Meeting the needs of a new generation

by CBABC Committees

CBABC’s Business of Law Committee established a Sub-Committee to focus on Lawyer Retention, an issue of primary importance to all law firms. The aim of this Sub-Committee has been to address the challenge of high attrition rates amongst lawyers who are dissatisfied with their firm’s culture or with the profession itself.

Studies, such as Crystal Clear: New Perspectives for the Canadian Bar Association – The Report of the CBA Futures Committee confirm that fostering a healthy and happy workforce leads to higher productivity.¹ From a firm’s perspective, quality of life issues are integral to a firm’s success. Why? Quality of life issues transects areas like recruitment, retention of talent, and client development. Quality of life issues may very well be extensions of occupational health and safety concerns as firms adopt specific programs as preventative rather than corrective measures.

The Cost of High Lawyer Attrition Rates – The Dollars and Sense
Catalyst Canada Research has demonstrated that every time an associate leaves a firm it costs $315,000². This expenditure reflects a firm’s investment in recruiting, training, and time spent by senior lawyers helping new associates gain experience.

The attrition of lawyers from a firm can also negatively impact the culture and mood of the workplace. Other lawyers and staff may feel the effects of an associate or partner leaving a firm, especially if that person is a positive member of the team. Also, if a firm experiences frequent attrition, the remaining employees may start questioning their own involvement and participation with the firm.

Other negative consequences a firm may experience because of attrition include:

• Poor morale and decreasing loyalty of lawyers to the firm;
• Reduced output due to decreased focus and motivation;
• Inability to retain lawyers;
• Higher turnover of lawyers and staff;
• Decreased income for the firm;
• Higher levels of stress-related illness;
• Increased health care costs;
• Increased absenteeism;
• Decreased client development and retention; and
• Decrease in service of existing clients.

Firms must come to grips with the motivational factors of a new generation of lawyers or they will suffer the negative and financial and productive consequences of high lawyer attrition.

What Do Lawyers Want?
The new generation of lawyers is committed to seeking a healthy balance between a fulfilling private life and a productive career. Law firms must be proactive and respond to this global trend in order to retain their valued resources, avoid wasting their training dollars, and attract qualified lawyers. The cost of replacing lawyers outstrips the cost of measures that must be taken to retain them. Law firms must now accept alternatives to the 60-hour work week, rigid schedules and place constraints. Many lawyers and particularly young associates are not willing to commit 2200 annual work hours and are rejecting the path to equity partnerships. They want better quality of life, which usually translates into fewer billable hours, and more perks³. In fact, surveys show salary is no longer a prime motivator.

Factors which lawyers consider when making career decisions are where they work and how they work, which include the following:

• Does the firm have good work?
• Does it have fair compensation?
• Do they have an effective orientation/mentor program?
• Is the firm sensitive to people issues?
• Am I going to flourish as a lawyer there?⁴

Men and women associates, both junior and senior, cite work-life balance as the primary motivator in deciding to leave their current firm. In particular, they cite pursing a working environment that offers support of family and personal commitments and a greater degree of control over work schedules.

Challenge – What Law Firms Must Do To Be Successful With Lawyer Retention At All Levels
To create the necessary change in a law firm culture, partnership needs to articulate a vision for a healthy and resilient workplace culture, a successful business and a satisfied clientele. Partners need to model healthy habits and balance behaviours not merely manage them for others. As well, lawyers need to take responsibility for their own choices.

The study of U.S. law firms by Catalyst explored the experience of several major law firms that have been successful in retaining women lawyers. It found that the firms made efforts at encouraging career development in the firm and adopted these strategies:

• Provide mentors;
• Provide control over an individual’s work load and schedule;
• Offer development and advancement opportunities;
• Award for time spent on practice management contributions as well as billing hours; and
• Permit part-time commitments.

Partners and managers should review their performance in these areas:

• Adjustments to programs and policies to eliminate overt or covert discrimination and harassment of women and others;
• Adopting practice expectations that address quality of life concerns for all lawyers, both women and men;
• Developing and maintaining internal training and mentoring programs;
• Designing and accommodating work structures that allow for alternate work arrangements, reduced hours, and flexible work schedules;
• Strategies for respecting generational differences; and
• Managing, motivating and maintaining culturally and racially diverse professionals.

Suggested Process to Follow to Meet the Challenge:

1. Define the firm’s core values;
2. Ensure equitable distribution of work and opportunity;
3. Provide a healthy workplace with a welcoming culture; and
4. Develop and implement a work-life strategy and flexible work schedules.

Law firm management must recognize that the old ways and culture of law offices will no longer attract or retain new the generation of practising lawyers. It is a new workplace and new demands must be met to ensure the perpetuity of the firm.

1 Crystal Clear: New Perspectives for the Canadian Bar Association.

2 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Building the Business Case for Flexibility – puts a dollar value on associates who leave their firms.

3 How to Attract (and Keep) the Best and Brightest Legal Talent by Ann Macaulay.

4 Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent in Today’s Legal Marketplace, Supra.

This is a synopsis of a report authored by the CBABC Business of Law Committee, Sub-Committee on lawyer retention the full report is available online at: www.cba.org/bc.

This article was published in the April 2007 issue of BarTalk. © 2007 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.