CEO of Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone in Detroit, Michigan, Bob Gilbert estimates that his firms net income per principal has increased over 70 percent in the last few years based on a bone-deep commitment to practice groups and their particular methodology for rewarding practice group profitability. We asked Bob Gilbert what went right.

Some years ago, a market research firm visited Detroit offering law firms candid data on how they were being perceived by local businesses and potential clients. Hundreds of Detroit area companies were surveyed. The questions involved both overall perceptions and perceptions regarding two dozen specific practice areas.

While Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone P.L.C., one of the city's oldest and best-known firms, ranked first in a number of those specialized categories, its overall ranking was disappointing.

For Bob Gilbert, a career Miller Canfield lawyer who joined the firm fresh out of the University of Michigan Law School in 1966, it was a particularly unsatisfactory outcome. Gilbert had been part of management since 1984 when he was appointed resident director of the firm's new Ann Arbor office (where he is still based). By the time of the market survey, he was chairman of the firm's six-member board of Managing Directors, a policy position not involved in day-to-day management of the firm or the half-dozen departments into which its practice was divided.

When the firm replaced those departments with multiple practice groups, Gilbert did not run again for Managing Director. Instead, he became head of the 'finance and development' group, one of 17 practice groups now comprising Miller Canfield. That wouldn't last long, though. In 1994, Gilbert reluctantly became CEO at a time when the firm, like many others, was going through a difficult transition to a more competitive legal environment. The Michigan economy was slow, and so was the nation's.

A few years later, the market research firm returned to Detroit. This time, the survey produced very different results indeed, as the perception of Miller Canfield had markedly improved.

We asked Bob Gilbert what went right.

Edge: How does a firm transform itself, as yours seems to have done?

Gilbert: I think it was a combination of luck, a better economy, remarkable support by the firm's principals, and fundamental institutional changes within the firm. Turning the departments into practice groups four or five years ago was a crucial first step.