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Twenty years ago, few law firms practiced “talent management.” Times have changed, however, and today the majority of large firms recognize the value of an integrated, holistic management strategy that treats recruitment, development and retention as mutually reinforcing facets of a single system that emphasizes building and strengthening the relationship between firm and attorney.
When seen through the lens of relationship building, it becomes clear that the immediate goal of recruitment – attracting and hiring the most qualified candidates – is not an end in itself. Recruitment is but the first step in building a strong, committed pool of attorneys who will consistently, over a period of many years, contribute to a firm’s profitability and reputation for outstanding client service. Further investments in that relationship involve professional development programs and other initiatives, such as growth opportunities, flexible scheduling, assistance with work-life balance and formal, constructive feedback. These drive toward the ultimate goal – preserving and deepening the bonds between attorney and firm – which, in turn, prevents unwanted attrition and loss of a firm’s most valued assets.
Just as there is typically more than one way to reach a particular geographic destination or solve a given problem, there are many specific best practices a firm can implement to act on its talent management philosophy and make it a reality.
Source: Survey of 300 lawyers among the largest law firms and corporations in the United States and Canada. The survey was commissioned by Robert Half Legal and conducted by an independent research firm.
Best Practices for Hiring, Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent
To attract a generation of professionals accustomed to using the Internet for nearly everything – from job hunting and shopping to socializing – law firms are increasing their use of technology to cast a wider net and reach a broader base of candidates. Law firm websites, once staid and static, have become livelier and more dynamic. Many include online video clips that combine humor and high-production values with factual information and insights about what it’s like to work at the firm.
Many companies worldwide, including law firms, have begun to use social networking sites as globe-spanning job boards. Recruitment efforts that take lower-tech forms are often geared to the Millennial generation’s values, including the desire to do meaningful work and make a difference.
Despite ingenious and costly recruiting methods, some U.S. and Canadian law firms have been unable to find candidates domestically and have expanded their cross-border recruiting efforts. Many top firms regularly look abroad, particularly when seeking attorneys for private equity, corporate work, or mergers and acquisitions.
Aside from specific techniques and systematic approaches, firms are finding that a cornerstone of effective recruiting is differentiation. In a competitive market where law students receive multiple offers and midlevel associates are exiting through revolving doors, firms must persuasively “sell” themselves and what they have to offer. In other words, the medium ultimately matters less than the message it conveys. One way a firm can differentiate itself is to highlight how it invests in and supports the development of its attorneys at every stage of their careers.
It is one of the ironies of law firm life that aggressively recruited summer associates may often be overlooked and left to their own devices by the end of their second year at a firm. But this is a critical period and some industry experts consider it as important as first-year law school grades, class ranking and law review results in determining how successful an attorney’s career will be and whether he or she will remain with a firm. Once hired, junior associates should be integrated into a firm through timely feedback and ongoing training and mentoring. They must also feel that their professional goals are attainable, and that support is there to help them reach those goals.
To convince associates to stay with an organization for more than two or three years, firms must show them how they truly belong and how they are potential partners. The key components of an effective professional development program
for associates include integration, career development, on-the-job training
and formal training, notes Caren Stacy, director of professional development
at Arnold & Porter LLP.The benefits of associate training and leadership development can be felt throughout a firm, and will ultimately be reflected in improved retention rates.
While many law firms are devoting extensive resources, time and attention to increasing diversity in their ranks, under-representation of minorities and women in the profession continues.
A 2007 survey by The Legal Intelligencer revealed that, of 24 large and small firms in Pennsylvania, 17 did not have even one attorney who was an ethnic minority. Only 23 percent of the firms’ attorneys were women. A diversity task force in Dallas, meanwhile, surveyed the city’s 20 largest law firms and found that only 4.3 percent of attorneys were black and 3.5 percent Hispanic, despite the fact that 95 percent of the firms have diversity councils and more than half have retained professional diversity consultants. And a 2006 survey by NALP found that while 44.3 percent of associates at law firms were women, only 17.9 percent were partners. The outlook is not much better at law schools, where the number of minority applicants has been declining over the past few years.
Law firms are not indifferent to these statistics, and many continue their efforts to implement and expand programs that will promote diversity. Whereas in the past, law firms did not necessarily see its urgency or importance, today the majority realizes that there is a strong business case for diversity. An abstract, idealistic goal has now been cast in concrete, economic terms: Clients are emphatic that if outside counsel is not diverse, they will take their business to another firm that is.
Many law firms have made diversity a priority by creating committees or hiring designated directors to focus their efforts. Making diversity the purview of a director or a committee is necessary as a practical matter, but it should not replace a commitment to diversity throughout the firm, starting with the partnership ranks, advises Veda Richardson, executive director of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA).
“People look to the top leadership of an organization to set the tempo and priorities for everyone else,” she says. “Therefore, top management needs to be clear and unwavering in its commitment to diversity.”
In terms of retention, promoting work-life balance is as important as professional development and diversity. Many attorneys seek law firms that will help them juggle the often-competing demands of their professional and personal lives. In contrast to the uneven and incremental advances in the quest for diversity, law firms have made much better – and more rapid – progress toward fostering better work-life balance. A key element has been the widespread implementation of fixed-hour and part-time schedules, along with greater top-down support for such options.
“Firms have gotten serious about the business case for a truly workable part-time policy,” says Joan C. Williams, director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. “Compared to three or four years ago, we’re seeing more firms adopting the whole package – not just saying they have a part-time policy, but actually promoting qualified part-timers on a proportional schedule, giving them proportionate pay and monitoring and controlling schedule creep.”
Another major development aiding the work-life balance concept, Williams adds, is that more law firms are holding partners accountable for regretted losses and the very significant cost of unwanted attrition, which was was unheard of several years ago. As a result, she says, firms are “beginning to see the results everyone knew were possible” – including improved retention rates among attorneys who might otherwise leave a firm or the legal profession altogether.
Mandatory Retirement: Is It Still a Good Policy?
Another way law firms are counteracting the effects of talent shortages, lateral losses and attorneys opting out is by rethinking their retirement policies. The impending retirement of the first wave of Baby Boomer-generation attorneys was a hot topic at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association (ABA) last year. Concern about the talent drain prompted the ABA to pass a resolution calling for the elimination of mandatory retirement age policies. The ABA’s position is based on a report by the New York State Bar Association, which characterized mandatory retirement as outdated and contrary to public policy. Demographics reinforce the argument for change; according to the ABA, the median age of all attorneys rose from 39 in 1980 to 45 in 2000, and continues to rise.
Creating Flexible and Active Retirement Policies
What will replace the old model of traditional, full retirement? Already firms are adopting programs that will enable them to capitalize on the deep knowledge levels and breadth of professional contacts of more seasoned attorneys, while helping these individuals retain meaningful roles within the firm. Such policies view retirement not as a withdrawal or removal, but rather as a journey or a transition period during which older attorneys remain productive and socially engaged in the workplace.
One way law firms can help older attorneys achieve such a gradual shift in roles and responsibilities is to provide flexible scheduling options such as part-time work (either on a daily or weekly basis), bridge jobs (may entail a change in hours, occupation or job type) or the ability to do work away from the office, says Michael A. Smyer, co-director of the Boston College Center on Aging and Work/Workplace Flexibility.
“Employees approaching traditional retirement age have indicated that they want flexibility in crafting their exit from the workplace,” he says. “You don’t go from 60 mph to zero, you downshift. If firms are looking for ways to retain and engage older workers, they need to think about how they can manage flexibility and make it a strategic advantage for the firm.”
