Law Practice Today

Having written recently in Law Practice Today about whether high starting associate salaries are justified, and whether underperforming associates should be terminated, it’s time to turn to a third facet of the topic: what firms should expect from their young lawyers to justify keeping them? The first fundamental question in this regard is obvious. Is there enough work to justify keeping the associate? If the answer is yes, the next question becomes, does the associate’s combination of skill and attitude demonstrate potential for career growth? Skills are teachable, attitude isn’t. And when we talk skills, it’s not just knowledge of the law – it’s the ability to learn about “The Business of Law”®.

Most law firms require their associates to have business development skills and, more importantly, to bring in new business. But how much time and training do they allocate to their associates to do just that? For many law firm associates, marketing is a skill that’s required to make partner but one that they have limited opportunities to pursue.

Do the math. Requiring associates to have six billable hours a day seems like a lot in one day; yet, six times five days times 50 weeks provides only 1,500 hours per year – well below what most firms target for associates. Raise the target to eight hours of billable time a day and you get to 2,000 hours a year, which is close to what most firms expect. Yet how can associates get that many billable hours per day and do business development – not to mention do pro bono work, take training and eat lunch?

Ultimately, I believe the solution to this issue comes down to three steps any firm can take to ensure that worthwhile associates can become effective business developers – and thus contributors to the future of the firm.

The first step is institutional. Lawyers at law firms where “eat what you kill” is the business development credo often don’t want to share information on clients or prospects with the next-generation lawyer who might “steal” business before the first attorney is ready to step away from active practice. A law firm can make its associates better marketers, and create a huge competitive advantage for itself, by proactively encouraging succession of clients from older to younger lawyers. One way is to offer senior lawyers a buyout or capital payout in exchange for sharing clients with younger lawyers. Another is to service clients with teams (not just a single rainmaker), and cross-sell between teams according to a strategic plan. Train lawyers to go after target businesses according to a personal marketing plan, and give bonuses to those who get results. With this opportunity to grow business development opportunities, associates shouldn’t be made partners unless and until they have a book of business.

The next step is tactical. The earlier associates begin to market, the better they will be at it; the key to business development success is building relationships with potential clients. Relationship development is a marathon, not a sprint, and it starts with the associate. Firms should encourage associates to undertake fundamental business development activities apart from the work that partners assign to them. This can be as simple as communicating regularly with law school friends to discuss cases, clients, war stories – and develop referral sources. Or it can be a more organized effort, like getting associates out into the public eye by writing articles and attending lunch or bar association functions, particularly when these things are done with established older partners. Associates should also be encouraged to do “blawging” (either individually or on behalf of the firm), and to contribute to client news updates. To grow a career, irrespective of the size of the law firm or the firm's marketing activities as a whole, each associate must use such tools as these and establish the expertise necessary to put themselves before prospects and entice them to become a client.

The final step is one of attitude – weaning associates away from relying on rainmakers and showing them that they, too, have the ability to develop business. The hurdle here is often a psychological one. Consultants who have given personality tests to lawyers have found that many lack the trait that psychologists call “resiliency,” which is defined as “the ability to bounce back from criticism or rejection.” The adversarial nature of lawyers’ training, and the fact that most lawyers have been successful at most things throughout their lives, creates a win-lose mentality that defines setbacks as failure. However, resiliency is essential for successful marketing. Even successful sales people will frequently meet criticism and rejection, but their focus is consistently on achieving the next “yes” rather than dwelling on the last “no.” They view “no” as one more step on the journey to “yes.” Given that associates typically come to the firm with little or no exposure to this sort of thinking, the only way they will acquire it is by doing and thus building up confidence.

Such associate development requires planning. Every law firm is a business, and a business that does not have a clear idea of overall goals and specific strategies for its most important asset – the young lawyers who are the future of the firm – likely does not have much of a future. An excellent acronym, SMART, describes what’s required for an effective plan to grow the business development capabilities of associates:

• S pecific: The issue is not more billable hours by associates, it’s what kind of billable work and what it contributes to the firm.
• M easurable: If you can’t measure the growth of associates by specific standards of billable time, training and client development effort, you’ll never know what they’ve done.
• A chievable: Set near-term targets that are realistic and continually raise the bar.
• R easonable: Don’t set associates up for failure with unreasonable income expectations or business development goals.
• T imely: Give associates an adequate timeframe that still imparts a sense of urgency.

A smart growth plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as fundamental as identifying two or three desired outcomes for the associate within a given time period, defining the behaviors necessary to achieve those outcomes, then giving the associate the means to achieve the results.

For any associate, the future depends on whether the individual himself or herself is committed to success, and whether their firm provides the means to succeed. Defining “success” in relative terms such as “more revenue” or “better marketing” sets a subjective standard that is difficult to discuss, let alone achieve.

Once associates look at their careers as a series of structured business and professional development targets, the dynamic changes. It’s no longer a matter of guessing what the partners are telling them to do – it becomes a process of understanding what they ought to do, what they need to do to advance within the firm. Lawyers who understand how to grow a career can better assess the value they provide; their performance, then, is enhanced. These are the associates every firm wants to keep.

Edward Poll , J.D., M.B.A., CMC, is a coach to lawyers and certified management consultant who shows attorneys and law firms how to be more profitable. Ed's latest book is Collecting Your Fee: Getting Paid From Intake to Invoice (ABA 2003); he is the author of Attorney & Law Firm Guide to The Business of Law, 2d ed. (ABA 2002); Secrets of the Business of Law: Successful Practices for Increasing Your Profits.