I'm damn good"? she's quick to praise Diane Devlin for her contribution. "My gorgeous blonde partner is the best thing that ever happened to me. She's a good friend, a good lawyer, reliable and bright."

The 32-year-old Devlin says the respect is shared and that their con trasting styles?Devlin is more low key and soft-spoken?complement each other, whether it's in dealing with an office problem or a difficult client.

"We play good cop, bad cop," she says. "With a client I can sit and hold the person's hand while Lynne plays the Dutch Uncle."

Growing up in northeast Phila delphia, Devlin knew at age 13 she wanted to become a lawyer after she was involved in a minor car accident and spent the better part of a day lis tening in court. She was impressed by the lawyers she saw and set out to become one, attending La Salle Col lege and Villanova Law School.

ABA JOURNAL / MARCH 1, 1987 83



LAW FIRM PROFILE

Her first job after law school was as counselor to the Pennsylvania Judi ciary Committee, acting as liaison for citizens lobbying for legislation. Her salary was $14,000. The major issue she worked on was the 1980 divorce reform bill. That's how she met Gold Bikin.

In a year, Devlin made what she considers a logical step, moving to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office as an assistant. There she earned $16,500 and was soon named deputy, working in a supervisory ca

pacity. By the time she left she was

earning $26,500. There were also great rewards in her work.

"This is where I learned to be a

lawyer," she says. "The responsibility hits you quickly the first time you step before a jury and say 'I represent the Commonwealth.' That causes you to

rise to the occasion with your very best effort."

While in the DA's office, Devlin consolidated the county's efforts to protect children. During her three year tenure, the child abuse unit pros ecuted more than 100 abuse cases.

When she decided to join Gold-Bikin, the Bucks County Courier Times thanked Devlin for defending "the rights of children, the most helpless and defenseless of all victims of crime."

LITIGATION HELP ARRIVES Devlin joined the firm in 1984.

"Lynne had people to do background work and writing but she couldn't do all the litigation," she says. "I'm not sure every prosecutor has the person

ality to make this kind of switch. But when you're doing child abuse work you develop skills in dealing with people in highly emotionally charged situations?skills that are important in divorce and custody work."

In private practice Devlin dou bled her salary in two years. She was made a partner in the spring of 1986.

"It gave me a wonderful feeling to be able to give this to Diane," says Gold-Bikin. "First of all, she's a credit to me. Second, she's blossomed here and worked hard and is entitled to the prestige. I also respect her enough to put her name on the door."

Among the associates, Susan D. Sussman has been with Gold-Bikin the longest. She joined her in 1982, when she was with Olin, Neil & Frock.


Susan Sussman

It was Sussman's first job as a lawyer after four years of night school at Temple Law School. She met Gold Bikin through the Philadelphia Bar Counseling Subcommittee.

Initially, Sussman drafted supe rior court documents, did inventory work and prepared statements. Little by little she picked up her own clients. Then she became pregnant, took five months off after the baby was born and returned to work part time. She

A Daniel Clifford (top) and Stuart Lev

assists other lawyers in the firm but also handles some cases on her own.

Daniel J. Clifford III, the youngest associate, is a tall, politely spoken 27 year-old graduate of the University of Baltimore Law School. His first job was with a 14-lawyer firm in York, Pa. The firm had a general practice but he found himself increasingly involved in domestic relations work. He liked it.

Clifford says he repeatedly saw Gold-Bikin on the lecture dais, and when he was ready to make family law his specialty he sent her a resume.

"Lynne's been a good teacher," he says. "One of the reasons I came here was because training and experience were not being passed on in York."

The newest associate is Stuart B. Lev, a Philadelphia native. He became an associate after working seven years for the Appellate Defender's Office in Michigan.

The 32-year-old Lev moved back to Philadelphia to marry his fiancee. He also wanted to broaden his abili ties in a new specialty?family law. That's why, he says, he was willing to accept a slight decrease in salary, to $35,000, to work with Gold-Bikin. He got the job by answering an ad she placed in the Legal Intelligencer, a newspaper for lawyers in the Phila delphia area.

"I liked Lynne when I met her and liked the fact that she recognized a need for someone with writing abili ties," he says. "A lot of lawyers use people in law school or right out of law school for their writing, and I think that can be a mistake. Law school doesn't develop strong writing skills."

Lev expects to write appeals of custody and property decisions, help prepare the facts for cases and the ar guments for court trials. He also will draft articles and other work for Gold Bikin, who will then complete the manuscripts.

One of their projects will proba bly be a general interest book on how couples can work to prevent divorce. Gold-Bikin, whose career took off after her first divorce, admits that the project represents a paradox for her.

"Unfortunately, not every woman

can do what I've done," she says. "Not

every woman can support herself at this level. And I think all women make tradeoffs with divorce. Many people, knowing what they know today, would not have sought a divorce."



Documents

LAW FIRM PROFILE: The New Philadelphia Lawyer