legal sanity

Following up on my last post about enhancing the lawyer-law firm relationship, I read Bruce MacEwen’s recent commentary that highlights the difference between merely acknowledging relationship issues and addressing them. In a post titled “Our Lawyers Are Our Future:” But We Don’t Really Care, MacEwen writes that many firms declare their lawyers their most valuable assets, but few actually take steps to remedy problems like rampant associate attrition or the dearth of women partners.

Profiling the remedial action plan of one firm, Simmons & Simmons, MacEwen concludes that economics and “cognitive dissonance” will eventually compel other firms to similarly experiment with lawyer experience management.

Over at The Adventure of Strategy, Rob Millard refers us to a post by Nixon Peabody’s HR Director, William Simpson, captioned To make an Organization Great, First Make it a Great Place to Work. In it, Simpson details his firm’s ongoing, multi-pronged approach to optimizing the law firm-lawyer relationship. One of those prongs is examining “what drives employee satisfaction.” Among the satisfaction-drivers of Nixon Peabody’s lawyers are: meaningful work, recognition in the form of a timely and simple thank you, respect from management and communication.

This kind of dialogue about lawyer satisfaction can go a long way towards countering the dissatisfaction and defection that costs firms on many levels. As Rees Morrison states in this post about lawyers’ perception of workload, it’s “the mind-numbing, commodity work that does not draw fully on the lawyer’s talents and professional interests that demoralize[s] them” and compels complaints.

Firms wishing to engage their lawyers in a candid conversation about satisfaction-drivers might benefit from using the newest version of Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment. John Moore has a nice review of it at Brand Autopsy. On the flip side, a Q & A piece featuring Judge Carl Horn III will help lawyers refresh their recollection of what it means to live a satisfying life in the law (thanks to Susan Daicoff for the tip).