“Prepare the clone army!”
~ Dr. Evil
Back before today’s young lawyers were born, law firms and new lawyers had an unwritten social contract.
Firms were prepared not to make much money on newcomers. They made an investment to mentor, supervise, and train them. If the firm was lucky, it could cover its costs in the first year, and start making a profit in subsequent years. The new lawyers knew that they would have to put in some time before they could earn the big bucks, but if they hung in, a partnership would be offered within a reasonable time frame.
Then things got busy, and the industry became competitive. Associate salaries increased. When things got slow, law firms fired Associates and extended the time to qualify for partnership to preserve Partner income.
Despite having broken the social contract, law firms were surprised that their Associates did the same by jumping from firm to firm for a better deal. So, they cut back on mentoring and training for those ingrate Associates who were only going to leave soon anyway. The Associates had even fewer reasons to stay at the firm.
Okay, the history lesson is over. Fast forward to the present day. If you are a law firm owner who needs to hire Associates to get the work done, you now have two choices:
- Be generous to them in terms of compensation, training, mentoring, and opportunities for advancement. Help them develop a client base and give them lots of reasons to stay with you; or
- Churn your Associates every few years.
As morally repugnant as I find the second choice, especially when firms fail to explain the game that they are playing to their Associates, I see lots of firms that are taking that approach. However, perhaps because lawyers are famous for being terrible at business, they are not doing it particularly well.
If you are not willing to do what it takes to hold onto your lawyers, or if you truly believe that it is impossible to do so (cue the talk about the “younger generation”), you should at least get good at churning lawyers. Be great at recruiting. Invest in education systems. Use technology. Document processes. Develop the ability to bid an Associate adieu on Friday and have their replacement be productive on Monday. Or at least, Tuesday.
What you should not do is carry on like the Associates are going to stay forever while you treat them in a way that guarantees that they will not, and then go into a tizzy when they quit.
In conclusion, if you want to be evil and run your law firm to maximize short-term profit, without feeling any obligation to support the career development of your employed lawyers, you should at least have a plan for getting good at it.
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.