Endless Search for Talent
Every firm needs high-calibre lawyers to properly deliver top "quality" legal services to its clients. The search for legal talent is endless and the borders between recruitment and retention are seamless. (Recent professional literature worth reviewing includes "Managing Law Firm Recruitment and Retention in a Downturn," NALP Foundation, www.nalp.org; The War for Talent by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones and Beth Axelrod, Harvard Business Press, 2001; and Keeping Good Lawyers: Best Practices to Create Career Satisfaction by M. Diane Vogt and Lori-Ann Rickard, ABA Law Practice Management Section, 2000.) Turnover in associate ranks and partner departures are disruptive and expensive for firms and for clients. There are a good number of firms that have "comprehensive" programmes to reduce associate attrition-an amorphous term that too easily masks the reality of losing good talent. Human resources literature suggests that organizations of all types turn over their workforces every five years-a 20 per cent attrition rate. Associate attrition rates exceed this figure today. Moreover, partner mobility and retirements will produce a similar level of loss of partners in many firms within five years.
That is not to say that attrition is inherently undesirable. The prevalent business model for law firms calls for a delicate balance between growth in business volume and the movement of lawyers through the firm. Hourly based work, compensation levels and narrow gateways to partnership require considerable movement of human capital through the system to make it work. It is not surprising that the American Bar Association established a commission last year to report on the nefarious effects of the billable hour on the legal profession.
Young lawyers ask themselves whether the pressure to have one's own clients is too great, whether work volumes are too low or excessive, why they are working below their competency levels, and whether making partner is a truly desirable goal. In some firms, new partners compete with senior associates for work that could be delegated. Or they depend on other partners for workflow. Mid-life questions abound for lawyers turning 40. Am I a prisoner? Should I start my own firm? Is it time to do something altogether different? Partners searching for "Freedom 55" find it elusive. Many have consumed two-thirds of their career, and find themselves responsible for leading a practice group, an office or the firm. Worrying about others is a part of every day, but not many have a defined exit plan for themselves.
The Best and the Brightest
Recruitment committees want "the best and the brightest" associates. It is equally important that the probability of fit and retention be at its maximum level when a commitment to hire is made to an associate or a lateral partner. People and law firms change quickly. A young professional wants and needs different things at 23, 28 or 33.
Performance management occurs when work style meets lifestyle. Formal and informal workload and workflow realities are learned on the job. The economics of legal practice, the introduction of business development techniques that work, and the criteria for partnership are intertwined to such an extent in most firms so as to challenge the most intrepid. The brightest and the best too often choose alternatives to the practice of law.
What to do? Everyone shares the responsibility to get and keep good lawyers. The firm must produce a solid vision, strong leaders, great clients and a continuous improvement culture. The partners must take the lead in designing practice groups, forging new relationships with clients and changing the economics of the firm-away from hourly based arrangements. Partners also have the responsibility to be teachers by developing formal standards and by benchmarking best practices. Performance management systems must be re-tooled, and innovation in processes and results must be the order of the day. Finally, some firms are moving away from risk-averse cultures and challenging their assumptions about the value they can offer clients. As owners of law firms, partners are responsible for exhibiting the leadership traits that any organization craves-creating a shared vision, ensuring customer satisfaction, living and working with shared values, building teamwork and thinking globally.
Personal Responsibilities
But each lawyer has personal responsibilities as well. The trend is toward specialization, not so much by area of law as by client sector and even by specific client. Younger lawyers have a responsibility to change clients and sectors in order to better enrich their experience-something that is easier to accommodate in larger firms. The bottom line is that it is the individual lawyer's responsibility-not the firm's-to manage a career. There are four sets of competencies to be mapped and acquired-personal attributes, leadership and development competencies, business and client competencies, and technical legal skills. Each set has milestones that must be reached before certain years of call. Those who can see the patterns will more than meet great expectations.
Richard G. Stock, M.A., FCIS, C.Adm., CMC, is a partner with Catalyst Consulting. The firm has been designated the Preferred Supplier for Legal Services Consulting by both the CBA and the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association. Richard can be contacted at (416) 367-4447 or through the Web site at www.catalystlegal.com.