---
title: Abbott Costello LLP
description: Who's the law firm's Management Partner?
image: https://blog.4l-law.com/hubfs/managing%20partner.png
---
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# Abbott Costello LLP
Jun 10, 2019 12:43:00 PM | Michael Marget
I was in Philadelphia recently, corner at 17th & Market Street, and overheard the following conversation. The two guys had to be lawyers:
**Lawyer 1: Hey, Bud. Congratulations! Heard you just changed law firms.**
*Lawyer 2: You heard right. Last week I started at Abbott Costello LLP.*
**Lawyer 1: Huh? I’m not familiar with them. Who is the Managing Partner?**
*Lawyer 2: Who.*
**Lawyer 1: Who is the Managing Partner?**
*Lawyer 2: Yeah, he is.*
**Lawyer 1: Who is? Who’s the Managing Partner?**
*Lawyer 2: A really visionary guy.*
**Lawyer 1: Who is a really visionary guy?**
*Lawyer 2: The Managing Partner.*
**Lawyer 1: I’m simply asking you, who is the Managing Partner?**
*Lawyer 2: That’s the guy’s name.*
**Lawyer 1: Who’s name?**
*Lawyer 2: Yes.*
**Lawyer 1: Well, go ahead and tell me.**
*Lawyer 2: That’s it. Who is the Managing Partner.*
**Lawyer 1: That’s who?**
*Lawyer 2:Yes.*
### **PAUSE**
**Lawyer 1: Look, the law firm must have a Managing Partner.**
*Lawyer 2: Of course.*
**Lawyer 1: And when the firm has a partners’ meeting, who chairs the meeting?**
*Lawyer 2: Who.*
**Lawyer 1: The guy convening the meeting.**
*Lawyer 2: That’s Who.*
**Lawyer 1: I’m asking you!**
### **SECOND PAUSE**
**Lawyer 1: One more time. What is the name of the Managing Partner?**
*Lawyer 2: No, What heads up the Litigation Department*
**Lawyer 1: I’m not saying who’s head of Litigation.**
*Lawyer 2: Good, because Who is the Managing Partner.*
**Lawyer 1: I don’t know.**
*Lawyer 2: She handles all the appellate work argued at the Third Circuit.*
**Lawyer 1: How did we start talking about Third Circuit?**
*Lawyer 2: Well, you mentioned the name.*
**Lawyer 1: Okay, if I did mention the Third Circuit, I said it was who?**
*Lawyer 2: Who is Managing Partner?*
**Lawyer 1: That was my original question! WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE MANAGING PARTNER?**
*Lawyer 2: Who is the Managing Partner?*
**Lawyer 1: I don’t know.**
*Lawyer 2: She’s Third Circuit.*
**Lawyer 1: Great, we’re back at the Third Circuit again!**
### **ANOTHER PAUSE**
**Lawyer 1: Okay, let’s stay at the Third Circuit.**
***Lawyer 2: **Sure, what do you want to know?***
**Lawyer 1: Who does Third Circuit appeals?**
*Lawyer 2: Why do you insist on putting Who at the Third Circuit ?*
**Lawyer 1: What? Who?**
*Lawyer 2: What is Litigation. Who is the Managing Partner.*
**Lawyer 1: I don’t know!**
**TOGETHER: THIRD CIRCUIT!**
### **FOURTH PAUSE**
**Lawyer 1: Forget all that…. I’m happy for you. Good luck at the new firm. Maybe one of your new guys can help me out. I have a client, with deep pockets, that has an ERISA problem way out of my league. If I referred this to somebody at your new firm, how soon might I expect to receive a definitive answer to a complex ERISA question?**
*Lawyer 2: I will need to check with one of our ERISA lawyers; probably Never or possibly Longer.*
**Lawyer 1: That sounds about right.**
| Bud Abbott and Lou Costello did it best. There have been other variations including the scene in *Airplane!, *the 1980 movie that riffed a conversation between Captain Oever and co-pilot Roger Murdock speaking one another’s names with the acknowledging responses “over” and “roger.” My personal favorite: Dodgers’ announcer Vin Scully doing the play-by-play for a Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers baseball game in September 2017 when rookie shortstop Chin-lung Hu got his first hit, a single, and Scully said, “Shades of Abbott and Costello, I can finally say, ‘Hu is on first.’” |
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 [Law Firm Management](https://blog.4l-law.com/tag/law-firm-management)
### Michael Marget
Mike Marget is an erstwhile large law firm manager with tours of duty as COO at Katten Muchin, Jenner & Block and CFO at Holland & Knight, among others. He’s currently president of 4L Law Firm Services which provides accounting, bookkeeping and related back office services to small/midsize law firms. His blog, Law Firm CFO, is dedicated to every law firm manager who has ever asked the question, “Why me?”
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