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Christian & Small LLP
Birmingham, Alabama

By Angel Coker  –  Banking and Legal Reporter, Birmingham Business Journal

Apr 1, 2021

Greer Mallette recently took the helm of a regional law firm headquartered in Birmingham.

Mallette is the new managing partner at Christian & Small, where he has been a partner for more than 20 years. He focuses his practice on real estate, construction and business litigation matters. Mallette succeeds Deborah Alley Smith, who held the role for 11 years. The BBJ recently interviewed Mallette about his plans in his new role.

What are your goals for the firm in your new role? First and foremost, I hope to carry on a long tradition at Christian & Small of providing preeminent representation to our clients cost effectively and with integrity. In that respect, I do not see anything changing. We have been fortunate to have excellent leadership at this firm from its inception by Tom Christian & Clarence Small to the leadership of former managing partners Richard Smith and Debbie Smith. My goal is to continue that tradition working with my partners and our executive committee.

Second, I hope to see the firm grow over the next five years, both to better serve our existing clients, and to attract new clients who are seeking turn-key representation in multiple practice areas and jurisdictions. Finally, I plan to keep leveraging technology, making the firm as efficient as possible in the more mundane aspects of practicing law, such as common discovery, and allow attorneys to focus on and enjoy the more fun facets, such as problem solving and, when necessary, trying cases.

How are you approaching growth at the firm? Under Debbie Smith’s leadership, the firm expanded its footprint to include both Mississippi with our Jackson/Ridgeland office and the Gulf Coast with our Mobile/Daphne office. We want to strengthen those offices by adding additional top-tier lawyers with diverse expertise. Similarly, we want to grow our Birmingham office to include additional practice areas to better serve our clients. At the same time, as we grow, we want to make sure we preserve a culture of integrity and collegiality. We like working with each other at this firm. That should not be unusual, but it is at many law firms. We want to preserve that atmosphere.

What are you doing on the DEI front? First, in my new role, I am learning and listening and realizing that diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace need to address much more than just a firm’s demographic census. We are working on a four-part written plan addressing DEI on multiple fronts, including goals and processes to promote DEI not just in our hiring, but more importantly, in our onboarding, training, marketing and our interactions with our colleagues in and out of the firm. Most recently, we implemented a generous parental leave policy that provides 12 weeks paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a baby, with no repercussions to salary or partner track. This policy is extended to the spouse or committed partner as well.

Christian & Small will remain active as the only Alabama-based firm with membership in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, an organization comprised of managing partners and corporate counsel with a mission of creating a truly diverse U.S. legal profession. To date, nine attorneys have completed the LCLD Fellows Program for partners and/or the Pathfinders Program for associates. As part of our ongoing efforts to be advocates for our community, Christian & Small will continue our 10-year partnership Teach for America-Alabama and other education initiatives across our footprint.

How has Covid affected your firm and what measures are you taking in response? Covid has been interesting. In some ways we never missed a beat. Our partners recognized the possibility of a shutdown by mid-February when Italy first began locking down parts of Lombardy. We saw no reason the same thing couldn’t happen here. By mid-March we had purchased the additional equipment needed and trained our staff to remote-in. We were prepared to go remote and continue work when the lockdown orders came. We carried on pretty seamlessly, mostly remotely, throughout the summer, and slowly phased back into the office. The exercise in working remotely has been good for us. We know we can work from home, deliver quality service to our clients, and be profitable. We are definitely prepared for the next crisis that might require us to work from home. It also gives us more flexibility to be productive out of the office for any reason. More broadly, Covid will definitely change the practice of law. The change will mostly be for the better for our clients, but it may be for the worse for us as lawyers. It is clear from the Covid experience that depositions, hearings and mediations can be held remotely, depending on the circumstance, result in huge cost savings for our clients in time and travel expense. My expectation is that long after Covid is gone, our clients will demand we handle much more of our practice online. Likewise, many judges who have embraced remote hearings will continue to hold them online. Again, this is a cost-effective win for our clients. The downside, in my opinion, is that the handling of negotiations and depositions and hearings virtually erodes the opportunity to develop personal relationships with judges and opposing counsel. Those personal and humanized relationships are critical to civility and collaborative problem-solving, even within the adversarial process, which are important characteristics in a good lawyer. There is value in the small-talk one has with opposing counsel while waiting for the judge to reach a case for hearing at a docket call. There is also value in the hours spent in a room with a client at a mediation. I hate to see us lose those opportunities to get to know and understand each other.  Frankly, going to the courthouse and seeing your colleagues is a fun part of the practice of law. I fear it is going the way of the dodo.

How are you approaching recruitment? Covid has definitely stifled recruitment over the last year. Christian & Small tends to focus on hiring laterally, and attorneys have been hesitant to make big changes amid the uncertainty of the last year, to say nothing of the logistics of trying to get to know someone remotely. However, we see that changing as we see light at the end of the tunnel and have some confidence that “this too shall pass.” I believe that there is now a bit of pent-up demand with new opportunities, as both firms and attorneys who have been hesitant to make a move are testing the waters.

What is Birmingham doing right? Birmingham continues to improve its downtown as an attractive place to live and work. Regions Field, the Railroad Park, Rotary Trail, and the revitalization of 20th Street have been great. I am excited that we will see more of the same with Progressive Stadium, the Carraway redevelopment, and the Southtown Court redevelopment, and the World Games coming to Birmingham in 2022 will shine a global spotlight on Birmingham. I think Birmingham is also smart to keep working to promote its technology ecosystem. With the “new normal” of working remotely, we have a real opportunity to attract and grow a new industry with workers who will be pleasantly surprised by what Birmingham has to offer in its culture, natural beauty, food-scene and its lower-than-average cost of living.

What could Birmingham be doing better? Education. The number one thing Birmingham could be doing better is improving the opportunities for a great education for its kids, wherever they may live. Education is only one piece of a complex puzzle, but it is the backbone of addressing challenging issues from economic development (from) racial equality and justice to income disparity. Covid has created an even wider gap in education, spotlighting lack of access to technology, broadband access and support services. In some areas of Alabama, hot spots were loaded onto school buses and driven around to various neighborhoods to give students internet access at set hours of the day. To this end, I will conclude by putting in a shameless plug for Teach for America-Alabama and its new executive director, Damon Bailey. For over ten years, Christian & Small has been in partnership with Teach for America-Alabama and supporting its mission in Birmingham and other under-served areas in Alabama of assuring that every child will receive an excellent and equitable education. Teach for America-Alabama is only one tool in the toolbox, but I would encourage Birmingham companies to think about ways to provide all students in the Birmingham metro area with improved opportunities for learning.