Howard M. Garfield, Partner
Direct Dial: (415) 438-4545
February 1, 2000
To Whom It May Concern:
Maurice Heffernan joined Long & Levit LLP as our Director of Administration and Chief Financial Officer after a nearly seven month search for qualified candidates from all parts of the country. He had been interviewed and recommended to us by our former Executive Director, who had rejoined a leading business consultancy in 1998. I personally checked his references at the National Football League and the Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, which were very complimentary. Maurice was unanimously endorsed by our management committee.
At the time, we had been without a Director of Finance and Staff for seven months and, it is fair to say, that aspect of the firm's business was in serious disarray. Maurice attacked his new responsibilities and the firm's myriad problems with enthusiasm, enormous energy, discipline and good will. He immediately set to work with determination to combat the drift created by the absence of strong central management and began to bring order out of the disarray.
In short order, he gained a thorough understanding the firm's finances and problems. He offered concrete solutions to real problems. He implemented cost-saving measures that saved the firm literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in the short period of time he worked for us. He identified problem personnel and took corrective measures with a firm hand to set high standards of performance. He saw keenly and quickly through the obfuscation of employees who were not performing or who were taking advantage of the absence of controls. He immediately and constantly demanded that all his subordinates put the firm's interests first. He assisted admirably in the negotiation of the firm's new office lease.
Within a short period of time after his arrival, it became clear that several partners wanted to leave the firm to establish their own practice with a business plan radically different from the firm's organization. For a while, it appeared that their departure would cause the dissolution of the firm. During a period of great uncertainty and tension, Maurice performed with a steady hand to develop projections and models for a reorganized firm. He had established an excellent relationship with the firm's bank and maintained that relationship during this difficult time. All the while, he worked tirelessly, away from his family, to achieve the firm's financial goals for the year and assisted greatly in achieving them. The only criticism of his performance that I expressed to Maurice during his tenure with the firm is that he needs to develop more deftness in dealing with subordinates, particularly those whose performance has been substandard.
When the firm decided not to dissolve but to reconstitute itself as a much smaller firm, it became clear that it would no longer be the firm that had hired him and would no longer present the kinds of challenges to his talents and skills that had attracted him to the Long & Levit in the first place. After making sure that the "new" firm had a solid business plan and budget for the new year, he decided to separate to search once again for a situation that could take advantage of those talents and skills. He has been, of course, extremely professional during the period of separation.
We wish him well in his future endeavors.
Very truly yours,
Howard M. Garfield