The expense of losing talented employees is an ongoing concern for all employers. Human resources professionals estimate the cost to be 1.5 to 2 times the employee’s compensation, and even more for highly specialized employees. The cost for law firms is particularly great because of the high expenses involved in recruiting, training, and replacing associates. …
You can use diagnostic tool to examine how well your firm is doing in four key areas of performance management: setting and supporting clear work expectations; supporting those expectations with meaningful rewards and consequences; giving effective feedback and evaluations; and fostering and supporting individual goal-setting.
This Diagnostic was designed to help employers develop strategies to further the retention, advancement, and career development of women lawyers. Although women make up about a third of the legal profession and close to half of associates at major firms, the number of women equity partners in those firms remains low (15%) and the number …
Law firms want their associates to reach and maintain the highest levels of excellence. They know that continuous learning and development are essential for high performance, but may not know the various areas in which to focus their efforts. I created this Diagnostic to help employers identify the key elements necessary for associates to learn, …
Guidelines, Baseline, Goal Categories, and Action© A professional development plan is a relatively simple document that records a lawyer’s goals, how the goals will be attained (including the activities, resources, and support needed and how they will be obtained), and a timetable. Firms that ask lawyers to prepare professional development plans can make the process …
Here are some important considerations if you are contemplating a new women’s initiative or seeking to improve your existing one.
To build trust and good will that are fundamental to strong attorney-clientrelationships, firms need to look at the services they provide, and the costs of those services, through the client’s eyes. This will require firms to transform how they think and operate by redefining productivity, empathizing with clients and restructuring what lawyers do and how they do …
Because lawyers increasingly function in a world of disappearing borders, they need to be culturally competent. This article explains what that means and how it can be learned.
This article discusses the corrosive impact of valuing lawyers in terms of the hours they bill.
Retaining associates is not enough; firms need to engage them. To do that, they need to understand the factors discussed here. (This article from Canadian Lawyer Magazine originally appeared in Management Solutions as “The Rules of Engagement.”)