Law Firm Talent Competition Will Hinge On Firms’ Ability To Help Lawyers Work Smarter, Not Harder [Sponsored]

// America’s law firms have not been immune from the disruptive forces of the Great Resignation. Roughly 33 million Americans quit their jobs between spring and the end of 2021 as the twin forces of pandemic and career burnout caused many to rethink their careers. Law firm associate turnover rose to record levels, with 23.2% of associates leaving their firms as of November 2021, according to the 2022 State of the Legal Market Report from Thomson Reuters and Georgetown Law. Many firms have responded by raising starting salaries and offering signing bonuses. In fact, salaries have now climbed so high that the report concludes that lawyer recruitment and retention is now the greatest risk to law firm profitability.

A new report – Law Firms Competing for Talent in 2022: Will Lawyers Stay or Will They Go? – found that compensation and workloads are not the key factors driving lawyers’ decisions whether to leave their current firm and join a different firm. Associates who expressed a preference to stay at their current firms said they value things like the people they work with, their firm’s culture, the quality of work they do, having a clear path for advancing their career, and flexible working practices.

The importance of that last point cannot be overstated. Our research shows that one of the biggest sources of frustration for lawyers is not necessarily the number of hours they’re working, but a lack of flexibility in how, when and where they work those hours, with many expressing a strong desire for more remote or hybrid working.

Long Live the Flexible Workweek

We’ve been tracking trends in law firm performance, lawyer productivity and employee satisfaction for decades, and while lawyers have always sought some degree of flexibility and work-life balance, the changes that have occurred over the past two years have been significant in terms of the mixed signals they’ve sent. It’s not as simple as the headlines would suggest. Yes, lawyer turnover has risen to record levels, but there is no mass exodus of lawyers cashing in their retirement plans. And not everyone is quitting in frustration after working around the clock on a never-ending stream of video conferences.

The truth is somewhere in the middle where after successfully working through the last two years of disruption and uncertainty, many lawyers have developed a new-found appreciation for the new working rhythms that have emerged through the chaos.

What we’re seeing as we continue to speak with lawyers and dig into the data is that satisfaction is not merely about compensation or the total number of hours worked, but also factors such as having flexibility in work arrangements to allow those hours to be logged outside the traditional boundaries of the workweek spent in the office. As a case in point, the number of lawyers who say they want more flexibility in their hours has nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic, and the average number of days they want to work remotely has tripled.

Culture, Clarity, Control, and Support

While many news reports have characterized this trend as a major challenge for law firms, it’s also a significant opportunity. Lawyers at firms with lower turnover tend to be happier and more productive in their work and are more satisfied with firm management, the level of support they receive, and opportunities for growth. Many lawyers are reevaluating their careers and keeping their eyes open for a better opportunity, and firms that crack the code on delivering the right mix of culture, flexibility and career path stand to benefit enormously from the trend.

Part of that success formula will come from remote or hybrid work. A solid majority (60%) of law firm lawyers now say that working remotely has positively impacted their well-being. But simply giving lawyers a laptop and telling them they can work from home a couple of days a week is not enough. Firms that have gotten remote work right are giving associates and partners the clarity, control, and support they need to thrive in the new world of fluid transition between home and office, and work and non-work hours.

Increasingly, that’s requiring innovation on the part of law firms in the way they communicate with their lawyers and in the tools they provide them to stay connected outside the traditional boundaries of time and place. Firms need to clearly articulate their expectations, broader vision, and priorities more frequently in a remote or hybrid environment. That steady cadence of communication is essential to maintaining an attractive firm culture in an environment where the traditional, location-based hallmarks of office life are less apparent.

Equally important, firms need to show they are committed to their post-pandemic workforces by giving them the tools and technology they need to be just as effective from home as they were from their offices. These include productivity management and collaboration tools that let them access information, partner with remote teams and interface with clients seamlessly. Lawyers at firms with higher levels of retention are more likely to view themselves as early adopters or innovators of technology, and view collaborative and knowledge management technologies as helpful; and they appreciate their firms providing these tools to support them.

Ultimately, law firms that want to stay competitive in this rapidly evolving marketplace need to prove to their lawyers and prospects how they are helping them work smarter, not harder, by deploying technology, committing to higher order values, and helping their lawyers feel supported in their work and career. In the long run, these improvements to the traditional law firm workflow and culture – more than salary hikes or signing bonuses alone – will drive sustainable law firm growth in the post-pandemic economy.

Paul Fischer, president of Legal Professionals, Thomson Reuters.

Topics

Associate Retention, Biglaw, Reports, Research, Sponsored Content, Thomson Reuters