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RReeccrruuiittmmeenntt | Advancement | Retention  Investing in Our Talent Through
                                                  Leadership Coaching

                                                  Vince Sergi served as the firm’s National Managing Partner for 18 years
                                                  and then as the first Chairperson of the firm for three years. He is now
                                                  taking on a new role as a leadership coach, a role for which is well-suited
                                                  since he is a consummate leader who made it his personal goal to mentor
                                                  attorneys on building successful career paths from day one.

                                                  He joined the firm as part of the first associates’    assessment of how the plan is being implemented.
                                                              class in 1974, focused his commercial      “These attorneys first need to determine what their
                                                              finance and real estate finance practices
                                                  on counseling lenders in all types of financing             goals are—what they want and why they want
                                                  transactions, and rose to become national                     it—and think about their collection of personal,
                                                  managing partner, then Chairman. During                       professional and social skills and determine how
                                                  Vince’s tenure, Katten grew dramatically
                                                  through a merger, lateral additions and                              they can move the ball forward, and create
                                                  international expansion. He has been                                    their own path toward achieving these
                                                  instrumental in recruiting talent to the                                 goals,” explained Vince. He collects
                                                  firm, which has nearly doubled in size                                    their history: who are the people
                                                  since he took the helm. Now focusing                                      they’ve met, with whom do they
                                                  his efforts on the continued strategic                                     work well and with whom can they
                                                  growth of the firm as Chairman                                             continue to build relationships; and
                                                  Emeritus, Vince was approached                                              then they collaborate on and commit
                                                  by Chairman Roger Furey and                                                  to a certain action plan. Vince
                                                  Chief Diversity Officer Leslie                                               believes that the development of
                                                  Minier with the idea to serve as a                                           a simple action plan is key. “If the
                                                  leadership coach to high-potential,                                          goal is to become an equity partner
                                                  diverse income partners. Vince, a fervent                                   then the plan should include their
                                                  advocate for building a diverse and inclusive                          list of internal and external contacts and
                                                  environment at Katten, who spearheaded
                                                  many of the forward-thinking policies that have                    outline ways they’re going to stay involved
                                                  earned the firm national recognition as a top law                 with them, containing both substantive
                                                  firm for women and a leader in diversity efforts,                and social components as well as ideas for
                                                  quickly jumped on board.                                          building business and areas they can leverage
                                                                                                                     to create opportunities for the firm and for
                                                  Coaching Components                                                themselves,” he said. “Then I prod them to
                                                                                                                     stay on top of executing the plan to keep it
                                                  Vince views his role as a coach as providing                       moving.”
                                                  confidential one-on-one guidance through engaged,
                                                  honest discussions followed by the development of an             Vince recognizes that one size does not fit
                                                  action plan for career development and the on-going              all and that there may be unique challenges
                                                                                                                 with being a diverse attorney. That is why Vince
                                                                                                         mentors only a few attorneys at a given time in order to
                                                                                                         provide tailored advice and encouragement. “Everyone

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