There is an old story about a farmer who was training his horse to eat less food so that he could increase his profits. He gradually reduced the amount of feed that he gave the horse, until it was eating a small fraction of what horses usually eat. He was on the verge of a breakthrough and had visions of patenting his methodology and becoming both famous and fabulously wealthy.
And then, just when he had the horse trained to eat nothing at all, he had this terrible stroke of bad luck when the horse suddenly, and inexplicably, died. He was absolutely devastated to see his dreams slip away.
Rather than adjust his methods, the farmer got back on the horse (so to speak) and started working his system with another horse. While the problem might have been obvious to industry outsiders, the farmer was so devoted to his methodology and the cost-savings that it generated, he was unable to see that his horse was unhappy, despite its long face.
Meanwhile, back in our law firms, we feed our associates just fine, but we work them to within an inch of their mental health. Eventually, they become good at what they do, and they start making us money. So, we give them even more work. (I believe that the system has been described as a horse poop eating contest where the prize is more horse poop.)
The super-stars among our associates develop like diamonds under pressure. They learn a myriad of skills, including how to mix metaphors. They become good at their craft, and we begin to reap the benefits of all those write-offs of the time spent training and mentoring them. And then, unpredictably, they frequently leave for greener pastures. We label them ungrateful, and resent that we must yet again find a lateral to replace them or adjust our succession plan.
We lament our bad luck, but we do not see the flaws in our system.
I get it. Our desire to earn more and more short-term profits can blind us to the flaws in how we run our law firms. We can convince ourselves that the ability to work under extreme pressure is what makes a great lawyer; that it is the attitudes of the current generation that make increased turnover inevitable; and that there is nothing that we can do about it. We just need to find another workhorse that is going to be less greedy and hang around this time.
Every good story needs a moral. All my stories are good. So here is the moral: The problem is not the people. It is how the system grinds through people. We don’t need to keep putting more people in the same old saddle. We need to change the saddle. And no, we are not going to get out of this just by using AI. We need to start by creating healthy work environments. It may require reducing workloads and, horrors, short-term profits.
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.