what will drive change in law firm culture?
I regularly visit the topic of fostering change in the legal profession. Last week, I questioned whether law firms can change to meet the demands of the next generation of practitioners. I suggested that some firms will step up to that challenge, while others will turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the telltale signs that their business model needs updating.
Change (the kind that comes peacefully and without overthrow) can occur on a cultural level only if the change drivers are speaking up and the establishment is listening. There needs to be a welcomed, open and constructive dialogue as well as a willingness and capacity to change. When all these components converge, there’s a ripe opportunity for positive change. There may be resisters, but that’s par for the course of any major shift.
As my previous post on the subject conveyed, the incoming cohort of lawyers can identify the workplace changes it seeks. Accustomed to speaking their mind, these new lawyers are likely more than willing to talk to firm leaders about those changes. The open question is whether law firm leaders can and want to listen up; especially when the status quo is serving them extremely well (as blogger Carolyn Elefant highlights, over half of the Am Law 100 firms just reported that their average partner compensation exceeds $1million).
Some firms recognize that firms, clients and lawyers all benefit when junior associates regularly share their thought processes with senior attorneys. But, other firms do their best to perpetuate a culture of silence, as Bruce MacEwen details in a great post called Do You Know What Your Associates Think?
According to MacEwen, “abrupt, truculent, holier-than-Thou” and adversarial by nature, law firm leaders tend to create a widespread fear of speaking up in their firms. It’s difficult to change from such a fear-based culture to one “open or conducive to speaking up.” MacEwen surmises that the key change driver is leader behavior.
I agree that, ideally, leaders should be part of the change effort. But, they’re not essential change agents. As I’ve stated before, when the new generation of lawyers takes a stronger foothold in the profession, evolution will start disfavoring firms -- and law firm leaders -- that ignore their needs in favor of a culture of silence.
The most essential change agent is the client. Clients must have the courage to break the "guild" model of law firms, and strike out into the future by retaining lawyers who are already out there ready and willing to offer excellent service at a good price to deliver value.