Law Is Still a People Business: Gary Wingens on Leadership, Loyalty, and the Long View

Gary Wingens led Lowenstein Sandler through Lehman Brothers' collapse and a global pandemic, and now he says AI won't shrink legal work at all, it will multiply it. Wingens spent thirty-nine years at Lowenstein Sandler, eighteen as managing partner, before stepping into the role of chair, and he built that transition on a principle most leaders resist: he refused to pick his own successor. That same instinct for stepping back at the right moment runs through his conversation with Chris Batz and Howard Rosenberg. At the center of it is a theory pulled from 1800s economics. Jevons Paradox holds that when the cost of a good drops, demand rises rather than falls, and Wingens argues the same logic applies to legal work in the age of AI. He backs it with a real number: a document review project a client refused at eight million dollars became a profitable million-dollar engagement once AI cut the cost of delivery. If that pattern holds industry-wide, what happens to a business model still anchored to the billable hour? He also draws a direct line between 2008 and COVID, two crises that felt eerily similar from inside the firm but produced opposite outcomes, one nearly breaking the business and the other proving that panic drives clients toward more legal help, not less. Underneath it all is a firm built on a specific kind of stubbornness, traced back to a founder who once walked away from a client rather than abandon his pro bono work, a conviction that still shapes how Wingens thinks about leadership and loyalty today. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Gary Wingens on Leading a Law Firm Through Crisis and Succession 10:08 Why AI Will Create More Legal Work, Not Less 28:17 Building a Pro Bono Practice Rooted in Firm Culture 39:12 Leadership Advice for the Next Generation of Law Firm Leaders Connect with Gary Wingens: Law Firm Web bio: https://www.lowenstein.com/people/att... LinkedIn Profile link: linkedin.com/in/garywingens Connect with Howard Rosenberg: LinkedIn profile:   / hrosenberg   Company web profile: https://www.baretzbrunelle.com/howard... Connect with Chris Batz: LinkedIn profile:   / chrisbatz   Columbus Street LinkedIn Profile:   / columbus-street   Columbus Street Website: https://www.columbus-street.com/ MergerWatch Website: https://mergerwatch.com/ Listen and learn from Chris Batz and Howard Rosenberg’s bi-weekly podcast, The Future is Bright. Enjoy a front-row seat as Chris and Howard speak with thought-provoking C-Suite executives and leaders from corporations, both public and private, professional service firms, and of course, the legal industry from around the United States. Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm