Great Neck law-firm founder Robert Wild

Attorney Robert Andrew Wild helped to found a small practice to focus on health care providers in May 1980.

The Great Neck firm, now called Garfunkel Wild Pc, has since expanded beyond what he ever expected, with two other branches in New Jersey and Connecticut. He quips, "It takes 30 years to be an overnight success."

Wild says the practice is like two in one: a firm specializing in the health care industry, but also a full-service general firm for those clients.

Wild, 66, is chairman of the Long Island United Way.

He is married - his wife is also a partner at the firm - and has four children and five grandchildren. He is learning how to fly.

How did you learn to manage?
"You just grow into it. A combination of experience, common sense, some reading from books on management and watching others. . . . In my early days, most of my work was in hospitals. Hospitals are very well structured administrative organizations. So I learned quite a bit from clients themselves about how a CEO, a COO, a CFO would manage their operations, how they handle meetings, how they handled assignments."

Did you also learn what not to do from them?
"My philosophy is: You lead by example. You lead from the front, not from the back. You take responsibility. You avoid blaming others. And you try to do it in an evenhanded manner: Yelling and screaming accomplishes nothing. It's not hard to understand [that] if you want to motivate people you do it by working alongside of them, by rolling up your sleeves, by treating them with respect. I have seen bosses who think a whip and a chair is going to do it, and I just think that's not the right way to lead. I'm not too proud to clean up a spill in the kitchen. The joke around here is: 'Robert picks up the paper clips' when they're on the carpet. Because it doesn't look good to have paper clips on the carpet, and I hope everybody picks up the paper clips."

How has the recession affected you?
"I would not say we were unaffected by it. What I'm very proud of is we had no layoffs whatsoever, no salary reductions to the entire staff."

What do you look for when you're hiring?
"Ours is a person-to-person business. The person has to relate to the clients. They can sit with a client and the client's going to feel comfortable with them.

"I'm especially proud of the fact that despite growth - we have 80 lawyers - we've maintained what I call a family atmosphere. We have very, very little, if any, turnover; people don't leave, especially at the attorney level." He cites an ongoing office tradition of providing free lunches on Wednesdays. "In the old days there were five of us, and we had just one pizza."

What's your approach to competition?
"Virtually all my competitors are good friends. The health law profession is a relatively small group in the New York metropolitan area. There's plenty of work for everybody."

Corporate snapshot

Name. Robert Andrew Wild

Title. chairman, managing partner

Company. Garfunkel Wild Pc

Business. Law firm specializing in health care clients

Location. Great Neck; Hackensack, N.J.; Stamford, Conn.

Type. Private company

Revenue. More than $35 million annually

Employees. 168, including 123 on Long Island