Leading a Law Firm Through the Great Attrition

Smart strategy

As of April 2021, more than $ 19 million workers have quit their jobs, driving sales and turmoil across all sectors. According to McKinsey’s report on the Great Attrition, about another 40% will do the same in the coming months. These numbers are sobering. And while they represent a wide range of industries, they equally reflect the experience of the legal industry.

While the “War for Talents” rages on, law firms of all sizes struggle with widespread poaching, staff shortages, wage wars and burnout. This talent shortage comes at a particularly difficult time – during a pandemic and on the verge of a very nebulous return to the office. A permanent transformation of the work process, culture and more of the law firm is underway.

Executives feel ill-prepared – and for good reason. Few have enjoyed the benefits of formal leadership training, and most have been plagued with a flurry of high-profile, sometimes daily, decisions for two years. Burnout is a real risk for executives, lawyers and employees alike, and as with virtually everything the last two years have brought into the world, the solutions are far from easy. What can leaders do to effectively and productively prepare themselves and their companies for the year ahead, as a new year approaches and, for many, a formal reopening?

Focus on the ‘right’ things

In leadership and in life, people tend to focus on flaws – obsessing over flaws and imperfections. They devote inordinate amounts of time and energy to redressing injustices rather than replicating rights. This mindset is counterproductive. It’s also one of many reasons why strengths-based leadership approaches are so widespread – and so effective. Understanding and building on what you are good at is a proven strategy for optimizing growth and effectiveness.

Organizational thinking can benefit from the same mindful focus. While it is tempting to respond to fluctuations by aggressively trying to keep those who are about to arrive or to sweeten the attractiveness for new entrants, don’t be too hasty. Psychology shows that people value the potential for size more than actual size – in professional sport, for example, recruits often enjoy an over-appreciation of their worth compared to those with a proven track record.

To align focuses and messages on what’s best for the company over the long term, target scarce resources – yes, including money – with existing talent, especially those who show a keen interest in the company’s advancement and advancement. In this regard, you should not overestimate the new over the old by using unfair approaches to attract talent that current professionals do not like. While executives cannot ignore the need for more talent – even if future paragraphs may suggest that this is not entirely true – they can use their investment decisions, actions, and communications to highlight what is working and what is not.

Rethink, revise, rethink

During the pandemic, many law firms are laying off administrative staff, paralegals, paralegals, and even underperforming lawyers (quietly). Lawyers and professionals have learned to work remotely, streamline processes, and rely more on technology (and on themselves) to perform tasks previously delegated to others. While some of these cuts were certainly financial necessities, many were not. The pandemic has put many companies under pressure to react to long overdue decisions or to accelerate trends that have already been initiated, such as switching to a higher lawyer-to-assistant ratio. Whatever the reason, the result is a new, “lighter” operating model. For many companies, this new approach is as good, if not better, than it was before.

Now imagine applying the lessons learned from that transition to the industry’s current challenge: sales. What if, when law firms cut talent, instead of automatically recruiting and replacing with “everything on deck”, executives pause, step back and judge: Is the current model the right one?

Ravin Jesuthasan recently spoke at the Thomson Reuters COO CFO Forum on the future of work. In its future-oriented model, the organizations of tomorrow will function completely differently and act according to skills and not according to jobs in a flexible model in which the role of the individual is neither limited nor fixed. Retraining and upgrading are increasingly common tools, both of which are particularly well suited to the needs of millennials, for whom continuous training opportunities and flexibility are key factors in employment decisions. Replacing those five departing employees with five replicas may not be the best solution. Alternative paths can include structural changes (e.g., pooled lawyers or team-based delivery models), alternative career paths, contract lawyers, process improvement, project managers, business people, and more.

Know what really matters

Another key finding from the McKinsey study is a clear discrepancy between what is important to employees and what employers consider most important to employees. This discrepancy is critical. Law firms now seem to have one primary tool they use most often in the war for talents: money. However, research from myriad sources – including the American attorney – shows that higher compensation is not the answer. In fact, just throwing money into the problem can be harmful. Compensation wars send the message that a person’s connection to the company is only transactional. What people want is much less tangible.

The survey shows that two of the most important factors for employees – the manager and the sense of belonging – were rated as less important by employers. Other very important areas – valued by organization and work-life balance – are those where law firms are notorious for struggling. Most of the time, discussions in law firm boardrooms and strategy committee meetings focus on the specifics – what structural and operational changes the organization can make to cope with fluctuation. The harsh reality, however, is that these changes rarely address the core of the problem.

For example, consider this list of behaviors that emerged recently at a law firm’s closed meeting to describe how others behaved in scenarios where they didn’t feel they belonged:

  • Speak in a different “language”
  • Persuade / interrupt
  • No eye contact
  • Turn away, close
  • No greeting
  • To ignore
  • whisper
  • Not appealing
  • Don’t inform
  • Make a circle without you
  • Being interrogated “What are you doing here?”
  • To be questioned / challenged
  • Be physically excluded

Equally harmful and not on the list is the association of one’s worth with the hours they charge or the dollars they make. Unfortunately, many of these behaviors will not only look familiar, they will also be evident in your own experience in your organization. Even for those who are honest enough with themselves to admit it, they may reflect actions in which they were personally involved in certain circumstances.

Managers can only effectively address turnover if they understand the underlying motivation for leaving employees. Cultural evaluations and employee engagement surveys can shed some light, but not enough law firms dig deep enough or, perhaps more specifically, address the most daunting results – which brings us to our fourth point.

Do the (hard) work

Far too often, law firms applaud their collegiate culture without taking the time to listen and think about what’s going on below the surface. Short-term or more specific solutions, such as offering discounts, adjusting remuneration or replacing a practice manager, are far more typical solutions to an increasingly complex problem. But deep down, the lawyers know that this is not the solution. When properly engaged, partners acknowledge the harmful effects of what is going on: the culture of exception, the toxic leader down the hall, the underperforming partner, the lazy office manager, the tyrannical career changer. So why not do something about it?

As law firms start the New Year with a looming return to the office, an onslaught of work (for which they’re grateful), and a revolving door of talent, commitment to deeper, more meaningful change can go a long way. And to complete the circle, instead of focusing on the bad apples, emphasizing the positive aspects. What does the company want to see more of?

Appropriate leadership training, thoughtful professional development, dedicated mentoring and sponsorship, effective management toolkits and resources, conscious and conscious cultural culture, and conscious efforts to promote an inclusive workplace are high on the list. Perhaps most importantly, really embody and model these endeavors from top to bottom. Everyone knows that if the guides, rainmakers, and partners don’t make this a priority, they will quickly become “favorite projects” that are paid lip service and little is changing. Trust that current and future talent will quickly see the difference between the companies that are committed to making a better place – and those that aren’t.

– Author Marcie Borgal Shunk and colleague John “The Purple Coach” Mitchell are hosting an upcoming free webinar on the subject. Join her on December 8th at 12 noon ET for “Running a Law Firm Through the Great Attrition.” Register to reserve your place.

Marcie Borgal Shunk is President and Founder of The Tilt Institute, a law firm dedicated to unlocking new avenues for law firm growth through intelligence, innovation, and intuition. She specializes in helping law firm executives make better, more data-driven business decisions. Shunk is also a member of the ALM Intelligence Fellows Program.

Further information on the ALM Intelligence Fellows program can be found here.

Comments are closed.