Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Yes, diversity really is a priority.
The old excuse, still heard in many law firms around the word, that "diversity is not a priority for our clients or our firm" is not only misinformed, but in some cases could be a formula for long-range failure.
Associate Career Management: a Critical Strategic Issue for Small and Midsize Law Firms
Does your law firm have a documented career management strategy for your associates? Is it more than "each year, we pay them a little more."
The truthful answer for the vast majority of small and midsize law firms, everywhere in the world, is "no."
There are few issues in law firm management that have greater strategic importance for law firms today.
What should we work on now to get ready for 2022?
Notwithstanding all the breathless headlines in the legal press about ever-higher first-year associate salaries in the so-called "BigLaw" firms, most lawyers work in small and midsize firms.
Research conducted by Walker Clark LLC over the years, as we work with law firms worldwide confirms that salary alone is a relatively unimportant -- yes, unimportant -- consideration in associate retention.
Newly admitted lawyers tend to prioritize opportunity over cash: the opportunity to develop expertise; the opportunity to do significant client work; the opportunity to advance in the legal profession, to name a few things that most associates tell us are more important than salary. Salary is important, to be sure, but it seldom is the decisive factor between remaining at one's law firm and moving to another one.
So, will your law firm’s compensation program for associates next year give them more than just more money?
Why don’t they want to become partners?
This is not just something that we can blame on "the Millennials."
For the past 20 years, partners from law firms of all sizes, in almost every part of the world, frequently have told me that they can't understand why so many of their best associates and non-equity partners decline the offer of equity partnership.
Does your law firm have an associate retention plan?
Recruiting good associates into a law firm is difficult enough. Keeping the good ones is even harder.
In almost almost every legal market in the world, the toughest competition is not for clients but for legal talent.
Why Law Firms Fail: Failure to Invest
One of the most difficult challenges for law firm leaders is to lead their partners from a short-term focus on cost (and the effects of operating costs on their end of the year profit distributions) to an investment mentality.
This is the second in a series about factors that most frequently contribute to the business failure of law firms.
