legal sanity

I’ve previously discussed the importance of inspiring law firm associates to become law firm evangelists. I’ve also suggested that this transformation can be accomplished in part via employee engagement initiatives like mentoring and coaching.

While these engagement initiatives can do a lot to foster a sense of passion and purpose in the associate workforce, they’re bound to fall way short unless the firm’s partners/leaders are equally invested in the change effort – an effort that, in most instances, will require them to reinvent the typical partner-associate business relationship.

This kind of top down investment in law firm sustainability seems like a no-brainer; especially in light of recent stats on the high rate of associate attrition. Yet, a post by Tom Collins at the morepartnerincome blog titled Why Law Partners Hoard Work suggests that it may very well be a tough sell.

Referring to a current survey of midsize law firms, Collins reports that partners are not sharing the workload – or their knowledge and guidance - with associates. Instead of delegating, “mentoring talent” and “training others,” they’re hoarding work because their distribution is largely keyed to their “individual production.” Collins asserts that this status quo will only change if midsize firms “rethink partner compensation” and embrace personal production as just one of several determining factors.

David Maister offers us another spin on the hoarding partner problem Collins highlights. In a post called Don’t Compromise – Take Turns, Maister shares that a key to any great business relationship is mutual give and take. He says: “Employees know that most of the time, the organization is going to be run for the benefit of the owners and the bosses. But if occasionally, just occasionally, the employees needs become front and center and receive true attention, the commitment to the relationship is strengthened.”

Maister and Collins offer some great insight into reapproaching and nurturing the associate-partner business relationship. The subject of reinvention is also under discussion at Rosa Say’s blog, Talking Story. Say and her Ho’ohana Community are hosting a forum on Reinventions at Work and in Business. Their insightful posts offer up some good food for thought on employee evangelism, leadership, work creativity and more.