LawVision INSIGHTS Blog

Are You Part of the 8 Percent? 4 Questions for Law Firm Leaders

By LawVision on January 22, 2015

For those of you who religiously follow the LawVision INSIGHTS blog posts – and I know you do – in accordance with my last blog, today, January 22^nd marks a milestone for anyone who dedicated the requisite 21 days it takes to transform a behavior into a habit related to achieving a resolution for the new year.

To those of you who reached your goals today- I commend you. And while I can already hear the overwhelming gasps and sighs from readers struggling to accomplish their resolutions, it’s never too late to saddle up again and reevaluate what keeps you from achieving your objectives.

Rest assured: Statistically only 8% of Americans actually achieve their New Year’s resolutions. You’re in good company. If, like many of our clients, your 2015 goal is a renewed emphasis on your firm’s talent strategy, here are four questions to jump-start your thinking:

How many of our key client relationships are associated with Partners of age 62 or older?
Do we really understand how different the expectations of young lawyers coming into the workforce (the millennials and beyond) are from our senior Partners?
Will the transition of firm leadership over the next 5 years be handled in a smooth manner that doesn’t result in unwanted Partner departures (over feelings of rejection)?
Given that law school admissions were down 40% in 2013 and 10% in 2014, where will our young talent come from in 3-5 years?

We want you to be part of the 8%. A detailed focus on the talent/HR aspect of any law firm’s long term positioning and strategy has never been more important and will become increasingly important with the passing of each year. This is a new area of focus and attention for many firms and the related issues have rarely been confronted or, even recognized at most of these firms. Be very careful as you navigate these uncharted waters.

Jessa Baker, the author of this blog entry, is a specialist in talent strategy and management. In addition to conference keynote addresses, lawyer leadership training programs and law firm retreats, she provides insight to law firms aligning their organizational goals with the attraction, development and retention of talent.