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Francine Griesing is the founder and Managing Member of Griesing Law, a law firm based in Philadelphia. Founded in 2010, Griesing Law provides comprehensive legal services to the region’s leading government, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations—including Fortune 500 companies. The firm’s services encompass practice areas ranging from employment and business transactions to government and regulatory affairs to intellectual property, higher education, telecommunications, real estate, and much more. In 2013, Griesing Law received the annual Law Firm MVP Award from the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms. The following year, the firm was selected as SmartCEO Magazine’s Philadelphia Law Firm of the Year.

Francine Griesing spoke with Jeff Mack, of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, for this interview.

JEFF MACK: How has technology changed the practice of law since you first started out?

FRANCINE GRIESING: Technology in the law has become one of the hottest topics—I’m not sure if you’re aware of that. We’ve actually been interviewed several times lately about cybersecurity and technology, and the law. Essentially, because we’re lawyers we have a heightened responsibility to maintain client confidences. In addition, our firm in particular— because we represent Fortune 500 companies—we have to meet very strict expectations about the kind of technology we use, particularly as it relates to security.

Those are very expensive undertakings for any business, and particularly for law firms. As a result, even though we are a boutique firm, our obligations are no less than if we were a mega firm. We basically need the kinds of security that we would need if we were a very big firm because we represent the kind of clients that big firms represent. When you represent Fortune 500 clients they will give you cybersecurity requirements and we have to meet them.

So, technology has become a very significant part of the operating budget for our firm, and for law firms generally, and in addition, we’re managing 300-plus clients, historically—and many of them have multiple matters—we need fairly sophisticated software to keep track of everything we have to do for everyone, and make sure we meet all their deadlines and the like. Technology and the law have become inextricably intertwined.

Q. What accomplishment are you most proud of as the creator of your law firm?

A. That question is a tough one to answer, because on the one hand I walk down the hall in my office and I see 20 people who have jobs. That’s a big deal. I’ve created jobs for over 20 people. Many of them are women with young children. Virtually everyone who works for me has a family or some kind of family responsibility, financially and otherwise.

I’ve also created opportunities for women to do things they would not be doing in other legal settings yet, meaning I give people responsibility if they’re capable of handling it and I let them run with it. Junior people are taking on increasingly challenging and interesting projects and doing them phenomenally well. I’m very proud that I have created that team.

But ultimately, the thing I’m most proud of—and have always been most proud of—is my daughter. Every parent should be, I think. My 26-year-old daughter Emily graduated from Barnard over four years ago and worked in marketing and advertising both here and in New York, for some of the best agencies around and joined us in the spring and is our marketing coordinator, in addition to working on our side business, and she has really done a phenomenal job at it. And I was already most proud of her of anything I have done anyway, but having her work with me and collaborate with me as a colleague has been a spectacularly rewarding experience for me, and one I’m really proud of.

Q. What do you look for when hiring among the millennial generation? What advice would you give to a lawyer just out of law school?

A. The market for law students has been really tough over the past several years, although I think it’s improving, and we hire some people right out of law school and we hire a lot of people with experience. So many people approach us that we don’t go to agencies or put out ads or do anything like that. Most people who join us join us through word-of-mouth or because they’ve contacted us.

When I’m talking to law students, which I do fairly frequently actually, about what they see for themselves, my number one piece of advice—and this is not advice for women law students, it’s advice for all law students—is take charge of your career. Historically, when I came out of law school you went into a law firm and they gave you work to do, and some more senior person mentored you and critiqued your work, gave you guidance, introduced you to people, and led you along in a school sort of way.

I don’t think that that’s a good thing for young lawyers today. Because of the economics of practicing law, because law firms are not able to afford to be as paternalistic as they might have been in the past, every person needs to take charge of his or her own career—lawyers, for sure—and I think every law student should start thinking about that when they walk in the door of the law school; they shouldn’t wait until they are out. They should start thinking about what kind of work they want to do and why they want to do it, and who would be in a position to give them that kind of work, and how they’re going to go about earning the trust to get that work. That’s what I think is important for law students today.

Q. What do you do when you’re not at work?

A. My favorite things to do when I am not working are pretty varied. I love to exercise and I like lots of different kinds of exercise because I'm indoors so much, I like to be outdoors. I love to hike—that’s the number one for me—in all different kinds of places, but I also do a lot of yoga to keep my mind clear, and I actually do a lot of flywheel, which is an indoor stadium cycling class. I do that several times a week to burn off steam and stay in shape. I like all of those kinds of activities, and I love to cook. I do lot of cooking as well.

Connect with Francine on LinkedIn

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ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

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