legal sanity

There’s a lot of talk afoot about the latest law firm associate pay increases. Bruce MacEwen writes a great post addressing why young lawyers are paid so much. Adding his opinion about the law firm salaries arms race, Gerry Riskin says: “salaries alone do not buy you motivation, commitment, drive and the desired peak performance. They buy you compliance with extremely high billable hour targets. [T]he long term winners have to be competitive in their salaries but also must learn how to enhance the satisfaction of both lawyers and the clients they serve.”

Riskin flags something really important here. The steady escalation of first year salaries since the mid-1980s has done nothing to stave off the equally steady rise in lawyer discontent. This pay more, bleed more paradigm is a surefire recipe for lawyer attrition and client dissatisfaction.

High pay might get law schools’ best and brightest through BigLaw’s door; but in the emerging age of the dual-centric worker, big money alone likely won’t keep them toiling there year after year after year. Burn out, or its imminence, will send many young lawyers running to trade high pay for greater meaning, passion and purpose in their work life.

Law firms should heed the economics of lawyer depletion and invest heavily in employee engagement measures that - fostering fulfilling connections to colleagues, clients and company - turn today’s young lawyers into the firm leaders of tomorrow.