Who is Joe Flom, and what three lessons does Malcolm Gladwell teach about him in Outliers? Learn the secrets to Joe Flom’s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Joe Flom, the last living named partner of one of the largest and most powerful law firms in the world (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom), grew up in poverty in Brooklyn during the Depression. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who worked in the garment industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After being accepted at the prestigious Townsend Harris public high school, Joe Flom pushed a hand truck in the garment district for two years and went to night school. With only a piecemeal college education, he applied and was accepted to Harvard Law School.
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Still, he was an awkward kid, and near the end of hiring season he was one of only two of his Harvard class not to have a job lined up. With little choice, he took a chance on a new firm that had no clients. That firm eventually grew to employ 2,000 attorneys and earn over $1 billion a year.
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Let\u2019s look at the hidden opportunities in this rags-to-riches story. Although it may appear that Joe Flom got by on his brains and ambition alone, we know by now that no man is an island. We are the products of our environments.<\/strong> In the 1940\u2019s and 50\u2019s, the most elite law firms were very particular about accepting the \u201cright\u201d types of lawyers and clients. The right type was Nordic and clean-cut, was born to the right family, and was well connected. The right lawyer was not Jewish. Joe Flom\u2019s being Jewish excluded him from working for New York\u2019s most elite law firms. He had to take what he could get, and this meant working with firms who took whatever work they could get. Elite, \u201cwhite-shoe\u201d firms (named for the preferred footwear of the country club) handled the taxes and legal work of issuing stocks and bonds for big corporations. They didn\u2019t take on litigation cases (law suits) which were considered low-class and sleazy. Lawsuits also weren\u2019t common at the time\u2014major corporations didn\u2019t sue each other and there weren\u2019t many hostile corporate takeovers. Elite firms had no reason to take on this \u201cungentlemanly\u201d work. Excluded from elite firms, Jewish lawyers accepted the litigation work that traditional white-shoe firms rejected. They also handled \u201cproxy fights,\u201d the legal side of a hostile takeover, when one investor or company tries to take over another company without its consent. Consequently, Jewish lawyers developed a unique skill set that would later become sought after<\/strong>. Joseph Flom\u2019s specialty was proxy fights. In the 1970\u2019s, the tide changed. Borrowing money became easier and markets became internationalized. Federal regulations relaxed. Consequently, investors become more aggressive, and corporate takeovers increased dramatically. As corporate takeover became more common, the legal work associated with them became less taboo. Suddenly, everyone needed litigation lawyers. Jewish lawyers had already accumulated their 10,000 hours of litigation and proxy-fight practice. For someone like Joseph Flom, the timing was perfect. He was one of the few experts in a sought-after specialization. Joseph Flom was discriminated against because he was Jewish. However, if he hadn\u2019t been Jewish, and consequently discriminated against, he wouldn\u2019t have gained the expertise that made him, and other Jewish lawyers, so enormously successful.<\/strong> Just as many uber-successful computer programmers were born in the 1950\u2019s, many successful Jewish lawyers were born in the 1930\u2019s. These lawyers had opportunities that those born a decade before or after didn\u2019t have. Successful individuals are often \u201cborn at the right time.\u201d<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\nOpportunity-in-Disguise: Being Jewish<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Initially, Flom\u2019s Culture and Ancestry were Disadvantages.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Few Decades Later, Flom\u2019s Culture and Ancestry Became Advantages<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nOpportunity-in-Disguise: Being Born During the Depression<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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