Law360: McDonald Hopkins co-presidents share recipe for success

Law360 Pulse (October 15, 2025) — When McDonald Hopkins elected James Giszczak and James Stief to serve as co-presidents three years ago, Giszczak said firm partners took a "leap of faith" in adopting a leadership model rarely seen in the legal industry, designed to foster collaboration in firm management by leveraging their individual strengths, while also allowing each to continue maintaining their own legal practices. Giszczak and Stief spent six years leading McDonald Hopkins' two largest practice groups, heading the firm's litigation and business practices, respectively.

The duo recently embarked on their second three-year term, after overseeing an expansion to 215 attorneys from roughly 150, a $45 million jump to $145 million in overall revenue, and the addition of new practice groups such as cybersecurity, intellectual property and artificial intelligence.

"Not only did we achieve the objectives we set forth for our first term, but we far exceeded them," Giszczak said. "Quite frankly, we're ecstatic about where we ended up and are very happy our colleagues wanted us to continue down the co-presidency path." Stief added that from a logistical perspective, splitting the role came naturally because both he and Giszczak bring different types of expertise to the table. He, who comes from an accounting background, handles the financial and numbers side of operations, while Giszczak focuses on the human resources side, given his labor and employment expertise.

"We're very fortunate and in fact, a bit unique to have these complementary skill sets," Giszczak said. "As Jim mentioned, we're also very fortunate to have spent six years working very closely together running the firm's largest departments. On a daily basis, we were talking about issues that were arising, looking towards the future as to what areas we should be focusing on and being great sounding boards for each other."

The co-presidents said they bring different approaches to management. Stief describes himself as more reactionary or quick to decide, while Giszczak is said to be more deliberate with his decision-making. "I've appreciated having somebody to bounce things off of that helps me see a bigger picture from different perspectives," Stief said. "My style is to roll up my sleeves and get stuff done, and it's nice to sometimes have Jim step in and ask me to take a minute to think of some other things."

Giszczak said one thing the two co-presidents have learned from their first term in the role is that the decision to split the duties has allowed them to not only spend more time building and maintaining their client relationships but also spend more time with attorneys and staff.

"From a cultural perspective, it's been fantastic because we've been able to spend twice as much time with our colleagues, whether it's going into the offices or visiting remote attorneys to help them develop and grow their books of business," he said. "It's allowed us to double down on these efforts, and it's not just reflected in the number of attorneys we've added, but also the retention rate, which is something that's very critical for us."

Elaborating on the focus on firm culture, Stief said the main goal from day one of their presidency was to make McDonald Hopkins a "destination firm," where attorneys find it both an attractive place to bring their practices and to stay long term. 

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