Marc Yaffe: Tenacity Personified

Marc Yaffe, Managing Partner at JMW Solicitors

Founded over 40 years ago, JMW Solicitors has established itself as one of the UK’s leading full-service law firms. The award-winning LLP has grown organically through a sustained period of strategic lateral hires as well enhancing its strong reputation across legal disciplines. JMW recently announced a new Managing Partner in Marc Yaffe, working alongside Chris Sutton (CEO) and Warren Martin (Senior Partner) as the new Management Team.

Marc’s chosen discipline was Commercial Litigation, an area in which he’s achieved notable success, advising clients on the full range of disputes, with a particular focus on e-commerce and sport.

However, despite a plethora of accolades, including winning litigation team of the year two years running between 2019-2021, Marc’s true talent lies in business development, (ironically, a term he despises). He will always go out of his way to help clients and prospective clients in any way possible, no matter who they are. He is admired, respected and the natural successor to take the helm as Managing Partner at JMW Solicitors. How he earned this role is explained here in a very open and honest interview.

What’s your background?

I was born in Bury and was luckily enough to attend The Manchester Grammar School. I returned to the school 20 years after leaving (I won’t say what year that was!) and had the privilege of talking in front of over 400 pupils as part of their annual prize giving ceremony. I’ll be honest, I was the one who felt like I’d won something, it was an absolute honour to be asked to return and I’m truly grateful for everything that school has given me.

From my time at The Manchester Grammar School, the word that stands out is ‘belief’ The school really instilled that mindset into everyone and helped me believe that I could be anything I wanted. As for my performance at school, I guess I had the ‘belief’ that I could always do just about enough to get the grades required. If the pass mark was 70%, I’d hoped to edge past it and achieve 75%. Thankfully in business I’m quite the opposite, the bare minimum is to go above and beyond, I set the bar high for myself in everything I do, and yes, I expect others to follow.

A very young Marc Yaffe collecting an award.

After A Levels at school, I studied Law at Birmingham University, returning to Manchester for my Legal Practice Course. After a paralegal role at Allen & Overy, I joined Halliwells LLP where I began my training contract. Like many others I viewed my training contract and those first few years as a qualified solicitor as a stepping stone to a long term career in law, and, recognising that I had little technical experience, I focussed more on what I believe were the essential personality traits of a successful lawyer: a relentless work ethic, a positive attitude and an insatiable desire to learn skills from those around me. Only now can I understand why I was perhaps afforded more opportunities to progress, because I was often praised for my tenacity (as frequently as I was criticised for impatience) and being tenacious, to me, is an essential quality for any ambitious lawyer.

What was your first job?

My first job was working at McDonalds when I was 16 years old, where I quickly learnt that you cannot make a Quarter Pounder on your own! It makes me laugh now, but the requirement to work as part of a team is something that I still remember and rely on when talking to aspiring lawyers. Unfortunately, just a few weeks in, on 15 June 1996, I was working in the McDonalds store at the bottom of Market Street when the Manchester bomb attack happened. Naturally it was a harrowing experience, but I recall that in the immediate aftermath this city was united, which was a warm feeling that I remember well and one of the many reasons why I love Manchester.

Let’s fast forward to when you became Managing Partner at JMW, what did you want to change and why?

Chris, Warren and I have been very fortunate as we inherited an established firm with a warm and friendly culture from our previous management team, and protecting and preserving what has already been built is one of our initial objectives.

As for putting our own stamp on the firm, I’m a big believer in trusting your colleagues and empowering them to grow and develop through devolving responsibility and accountability. We have almost 750 colleagues working alongside us, and I think the more you try and control all aspects of the business, the less you’ll end up achieving. Ambitious people generally thrive when given more responsibility. Even if they make a mistake along that journey of progression, as long as they learn from it and become better as result, they will ultimately add more value to the business. As human beings, we only really learn when things go wrong but to me, the most important thing is how we respond to those situations.

I would definitely like to eradicate the phrase ‘business development’. I dislike it with a passion because we should be laser focused on ‘relationship’ with the ‘business’ aspect following behind.

Ultimately as Managing Partner at JMW I’m responsible for hundreds of peoples’ livelihoods and the lives of their families. I take that responsibility very personally and very seriously, and that responsibility is at the heart of every decision we make in this firm.

JMW Solicitors Senior Management team: Chris Sutton, Marc Yaffe and Warren Martin

What’s your attitude towards how clients should be treated?

Well, we wouldn’t have a firm without our clients, so their needs and objectives are paramount. I was always conscious of managing clients’ expectations from the start and to put it bluntly the role of any competent lawyer is simply to deliver on time, on budget and on point. I often ask our developing lawyers to put themselves in their clients’ shoes. I ask them to remember that they are paid, in some cases, hundreds of pounds an hour, hour after hour, to think. We must never forget that we work in the service industry, and, to paraphrase Maya Angelou, whilst clients may forget what you say or how you say it, they will never forget how you make them feel. The culture of this firm is such that, whether it be our colleagues or our clients, we will not put profits before people. Therefore, the relationships we build form the foundation of this firm’s past, present and future success.

Biggest lesson?

I was involved in a terrible car crash in the December of my A Level year. I was driving a car with two friends and we were hit by a drunk driver who fled the scene. Whilst I was relatively unharmed (physically at least) Eliot was thrown from our car from the force of the impact and, after a few days on life support, he died. For a few months, I simply couldn’t process what had happened and I didn’t understand how or why this world could be so cruel. The driver of that car was never found and never bought to justice. This harrowing experience really changed my perspective on life and probably resulted in my interest in the law. I think about Eliot every day and there’s no doubt that his passing and his lasting memory has inspired me to achieve much more than I genuinely think I was capable of. I learnt that life is cruel, so you have to grab every opportunity that comes your way. I even have a mantra inscribed on my front door that reads “Quam Felix Sumus” which, translated from the Latin, means “How Lucky We Are” a daily reminder to appreciate how lucky I am to be alive.

Something people wouldn’t know about you?

The only job I wanted outside of law was for the secret service… and I applied unsuccessfully three times!

How do you process a tough day?

I try not to leave anything hanging over each day. My emails, texts and WhatsApp are always up to date. I challenge myself to clear all notifications from the home screen on my phone before the end of the day: it’s become a ritual. Fortunately, I sleep very well and rarely need more than five or six hours, which helps enormously when recharging for the next day. In the office, the team describe me being like a ‘Duracell Battery’; I start the day on 100% power, so I try and have my toughest meetings and deal with the toughest tasks earlier in the day. I think that’s the key, to have enough self-awareness to understand when to best deal with each specific job during the day.

Plans for the future?

I don’t know if I should tell you what my dream job is. Okay you’ve convinced me., it’s to be a pool cleaner in Barbados. I got married in Barbados and it’s such a beautiful place, so the idea of getting up early in the morning, cleaning a few pools, chatting to (i.e., networking with) the owners then relaxing for a few hours in the afternoon sounds simply idyllic.

In reality this will never happen though because I feel privileged to hold this current role and I love the people I work with each day. I also know just how unemployable I am in any other role!

Trailblazer would like to thank Marc Yaffe for taking the time out of his busy schedule.